Hello everyone Banjo here, if you have clicked on this then i'm sure you want to learn how to setup a successful minecraft server. So let's get to it.  

Come on kiddies it's ok read the entire thing its about 10 mins of you time for the time of your life! ;D 

The no no's
Some of you may be thinking that something like a factions server is sure to get popular, but the fact is it takes a rediculous amount of effort to even get a player base of 4 as an average that takes about 2 months if ur lucky. Even other servers like survival, creative and roleplay still get low players. Yes there is only really 2 types of servers left and 1 of those is mini-games and you may be thinking that they get popular but the sad thing is they require about 100x more effort than the other one which I will explain. Also Mini-Games servers usually dont get too many donations and are hard to maintain as well as the fact that they cost alot more money to keep up as you need more ram and multiple servers. 

The Solution
So the solution is as many of you may have guessed is prison servers, yes prison servers. The reason why this type of server is so good is because prison servers are decently easy to setup, it delopes a player base so easily because there is a clear goal of what to do, they also get lots of good donations, if you have good packages packages and they are very easy to manage as there is no real way to abuse or break rules besides swearing/spamming but that is nothing that you wouldn't get on a creative or factions server. 

The begging of the acual Tutorial 
Now I know that you guys came because you want to know "How To Setup a successful minecraft server" so I wil give you some help on how to setup a successful prison server which the prison part being done propely is almost guarenteed to be successful. 

Non-OP or OP 
Firstly, you need to choose weather you want non-op (like normal minecraft you have to make stone stuff then work up to diamond ect. Usually these servers are better in the fact that there will be less corruption [Less high people giving out millions of dollars] also [you can have your donation packages to be op which would lead to more donations if you do it right]) or op Prison (Basicly were everyone starts of with like a eff 3 diamond pick and the stuff in the mines are way better than non-op [usually more corruption and harder to have more paid ranks as you are already very "over powerd". Also alot of corruption goes on as a nothing to a higher person could be everything to a lower player which means less time people spend on your server as they are higher ranks]). Now it may look like i'm bagging op prison but i'm not op prison servers can be very good but it requires more effort to make it good. Also op prison servers get more players originally because it's easier to rank up. 

Building 
Secondly, you need to build a good looking prison this consists of the main area, then different areas for different ranks usually the rank rooms don't have to be too big just big enough to fit the mines in. If your not a very good builder like me you woul want to get someone else to build it for you. I suggest posting something on the forums about how you need builders and get them that way. And remember don't settle for a crummy  looking prison as no-one wants to be staring at garbage for hours. 

Staffing 
Thirdly, you need to recruit some staff. If you have lots of friends that you trust then you are good but if not go recruit on the forums but remember to acually talk to these people and make them apply before they get the position as you don't want 1 rouge staff ruining your server. You also may want to add another aspect to your server by adding guards to your prison which means that you recuit about 5 guards to guard your prison and roleplay as a guard and put people in solitary confinement for killing people or hurting them which would be like normal jail in a survival server. Then you would have your standard ones like mod, admin ect. 

Advertisement 
And lastly, you need to advertise. I suggest advertising on PMC, Minecraftservers.org ect. It is key as this is the best way to get players and make sure you make voting a big thing using votifier on your server and bumping your server every 24 hours on PMC. Another big thing that draws in players is if you have a youtuber rank on your server for people who advertise for your server on youtube. Also another key thing is banners, now it is very easy to learn how to make a basic banner. There is a good tutorial here: http://www.planetminecraft.com/blog/tutorial-how-to-make-banners-animated-or-not/ or you can get someone to make you one either for free or for money depends on quality. 

Ranks 
Acually I lied this is last :D, you need to have good donation packages and I will tell you some good ones like: VIP, VIP+, Veteran, God ect. Also an important to balance the ranks not make them so op that corruption will appear but op enough for it to be worth buying. Usually you would have each rank having there own area for mining and selling. Each rank needs there own kits THIS IS KEY TO HAVING A GOOD DONATION SYSTEM!!!  

Key things 
THIS IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT READ THIS BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE IN THIS SECTION!!! 
#   ***Make sure there are lots of PVP zones around the prison like a PVP-Mine*** 
#   Make sure you treat your players well 
#   Make sure your packages are good 
#   Make sure your server is well developed before you open 
#   If you have heaps of ranks then make them fairly hard to pass but if it's only like 4 or 5 cells then mak them extremely hard to      pass! 
#   Make sure that it is worth donating 
#   Have faith and be kind to your players but never give players anything 

Relief and other options 
I know what your thinking and if you are reading this good on you, your dedicated but you may want to have a server that is not prison like factions or even make a hub server! Well you can once you get a decent player base but be careful to not rush this too early or your server will fall apart! Only do this when you have enough donations to keep multiple servers running. 

Well I hope this helped and if you have any questions PM me. 
As always if this helped you don't forget to leave a diamond if you want!