Guide to Getting More Players & Increased Donations

[KeithSt0ne]

I've spent about $2000 over the last 45-50 day's renting slots and I can tell you this from experience:

If you think you're going to get back exactly or more than you put in, you most likely won't, advertising is a long term investment. It's not about short term profit, it's about creating long term relationships with your players.

When you are able to pay for advertising (slots, some big youtuber) make sure you have some kind of promo running at the same time that it happens.

Example Promos:

• 150% cash bonus on rank and currency packages
• 30% off currency/tokens, etc
• 20% off all kits
• Get an extra 50 tokens with every purchase
• Just use your imagination!

You don't have to run those promos all at the same time, however we have a new promo going every week that runs for 7 day's. We always have some kind of sale, discount or bonus for either certain packages or all packages at any given time.

Even if you are a server that makes 1000's weekly, if you start running these weekly promos, or even offer them for weekends only I guarantee you will see an increase in sales.

If you are still a newer server and you are trying to increase your population hold global contests by setting population goals. This would be something like, "If we get 30 players online by Sunday at 9pm EASTERN everyone on the server get's an extra $40,000!". However, don't set some unrealistic goal like if you normally only have about 5-6 players online, don't set your goal to some ridicously number like 50 players. Keep it small, if your normal active player base is 5-8 players during your peak, set your goal to 15 players. Once you hit that goal, then increase it by about 5-10 for the next goal, etc. The idea is that you want your players to be able to meet these goals.

I used to do the population goal at the same time I paid for advertising and I would use population goals that were really low on purpose. What I mean by this is I knew we were going to get close to 100 players online and I set our goal at 75, they got the extra bonus and everyone had loads of fun in the process.

Just because you think your server is cool, doesn't mean that it is. If you get 100 players on your server in 1 hour and after 1 hour you only have just a few players still on, then there's is something wrong with your server. I've been on 100's of servers researching what features other servers offer and looking for those that do really well. I can tell you about 80% of the time the servers that have been around for a long time that still can't break 20 players online during evenings/weekends it's because the first impressions sucks which means your spawn sucks. (other variables may be the cause, like poor management, or the server is to much like every other server)

Don't let other people on this website fool you, normal players don't care where your spawn came from (unless you ripped off some popular server like mineplex). If you can't build an amazing spawn, there's plenty of amazing spawns on PMC that are readily available!

If your server expenses are $50/month and you only have $50, then paying for advertising is probably not the best option. If you are low on funds then you should do this:

1. Recruit 15-20 moderators (don't give them OP for any reason, the only thing they need is the ability to mute, ban, warn, etc)
2. If you are a server owner and you have a server like factions and you play and raid and pvp, etc on your own server your players are going to HATE you and leave. (Don't play on your own server, I can't stress this enough!)
3. Don't recruit admins, co-owners etc, most players hate this because they automatically assume that those players are going to abuse their powers even if they don't. (a more established server with a larger community can get away with this, new servers should just stay away from admins until you have 50-60+players online during your peak times)
4. Make forum threads for your server on PlanetMinecraft and Minecraftforums.net and rotate through your staff and make sure you keep those threads bumped once per hour EVERY SINGLE DAY!
5. If you make the gap between your donors and non-donors to wide, non-donors will eventually hate your server and this will kill your population

Another thing to mention is that more is not always better, and what I mean by this is those that try to setup 3, 4 or even 5 types of servers like factions, skyblock, towny, creative, etc. The more things that you have to do to split your time between servers means some or all of your servers are going to be neglected and the players that play on those neglected servers will notice and leave. You don't need more than one server type unless you have a healthy population of at least 150-200 players online.

One of the first things players will do when they login (and I don't know why they ignore the player count before they login) but they will hit TAB, if you don't have 15+ or more online they'll just logout and not say a word. That's why having more servers can do you more harm than good because your hub is going to sit there empty 95% of the time. Players don't care if you are a hub server and have 10 other servers with 10 players on each server, they see an empty hub they'll just logout. To help prevent this put some minigames on your hub like parkour or have it so that when a minigame ends they get kicked back to the hub. This will help keep your hub populated.

