Guide to Running a Successful Clanby "Immortal"July 24, 2006 (Last updated on May 26, 2007)General Clan Tips
- It is better to have a few active, fun members than a lot of inactive or not respectful members. I have led clans with both and it is no comparison, I would choose a small tight-nit clan over most large clans any day.
- Stay focused. Choose a game or games that your clan focuses on. Do not try and focus on to many. Only choose games that a few members already play so they won't lose interest.
- Do not try and rule as a dictator. Try to remain as one of the people. Only make decisions that will benefit the clan as a whole. If members see you as an evil dictator doing nothing but giving them a hard time they will not stick around.
- Keep your members active. Try to get them to post messages on the forum frequently. Plan lots of events that will draw the members together such as tournaments.
- Make good allies. Having good allies can do nothing but make your clan stronger. But makes sure your members treat all your allied clan members with respect.
- Keep trying. No matter what is happening with your clan keep going through the good and the bad. No clan can become big without working hard for it.
- Make sure you know your members. The members in my clan have all been there for over a year and I know them very well. If you know your members well you can be pretty sure they are not spies (if you know them as long as I have known mine you don't need to worry about that anymore).
- Make sure that your members are loyal to the clan and to you. You don't want some new guy going and trying to take over your clan.
- Keep track of important events to your clan and the dates they happened. That way you can write a clan history later. I didn't think of this when I first started so for most of my clan's history I don't have accurate dates for events.
Government
- Always have more than one leader. In my clan we have to High Elders, which is the highest rank, and several more Council members. This way you can be sure that not all the power is in the hands of one person and decisions that come from your group of leaders will be better than a decision you made alone.
- Make the ranks simple. In my clan we have a total of five ranks including all council members. It is better not to have members obsessing over who has a higher rank. If members are mostly equal than it will avoid many arguments.
- Have an Initiate rank or something similar. Make new members that for a small time period, about two weeks or so. During that time they must prove they are loyal to the clan and active members. As long as they do this move them up to the next rank automatically.
Have a rank just below council that is higher than normal members for members that have stuck with your clan through all the good and bad and proven themselves to be loyal to your clan.
- Have well thought out rules and make sure they are accessible to members. A member needs to know the rules so they won't break them.
- Have at least some of your leadership positions chosen by election. This will keep members happy because it is one of them in power. In my clan all the Council members are chosen by election.
Clan Website Tips
- Make it well organized with everything easy to find.
- Make it look nice. People will be more willing to join if they see a good-looking site.
- Have good content. People who visit your site are going to want a lot of content. Make sure it covers every aspect of your clan.
- Try to avoid putting music on your site. While this may be nice at first unless you have many different songs that randomly play or something the music will get old fast.
- Have an accurate members list. People want to see the number of active members you have not just a list of one time members.
- Make sure you have a way to contact you on the site. If someone needs to get in touch with you about becoming allies or joining they will not want to search all over the site for your contact.
- Have a message board. Any good clan needs a message board or forum to keep its members in touch with each other and active. Also make sure to make your forum easily accessible.
- Keep it simple. If your page takes too long to load people with slower internet connections are not going to bother with you. Also having to many graphics can make your page look cluttered and unprofessional.
- Have a few high-quality graphics. Do not go overboard and fill your page with graphics. Just make a few really nice ones that will suit your clan.
- Update often. People won't keep going to a page that just stays the same all the time.
That is all for now. I hope this will help any clans that read it before the start. I think it will. If you have any comments about it email me.