How to Advertise a Minecraft Server
Minecraft server owners have one significant challenge: creating a loyal player base. Creating a player base can be tiring and tedious, and those without the never-quit attitude eventually give up. If you belong to this category, this Minecraft Advertising Guide shows you how to effortlessly attract hordes of new players to your server and build an ever-expanding and prospering community full of activity and life at an excellent rate.
For the beginner, here’s how you can advertise your Minecraft server to get lots of enthusiasts ready to jump on right away and game with you.
Invite friends
The first – and the most obvious – way to spread the news about your Minecraft server is by inviting your friends. This is an excellent way to launch your server since new players are likelier to stay when they see other active gamers after joining.
If your friends know each other in the real world, they will connect easily on your server, engaging, talkative, and relaxed.
You should also consider promoting your trusted friends to moderators so they can help enforce rules and manage your Minecraft server whenever you’re offline. Running a Minecraft server can be a lot of work, and you will need all the help you can get.
You can also ask your friends to invite their own friends because there’s hardly any other form of advertising more effective than word-of-mouth. It is an excellent way to grow your Minecraft community very quickly, as your friends will have first-hand accounts of everything happening on the server.
Promote your Minecraft server on dedicated forums
You can find new Minecraft pals by searching for and registering on dedicated Minecraft forums. But before posting about your Minecraft server, ensure you read the rules of these dedicated Minecraft forums. If promoting a self-created Minecraft server breaks the rules of a forum, refrain from promoting your Minecraft server on that group.
Find out what it takes to promote your Minecraft server in the forums. Some forums require you to pay for ad spaces, in which your Minecraft banner is displayed for a specific period at the top or bottom of the forum’s home page. Others may require you to prove your worth by answering or responding to Minecraft-related questions.
Get active on these forums for at least two to three hours daily, helping new players know more about the world of Minecraft servers, etc. Then, as your reputation grows, people will like you and be more than willing to check out your Minecraft server.
Let’s say you and your Minecraft community complete an incredibly challenging build, take some screenshots of your creation and share them on the forums with descriptions. Pay close attention to aesthetically pleasing rooms, intricate Redstone work, and other unique details.
You need to mention the following whenever you’re permitted to promote your Minecraft server in those dedicated forums:
- The average number of diehard players online
- Difficulty and mode of the game
- Minecraft community rules
- The theme of your Minecraft server, if any
- The discord server link is an excellent place to share additional information about your Minecraft server.
These details will go a long way in putting your Minecraft server and all it entails into the world, and you will start attracting more and more gamers.
Use Minecraft server listing sites
Minecraft server listing sites allow users to list their servers to be seen by others, especially players. The majority of server list platforms also have voting systems that can be connected to the NuVotifier/Votifier plugin on your own Minecraft server. This hook-up ensures players get rewards for voting, an online activity that occurs from time to time.
You can take advantage of the ‘bump’ feature on Minecraft server listing sites. This feature bumps your Minecraft server to the very top of the most recently updated servers list.
However, avoid using large Minecraft server lists where your own server will appear at the #15,455 spot. Instead, search for and use a new but respectable Minecraft server listing website. You will get tons of free traffic without competing against the mammoth, well-established server networks.
Create several YouTube videos showcasing your Minecraft server
Another efficient way to advertise your Minecraft server is by starting a dedicated YouTube channel and uploading several Minecraft pranks, compilations, how-to videos, etc. You will need to teach yourself how to edit videos or pay an editor who understands precisely how to appeal to the fantasies of Minecraft players.
Watch the videos of other Minecraft enthusiasts to get inspiration on how to create yours. You can ask some players on your server to share the videos on their own YouTube channels or social media platforms. The goal is to create similar content that gamers seek without plagiarizing others.
You may also collaborate with other Minecraft-dedicated YouTube channel owners to create highly entertaining content. Your videos will garner more views and subscribers, which you can channel to your Minecraft server via the links plopped in the description boxes.
You should not be unwilling to pay for YouTube sponsorships. Videos on YouTube are practically forever and will keep garnering players over the years and driving them to your Minecraft community.
