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     Many server owners do not have the capabilities to run a sophisticated minecraft server. Today I will be teaching you how to do it, and how you can go from 5 players to 40 players in one month. During this guide, I will let you in on multiple secrets that many owners do not know about. I have gathered this information over 6 years of making plugins and hosting servers. This is based on what works for me, this may not work for everyone!

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      Before you start going crazy, asking your mom for her credit card, or whipping out your paypal information, you forgot one thing, the server. How are you going to have a server, without plugins and buildings? If you are a good builder, this should not be too big of an issue. If you are amazing with plugins, this should not be a big issue. Most first time server owners will download a spawn off of a website, such as PlanetMinecraft. Although this is fine, this will not be a long term solution, just letting you know. Well now, you have Spigot installed, you started your server on your desktop, now what? Well, I hate to say it, but you can't run a successful server without at least some sort of plugin. Why you might ask? Well, your server will not be as fun, you will be trampled by griefers, spammers, and cheaters day by day. So why not head over to dev.bukkit.org or spigotmc.org and go ahead and get yourself some plugins?


      Okay, you got the basics now. Essentials, WorldEdit, WorldGuard, ProtocolLib, PermissionsEx, and maybe a couple fun plugins like Lottery or Auctions. Now what you want to do is configure these plugins. Not only will this make your server look better, but add more uniqueness to your server. Configuring plugins are probably one of the most important things in a minecraft server, alongside the buildings. How could Hypixel be Hypixel if it ran on out-of-the-box plugins? Thats right, it couldn't. I'm not saying that configuring your plugins will be easy, just put on some music, grab yourself a hot pocket, and get to work!


     So now that you've got your plugins configured, how is your server going to be safe if you don't have a staff team? Personally, I think the PlanetMinecraft forums are a bad place to get staff members from, why? There are lots of desperate people here. Instead, look for staff members who have lots of experience dealing with different types of people. Look for well rounded staff members, who know how to get out of every sticky situation that a server can get into. Do not just accept every single application in desperation, this will lead to a staff member going rogue on you, trust me, you don't want to go there. It completely ruins the integrity of your server. Also, one thing I hate is when I join a server and I'm the only player on the server. If you have 5 staff members but only 10 players on total, you're doing something wrong. The ratio should be 5-10 players to 1 staff member for most servers.

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     Okay, so now you got your server with buildings, a decent staff team, and configured plugins. Now, your first instinct will be to spam your server IP on another server, or whatnot. What you really should do is to go on server voting sites like PMC, MCSL, and MS and post your server IP. During your first week, you should be awarding high amounts of ingame currency or items to players who vote for your server. Every single vote raises your rank and draws more potential users into your server. You might also want to spend time creating a detailed post about what your server has to offer and post it on a website like MinecraftForums. If you have the available processor power, disk space, and RAM, you might want to invest in getting some cool plugins, like ParticleText or BlockParticles. These plugins add a cool and customized effect to your server which draws more players to your server.

     So you're halfway through your first week, you probably consistantly have 5 players online at this point. So you're probably thinking about donations by now, do I go and beg users for donations? Well, a great way to start getting some donations is to start a community website using Enjin. Enjin is a great choice for a new server and really gets your community going. You can install the EMP Plugin to hook your Minecraft Server and Enjin together.

     Okay, now you got a semi-decent website setup. You can give your users ingame currency or items for registering on your website and starting a discussion. This will get some involvement in your community from your users. You can also start a Staff Application area where users will be able to test their skills and see if they are worthy to be a staff member on your server. You should start getting some activity on your server. A great way to celebrate weekly is to host a PvP event or a Drop Party of some sort. This will increase involvement in your server by a lot.

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    So you're on your second week, and your server is going pretty well. You have about 15 players on your server by now. What shall I focus on this week, you wonder. The main thing you should be working on the second week will be the gameplay. Adding more interesting things and starting to create the donator perks. Give people special recognition and perks for donating to your server. Emphasize to your community why they should donate to your server. People won't give you money for no reason, thats not how this world works. You put in the work and effort, you get out the desired response, you can't just sit on your couch and eat doritos and expect to make millions. You should probably be adding cool effects to the gameplay this week along with the Enjin Donations. I would add a minigame or two to the server, like a spleef arena or a Mob arena where users can fight monsters for rewards. Not much will happen in the second week, it's going to be a boring ride, but your playercount should be growing steadily throughout this week. You should max out at around 20 players by the end of this week.

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     So, the week where things pick up really fast. You should be getting a couple donations this week. You want to be hiring more staff members. Host 3 to 5 drop parties this week right after you bump your post on PMC or MCF. This will be crucial to keeping new players. Add a sale on the donations to encourage people donating to your server. You should consistantly have 25 to 30 players online by now. By now you want to start to tighten up on rulebreakers. You should have been pretty chill on rules for the first two weeks, but start enforcing a bit more heavily now. You should focus mainly on customizations to your server this week. Add a cool particle effect, add spinning signs, add a new chest locking system, get a gangs plugin. This should be your major expansion week. You should focus on getting your server an icon and a banner, this will make your server more presentable toward audiences browsing minecraft server lists. It will make them more likely to click your server if you have a really poppy banner. If you are lucky, you could possibly have 50 players by the end of this week, but if you're still struggling, don't worry, your time will come soon. Keep focused on one thing, your server, add a refferal system to your server, so if a player invites their friends, they get currency or items on the server. Continue to encourage forum activity on your server and frequently post new events occuring on your server on the forums.

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     It's that week again, the end of the month, and your server is doing well. You have met your donation goal and have a modest sum of players on your server. You have done a good job of weeding out the bad eggs on your server before they cause trouble. You might want to invest in a server spawn area that is made for your server, and your server only. If you are a good builder yourself, make a spawn with lots of detail, and lots of areas to include upcoming features, such as crates, minigames, or a new server. During this week, you will not do as much, you can sit back and relax this week. If you are truly dedicated, you could continue to add improvements to the server, but it is not 100% necessary.

     If you are consistantly hitting 50 players, it's time to have at least 5 staff members, remember the 5-10:1 rule? You also might want to invest in achievements on the server. Try implementing a rank ladder where users can purchase new ranks with ingame currency which can be earned by trading with other players, or selling items to the server shop. A rank ladder system will add a sense of achievement to your server, and you could add new permissions for each rank, such as a new kit, or a fun ability like trails.