Hello My name is ZagthorXL I own a server Called thewondercraft.net And I have been trying out lots of ways to get my minecraft server Popular. Here is the best way that worked for me and may work for you!

Step 1
Start off with a few friends that play Minecraft and tell them to stay on the server.
Step 2 
Go to the following Links to post you server on 
1. http://minecraft-server-list.com
2. http://minecraftservers.net
3 http://minecraftservers.org
4 http://mineservers.com 
After that wait 15 - 30 mins to repost. by doing this you'll let people acctually play. one last important thing DONT BE ON THE SERVER. Why because when ppl join they will come up with things like "can i be staff' or 'I come from Planet minecraft'

Hope you liked this Blog And ill see you in the Next 1 

- ZagthorXL

RECOMENDED AMMOUNTS OF PLUGINS 
On your server you would want to keep it as simple as posible I recomend a Maximum of 20 Plugins. More plugins make people more tence cause they cant take in that much!