Post by AJAX on May 8, 2021 1:23:58 GMT
A Complete Server Growth Guide: Advertising, Bump Bots, and more!
Before you do anything- setting up bots, picking a server name- you have to ask youself why you are creating this server. Is it just for you and your friends to hangout? Or do you want to grow a community focused on gaming? This is vital because it will express the amount of commitment you have toward a certain topic. People who join will realize that, and this is where they choose whether they stay or leave.
For the purpose of demonstration, let’s say I’ve created an community server (with no prior experience or social media influence). I have to realize though, that there are thousands of other servers like my, and I need to stand out from them. The topic of your server is the most important thing you should focus on creating when you start.
Are you ready to start a server? There’s no need to rush. You can take a couple months to get the feel for your community- join other servers with similar interests, if it’s sucuessful, ask around for why.
How to Advertise Effectivity
This is how you will gain traffic and members. To advertise effectivity, you must first make sure you have a good ad. This will save you a lot of time in the long run! Here are some universal tips:
~ Don’t use lengthy lines of text! No one wants to read paragraphs.
~ Utilize symbols, emojis, and brackets in your ad. They will make it pop out, and therefore grab more traffic.
~ Include a medium sized gif/banner. Like the tip above, a gifs/banners catch people’s attention. Don’t make it to big that it refrains readers from your actual ad!
~ Include things that make your server special. This is an ad, and you want to show people how you stand out and why they should join.
~ Don’t beg for joins. This will only negatively affect you and your server’s reputation.
~ Invite link should lead users to a readable channel (for those with a verification system)
You have the perfect ad that fits your server, so what now? Well, it’s time to find places to advertise your server. Some sources I used include, reddit, listing sites, and bump bots. Although these are all very effective, the best way to grow your server by far is to consistently advertise in listing servers. There are plently of these around, and so it may be best to join as many as you can. Be respectful of the rules, and use the server as it was intended to be. Make sure to advertise as much as you can, to maximize traffic.
You can even try different invite links for each ad you post in the listing servers, to see which one is gaining you the most members. After you have this data, consider revamping your ad and focus on advertising there more.
Aside from purely posting your ad, you should also make use of other channels in the server. Most advertising servers will have a place for you to “Look for Staff”, “Look for Work”, and “Look for Partners”- this will help you build the base of your server with assistance from others.
Don’t fall into the rabbithole of DM Advertising and J4J! DM Advertising is against Discord TOS and almost all advertising server rules. Sending links without consent can get you banned and widely blacklisted. J4J will no doubt get you members if you invest enough time, however, these users will never be active. So, the members you actually get from natural advertising will see a server filled with dead members/inactivity, and will leave.
Not all of your server growth should rely on advertising. You can also grow from partnerships with other servers, where you trade ads. Alliances and Networks can also greatly benefit both (or more) servers involved.
Growing Your Community
The best way to grow your community is to be active within it. Strike up conversations with other users, you will actually find it easier to connect with people when your server is smaller. You can also hold events like movie/game nights, kahoot, secret santa and more. This will allow your members to interact in a way besides chatting.
Giveaways are also a very good thing to hold on a regular basis. This shows that you want to give your members something back in return for their support. You don’t need to own Nitro to host giveaways, usually, the prize is something related to your server. That’s why in my advertising server, the prize might be Premium Advertising.
This next tip is debatable, and it’s activity/invite rewards. In my experience, these are perfectly fine as long as it’s not something your server focuses on (ex. 5 Invites = Nitro) or violates Discord TOS. These rewards are the owner’s way of saying “Hey, I want people to talk.” or “Hey, I want people to invite members.”
Always remember that it’s better to have 100 quality members, than 1,000 “quanity” members. You don’t want to see members as numbers, instead, you have to see them as people with their feelings and therefore decisions. They choose whether they want to talk or not, so don’t try forcing them.
Additional Ways to Grow
1. DM Affiliates
The first way you can get members very consistently over a longer period of time is dm affiliates. This also works where you have invite links in the bot welcome message (whether as a dm or server message).
The idea behind this is that every member that joins your affiliated servers, will then recieve an dm from a bot, with something like:
Join these amazing servers!
Cool Server: Server Invite
If you affiliate with 5 servers, for example, and each one recieves 10 joins a day, that’s 50 extra direct impressions for your server. We can assume that the members joining are from the same niche, so that’s why you want to affiliate with servers that have similar topics/interests.
Tips
- Use embeds, having a lot of affiliate invites that are stacked and unorganized will turn off any potential members joining the server.
- Only affilite with servers in your niche unless they have a decently high member count.
- Check the server’s joins and leaves before requesting an affiliate.
- Not every server is open to dm affiliates, so don’t push them to do something they don’t want to.
- Make sure that the servers do not remove your affiliate/your invite is still valid (check at least once a week).
- Create your own invite and tell them to create one in your servers; to track invites so you can see how each affiliate is benefiting you.
- Use permanent invites!
