Recruiting on your server is a bit more difficult than recruiting elsewhere… you have to juggle typing information out like you were using an instant message service, answer questions and provide information on the fly, guessing at who is worth recruiting, eligible to be recruited, and not sound pushy while you do it. And the whole time, you are trying to play the game as well!

Despite the difficulties, recruiting on the clan server is by far the most productive method of recruiting your team has and worth every bit of effort you put into it. I want to pass along some ideas to make this easier, as well as some concepts to keep your server active and filled with possible recruits.

Server, Site, Recruit.

I sold cars several years ago at a big dealership, and while I didn’t make a fortune I did sell quite a few cars. I also learned a few valuable concepts about turning traffic into sales. This is basically what you are doing when you recruit, you are creating traffic and trying to turn that traffic into new members. So the more people that read your recruiting posts, the more people who visit your site and server, the better your chances of gaining new members.

Pretty common sense, now lets look at the flow… Not including the recruiting posts on forums, and the other various methods your team uses to bring in new members, a HUGE number of possible new members come to your server every day! It is your HIGHEST amount of traffic. So lets say you get 20 people who visit your server today (not including your own team), you manage to get 7 of them to visit your website, and 2 fill out recruitment forms. That’s the flow… Server>Site>Recruit.

It stands to reason that no matter how awesome your site is, you will only be able to recruit a fraction of your server traffic. Your goal is now to increase the amount of people visiting your server, and improve the number of those visitors who actually visit your site.

Populating the Server.

Getting visitors on the server is the top of the flow, and that is where you should be using the big, broad advertising. You should make every effort to promote your IPs, and add them to your advertising when recruiting for the clan. You should make an effort to accommodate as much of the gaming populous as possible.

- GameTracker provides display signatures with your server stats: http://www.gametracker.com/

- Be creative when naming your server. ( I remember using GameSpy playing Medal of Honor and seeing a server called “Free BEER on Fridays” It was ridiculous, it was silly… it was ALWAYS full.)

- Keep up population. (Sit on your server, get your team to sit on your server. NOBODY joins EMPTY servers!)

- Keep your settings as default as possible during peek times. I am more likely to join a server if I don’t have to deal with maps or mods I don’t have.

- Try to keep clan members on the server as much as possible to answer questions, provide support, and serve as admins. (This may require passing out some rights before you are ready, I’ll cover RCON latter…)

Bringing Gamers to the Website.

With traffic coming to your server, your effort should move towards bringing those gamers to your site. Let me point out something here that most clans miss:

It doesn’t matter if they have a clan, don’t want to be in a clan, or are nor interested in joining YOUR clan. GET THEM ON YOUR SITE.

Remember your flow, the more people who visit your site from your server, the more new recruits you will get. The gamers who visit your site from other clans, or who are not interested in joining a clan can easily have a change of heart once they get to know your team. Their clan may fall apart, or at absolute worst, they may want a scrim. (that’s not so bad is it?)

The point is you are raising your popularity and thus improving your chances of getting more recruits.

Make sure you:

- Display URLs and relevant recruiting messages during peek times

- Communicate with visitors, whether you are recruiting them or just congratulating them on a great shot.

- Invite ANYONE who communicates back with you to check out the team site.

That’s the Nutshell:

Final note here, make sure you have a page on your site specifically for recruiting. This page should contain everything that a new member would need to join the team. It should be public viewable, and be visually appealing (Team Logo, clever phrases, recruiting posters, so on). There is nothing more frustrating than visiting a clan site only to be locked out because I am not a registered member. (I’m not going to register just to look around guys)

Recruiting is as much networking as it is numbers. Reach out and connect with fellow gamers, clans, and sites!

- Hedge

© 2009 TribeHaven