Hey guys, I'm here to talk about tip people can use when starting a server. Whether you run a prison server, a faction server or a vanilla server, these points means that your player base will reach its full potential. There are so many servers that I go on that just make me want to leave instantly. Anyway, let's get to the points:

1: Always make sure that your server has at least one person on at all times. If there's no-one online no-one wants to join because they'll just be joining an empty server with no-one to talk to. Even if that means you sitting with Minecraft in the corner of your screen. Also an empty server is a griefer's paradise. This leads on to point 2.

2: Always welcome players that join and inspire conversation. When I say welcome, what I don't mean is you saying "welcome" or " hi" and then just leaving, ask them "How are you?", engage in some small talk. It will make your server stand out from the get-go. No-one likes a quiet chat; what's the point of playing multiplayer if players don't interact eachother. Ask stuff like "Does anyone need any help", "What is everyone doing?". This will automatically make players talk to eachother. 

3: Check up on your players from time to time. Don't ever tp to players out of the blue. Not only will it scare them, but it will also make them feel as if they get to do what they want because they're admin etc. Ask players if they mind you checking what they're building or what they're doing. It will make you seem less intimidating. Sometimes also check up on your players with /vanish or if you're running vanilla with a invisibility potion (if you're sneaky enough). This is just to make sure that they're not doing anything against the rules.

4: Don't be naive to griefers. For some reason people think that if they install a permissions plugin and an Anti-Cheat plugin, they'll be completely immune to hackers or griefers. This is not the case. No matter how many plugins you installed or made yourself (Homemade plugins are usually not better than one you install on bukkit contrary to popular belief) if they really wanted to, they can grief your server and hackers would be able to control your server. Griefers are not nice people if they see that they can, they will try to grief you and having signs like "AvO sucks d***" or "GNUK are crap"  or "Try and grief us! You won't be able to"(True story) is not going to help your case. Top tips to avoid griefers: Use updated Plugins, Have Backups, Don't upset your player base, check up on your players and always have at least 1 staff member on at all times. 

5: Don't advertise on other servers. It's really simple. Advertising on other servers doesn't help your player base. For a short period of time you might get a few more players, however the only people that follow ips that is posted with the purpose of playing on it are below the age of 10 and will probably leave in 5 seconds anyway. Not only that but it attracts griefers. There has been many examples of were griefing teams go grief servers that have advertised on other servers. If you would like more player, make sure you are on all of the minecraft server advertisers (Including /r/mcservers on reddit) and update your posts regulary on there.

6. Do not have over-powered donations options. I understand that servers need donation money to stay up and that hosting does cost a lot of money however, if a player wishes to donate to a server it is beacause he likes the server and having slightly less good donation options won't stop the person donating because they want to help the server. The items are just a small incentive.

That is all I can think of right now. If I think of anymore I'll add them on here. Please tell me what you though of the Article and tell me what next I should talk about below. Thanks for Reading and enjoy the rest of your day.