Tutorials: How To Make Your Server Popular in 10 steps?

How To Make Your Server Popular in 10 steps?

1) Add Ur server to the Game Monitoring sites. If you want that your server will be packed 24/7, first what you have to do, is add your server to CS monitoring websites. I recommend 3 most popular one. This sites is gonna allow you always to replenish your server with new players.
2) Give it fast download. I can't stand waiting to get in. If it takes me more than a minute (unless it's a server i know is good), I'm not gonna bother. This one feature, can attract you a lot of people. (read tutorial how to make fast download)

3) Give it good tags. Tags are all that people will see when they look through the server list. A server with poorly marked, or unmarked tags, is sure to get less attention, then one that has everything said in the tag.
Examples of tags : [Clan] , [FastDL] , [47/48], [Steam/Non-Steam], [1000 FPS] , [24/7] , etc. Mention whatever you can about your server.

4) Use the most popular configurations/settings. Give it good maps. Install to your server some good plugins, mods which can make it better, but remember that too much plugins can make server laggy. Don't just loop the same 3 maps. And unless your going for a 24/7 map server (which you should definitely tag). Try and create a variety of maps, so that no one will get bored. One thing that I can't stress enough, unless your making your server a 24/7 server, don't keep playing the same maps!!! Play different maps, don't just loop. A loop is repetitive, and that's no fun.
But, some maps do attract a lot more people than others. For example, with a classic server, you're more likely to attract people with an tournament maps like dust2, inferno, train, nuke, aztec, cbble, tuscan, de_clan1_mill, italy etc. If you server has 32 slots, don't forget to download improved 32 spawn spot maps.

5) Get some good admins. There's nothing worse than an abusive admin, or an "admin whore". Having poor admins who spam the chat with admin text, or are abusive towards other players, is a sure fire way of keeping your server empty. Right now all server owners sell admin power to cover the costs for server hosting. I recommend to share all admins to senior admins and group of donating admins. The senior admins should be really good in CS, who can discern the pro players from hackers.

6) Get some regulars. Now, this may sound silly to say, since this is what you're trying to do, but you've still got to do it. What you need to do, is try and get a group of fun, nice, amiable gamers, who others feel comfortable or at ease around, and want to play with. Try and make them regulars on your server, and they're sure to attract others to it. Server with a lot of pro players always more popular, than server full of nubs, so try to keep all good players on U server.

7) Make it a clan server. Making it a clan server will get a lot of people dropping by to tryout or to check you out. It will also assure that you'll have clannies dropping by everyday. Now, making it a clan server generally means that you should have a site with forums and such, but more on that later.

8) Try and attract a more "mature" age group. There's nothing more annoying than an 8 year old on a microphone, spamming the server, or a jerk who keeps teamkilling.

9) Make a website. A website is a handy place to store files and the likes for your server, but it's also great for keeping people informed and in touch with one another, when their not on your server. Be sure to have a forum if you want people to keep checking your site. And don't forget to try and post announcements about your server on the front page. Be sure to advertise your site on your servers adverts!

10) Make your server known. Don't just put up your server and sit back and wait for the flow of players. You've got to try and make your server known to the world. Advertising is a good way to do it. And don't just spam your servers name and IP. That only annoys people. Try and get some attention once in a while, but keep it moderate.