The last thing I will mention is probably the most important, the more time you spend developing your server, the better it will be. If you think your server should be great because you spent 2 weeks working on it or 2 months working on it, then you haven't spent enough time! You should always be trying to find ways to add more features and more content.

 

[Solistica]

Awesome suggestions, I'll even be working on a few of these myself.
10/10

Keith Stone why u so smooth!

 

[maxben34]

I happen to disagree with a lot of the statements made in this post. I think the most important thing to note about being a successful server owner is to have unique features on your server. If a player could play essentially the same thing on "insert generic server name here", then what's stopping them from doing that?

If you have original gamemodes, you will be successful. If you have a generic server, there's nothing separating you from anybody else, so what's the reason why any player would join your server over another generic one?

Having something new and unique will lead to increased donations. Advertisements will cost less as YouTubers actually rather having unique content on their channels than a generic server that could be found anywhere else (surprise surprise).

Owning a successful server is like owning a successful business. If you use common sense, save up, invest in advertisements that you know you'll benefit from, and if you're professional and really try your best to make your server the best it can possibly be, then "bumping a thread every hour on minecraftforums or planetminecraft" won't be needed.

 

[KeithSt0ne]

I happen to disagree with a lot of the statements made in this post. I think the most important thing to note about being a successful server owner is to have unique features on your server. If a player could play essentially the same thing on "insert generic server name here", then what's stopping them from doing that?

Custom features alone is not going to make you successful, if you don't apply everything I talked about you will still have a difficult time.

I kept the post fairly generic, so that it could be applied to any type of server, custom or not.

Also, not having custom features won't prevent you from doing well, being successful means different things to different players.

Not everyone is trying to build the largest Minecraft community, some server owners just want a small community of 20-50 players and they're not interested in anything more than that.

Id like to see you name one thing that I mentioned that you think won't help you.

 

[maxben34]

Id like to see you name one thing that I mentioned that you think won't help you.

I have no problem with naming several things.

When you are able to pay for advertising (slots, some big youtuber) make sure you have some kind of promo running at the same time that it happens.

You seem to forget that each promo that you run is a loss of potential profit. Yes, you are getting new players as a result of the advertisement, but again as you said, it's not about making your money back in a matter of days, it's about the long term investment. These new players will become used to discounted prices and when the discount ends you'll end up getting less money than you've hoped for.

We always have some kind of sale, discount or bonus for either certain packages or all packages at any given time.

This ensures that having a promotion is nothing special as your players are entirely used to them, which basically means you're just giving away discounted things and losing more money.

Even if you are a server that makes 1000's weekly, if you start running these weekly promos, or even offer them for weekends only I guarantee you will see an increase in sales.

Yes, there's an increase in sales, but there's also a big decrease in sales after the discount is over.

If you are still a newer server and you are trying to increase your population hold global contests by setting population goals. This would be something like, "If we get 30 players online by Sunday at 9pm EASTERN everyone on the server get's an extra $40,000!". However, don't set some unrealistic goal like if you normally only have about 5-6 players online, don't set your goal to some ridicously number like 50 players. Keep it small, if your normal active player base is 5-8 players during your peak, set your goal to 15 players. Once you hit that goal, then increase it by about 5-10 for the next goal, etc. The idea is that you want your players to be able to meet these goals.

I used to do this more or less, and I'm not going to lie... it really does work, however when your server starts to get bigger, people are going to be expecting these things all the time, which is simply unrealistic. If you constantly do things like these, your players will become accustomed to them, and it will be a big let down when they see that it doesn't happen all the time.

Just because you think your server is cool, doesn't mean that it is. If you get 100 players on your server in 1 hour and after 1 hour you only have just a few players still on, then there's is something wrong with your server. I've been on 100's of servers researching what features other servers offer and looking for those that do really well. I can tell you about 80% of the time the servers that have been around for a long time that still can't break 20 players online during evenings/weekends it's because the first impressions sucks which means your spawn sucks. (other variables may be the cause, like poor management, or the server is to much like every other server)

You say below this that spawns don't matter. However you're saying here that the spawn is important in making players stay. The thing that makes players stay are things that no servers have. Entirely new gamemodes, features you can't find elsewhere, etc. are what will keep players online. If you're just like any other server out there, there's absolutely no point wasting time playing it.

