Welcome!

Hello, Today I'm going to tell you how to be, what most would consider, a good server owner. If you follow these correctly, It will help you on your quest. Lets begin.

Step 1: Friendliness -

I feel this is the most important topic due to not many people following this key step. You need to treat ALL players on your server as if they are better than you. When they start talking trash, Just ignore it, Don't put them down, no matter how much they put you down. BANNING is another part of this. If you give them warning after warning, and they still don't stop, They deserve to be banned because then they are disrespecting you and everyone else on the server. I think every other player would understand and thank you.

Step 2: Rules -

We all know the standard "Golden Rules" of Minecraft that exist on most servers(No griefing(unless factions/survival), No cursing,etc.), but PLEASE don't take it to far. Don't make a rule like "No logging out before reset" or some crap like that. People would just leave because they would feel the server owner is just plain retarted and nobody wants to think that...

Step 3: Choosing Your Staff -

We aslo know that many people from PlanetMinecraft are going to be like "Can I have Staff" and such like that. Please do NOT just go "Oh sure have some Staff and, here, take OP while your at it :)" <--Don't be 'that' guy... My suggestion to you would be to make a board at your spawn and allow people to enter a submission to attempt to be staff. If you like their entry, then you could wait until your trust them fully (Recommended) Now, lets talk about dealing with how much power your staff have and what the can and can not do. I would suggest not giving your staff permission to destroy or abuse powers. I would give the ban and kick but that's about it unless you want to add in some other fun or not-damaging commands. Now, you should lay down the rules for your staff. Don't let them kick or ban people for no obvious reasons. If they do you give them as many warnings as you feel are needed. If your staff disobey you and don't listen to you, just demote them, they don't seem trustworthy if they disobey you and they will probably try to screw up your server.

Tips On Managing And Hiring Staff: Server Staff By: groxlord27

Step 4: Your Spawn -

Your spawn is VERY important. Not only does it connect your server and make it seem organized, It is the very first thing people will see when they first join. Really like a first impression, You want to make it the best you possibly can, Make it different and unique so players can see your servers creativity. You never want to have a spawn that's just empty and hard to look at.

Step 4.5: Donations -

When you set up the donation system for your server, PLEASE don't give donors really stupid stuff, If you have to, please just download a plugin for donors to have access to. People like fun plugins, and this will help you get more donations because other people will want these features.

Step 5: Getting Your Server Prepared -

This, In my opinion takes the longest amount of time and is the most tedious part of running a server. You want to make sure that everything your players come into contacts with is PROTECTED(Unless meant to be griefable ie. Wild)! There are plenty of types of plugins like WorldGuard where you can simply select a region and guard it using WorldEdit. Also, You want to make sure your players have plenty of entertainment sources. Things like Survival Games, Spleef, MobArena, Factions will keep your players entertained and thus they continue to play.

Step 6: Releasing Your Server To The World -

There are plenty of sites like PlanetMinecraft, may not be as popular, but they help get the job done for advertising your server on 'Server Lists'. Since PlanetMinecraft is the most popular and that I am writing this on PlanetMinecraft, I will use it as an example. When you go to the Servers tab, you have the option to 'Post Your Server'. Doing this will add your server to the list of all the other servers on PlanetMinecraft. Every 24-Hours, you also have the option to 'Bump Submission'. This will put your server at the top of the recently updated list. More people will see it when you do this and It will probably get you a few players.

Step 7: NEVER GIVE UP!!! -

How do you think giant server networks like UberMinecraft and ShotBow got tons and tons of people? They never quit trying and kept working on their servers for what's best for their players. When you release your server, Don't be disheartened because people wont join after the first week. If you keep trying I promise people WILL go to your server. It takes time and patience.

Step 8: Diamonds (Optional) -

Please Diamond, Favorite, Subscribe, Comment :)