Plugins:
There is nothing wrong with having popular plugins like essentials on your server. If you have the plugins everyone uses ask your self this question: Why should people play on your server instead of the 100000 other ones? I recommend getting a java coder and if you can't find one try learning java your self it really is not that hard. Let's say you want to get a factions server, you build a fairly nice spawn and you get the basic plugins: Essentials, Worldedit, Worldguard, Groupmanager, Nocheatplus, Mcore, Factions, Face it everyone has those plugins you need to be original not cliche.

Staff:
You want staff that don't pointlessly run around spawn. You want staff that play your server. You also want staff that don't cheat, I had a legit player come on that just applied for staff and did not care if he/she got staff or not he/she would play the server anyways. He/she was a friendly player, played for over a month and got mod and a bit later, well admin. He/she would make 100x100 bases out of bedrock with would edit. First ask the person to not cheat. If he/she still spawns in/gives items demote the person, do not make a prefix with [​AbuserThatGotDemoted]. If you just demote the person back to mod/member you have a chance of keeping that player.

Advertising:
First of all, paid advertising is not worth it if you're trying to make money from your server, lets say you pay $200 to be sponsored on a website. 50-100 people join 2-4 donate $10-$40, You make $50-$100. Trust me i paid advertised before it does not work. Only do paid advertising if you're rich and want players not if you're trying to make a business.

Ranks:
Do not make cliche rank names such as: god, titan, emperor things like that, come up with rank names that no one else uses like Vice, Provice, Dux, Rex. In my opinion a little bit of pay2win is fine just don't make a $1 rank with prot 50 or something, people may buy it but it would make everyone else rage quit. Also again, make original things like a certain rank gets do things that you never saw a donator be able to do on other servers.

Spawn:
First of all put a little effort into your spawn. I personally thing circle spawns are better then square spawns. Don't make everything even, in one corner make a medieval house and in the over make a church. Ask a few friends to come onto your server and build random structures, then copy and paste good ones into your spawn.

Votifier:
Setup votifier so players can vote for your server for a reward. Don't make the player get the same thing everytime. I recommend making the player get a treasure chest key, and make the treasure chest key be able to open a chest at spawn. Also to keep donators to keep voting for your server make them have a special key that gives a better chance of giving something good because if a donator gets /kit province for example it comes with prot 2 but in normal treasure chests the best you can get is prot 1, make a special key for donators with a better items.

Keeping players:
Make them want to do things, no one wants to play vanilla Minecraft make try putting 2 plugins together like pvp arena and guns, BOOM! battlefield 4 style death match. Also generally be kind the first time a player joins don't say "Welcome!", say something that no one else says. If you have a java programmer ask them to make a custom mini game that no one else has. If you have something really unique you'll be flooding with players with less then a few posts for example, mineplex the most popular server in the world. It all started from super smash mobs, It was not just the map Sethbling made, it had a whole different feeling. From there they made all of there mini games like that for example, all games have classes with custom coded ability's.

Side Note:
More people are online in the summer then in the winter, i could barely get 3 players at once but in the summer i had like 10 players from 1 submission bump.