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Im doing this because i think this can be very helpfull or usefull for some players. All credits go to Rjcooper (R0cky 0wnz creator of crs,wolfpk) I was recently asked for advice towards marketing and while ago someone pointed that I was doing a good job at it, before that, I never thought about it. This is my own experience, basing on 8 yrs on rsps; running successful projects like CreativeScape, Vexillum and WolfPk (short project). All of these projects have been part of Top10 servers at some point. Crs have had 500 online and has played huge rsps role for three-four years. Vexillum had 200 online. Wolfs made 100 in just first month, while everyone told classic servers wont last in nowadays. Point 1. I was recently asked for help with marketing advice. My answer was - If Your server isn't good or doesn't have good ideas... You don't need marketing. My biggest failed project has been in 2009. At time it was one of first and biggest projects of remaking old rs... In 2009 rs released HD and full-screen, I didn't like that rs anymore, so I was working on 420s look-a-like server people like me would love to play. It soon grew into popularity and was one of five most popular projects on rune-server (at time battlescape were most famous). I spent 12 months building it - it had lot of rare extras like cannons, cw, dueling etc. it even had 12 rs-a-like quests. people were pretty hype about it. link -https://www.rune-server.org/runescap...tivescape.html (100 pages lol) Everyone was talking and You would assume his would become huge thing... (Once I posted release topic, there was least 50 visitors watching our page on R-S). but how did it turn out? everyone was curious and logged to game. Four months later, after struggling to reach above 50 online record, I decided to close. Server was too hard and boring. Areas were too wide for such player base (imagine 50 players using whole world map). My 12 months of consistent work was down the drain. So was my time and nothing was worth it... well. besides experience that thought me. haha. Message: People think if they had tons of players or attention, their server would become successful. But they're wrong. Even if You reach that attention - If Your server's shit - nobody stays. Point 2. RSPS is for fun. People will rather choose RS than a hard RSPS. You can take my 2008 server, who was buggy as hell and I barely knew how to code - it reached 200 online in just second month, as it was kinda unique. And You can take my 2009 server, I spent 12 months working on and everyone was talking about - yet it never reached above 50... Now You must have seen these shitty servers who have had hundreds online... no offense to these servers ofc, but lets take Near-Reality (its creator Chachi was close friend to me). It was so buggy and simple, Yet they were dominating all toplists, having 800 online in really short period of time... or does anyone know GodzHell? it had about same 800 in like 2007. or FrugooScape? same success story, least 2k in several worlds. (If Im right!) (The reason how NearReality boomed was due to clan Chachi was part of, Damage Incorporated. He made a post on his clan forums and that's how it boomed). Now to compare, You can take any too advanced server, that had million of features and that was copying anything, that Jagex makes... they have never reached above these incredible counts. People who plays rsps, plays it because either it's more fun, it's easier than RS; or they can get features or stuff, they couldn't get on RS... (e.g. membership limitations) Why Would You Play a hard rsps server, if You could play RS itself ? Point 3. You don't need professional features. You need to have cool ideas... I have failed so much just to realize that people don't want these tough, perfect games... people want something unique, they have never played and they don't really love wasting much time. People love simplicity. Simplicity is genius. Figure this out. Point 4. The game. The best way to create a cool game is to get on other servers, walk around, play a bit - and figure what was Your type of game... What would You want to have changed, if You had chance. There is no point creating a server, You wouldn't want to play, meaning, neither would anyone else. Make a qualitative work. Don't "half ass". People will notice where there was qualitative work and where there was no motivation working... Hard work pays off. Check out the most popular servers on toplists and try to figure why are they so popular. Look for values they have. What people love about it? (let says, there's a server with home at Varrock and it's so crowded... so maybe, successful servers needs crowded homes?) Point 5. No Players. Granted failure In 2010 I came back to work on server called WilderLand. It was an idea to create server purely inside wilderness. You would fish, cut wood, fight npcs... etc. I spent like 2 weeks working on it for all setup. I had a project thread, but there wasn't many followers (aside ppl who wished gl). so what happened... we released... and there was just one player online. That was me. lmfao I learned that success is earned with hard work. There is no way as quick success. I also learned that there is huge power to trust. I decided to go along my previous server name "CreativeScape" and use same owner name... it draw lot more attention, as ppl trusted this project. Why I'm saying that is because due to so many random servers, people will perceive every new, unknown server as trash. They won't even open the thread. Start by making a Project thread on Rune-server... Try to tell what your project message is, what are you trying to build... and why people should choose yours server. If your idea is good enough, people will start following. Without players and community, You can't succeed. Simply... people will play game that was popular - the more players played it, logically, it has to be good, right? without making a project thread or advertising for your project, you won't get far... Point 6. 