How do you own a successful server? A very commonly asked question, and commonly posted reply. It's not the easiest thing in the world, but if you follow these steps, it may not be the hardest.
These steps won't just make your server successful though, they just tell you what a good server does and does not have. You still need to do a lot of the work.
A) Staff
Staff are an essential part of your server. They help enforce the rules and make sure your server better. I'd organize the staff into three of four groups. The moderators, the admins, and the owner (You).
The moderators enforce the rules, and punish those who choose to disobey them. You must create the rules. The rules are what you want the players NOT to do on the server. Example; No griefing, no spamming.
The admin is someone who helps the owner with the 'techy' stuff, such as configuring files, and helping the owner. Admins can be ranks such as Administrator, admin, co-owner. Bigger server usually have more ranks, such as tr-mod, mod, head-mod, tr-admin, co-admin, admin, co-owner, etc. When starting, you should start off with two moderators, one admin, and yourself. Then you can hire more as the population increases. Finance
Spending money is a big part of owning a server. Whether you're paying for it, or a parent is paying for it, you'll need to have means of paying for it. You'll need a way to host it, which is most likely going to be paying a host for it, such as MCProHosting or Beastnode. Websites don't nessecarily need to be paid for, but if you want it to look good, you could pay for a website. I, personally, recommend Enjin. It's free, but you can pay for an upgrade if you want it to look better.
Don't think you'll be investing hundreds of dollars into a server though, they're usually pretty cheap, and you can setup a donation store once you get a big player base. C) Website
A website is essential. You need a way of contacting players or getting news out if something is urgent or just new. Players will also need a way of contacting you, or other players if they need help. Players can also make new threads or vote for your server using the website. A big thing websites for Minecraft servers can be used for, are donations. Donations keep the server up and running, financially. Many servers will go down because not enough players donate. D) Be unique.
What's unique about another boring factions server? There are roughly 650,000 factions servers out there. (That's roughly how many times the factions plugin has been downloaded). But have you ever seen an underground adventure, or a server that has a prison located in the sky? Maybe, maybe not. That's the unique thing. You don't find that very often, meaning that players will want to stay because they haven't been on a the same server theme, a hundered times. Of course, it's hard to think of an idea. That's what makes the servers that do have those ideas special. So think of an idea and put it into action. E) Advertising
Make sure to get your server out there. That's what the advertisement lists are for! But how will you get your server to be noticed if there's literally hundreds of thousands of servers? Well, the answer to that: voting. Setup voting so that players can get rewards and help the server get noticed.
NEVER, NEVER, NEVER advertise your server on bigger servers. This will make the server seem bad, and get players on that are unwelcome. There are players who grief server that advertise on other servers.
Servers get noticed because they have lots of votes and look neat on the advertising lists. F) Patience.
Patience is important. If you weren't patient enough to just read this list, then you aren't qualified to own a server, considering you expect things too fast. A minecraft server takes quite a bit to build and setup. Put it into beta mode for friends to test, and your staff to help out. Create the server, have people test it, make sure it works, then release it when it's ready. If you just build a small spawn, some rules, and some plugins, the server will look rushed and owned by an immature 11 year old.
What you want to do is spend lots of time configuring files, building a spawn (or having someone else build it if you are incapable, a staff for example), setting some rules, and making your server look mature, and make sure it looks like you took your time). G) Finally, know what your doing.
Before buying a server, maybe learn how to configure permission nodes, know how plugins work, and know how challenging it is to own a server. Practice prior to buying the server, think of an idea, and then once you know you're ready, buy the server. If you buy the server and have no experience, you'll buy it, then what... Make sure you have your idea, and your knowledge about how a Minecraft server works. If you don't, then you will NOT be a successful owner. For example, if someone wanted to own a huge business which sells phones and tablets (Ahem, Apple), don't you think they'd have to know what they're doing before they start their business? Same thing goes for a Minecraft server.
Conclusion,
I hope this helps you. Remember, these steps are just so you know what your doing when you start your server, you need to think of the idea and put it into action when creating a server. If you have a question about your server (e.g, configuring problems, console problems, etc), reply to this and I will do my best to assist you!
Very well written guide. I've used the same principles in making my server with a few differences. It's become quite the success, my players have donated enough so that the next three months of hosting costs are covered. I was challenged with making a survival gamemode that was unique, so I made mobs that automatically adjust to your difficulty. It's worked really well and my server's become a great place for all skill levels.
Thank you for the kind reply. I visited server and it wasn't too bad, nicely built, well configured, but I would like to make a few suggestions if I may.