Don't let other people on this website fool you, normal players don't care where your spawn came from (unless you ripped off some popular server like mineplex). If you can't build an amazing spawn, there's plenty of amazing spawns on PMC that are readily available!

Contradictory and stupid. If you want a professional server, you don't download builds from PMC. As you said above, differentiating your server from others is going to make players want to stay on it. Using a widely downloaded spawn doesn't differentiate your server.

Recruit 15-20 moderators (don't give them OP for any reason, the only thing they need is the ability to mute, ban, warn, etc)

This is fucking stupid. If your server only has an average of 20 players, why would you want that many moderators? I can run my server with 120 players weekend avg fine with only 5 moderators (however having 8 for my size wouldn't hurt).

Make forum threads for your server on PlanetMinecraft and Minecraftforums.net and rotate through your staff and make sure you keep those threads bumped once per hour EVERY SINGLE DAY!

This is just fucking annoying and players won't want to join a server that is constantly spammed on those forums. You can bump it once a day... not 24 smh.

If you make the gap between your donors and non-donors to wide, non-donors will eventually hate your server and this will kill your population

That's why it's important to do as much as you can to follow the EULA... believe it or not, it can be a good business model.

Another thing to mention is that more is not always better, and what I mean by this is those that try to setup 3, 4 or even 5 types of servers like factions, skyblock, towny, creative, etc. The more things that you have to do to split your time between servers means some or all of your servers are going to be neglected and the players that play on those neglected servers will notice and leave. You don't need more than one server type unless you have a healthy population of at least 150-200 players online.

Again, you're right and wrong. You shouldn't open a server with more than one type to it. However, expansion as you get more players and more money is 100% needed and is to be expected. Don't wait until you have 150-200 players online as you won't get this many players unless you open other servers based on the needs and wants of your community and the amount of players that are a part of it.

One of the first things players will do when they login (and I don't know why they ignore the player count before they login) but they will hit TAB, if you don't have 15+ or more online they'll just logout and not say a word. That's why having more servers can do you more harm than good because your hub is going to sit there empty 95% of the time. Players don't care if you are a hub server and have 10 other servers with 10 players on each server, they see an empty hub they'll just logout. To help prevent this put some minigames on your hub like parkour or have it so that when a minigame ends they get kicked back to the hub. This will help keep your hub populated.

Having a busy hub doesn't mean shit. If players are hanging out on your hub and not your actual server, then clearly your hub is more enjoyable than your server, which ruins the whole fucking point of owning a server.

The last thing I will mention is probably the most important, the more time you spend developing your server, the better it will be. If you think your server should be great because you spent 2 weeks working on it or 2 months working on it, then you haven't spent enough time! You should always be trying to find ways to add more features and more content.

I agree with this, however it's important to consider what your community wants. If they want "X" gamemode, look into making that a reality. If they want "Y" feature, look into making that happen. If you can conform to the needs of your players, you will be a good owner in their eyes, and they will become more dedicated.

Custom features alone is not going to make you successful, if you don't apply everything I talked about you will still have a difficult time.

It's important not to listen to Keith's ideas as some of them will hurt you more than help. This post is supposed to explain why exactly that is. Custom features don't make you successful but they are more important than ANYTHING that you stated in the OP.

Not everyone is trying to build the largest Minecraft community, some server owners just want a small community of 20-50 players and they're not interested in anything more than that.

Just letting you know this is fucking stupid considering this thread is a "guide to getting more players and increasing donations".

 

[Solistica]

I have no problem with naming several things.

You seem to forget that each promo that you run is a loss of potential profit. Yes, you are getting new players as a result of the advertisement, but again as you said, it's not about making your money back in a matter of days, it's about the long term investment. These new players will become used to discounted prices and when the discount ends you'll end up getting less money than you've hoped for.

This ensures that having a promotion is nothing special as your players are entirely used to them, which basically means you're just giving away discounted things and losing more money.

Yes, there's an increase in sales, but there's also a big decrease in sales after the discount is over.

I used to do this more or less, and I'm not going to lie... it really does work, however when your server starts to get bigger, people are going to be expecting these things all the time, which is simply unrealistic. If you constantly do things like these, your players will become accustomed to them, and it will be a big let down when they see that it doesn't happen all the time.

