DreadBlue Wrote: Be different from every other server, provide unique content and a reason to come back, nice and friendly staff are a huge point too. Tell your friends and tell their friends. Make a steam group and post it everywhere possible then you should see some change of players. Just don't make it that people have to pay to get good weapons etc...
That's a perfect answer mate! I've been running asuccessful server for 1 year. As DreadBlue said,think about something that no one else has. For example add a poll addons, so your community can decide what kind of addons/weapons/playermodels etc etc they want to have.
Another fact, don't let people install addons for hours, I'd rather start small and if after some time an average amount ofpeople join your server then I'd think of adding more content.
Last but not least: promotion. Create a steam group, invite your friends, create a spray with your server information on it and so on, be creative!