2. Giveaway4Giveaway
An giveaway4giveaway is a nice option if you want some quick members. The thing about this is that you can do up to 5–6+ at a time, which really adds up the short term value. Again, it is recommended to do this in your server niche, since the prize you offer will interest the members in the other server. If I offered something in a game, and I did an giveaway4giveaway with an anime server, the amount of joins- or at least engagement from those joins, will be very low (applies more so to giveaways between 3+ servers).
If you see an server who does these regularly, and your server is in the same niche/member count, feel free to contact them. The catch is that people join your server so they qualify to win the prize offered in their server, so unless they have an reason to be “active members” in your server, they won’t do much except wait till the end of the giveaway and most likely leave.
Tips
- Make sure the winner(s) is in both servers.
- If you plan on doing multiple of these, don’t make the giveaways longer than a week.
- Check the engagement in chat (for something like an community server) to deterime if the server is “active”
- More winners = More joins
- If your server is on a site like top.gg, you can offer things like “Vote for us and get 2 entries!”- this will benefit your server in 2 ways.
3. Custom Channels
Custom channels are a decent way to grow in both small and big servers. It helps if you can negotiate for the channel to be pinned, and your ad should be in the channel. You can also trade pings (everyone, here) or “small pings” (Other, Giveaway, Sponsor pings).
That’s all there is to it, you create an channel and post the other server’s ad in it. They will do vice versa. Members will see that it is a new channel and therefore see what it contains. If your server interests them, they may join. The duration is also important, I would do it for a week to see how many members I gain- or impressions. If it’s something I’m willing to pursue long term, go for it.
Tips
- Use your own invite link to track joins (vice versa).
- Make the channel stand out with an emoji.
- Negotiate pings if possible (optional).
- Add reactions, this is a way to see engagement/impressions.
- Have an appealing and good advertisement!
Growth Resources
Listing Websites -
disboard.org/
top.gg/
discordservers.com/
discord.st/
disforge.com/
Bump Bots -
DSC - top.gg/bot/415773861486002186
Liam - top.gg/bot/389604896606781440
Bump Central - top.gg/bot/478290034773196810
DGP Bump - top.gg/bot/697475034146537594
Listing Servers -
A list of some advertising servers: docs.google.com/document/d/1vlCK7r2yGK4JblisUHOTu9P8Z8AEqiMp8rvJnBP6w6I/edit?usp=sharing
That’s all! Thank you for reading, and I hope this helps you grow!
- AJAX | Owner of Lighting Promotions | discord.gg/S6jAuKKy68
Before you do anything- setting up bots, picking a server name- you have to ask youself why you are creating this server. Is it just for you and your friends to hangout? Or do you want to grow a community focused on gaming? This is vital because it will express the amount of commitment you have toward a certain topic. People who join will realize that, and this is where they choose whether they stay or leave.
For the purpose of demonstration, let’s say I’ve created an community server (with no prior experience or social media influence). I have to realize though, that there are thousands of other servers like my, and I need to stand out from them. The topic of your server is the most important thing you should focus on creating when you start.
Are you ready to start a server? There’s no need to rush. You can take a couple months to get the feel for your community- join other servers with similar interests, if it’s sucuessful, ask around for why.
How to Advertise Effectivity
This is how you will gain traffic and members. To advertise effectivity, you must first make sure you have a good ad. This will save you a lot of time in the long run! Here are some universal tips:
~ Don’t use lengthy lines of text! No one wants to read paragraphs.
~ Utilize symbols, emojis, and brackets in your ad. They will make it pop out, and therefore grab more traffic.
~ Include a medium sized gif/banner. Like the tip above, a gifs/banners catch people’s attention. Don’t make it to big that it refrains readers from your actual ad!
~ Include things that make your server special. This is an ad, and you want to show people how you stand out and why they should join.
~ Don’t beg for joins. This will only negatively affect you and your server’s reputation.
~ Invite link should lead users to a readable channel (for those with a verification system)
You have the perfect ad that fits your server, so what now? Well, it’s time to find places to advertise your server. Some sources I used include, reddit, listing sites, and bump bots. Although these are all very effective, the best way to grow your server by far is to consistently advertise in listing servers. There are plently of these around, and so it may be best to join as many as you can. Be respectful of the rules, and use the server as it was intended to be. Make sure to advertise as much as you can, to maximize traffic.
You can even try different invite links for each ad you post in the listing servers, to see which one is gaining you the most members. After you have this data, consider revamping your ad and focus on advertising there more.
Aside from purely posting your ad, you should also make use of other channels in the server. Most advertising servers will have a place for you to “Look for Staff”, “Look for Work”, and “Look for Partners”- this will help you build the base of your server with assistance from others.
Don’t fall into the rabbithole of DM Advertising and J4J! DM Advertising is against Discord TOS and almost all advertising server rules. Sending links without consent can get you banned and widely blacklisted. J4J will no doubt get you members if you invest enough time, however, these users will never be active. So, the members you actually get from natural advertising will see a server filled with dead members/inactivity, and will leave.
