How can I make my server visible in this list? Where exactly do I do that? Also, I want a full explanation of all Minehut ad types, and which ones bring the most players?
#ADs
pale hare
naive void
make sure to set your server visibility to true on the minehut panel to show up in the in game server list
Also for the ads, it depends on many different things.
For if you should use lobby chat ads or GUI ads, that depends on how much time you have to spend time advertising. If you have a good amount of time, you should use chat ads. Since based on cost, they usually give a higher join return than GUI ads. If you get Patron, you need to spend ~2.8 hours of advertising per day. If you get Legend, you need to spend ~1.1 hours of advertising per day. If you get Pro, you need to spend ~0.56 hours of advertising per day. And if you get VIP+, you need to spend ~0.28 hours of advertising per day. VIP+ and Patron have the best cost per ad ratio. Note this is only if you advertise exactly every 2 minutes which isn't possible manually so you should add more time to it. And for when to send these ads, you can look at Minehut's MineTrack chart to see at what times Minehut peaks every day. You could send your advertisements at these times. But thats also when everyone else will be advertising as well. What I usually do is send my ad after a bunch of other servers send their ad at once so it doesn't flood mine out. For what to say in these ads, it just has to be a hook that describes your server well so that people click on it.
If you end up using GUI ads, multiple things go into that as well. Such as what categories your server, how many days you chose the campaign to be, when you made the campaign, your MOTD, and then just chance. Say you make an ad for 100 credits for 5 days and choose 2 categories. That 100 credits gets split into 20 credits per day. And then those 20 credits per day gets split to 10 credits per category per day. And if another server spent 20 credits in that category that day, you have a 33% chance and they have a 66% chance of showing up. Of course its a lot more complex than that with many different servers but thats the concept of it. You would just need to play around days and categories do the best for you. Larger servers usually spend a lot more during the weekends so you'll be competing with a lot more servers if you make your ads then as well. What MOTD you choose can also affect the click rate since thats the first impression players will have of the server to choose if they should join it.
this is just a copy pasted message from what I've sent to others when they ask about the ad system
rugged silo
Also for the ads, it depends on many different things.
For if you should use lo...
another note is that Patron does have a better credit/ad ratio (6.4 credits/ad compared to VIP+'s 7.6), but a lot of ppl still recommend VIP+ since ads take a while (as tarna said, since ads can only be done every 2 minutes) and it's still much cheaper than Patron (VIP+ is $10/month as well as 10 votes/month (to make up the 100 credit difference between the $10/month credit pack and VIP+'s cost), compared to Patron's $110/month with 50 credits to spare)
pale hare
Also for the ads, it depends on many different things.
For if you should use lo...
Thanks, but my main question is: how do I make my server show up first in the Box category list? How much does it cost, and where do I set that?
@rugged silo
naive void
If you want your server to simply show up in the box category, just add the box category to your server through the panel. If you mean to show up in the first ad row, you can purchase ads in the advertising tab on the panel. And I explained but if how that works in my message above and the panel also has a link with more explanation as well.
rugged silo
Tarna had already explained that it's a weighted random chance, with servers that buy more GUI ad credits getting a higher chance of appearing in the GUI ad spots