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We've all seen our favorite minecraft servers shut down randomly. Sometimes it makes us angry, other times we just need closure. Ever wonder why these kinds of things happen to servers all the time? Well then you're in the right place! In this blog I will be explaining the 5 most common mistakes that server owners make when creating their servers, and if you're a server owner then I will also explain how to fix these mistakes. Okay, lets get started!

Without continous advertising, a server is destined to go down sooner or later. It's hard for owners to advertising and gain players, so if they see their server unused, they'll lose inspiration to host it.

How To Fix This: Bump PlanetMinecraft EVERY day, bump minecraftforums every day, and get your community accustumed to voting for the server. You can't do it all on your own, so ask for help.

If a server owner has never owned a server before, chances are that it will end up going down very soon, or be a very low quality server. This is a hard problem to fix, because servers can sometimes be a hit-or-miss and if the owner doesn't know how to run plugins, it is a gaurunteed miss.

How To Fix This: A very helpful tip is to make all of your plugins and server files BEFORE starting the server or buying a host. The most annoying thing as an owner is getting asked things like "when will MobArena be working". Getting asked these things continously can tire you out, so make sure it's all working before you go public.

Trust me, from one server owner to another. You're server WILL run into trouble one day. There's an infinate amount of problems that could happen to your server that you need to be prepared for. A few of these that are fairly common are:

1. World Corruption (World holes, lagged areas, broken terrain)
2. Staff Abuse (Staff griefing, lazy staff, staff power abuse)
3. Griefer Attacks (Excessive griefing, trolling or spamming)

How to fix this: For world corruption there is honestly nothing you can do. I realized this problem on my survival server and trust me I REALLY wanted to shut it down because of it. The best solution is to add a global chest moving process of everyone's items and move to a new world, or use the old one as a resource world. For staff abuse, remember to have a trial period for staff members and don't promote anyone within the first 2 weeks. To stop griefer attacks, get a plugin that handles chat spam and a block logging plugin (Ex. CoreProtect/Prism)

A server should never run out of donations. If you are a server owner, you need to work tirelessly to advertise the donor perks. Also, I'd suggest automating the donating process. If you're server is running low on donations there are multiple ways that you can earn money without reaching into your pockets.

How to fix this: Earn money elsewhere from the server. If you run a creative server, earn money by creating a build team and selling custom structures for other server owners. This is in high demand nowadays, so it's a great stream of income. You could also sell artwork that you make. An easy way to do this is to get photoshop and begin making server banners using a template. You can profit around $20/week even if you're not the best art designer. Just find something that you enjoy doing and do it. You should never run out of money, just play it smart. As a rule of thumb: save up enough for 3 months in the future worth of hosting. Beyond that point the rest can go towards advertising and banners etc.

It takes a LOT of time to properly run and advertise your minecraft server. If you realize that you don't have a lot of time to run the server, not all hope is lost. 

How to Fix: Sometimes the best option is to sacrifice some of your real life time to the server. Even if you can't play ingame, you need to keep the server online by bumping threads. Do this at school while on your iphone. Also make a skype group and connect to players. This way people can still know that you're active. Get skype on your phone and send a quick message inbetween classes, it goes a long way.

You need to judge the community and make sure that whatever you do is in the best interest for them. Whatever you do, don't give up. If something is wrong then change it, but never give up. Cancelling your server is like basically committing suicide, it's almost always a permanent solution to a temporary problem. You can work past this, so please do.