I have a server but I have no friends what should I do with my aternos server

The Aternos forums are now deprecated

Learn more about this change here.

For help regarding Aternos, we recommend you to visit our support center.

    Btw I am kinda not joking literally I have a ton of servers but no friends literal help.

    This response consists of two parts: advertising server to get more players, and how your server set-up contributes to player count.


    Part 1: advertising


    Advertising is an effective way to gain players quickly. Look up how to advertise your minecraft server. If one idea you find makes you think "I don't like this", than look for an idea that makes you think "I like this one". Some ideas I personally came up with is advertising your server on the aternos forums, on discord server, make a youtube video on your channel that advertises your server. Some other ideas I came up with was looking up server advertisements on google and seeing what others are doing. For example, I would search up on google, "Join my SMP server", and I would see posts from people trying to get more players on their server. See what they're doing and that can also give you some ideas for advertising your server.


    Part 2: criteria for setting your server up in a way that gains more players.


    Some people won't want to join an aternos server due to the lag it sometimes has. Try to not have too many plugins and make sure to run your server software and paper, and make sure to have some lag clearing plugins. Further, is your server something someone has already done previously? Scenario:, lets suppose your server is a minigame server... why would people want to join an aternos server that lags when hypixel already figured it out and hypixel already exists?


    That being said...


    Try to have a server that is different from others, or maybe not completely different, but rather a twist, something based off of another server but yet still a lot different in good unique ways. All in all, your server should have some unique experience. Further, try to have a server that...


    1) Is able to offer some form of instant gratification that gets people hooked onto the server so people don't just join once and than never come back.

    2) Some way to progress in the server

    3) Some thing that makes people want to come back for more (not something too grindy tho since a grindy playstyle can make people bored after a month and quit. I mean something fun that makes people come back
    4) Something that gives a sense of community

    5) If your current set up starts getting boring, you're going to need to spice things up. The only only reason hypixel skyblock still has players are because of the updates. If they never updated it, they'd lose all their players.

    6) Make sure your server is ready-to-go before you release it to people. First impressions are important! (My SMP server was super buggy when I first released it. People never came back even after I fixed all the bugs. If I had waited and released it later it would be better).

    7) Most importantly, your server needs to be something people who play your server want! Remember, the server isn't just for you, but also the people who play on it. Their collective-opinion will outweigh your own opinion if you want more players.


    I am also struggling with this issue too. I set up a SMP server that died a week after because normal survival simply wasn't fun enough. Plus, who wants to play survival on a laggy aternos server? I am currently trying to find ideas to change things up. One of my ideas was to make it a "purge"-smp. Everyone has one week to prepare for the purge and once the purge comes, it's anarchy for the whole day. But I also have to consider the fact that people who like building wouldn't enjoy a purge.


    PS: yo aternos team, I don't mean to diss on the service you provide by calling it laggy... even with the lag I have really appreciated this service since I could play with some of my irl friends

    I can't do part 1 but I can do part 2 sorry the advice isn't useful because I can't do part 1.

    Quote from MattTheBat

    Under the 'community' section in the aternos forums, there's a sub-section called 'serverlist' where you can advertise your server there. Serverlist

    But you need a discord server like bruh I just want to play with friends not make a business.

    Quote from Ateroch

    But you need a discord server like bruh I just want to play with friends not make a business.

    you dont need it. just put discord.gg/NODISCORD or somehting like that

    Quote from NightingaleLara

    I just checked, and the discord link part is just optional. There's no red star above it.

    Well before it wasn't optional but thank you for saying that. I think I will be making a server to make friends very soon.