7 Ways to Advertise Your Minecraft Server
The best Minecraft servers are those that are full of life and activity. Unless you have 50 friends ready to jump on and game with you, it can be challenging to find people to join your server, especially if it is brand new.
The most important aspect of finding people to join your server is to ensure that you have high-quality hosting. You need to make sure that people will be able to experience a good time on the game without having to worry about latency issues or continuous crashes. Check out our top picks for Minecraft Server Hosting to get started on the right foot.
How to Advertise a Minecraft Server
After you have set up a good Minecraft server, you will need to promote it to fill it with players. Here are our 7 tips on how you can build it:
1. Invite Your Friends
Inviting your friends to your Minecraft server will help it progress easily from the start. When new people join, they are more likely to stay if they see that other people are active on the server. If your friends know each other in real life, they are likely to be relaxed and talkative, which can really bring a new person into the community.
Promote your trusted friends to moderators so that they can manage the server and enforce rules when you are online. Running a server can take a lot of work if you are trying to do it alone.
You can also ask your friends to invite their friends. Inviting people through word of mouth is a great way to grow quickly, especially since your friends will have a first-hand account of what is happening on the server.
2. Stream Minecraft on Twitch or Mixer
Both Twitch and Mixer are great avenues to meeting and connecting with other gamers. Entertaining streamers who can engage with their community can grow their channels while also growing their server. Many Minecraft viewers actively look for streamers who are playing on multi-player servers they can join.
The best way to add them to the server while you are streaming is to give your moderators whitelisting permissions. Make sure that your Minecraft rules are clearly listed when people log on to the server. You can also post them on your stream channel’s profile and your community’s Discord server.
In our opinion, streaming is one of the best ways to promote your Minecraft server, and with subscriptions and donations, you may earn enough to upgrade your server further.
3. Promote on Minecraft Forums
Find new Minecraft friends by posting on Minecraft forums. Make sure that you read the rules and don’t promote if it breaks the rules. Be active on the forums and help new players where you can. As your reputation in that forum grows, people will be more likely to check out your server.
If you or your community complete an especially difficult build, take screenshots of your creation and post it with a description. Pay special attention to any special details, such as intricate Redstone work or aesthetically pleasing rooms.
When promoting your server, make sure to mention the following features:
- The average number of players online.
- Community rules.
- The theme (if any) of your server.
- Mode and difficulty of the game.
- Discord server link (where you can showcase additional information).
4. Make Youtube Videos Showcasing Your Server
Start a YouTube channel and upload Minecraft compilations, pranks, or how-to videos. Find an editor who understands how to appeal to other Minecraft players. Ask others on the server to share the videos to find a larger audience. Watch other Minecraft videos to find out the type of content that gamers seek out. Find your own way to create similar content.
If other people on your server are interested in creating their own YouTube channels, collaborate with them to make entertaining content. As people connect with you, they will naturally want to play with you and will join your community server.
5. Google Ads
Google ads are displayed with relevant google searches to a large, tailored audience. The catch is that they can be fairly expensive. If money isn’t an object and you want to reach a wide audience of interested gamers, using google ads is a quick and effective way to grow your Minecraft server.
6. Facebook Ads
Like Google ads, Facebook ads are displayed on the Facebook profiles of people who would potentially be interested in joining your server. You can be specific about certain aspects of the audience the ad will reach. For instance, if you want to make sure that everyone on your server is an adult, you can specify that the ad should only be shown to people who are above the age of 18.
Facebook ads still cost money, but are typically less expensive than Google ads.
You can also purchase ads with Reddit and target specific subreddits. As people are generally in Minecraft subreddits to connect with other gamers, it is very likely that you will get a few people who find you through your ads.
How to Keep Players on Your Minecraft Server
After taking the effort to attract people to your Minecraft server, you will want sure to keep them coming back. The best community servers are always full of life. Projects are completed faster and friendships are made over the slaying of the wither. Here are a few ways you can entice people to stay:
- Kits - kits are one of the first things many new players ask about when joining a new Minecraft server. While you don’t need to provide diamond armor, having a starter kit with a set of stone tools and 2-3 cooked chickens can save a new player a decent amount of time at the beginning of their game. If your server has a theme that relates to an object, consider adding that to the kit as well. Having multiple kits for different tiers of players will make people want to work to unlock new ones.
- Theme - having a unique theme can appeal to a specific niche of people. Creating a Renaissance-themed server or one that operates in a governmental sense, you can do that. Make sure that it is clear to the people joining the server about your overall intent.
- Mods/Plugins - Modded Minecraft has a fanbase all on its own. There are many mods you can choose from and including the mod in your advertising will help it to stand out. Plug-ins can perform many useful features, such as only one person having to sleep at night or allowing people to claim an allotted amount of land. The possibilities are nearly endless.
- Rules - have clear server rules. Most people enjoy servers that are maintained with proper boundaries. They know that if they have an issue with other players, they can go to a moderator for help. Rules might include no griefing other people’s property and being respectful of other people.
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Game Types - Minecraft players come in all different varieties. Some prefer to live in creative worlds, while others won’t start a game unless it is on Hardcore Mods. However, the majority of gamers enjoy playing Survival mode with their friends. It allows you to go on an adventure with your friends without having to worry about anyone dying permanently.
Ask yourself what you would want from a server and take the time to create those aspects for your community. Look at other successful servers to see what they helped them succeed. Get feedback from your moderators periodically to find out what things you can do to improve it so that you can continually attract new players over time.
