Making A Sign

[Urzu1000]

I'll start from the beginning. I play Minecraft. A few months ago, I decided to create my own public server for the game, and on the tech and game play side, everything is working wonderfully. However, despite the fact that the server setup is desirable to many people, I just can't seem to bring new players. I can't really "get the word out". I'm on many of the main "voting sites", but even with me and several friends voting daily for over two months, we get no new players. I looked at the page views, and there's about 100 page views in total.

I thought "should I quit trying?", but then I realized that voting sites are for quitters.
I live in a house on the corner of two major roads. I would like to create a sign in my yard
to advertise my Minecraft server. What I need is advice on this, as real life is such a foreign concept to me at this point.

What advice could you guys give me on making the sign advertisement effective, how would you recommend I go about physically making a sign, and is there any other advice or suggestions you have that would aid me in increasing my server's player base?

Side note: I'm not listing the server IP or website here, because this isn't the advertisement.

 

[James Mason]

You might have to check with your local law enforcement because there could be some laws about posting signs.

And let me ask you a question, if you saw a physical sign on someones yard for a minecraft server, would you even think about trying it, or think that their some weirdo or something? Like a poster on a college campus postboard thing (i can't think for what their called) would be more believable and understandable.

Have you tried having a thread on the official minecraft forums?

Is there any reason anyone should WANT to come to your server?

 

[Urzu1000]

Well, yes, there's plenty of reasons people would want to come to my server. The problem is that there's so much server competition these days, that my server tends to fly under the radar. I also feel that if I saw a sign in someone's yard about a Minecraft server, that I would check it out just because it's a cool thing to see.

I would just like to know how to actually go about making a sign, if it should have pictures of just the IP and server name, etc.

 

[James Mason]

Well you'll have to find a local print shop with big enough printers, but you'd just need an old picture software to make the sign. "Paint.net" is a good free option compared to photoshop. There's a Microsoft Office program DESIGNED for publication making called Publisher: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/publisher/

If you can use Word you can use Publisher, it just better supports larger printings for big banners and such.

Your sign probably wouldn't need to be that different from like a forum banner for a server, so things like the server's name, IP address, some images so it's clearly a sign FOR minecraft (i.e. have "steve" on there), if your sign is big enough you can include screen shots of interesting things as well.

Lots of servers have their own websites/forums as well, so you might need one of those as well.

 

[Urzu1000]

I wasn't aware that Publisher existed, but sure enough, it's part of the Office bundle right here on my work PC. I'll have to experiment a bit with it. Thank you for your assistance. I guess the rest of this is just finding a print shop, and convincing my fiance to make a fancy image for it.

 

[numanator]

Double check with your local city code enforcement or building department to make sure that it is legal for you to have the sign or what size it can be. There are regulations for this in most city's and you could get told to take it down if it doesn't comply. Source: work for a city, seen similar stuff happen.

 

[Urzu1000]

Double check with your local city code enforcement or building department to make sure that it is legal for you to have the sign or what size it can be. There are regulations for this in most city's and you could get told to take it down if it doesn't comply. Source: work for a city, seen similar stuff happen.

I investigated this, and unfortunately, this city is a bit strict. Anything larger then a large poster would cause problems.
I'm currently searching for another way to advertise my server, as it's difficult to get people on. Currently, there's about 6-7 regulars, and I would like to have 20-40. Voting sites do very little without that size of a player base to maintain it.

 

[GMAK24]

Advertise on google.

 

[Urzu1000]

Haha, I actually was looking into that a day or two ago. I'll have to see about their plans, but I could only throw about $50 at it. How effective do you think the ads would be? Also, would paid advertisement for a Minecraft server even be legal? Not sure how copyright would affect that. (U.S.-based server)

 

[USAFRet]

A sign in your front yard won't work.

How many people will:
See it
Read it
Remember it
Be minecraft players
Not already have a favorite server

From a sign in your yard, you might get one new player in the next year. Maybe.

Think of yard signs around election time. All you see is the color of the sign, and the last name (maybe).
Seeing "Come join urzo.MyMinecraftServer.com" isn't going to work, unless it is unreasonably large and violates your cities sign regs.

Word of mouth is the key. Offer your core group an incentive for bringing in one or two new players each.