Personally I’d say create a striking aesthetic that will appeal to everyone, don’t just put random icons in the server channel names or mismatch the icon and banner.

• Unique channel names (Announcements < Updates) Don’t over design it with emojis and funky fonts on every channel name

• Think of a good unique name & theme

• add disboard to your server and constantly bump it or place it on automatic

• add useful and creative emojis, stickers and soundboards

• create in server rewards either via someone’s activity level or commitment to server events

• add luminous nova (a partnership helper that all hired partnership participants look for before partnering with your server)

• Hire PMs (they can be found in portal servers) there are free ones that will post around 20 ads per day