However, you need to be strategic. You should only partner with a YouTuber with at least 20-50k subscribers. It is also essential to inform the YouTuber to place your sponsorship Minecraft ad in videos about something other than recent issues like rumors, news, speculations, etc., and rumors go stale. When no one watches the videos, you will eventually lose out.
The best places to plug in your sponsorship Minecraft video include how-tos, top 10s, Minecraft theory, etc. You should also request that they play on your Minecraft server, as this will create a lot of hype about your stuff.
But ensure you have an excellent Minecraft server hosting plan capable of handling the avalanche of gamers that will throng your server.
Run Facebook ads
You can also run Facebook ads on the largest social media platform worldwide. Facebook will show the ads to interested gamers and those potentially interested in joining a Minecraft server.
You can even be ultra-specific about several aspects of the target audience your ads will reach. For instance, you can specify that your Minecraft server ads be visible only to adults at least 18 years old.
Running ads on Facebook is less expensive than doing the same on Google (discussed next). But the effect can also be wide-reaching since you can do a lot to improve your targeting using the Facebook Ads Manager platforms.
Don’t forget Google ads
The search engine giant, Google, displays ads with relevant google searches to a tailored, large audience. However, running Google ads can be relatively expensive but highly effective.
If money is not a problem, you can use Google ads to reach a broad and dedicated audience of interested gamers. It is one of the quickest and most efficient ways of growing your Minecraft server.
Referrals
Referral systems are nearly always the central platforms dealing with money. It works like this: you refer a friend to a particular application. Then, you receive rewards if the friend downloads and installs the app via your referral link. Despite being an old trick, it is possible to hit a home run each time you play with it.
Inform every player on your Minecraft server about your unique referral system. You will need to incentivize them so that they can bring their own friends and win special rewards. Before long, a non-ending chain of free advertising is created for you as one friend refers another, and the last refers another individual, which goes on and on.
You will end up with many players thronging your Minecraft server. But ensure the rewards or incentives you offer players that refer others can only be used on your own server. This prevents you from spending any money, and since you are the server moderator, it should be easy to pull off.
Grab attention using an animated server banner
One of the most efficient – but overlooked – ways of attracting more players on Minecraft server list platforms is an attention-grabbing animated server banner. Several server lists allow users to use animated GIF banners.
Therefore, look for a top-quality animated banner or have several created for you by a professional. Then, you can use them interchangeably to create variety.
How to retain players on your Minecraft server
After putting in a lot of effort to advertise your Minecraft server and attract hordes of like-minded gamers, it will be a waste of your precious time if you do nothing about retaining those players. The best Minecraft community servers are always bubbling with activity and full of life. These are elements that keep players coming back for more fun.
Moreover, retaining players ensure the faster completion of projects and fostering of friendships. This is why you should consider implementing the following to retain your gamers for the long haul:
Kits
One of the first things newbie gamers ask about whenever they join a new Minecraft server is kits. Although you are not obligated to provide diamond armor, there’s nothing wrong with showcasing a starter kit with a complete set of stone tools and at least two to three cooked chickens. These can save a new player a relatively decent time at the beginning of their game.
Does your Minecraft server have a theme relating to a specific object? When you have multiple kits for different levels or tiers of players, curious gamers would want to put in the work to unlock new ones. Then, you should add the theme to the kit.
Theme
When your Minecraft server showcases a unique theme, it could appeal to a particular niche of gamers. Therefore, consider ‘theme-ing’ up your Minecraft server, especially one that functions in a government sense or a renaissance-themed server.
But inform every new player of your overall intention as soon as they join your server. This is to prevent them from making wrong assumptions.
Game types
Some Minecraft gamers focus on creative worlds, while others only start games if that game is on Hardcore Mods. But most players have fun playing Survival mode with their buddies.
Rules and regulations
It is crucial to have crystal-clear server rules and regulations. You will discover that many gamers enjoy Minecraft servers maintained with appropriate boundaries. If such individuals have issues with other gamers, they can easily message a moderator for assistance.
Ensure your server rules include zero tolerance for griefing other gamers’ property, respecting other people, etc.
As you can see, getting players to your Minecraft server is not rocket science as long as you know what you’re doing. First, you need to retain them using the suggestions outlined in the previous section. Of course, this will only be possible if you set up your server with no glitches but myriads of excellent and unique features that keep attracting players repeatedly.