95% of new servers die. Only 5% survives and succeeds... So that's easy. Go all-in or You die As a rule of thumb, You need X amount of people for your release... Before I released my WolfPks, I knew, I need least 20-30 players on the release, otherwise I'm doomed. I believe other wise owners thinks the same. Why was it important? because imagine having 4 players on your server... it's gonna look like shit lol. New players would register and log in, first thing they see is 4 players online, no thanks. Simple as that. Best advice I can give is organize your release date... and don't be too impatient. The longer will release take - the better and more hype You would create... (unless ur servers shit, then it doesnt matter hehe ) All good servers have websites and forums. Count-down counters are good thing. They would notice how much time there is left - and collect all people to join the waiting... the more people there was, the more hyped. Even if server wasn't that great, people love to be part of crowd. Think of a NBA teams... there are bad teams with 10-47 records, average teams with 40-37 records and good teams with 50-32 records... Unless You are 100% sure that your server is Good and have potential - don't release... You're wasting Your time man. You don't need an NBA team with 40-37 record, neither with 50-32 record... WHY. You want to be that 5:95% who succeeds... Be the NBA team that had 73-9 record. You must be that good. If You're not. you got work to do... Point 7. Post-release period If You have made least 20-30 members on your release period, be glad, you have some potential here... If You did not, e.g. it's bellow 10, it's a sign it won't survive long. You now need to work really hard to keep increasing your player base. You need to be working on new updates, releasing new content daily. Be interacting with people, so they feel welcome to stay. One, You can't lose this potential of 20 online, if it's start to drop on average, your server won't simply last... Before You release your server, You must have a plan on how to build players. If there was certain amount for release, it doesn't mean they will all keep playing. You have to keep looking for new players. For new servers - bumping topics is crucial. Have you checked how many views can advertisement topic get? a lot. (In my server case, we could get least 100 views per day, that's more than top10 place on toplist would make!) Make a goal to reach above 50 online... if you will do that, your server will do just good. This happens because of players, people don't feel safe playing servers that have low players online. 50 online is somewhat between unpopular and popular lol. Voting is most important. Successful servers look at beginning of month (toplist resets) as their chance to get better positions - get more players. If you missed the day-1 of the month, You have missed whole month basically... Every successful server have a good scheme for voting and how to get their people voting. In old days there was no automated voting scripts, which would provide voters with rewards; you do make community voting campaigns. And advertise everyone to vote. If You have voting system, however, you could do same campaigns. On CreativeScape we had these global announcements every time someone claimed vote reward. And it would count up, so you do get more motivated to keep voting. We would do a campaign, where we made drop party as a certain of votes were hit. This is how You could get the maximal potential of votes. Point 8. Marketing. So as You can see, marketing comes as very last step... If You have made a server You are sure of. - Whenever You start your project, after posting a detailed post on project section; You should try to popularize your youtube channel... You are gonna need to earn followers. With work. With the 2009 Crs project I used to make updates and each good update was then posted on "Show-off" linked to the youtube. This is how you can gain new folloers, as people get closer view to your server... the more followers you get on youtube, the more people you can play with. I believe I reached up to 400 something subs. - I dont believe into twitter advertising anymore... I think barely anyone uses it. I have spent lot of cash trying to advertise there, but you wouldnt get any results. - If You are small server, toplists wont help. Who would watch page two or page three? everyone clicks top servers. (Unless you have got $ to invest for banners. Obviously if you can afford it...) - Best way to advertise for small servers (and it doesnt cost anything) is to post everywhere... there are lots of rsps or rs type of forums, dig them up. Back in day I was hungry to succeed I did search for all rs clan forums and then rs communities and such. You need as many people as possible. Why. Because that one person could have second person friend, who could have another friend. That's how it goes... - Once You got a big server and money to invest, toplist banners are good (although I would recommend checking out about their traffic ratios. Not all toplists are worthy... you will waste ur money for few players you do gain, trust me!). Or the best ones would be Youtubers you pay to get advertisement (it's gonna be tricky doe...). I have heard runique and rspspk paid wildyowns to advertise and very soon after reached incredible success. But don't get hype about that one, as wildy is a freaking loser. We tried to do a deal with him and he just stole 1.5k euros. He has done same for other 10 at least, as I have seen... the reason he gets so many dislikes on videos. - Try to advertise with banners on other sites. Do a trace whether the traffic is good. I can tell Sythe is shit. I paid 2k for top banner and got 10 clicks per day maybe? Ragezone is a good one and only costs 300$. There aren't many good places to advertise though, most of time you overpay to gain very little players. (Rule: just because you do get many clicks, doesnt even mean you do get actual players...) - Google ads are waste of money... unless you are top wealthy server. Amount for clicks is too high and clicks doesn't equal potential players. - The bigger the server and more people they have, the more people they have in power to email and advertise again... The older the server, the more potential returners we have. Obviously it's all earned. Big servers have massive amount of total player base. - Google search (or SEO) have become a thing... owners have figured that you could get more people from google (who search up rsps) than from toplists itself. Some spend thousands to improve their seo ranking, so they do get better rank at rsps searches. Google or search on r-s how to improve your seo. - releasing campaigns such as "join us for 100$" wont really work either. People are skeptical. Nobody will stick to your game, unless they like it. - Try to spread signatures for your project thread. Try to get more people use them. The more popular the person, the more attention you do get from his sig. Or You can have a siggy and post everywhere lawl. - What NOT to do: don't log into other servers to advertise yourself... nobody will join. and everyone will hate you. That's really cheap mate. A good server will advertise itself. There is such a thing as mouth-to-mouth advertising... meaning, a good server will spread fast. If You don't have that good server, obviously it won't spread and you will only compete with other servers. Hope I gave you food for thought! obviously there are many tricks and tools for marketing. People get hype when there are many "intriguing" pictures or sneak peaks posted... or videos... the more intrigue you make, the more attention You do get. Your job is to sell that your server is gonna be best. Although today it all has changed. Every second server claim to be best or a game-changer, people aren't stupid, they won't buy. So that's where comes your job to figure how to convince them. Do something others aren't doing. Sorry for a long post, hope it doesn't look too messy. It took me some time to post. Regards.