You say below this that spawns don't matter. However you're saying here that the spawn is important in making players stay. The thing that makes players stay are things that no servers have. Entirely new gamemodes, features you can't find elsewhere, etc. are what will keep players online. If you're just like any other server out there, there's absolutely no point wasting time playing it.

Contradictory and stupid. If you want a professional server, you don't download builds from PMC. As you said above, differentiating your server from others is going to make players want to stay on it. Using a widely downloaded spawn doesn't differentiate your server.
This is fucking stupid. If your server only has an average of 20 players, why would you want that many moderators? I can run my server with 120 players weekend avg fine with only 5 moderators (however having 8 for my size wouldn't hurt).

This is just fucking annoying and players won't want to join a server that is constantly spammed on those forums. You can bump it once a day... not 24 smh.
That's why it's important to do as much as you can to follow the EULA... believe it or not, it can be a good business model.
Again, you're right and wrong. You shouldn't open a server with more than one type to it. However, expansion as you get more players and more money is 100% needed and is to be expected. Don't wait until you have 150-200 players online as you won't get this many players unless you open other servers based on the needs and wants of your community and the amount of players that are a part of it.

Having a busy hub doesn't mean shit. If players are hanging out on your hub and not your actual server, then clearly your hub is more enjoyable than your server, which ruins the whole fucking point of owning a server.
I agree with this, however it's important to consider what your community wants. If they want "X" gamemode, look into making that a reality. If they want "Y" feature, look into making that happen. If you can conform to the needs of your players, you will be a good owner in their eyes, and they will become more dedicated.
It's important not to listen to Keith's ideas as some of them will hurt you more than help. This post is supposed to explain why exactly that is. Custom features don't make you successful but they are more important than ANYTHING that you stated in the OP.
Just letting you know this is fucking stupid considering this thread is a "guide to getting more players and increasing donations".

I think his guide, would almost work better on servers that already have 10-20 people on as an average, compared to first starting servers.
You bring up a lot of good counter points, uniqueness being the main one, and I'd have to say that that should be the first thing a server focuses on.

Even on my own right now, I talk to the players and vote for my server and poke around on forums trying to spread the word sure, but I spend 98% of my time talking with my devs, figuring out ways we can hook players once they log on. Unique content is what keeps the players on for more than 5min or 5sec. If you don't have AT LEAST that, you're dead in the water. You're just a server amongst other similar servers and there's literally no reason for a player TO stay.

Once you have that, then focus on donations, and player counts, etc.

If you just want to make a quick buck, and think making a Minecraft Server is the way to go with little to no experience, I think this guide will only hurt people, as it will be averting their attention to the wrong areas. However this guide could be useful for servers that have been around for a few months, with at least SOME custom content, looking to expand.

 

[KeithSt0ne]

Just letting you know this is fucking stupid considering this thread is a "guide to getting more players and increasing donations".

How is it stupid, if you have a single digit population and you want double digits, it still applies to you.

Also, my guide is what it is, either take it or leave it.

 

[UniquePanda]

If you are running a server for the money, you have already failed.

 

[maxben34]

How is it stupid, if you have a single digit population and you want double digits, it still applies to you.

Also, my guide is what it is, either take it or leave it.

Clearly you didn't read what I said or see the fact that the part that you quoted was about a quote within the OP and your other post that was contradictory.

 

[Solistica]

If you are running a server for the money, you have already failed.

Especially this, if you're in it for the money, your head won't be in the right place. Your judgement will be clouded and effected by which solution to problems will make you the most in return.
Not to mention all the time and effort involved, which is very easy to get burnt out on if you don't have a real interest or emotional attachment.

It's so obvious too sometimes, chat will be spammed with buycraft links, holograms with buycraft links will be everywhere, even the youtubers will be promoting paid packages. I think that's as big of a turn off as no custom work.

First thing I do when I log onto a server is check their plugins, if it's just basic stuff, I've already determined that I won't be spending more than 15min on there. If I see chat filled with buycraft links and timed spam messages after that, then I'll just log out and delete it from the list. Waste of time, they just want my wallet not the player.