Where does the money come from?

[Kueeny]

My question is for the many who own huge servers like (50-150 slots)? Most servers are free and donations are optional. Even buying a server is more then a pretty penny then renting. Where does the money come from?

[Brentnauer]

Donations are optional, but most servers "gift" something back to the user in return for a donation.

Some servers even do it correctly.

[Kueeny]

That alone doesn't sound like enough? Once you donate those rewards are permanent are they not? (btw love your avatar!)

[Jay?]

60-100 bucks a month actually isnt that hard to come up with. Even working for about $12 an hour, you can manage it pretty easily.

[Adlersch]

Heck, I make US minimum wage ($7.70 an hour), and between buying textbooks, paying for gas, and food I still have enough money to rent/eventually buy a server.

Now finding time between work, class, and cross country to play on that server is another thing entirely.

[Kueeny]

Heck, I make US minimum wage ($7.70 an hour), and between buying textbooks, paying for gas, and food I still have enough money to rent/eventually buy a server.

Now finding time between work, class, and cross country to play on that server is another thing entirely.

That sounds like the life of Ramen noodles to me haha! Yeah, I believe Id like to invest in a server one day in the mean time I'll learn to run it well and set it up. @.@

[Brentnauer]

It's a hobby for some people, so dropping a hundred or two per month is justifiable.

I don't drink or do other "guy" stuff; I'm more on the Big Bang Theory character wavelength. $285 per month to have a dedicated machine to do whatever I want (not exclusive to Minecraft) is reasonable in comparison to other vices or hobbies.

When I ran a smaller VPS, I was covering my costs easily with monthly donator privileges.

[Adlersch]

Eating dinner almost nightly at the restaurant where I work (>50% off = $3.00 dinners), and like Brentnauer I don't drink or anything. For fun I play video games, hang out with my friends (We wander about aimlessly, spending about $10 between all of us, tops - we're all poor lol), and the rest of my time is working, sports, or studying.

So life is slightly more convenient for me since I get to eat actual meals, but yeah. That extra bit of cash to spend on nerding out (New hardware, paying for servers, helping my friends develop new software) is worth it!

[Skuli]

My question is for the many who own huge servers like (50-150 slots)? Most servers are free and donations are optional. Even buying a server is more then a pretty penny then renting. Where does the money come from?

My server costs $50 a month.

I don't accept donations.

I just pay out-of-pocket.

[Brentnauer]

My server costs $50 a month.

I don't accept donations.

I just pay out-of-pocket.

This is how it started for me; the $60 plan at NFO Servers. Prior to Minecraft I had no experience at all with unmanaged servers or what you could do with a nice fat pipe.

Now that I have it, I'd find myself at a loss without something like this doing the things I do.

[Abysinian]

My server is £50($80)/mo and thankfully myself and a few friends (one of which was a server member to begin with) split the bill. It started as a £18 ($30)/mo one with just me paying it but due to donations I've been able to upgrade 3 or 4 times since.

However, if we wanted we could stop paying altogether and use donations alone to fund it. Maybe I just have some exceptionally generous users but we've brought in what can't be far off £500-600 ($800-$1,000) since about the start of August which I find astonishing. We have packs from £5-£30 for Donators to receive and it seems to work great, like Brentnauer said at the start, it's about doing the packs correctly.

You might be surprised by what you bring in!