My vision is one of peace and justice, specifically for the Small Servers.

This might be a good time to embrace the Small Server Revolution. Together, united, we shall make our voice to be heard.

I think we should create a "Small Minecraft Server Alliance" in order to unify small servers against the big servers that gets all the attention. This S.M.S.A. should have it's own rules, its authorities and a website/directory, and some requirements to join and to be part of this "Alliance".

This is by far the hardest part of operating a Minecraft server. The technical stuff is simple compared to the marketing. Most of the platitudes you get when you ask "how do I get players" might have worked in the past, but the market is so jammed with servers that getting above the noise is tough.

And anyone who succeeds in doing that is certainly not going to share the magic ingredient! We're just going to have to slog through this together.

Good luck!

Spam advertising doesn't work consistently and can bring a lot of salt to your server.
The most recent server I was helping build had a few people come over from a server that was close to death. Someone who was from the dying server went their and spammed the IP for the server I was working on, and we started to get people coming from it.
But it wasnt good.
Many were banned after they cussed out several staff members, calling us cancerous, accusing us of stealing their servers ideas, ETC.
not a fun day.

LexxonistIf you feel brave you can even do the dreaded "Spam advertising" on servers, it honestly does work.

NovaBlitzGet people to be active. Get all your friends on 24/7 and advertise EVERYWHERE!!! Even if it seems scummy, thats how stuff works

One one hand, you may get away with it. On the other hand, there is the chance that you will advertise to the wrong server and seriously get people on your case. Once that happens, your server can drop like a concrete fish. Especially if the people you piss off happen to be marginally competent at taking servers out, which isn't as rare as you may think.

And it's a little annoying when people start spamming your advertisements with screenshots of your own spam. I should know. :p

There are many ways to grow a server. First, you need a seed. Some seeds are Prison,Factions,Skyblock,Survival and Creative.
Second, you need AdvertismentWater to hydrate the server.
Then, if you used all the seeds, some fertilizers you can use are bedwars,skywars,paintball,kitpvp and any other unique minigames you know.
Finally, you need a finishing polish. Try to get New Devs and make custom plugins for all the things you have made to make it original.
There you have it, you grew a server

Get people to be active. Get all your friends on 24/7 and advertise EVERYWHERE!!! Even if it seems scummy, thats how stuff works

Make fast paced minigames. Mineplex is super popular because it has a ton of fast paced minigames to keep up with kids' attention spans.

Ive been doing servers for 5 years, you want to keep your community base occupied but now days is getting to the point where you actually have a community base.

After looking at your servers page i think you need to add screenshots of other things on the server (also press f1 to hide the UI for your screenshots)

You also need to improve the description so people have a better idea of what the server is about, what it features and at the very least a basic list rules as some people will want to know whether it's a pvp enabled server or a server that allows griefing etc.

Lastly, having some sort of server banner; even if it's just a screenshot with the servers name and main plugins, you'd at least have something for others to see so they will come visit the servers page if they are interested.

NVM, accidently clicked another fellows profile and answered of that x3

really?

well, if you cant hold players, its because your server lacks something. You may do all the right things, but if your server doesnt have something that makes it worth my while to spend time playing it, then im not coming back.

The thing is I haven't gotten a core community as we only get around 1 player per 2 days.

So, i have a couple years experience with server ownership and management, I never reached the heavenly abode of 'Super ultra popular' but I did manege to get to a point where my servers were peaking at close to 40 players on weekends, and 25 players on weekdays. The current server I help run now just opened and has peaks of around 15 players on week ends and 8 players on weekdays.
So, how do you grow your community?
Well, some of it takes luck. The first people to become dedicated players will form your 'core' community. They are the ones that seem to stay while other players play for a week and disappear without a trace. These are the players that define your server.
Is it cancerous?
Is it salty?
Is it friendly?
You get the picture.
You usually control this, so it takes a bit of luck and making sure you dont advertise in places you know that will get you players you dont want.

Once you have a good core community, more players will stay are it will just start to grow. Having a unique server is good, however, without a proper core community, you will drive away any prospective player that would otherwise stay.

Hey Avrona! Long time- no see. Sorry to hear your guys' servers are not doing well.

I wrote up a blog post on this topic a while back if you want to check it out: http://www.planetminecraft.com/blog/how-to-shoot-your-server-off-the-ground/

Also, I might add that paying for advertisements is not necessary. Updating your server post here on pmc and on minecraft forums usually gets about that 1-6 people coming per day each (It can vary depending on the quality of the post, included screen-shots, the quality of the server, and the originality (Is that a word? (Apparently, there's no red line under it...)) of the server). minecraftservers.org is, I believe, the best place to have your server listed (So long as you also have a voting plugin installed and set up).

Good luck guys.

~~ Purplepigfarm

I have no plugins at all but I do have ranks.

Do you have custom plugins and custom ranks and all that jazz

It is very original. But still nothing.

Make the server different or original

I do advertise. Still nothing.

That's my suggestion

Ya well get some people and advertise!

Been running my server for around a year and a half, but just having 1 player per 2 days is a lot, so this thread seems useful to me.

NoxyTheHyena most important thing I can tell you is build a community of likeminded people. Hold on to the players you do get.

This pretty much ^ not that my server has players.

But whats the point in advertising loads if they join and leave
as theres no sense of community?

I find the best way to advertise is - when people like your server they tell others.

What I would do is get some friends on the server then advertise because people will see that other people are on and want to join.

In my opinion, ADVERTISE, ADVERTISE, ADVERTISE, you can never do too much advertising, go advertise on spigotmc, minecraftforums, all those random server lists and also here, planetminecraft. If you feel brave you can even do the dreaded "Spam advertising" on servers, it honestly does work.

I've been running a server for a few years and the most important thing I can tell you is build a community of likeminded people. Hold on to the players you do get.
It all starts with the people. Without the people, the server is an empty boat in a sea filled with other vessels. Not saying you have to bend over backwards for them, but keeping them happy is important. When I started my server, I had no intention on a big server with a bunch of players. Just started out as something fun to do with some friends. After a bit of advertising (keeping the server page here on PMC bumped and setting up votifier) people started coming and staying because they liked the atmosphere. I guess the best way for me to put it is you get out of it what you put into it if you play your cards right.