I think that when I joined I was overcrowded by messages recommending votes and all of these unfamiliar commands. I was a bit overwhelmed and it made me want to leave.
Now for my suggestions.
I'd personally recommend cleaning the spawn for survival up a bit, make it a bit bigger, hire some active staff, and make players want to vote so it's more visible on the voting lists. Give players tokens, money, or items which they can use for buying items or other things for gameplay, and make a cumulative vote so that when they vote every so often, they get a special reward. Then advertise it a bit more so players will join.
I also found it a bit generic. Mini games, creative, and survival. It's not very original. I'd start thinking of a gameplay idea for your server, get some staff to help you develop it, make sure there's not many of those servers out there, and start advertising. Becuase about 9/10 of people who play minecraft multiplayer aren't looking for survival.
I'm not trying to be rude or anything, I am just trying to help you out because you are a growing server.
I hope my suggestions helped; please let me know if I can assist you further,
-AwesomeEd
Part of the reason why the server feels so "generic" is because I never intended it to be public in the first place. I wanted a place for my friends and I to play, I only made it public when everyone started to like it. I do not want to just make what the masses want, I wish for my server to be someplace different. If I add minigames, I don't add overused ones, I make completely new ones.
I'll probably change all of the messages you receive when you join for after you've played for a bit, instead of just all at once.
Making the survival spawn bigger would be hard because players have already built there. I have recently hired two moderators that should be fairly active, though I'm the one who welcomes a lot of the players.
My voting rewards suck and I know it. I've thought about making a "reward crate" similar to Mineplex's spin tickets. ASAP I will be looking into getting my players to vote.
There's one goal I have with my server. It's to create a friendly environment for all skill levels, with the gamemodes that players love on other servers made better here. It's a hard process to make a server, so I thank you.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Check out my server with 85+ plugins!
There are 100 bugs in the code, I fix 23 of them. How many are left? 135.
Everyone talks about having a "unique" server, yet the most common modes are the most popular ones. It all depends from server to server, there is no formula. One helpful tip is: be a popular/known player in a big server before starting your own, have a lot of friends in Skype, so when you start your server you will have at least 10 or 20 friends in it, good start.
Half of my server community are my Skype friends and friends of those friends :P. My server's still developing (going through domain issues though, dang it Freenom!), so I've still got a ways to go.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Check out my server with 85+ plugins!
There are 100 bugs in the code, I fix 23 of them. How many are left? 135.
<!--StartFragment -->
How do you own a successful server? A very commonly asked question, and commonly posted reply. It's not the easiest thing in the world, but if you follow these steps, it may not be the hardest.
These steps won't just make your server successful though, they just tell you what a good server does and does not have. You still need to do a lot of the work.
A) Staff
Staff are an essential part of your server. They help enforce the rules and make sure your server better. I'd organize the staff into three of four groups. The moderators, the admins, and the owner (You).
The moderators enforce the rules, and punish those who choose to disobey them. You must create the rules. The rules are what you want the players NOT to do on the server. Example; No griefing, no spamming.
The admin is someone who helps the owner with the 'techy' stuff, such as configuring files, and helping the owner. Admins can be ranks such as Administrator, admin, co-owner. Bigger server usually have more ranks, such as tr-mod, mod, head-mod, tr-admin, co-admin, admin, co-owner, etc. When starting, you should start off with two moderators, one admin, and yourself. Then you can hire more as the population increases.
Finance
Spending money is a big part of owning a server. Whether you're paying for it, or a parent is paying for it, you'll need to have means of paying for it. You'll need a way to host it, which is most likely going to be paying a host for it, such as MCProHosting or Beastnode. Websites don't nessecarily need to be paid for, but if you want it to look good, you could pay for a website. I, personally, recommend Enjin. It's free, but you can pay for an upgrade if you want it to look better.
Don't think you'll be investing hundreds of dollars into a server though, they're usually pretty cheap, and you can setup a donation store once you get a big player base.
C) Website
A website is essential. You need a way of contacting players or getting news out if something is urgent or just new. Players will also need a way of contacting you, or other players if they need help. Players can also make new threads or vote for your server using the website. A big thing websites for Minecraft servers can be used for, are donations. Donations keep the server up and running, financially. Many servers will go down because not enough players donate.
D) Be unique.
What's unique about another boring factions server? There are roughly 650,000 factions servers out there. (That's roughly how many times the factions plugin has been downloaded). But have you ever seen an underground adventure, or a server that has a prison located in the sky? Maybe, maybe not. That's the unique thing. You don't find that very often, meaning that players will want to stay because they haven't been on a the same server theme, a hundered times. Of course, it's hard to think of an idea. That's what makes the servers that do have those ideas special. So think of an idea and put it into action.