Not all of your server growth should rely on advertising. You can also grow from partnerships with other servers, where you trade ads. Alliances and Networks can also greatly benefit both (or more) servers involved.
Growing Your Community
The best way to grow your community is to be active within it. Strike up conversations with other users, you will actually find it easier to connect with people when your server is smaller. You can also hold events like movie/game nights, kahoot, secret santa and more. This will allow your members to interact in a way besides chatting.
Giveaways are also a very good thing to hold on a regular basis. This shows that you want to give your members something back in return for their support. You don’t need to own Nitro to host giveaways, usually, the prize is something related to your server. That’s why in my advertising server, the prize might be Premium Advertising.
This next tip is debatable, and it’s activity/invite rewards. In my experience, these are perfectly fine as long as it’s not something your server focuses on (ex. 5 Invites = Nitro) or violates Discord TOS. These rewards are the owner’s way of saying “Hey, I want people to talk.” or “Hey, I want people to invite members.”
Always remember that it’s better to have 100 quality members, than 1,000 “quanity” members. You don’t want to see members as numbers, instead, you have to see them as people with their feelings and therefore decisions. They choose whether they want to talk or not, so don’t try forcing them.
Additional Ways to Grow
1. DM Affiliates
The first way you can get members very consistently over a longer period of time is dm affiliates. This also works where you have invite links in the bot welcome message (whether as a dm or server message).
The idea behind this is that every member that joins your affiliated servers, will then recieve an dm from a bot, with something like:
Join these amazing servers!
Cool Server: Server Invite
If you affiliate with 5 servers, for example, and each one recieves 10 joins a day, that’s 50 extra direct impressions for your server. We can assume that the members joining are from the same niche, so that’s why you want to affiliate with servers that have similar topics/interests.
Tips
- Use embeds, having a lot of affiliate invites that are stacked and unorganized will turn off any potential members joining the server.
- Only affilite with servers in your niche unless they have a decently high member count.
- Check the server’s joins and leaves before requesting an affiliate.
- Not every server is open to dm affiliates, so don’t push them to do something they don’t want to.
- Make sure that the servers do not remove your affiliate/your invite is still valid (check at least once a week).
- Create your own invite and tell them to create one in your servers; to track invites so you can see how each affiliate is benefiting you.
- Use permanent invites!
2. Giveaway4Giveaway
An giveaway4giveaway is a nice option if you want some quick members. The thing about this is that you can do up to 5–6+ at a time, which really adds up the short term value. Again, it is recommended to do this in your server niche, since the prize you offer will interest the members in the other server. If I offered something in a game, and I did an giveaway4giveaway with an anime server, the amount of joins- or at least engagement from those joins, will be very low (applies more so to giveaways between 3+ servers).
If you see an server who does these regularly, and your server is in the same niche/member count, feel free to contact them. The catch is that people join your server so they qualify to win the prize offered in their server, so unless they have an reason to be “active members” in your server, they won’t do much except wait till the end of the giveaway and most likely leave.
Tips
- Make sure the winner(s) is in both servers.
- If you plan on doing multiple of these, don’t make the giveaways longer than a week.
- Check the engagement in chat (for something like an community server) to deterime if the server is “active”
- More winners = More joins
- If your server is on a site like top.gg, you can offer things like “Vote for us and get 2 entries!”- this will benefit your server in 2 ways.
3. Custom Channels
Custom channels are a decent way to grow in both small and big servers. It helps if you can negotiate for the channel to be pinned, and your ad should be in the channel. You can also trade pings (everyone, here) or “small pings” (Other, Giveaway, Sponsor pings).
That’s all there is to it, you create an channel and post the other server’s ad in it. They will do vice versa. Members will see that it is a new channel and therefore see what it contains. If your server interests them, they may join. The duration is also important, I would do it for a week to see how many members I gain- or impressions. If it’s something I’m willing to pursue long term, go for it.
Tips
- Use your own invite link to track joins (vice versa).
- Make the channel stand out with an emoji.
- Negotiate pings if possible (optional).
- Add reactions, this is a way to see engagement/impressions.
- Have an appealing and good advertisement!
Growth Resources
Listing Websites -
disboard.org/
top.gg/
discordservers.com/
discord.st/
disforge.com/
Bump Bots -
DSC - top.gg/bot/415773861486002186
Liam - top.gg/bot/389604896606781440
Bump Central - top.gg/bot/478290034773196810
DGP Bump - top.gg/bot/697475034146537594
Listing Servers -
A list of some advertising servers: docs.google.com/document/d/1vlCK7r2yGK4JblisUHOTu9P8Z8AEqiMp8rvJnBP6w6I/edit?usp=sharing
That’s all! Thank you for reading, and I hope this helps you grow!
- AJAX | Owner of Lighting Promotions | discord.gg/S6jAuKKy68