I was scrolling through Minestatus today and saw a lot of servers that were not popular. I thought I would make a guide on how to make a successful server.
1) Do something new, there are so many Faction, Towny, etc.. servers out that people will migrate towards more popular servers. The unique plugins and such always attract more people.
2) Be able to handle trash talk. Yes, your server may not be the best, but when you ban someone for saying the server sucks, it gets rid of a potential member and it really starts to add up.
3) Reward people who constantly play, or are veterans. Nothing makes someone want to stay on a server more than getting a rank up, because you are the reason that the server is popular.
4) Expand. There is always a point of a minecraft server when it is the best, then it starts to decline. If you build a community for different games you will keep people in the community.
5) Start small then go big! Starting out with 20gb of RAM and having 70 plugins that are mediocre doesn't keep people entertained. Start the server with only a few gigabytes of RAM, don't waste money on having 20gb of RAM when you have three people that play.
6) Persevere. Your server may be ridiculed, or you may have an empty server for a few months, but you will get people. Don't stop, because you don't have a community. That puts all of your hard work to waste. It takes time, don't rush it.
7) Focus on one aspect and make it perfect. I don't like a server more that has very little plugins, but they're flawless. I hate it when I join a server with seventy plugins, but half of them don't work.
8) Be friendly, hold events, give out coupons. When you hold events people tell their friends, it brings more people in. The larger the community the more potential it has to get more people.
These are what I find to be perks of a successful server, please feel free to add more in the comments
For everyone who is working on a server, good luck, you'll get big one day!