E) Advertising
Make sure to get your server out there. That's what the advertisement lists are for! But how will you get your server to be noticed if there's literally hundreds of thousands of servers? Well, the answer to that: voting. Setup voting so that players can get rewards and help the server get noticed.
NEVER, NEVER, NEVER advertise your server on bigger servers. This will make the server seem bad, and get players on that are unwelcome. There are players who grief server that advertise on other servers.
Servers get noticed because they have lots of votes and look neat on the advertising lists.
F) Patience.
Patience is important. If you weren't patient enough to just read this list, then you aren't qualified to own a server, considering you expect things too fast. A minecraft server takes quite a bit to build and setup. Put it into beta mode for friends to test, and your staff to help out. Create the server, have people test it, make sure it works, then release it when it's ready. If you just build a small spawn, some rules, and some plugins, the server will look rushed and owned by an immature 11 year old.
What you want to do is spend lots of time configuring files, building a spawn (or having someone else build it if you are incapable, a staff for example), setting some rules, and making your server look mature, and make sure it looks like you took your time).
G) Finally, know what your doing.
Before buying a server, maybe learn how to configure permission nodes, know how plugins work, and know how challenging it is to own a server. Practice prior to buying the server, think of an idea, and then once you know you're ready, buy the server. If you buy the server and have no experience, you'll buy it, then what... Make sure you have your idea, and your knowledge about how a Minecraft server works. If you don't, then you will NOT be a successful owner. For example, if someone wanted to own a huge business which sells phones and tablets (Ahem, Apple), don't you think they'd have to know what they're doing before they start their business? Same thing goes for a Minecraft server.
Conclusion,
I hope this helps you. Remember, these steps are just so you know what your doing when you start your server, you need to think of the idea and put it into action when creating a server. If you have a question about your server (e.g, configuring problems, console problems, etc), reply to this and I will do my best to assist you!
Too bad I can't like this twice.
Very well written guide. I've used the same principles in making my server with a few differences. It's become quite the success, my players have donated enough so that the next three months of hosting costs are covered. I was challenged with making a survival gamemode that was unique, so I made mobs that automatically adjust to your difficulty. It's worked really well and my server's become a great place for all skill levels.
And you will only play on one. So make sure it's yours that players pick.
Hi, Tis_awesomeness,
Thank you for the kind reply. I visited server and it wasn't too bad, nicely built, well configured, but I would like to make a few suggestions if I may.
I think that when I joined I was overcrowded by messages recommending votes and all of these unfamiliar commands. I was a bit overwhelmed and it made me want to leave.
Now for my suggestions.
I'd personally recommend cleaning the spawn for survival up a bit, make it a bit bigger, hire some active staff, and make players want to vote so it's more visible on the voting lists. Give players tokens, money, or items which they can use for buying items or other things for gameplay, and make a cumulative vote so that when they vote every so often, they get a special reward. Then advertise it a bit more so players will join.
I also found it a bit generic. Mini games, creative, and survival. It's not very original. I'd start thinking of a gameplay idea for your server, get some staff to help you develop it, make sure there's not many of those servers out there, and start advertising. Becuase about 9/10 of people who play minecraft multiplayer aren't looking for survival.
I'm not trying to be rude or anything, I am just trying to help you out because you are a growing server.
I hope my suggestions helped; please let me know if I can assist you further,
-AwesomeEd
Thanks for the feedback.
Part of the reason why the server feels so "generic" is because I never intended it to be public in the first place. I wanted a place for my friends and I to play, I only made it public when everyone started to like it. I do not want to just make what the masses want, I wish for my server to be someplace different. If I add minigames, I don't add overused ones, I make completely new ones.
I'll probably change all of the messages you receive when you join for after you've played for a bit, instead of just all at once.
Making the survival spawn bigger would be hard because players have already built there. I have recently hired two moderators that should be fairly active, though I'm the one who welcomes a lot of the players.
My voting rewards suck and I know it. I've thought about making a "reward crate" similar to Mineplex's spin tickets. ASAP I will be looking into getting my players to vote.
There's one goal I have with my server. It's to create a friendly environment for all skill levels, with the gamemodes that players love on other servers made better here. It's a hard process to make a server, so I thank you.
That's pretty much what I said, Speecialist. I mentioned advertisements, good staff, be unique, finance, and make sure it looks good.
Half of my server community are my Skype friends and friends of those friends :P. My server's still developing (going through domain issues though, dang it Freenom!), so I've still got a ways to go.