Question Really want to get this one right

I've hosted many, and by many I mean around 20+ servers. Half of those however I was just dicking around and didn't intend on the server being popular. But one of them in particular, the one I did nothing on and screwed around all of the time, had about 5 or so dedicated players that played. Not all at the same time, but just in general.

The other ones that I tried on, people would join and then leave and the servers were never successful.

But I really want to get one right this time; so I have just a few questions

What anticheat system do I use? I've heard bad things about NCP.
How do I go about setting up a proper economy?
What things do people like to see?
What gamemode is popular, but not completely overused?
What good plugins do I need? (economy plugins, permission plugins, plugins for cool commands and stuff like that).
How big should I make the spawn?
Should I have everything in one place, or more spread out like a tutorial island, and a main world?
How do I get players to stay on the server?
Why do people just join and then leave after I say "welcome"?
Why are some servers, that aren't even good imo, so popular?
Is it based on luck? (My friend once started a server, it was kitpvp and was kind of terrible, but he made over $300 in donations in the first few weeks. 5 players on all the time, but mid day it was at like 20-30)
How do I go about starting a server?

 

1. What anticheat system do I use? I've heard bad things about NCP.
2. How do I go about setting up a proper economy?
3. What things do people like to see?
4. What gamemode is popular, but not completely overused?
5. What good plugins do I need? (economy plugins, permission plugins, plugins for cool commands and stuff like that).
6. How big should I make the spawn?
7. Should I have everything in one place, or more spread out like a tutorial island, and a main world?
8. How do I get players to stay on the server?
9. Why do people just join and then leave after I say "welcome"?
10. Why are some servers, that aren't even good imo, so popular?
11. Is it based on luck? (My friend once started a server, it was kitpvp and was kind of terrible, but he made over $300 in donations in the first few weeks. 5 players on all the time, but mid day it was at like 20-30)
12. How do I go about starting a server?

1. NCP is the most popular, most anticheats are going to be annoying as hell and throw a lot of false positives. It's best to have it only monitor players, so that staff can see when NCP thinks someone is doing something wrong, and inspect it themselves.
2. First get a plugin that supports economy (Essentials is the most popular) and then decide what you want stuff to be worth. Test for crafting recipes that can be exploited. This means if you set wood planks to be worth $4 then if sticks are worth $2.50 then selling two wood planks will get you $8 but if you craft them into sticks you can sell them for 8x$2.50 which is $20.
3. Unique things. Kind of a broad question. Separate your server from all the others, have things others don't, do things others don't. Even using unique combinations of plugins can be intriguing.
4. Most gamemodes are pretty overused. Custom gamemodes can be interesting. As I previously stated, unique combinations of plugins can be intriguing.
5. You'll need a permissions/group managing plugin. GroupManager and PermissionsEx are the big two. People say GroupManager is better, people say PermissionsEx is better. Fact of the matter is, GroupManager is easier to use, however PermissionsEx offers more features. Whichever you want is what's better.
6. As big as you want and as big as you need. I have a small town as my spawn. There are 6 different buildings. One is the spawn, one the main shop, one the blacksmith, another the magic shop (where you can buy brewing ingredients), and two that have no purpose, but just look pretty.
7. Tutorial island is definitely cool, though based on the gamemode you choose, it may be good to make it optional.
8. Keep it interesting. Hold events, contests, do fun things. (Gotta use your imagination!)
9. Could be a number of things. Could be the spawn, could be how many people welcomed them, could be a bad connection, the list goes on.
10. Opinion. Though possibly because even though it isn't a well done server, it could be that the staff/players do stuff to make it fun.
11. It definitely can be. When a player scrolls through an entire page of potential servers to join, you want everything about what they see for your server to depict it accurately, and look somewhat professional so that they know that the owner cares about the server. This can be shown simply by having a great looking banner GIF, and having a well written server title & description.
    
12. Ahh, the big question. If you're choosing to host it at home, then you'll be less likely to succeed and become a popular server (it can be done, though is much more likely when professionally hosted). However if you're choosing to pay for a host, then your chances rise. I'll try my best to explain for both.
    
    For a home hosted server, check out the following videos. The first one is how to obtain a copy of Spigot or Craftbukkit, and the second is how to get a server running on your computer.
    
    
    
    
    If you'd like to have your server hosted by a comany, but don't want to spend money right now, then you should keep the following in mind for the future after you get some donations.
    
    I would like to recommend ProfessionalXen. No need to pay a stupid amount of money to run a server. Companies like BeastNode and MCPH overcharge crazily! ProfessionalXen charges only $4/GB of RAM, and you will get more for your money too! You can also use the coupon code TheMineShack at checkout for a recurring discount of 10% off, which increases the money you save even more!
    
    I've been with this hosting company for nearly 2 years now, and have never had a problem with them. I highly suggest picking them to host your server, and here's a video I made about why people should choose ProfessionalXen to host their Minecraft server. It outlines many key reasons why it is a great idea. These include options to upload custom JARs (great for FTP and other non Vanilla/Craftbukkit/Spigot servers), custom slots, great DDoS protection, and unlimited server space, so no need to worry about having a big world!
    
    Here's a link to the video, it's quite informative!
    

Alright! Well I hope I've shed some light on your questions! Feel free to ask any more that you may think of!

 

Thanks for the help! It really helped! But wwhat should the spawn look like? What do players like to see? I tend not to notice the details of the spawn, but I'm sure others do.

Should I make it like a castle, or should it be one of those traditional faction server spawns where you have the main spawnpoint, then you have enchanting rooms and stuff like that, and then a drop down pvp type thing.

 

I have no clue, it's more so up to you and what you think it should look like.