Rules and Manage Members:

One of the most important things to do when starting a group is creating rules. If people don't know the rules they'll either not join or keep asking questions which is counter-productive. Make sure the rules are clear and easily noticed. All groups can use custom boxes which are highly convenient for putting your group rules. To get to your custom box, look in the top right corner where you'll see a button saying "edit page". Find the option for a custom box at the bottom, and place it where ever you like. I suggest placing it at the top. You can add text to the custom box by going back to the main page and clicking the "edit" button which is in the top right corner of the newly placed custom box. I suggest placing the rules at the top of the page so it's the first thing people see. Some groups write journals for their rules, but I find this to be more of a hassle. Unless you have a super group (a sort of premium membership for groups) the journal with the rules will not appear at the top of the page after you create another journal.

Some things to state in your rules:

Who can join.

How many submissions are allowed per day/week/month.

In order for people to join your group, you need to allow join requests. Join requests are at default set to "not allowed". On the right side of the page you can change this by going to the appropriate category. If you want to control who enters the group, select "are subject to vote". Now, whenever someone wishes to join the group, the admin have to vote yes or no. If there is only one admin, set the number of votes required to one. If there are more, it is up to the founder to decide how many votes are needed to join. If you allow anyone to join, select "are automatically accepted".

You will also need to allow people to submit work. This is slightly trickier if you have many folders and each has their own rules, but it's still an important part of the group. Like the join requests, you can set gallery submissions to "are not allowed", "are subject to vote", and "are automatically approved". Like join requests, you can edit how many votes are needed for a submission to be added to the group’s gallery. What you decide depends on the group rules, however, with gallery submissions there is another thing to consider. You can edit how often people are allowed to submit by going where it says "global/folder-specific limit". If you have multiple folders and different rules for each folder, click on "show all folders" which is located at the bottom of the "On gallery" section. After that, the list of folders will appear and you go through the same process as you did with the featured folder.

Some groups use favorites, some don't. If you aren't going to use favorites, then leave that section alone. If you're using favorites, then the process of setting it up is the same as setting up the gallery.

The "On Journal" section of your manage members controls weather or not your members can submit journals. Like the previous parts of manage members, you can set this to "are not allowed", "are subject to vote", and "are automatically accepted".

When you're done with each group of people, don't forget to save! If you have other admin, you may need to edit their privileges too.


A few reminders/tips:

Don't set the number of votes required above the number of admins who can vote.

It's helpful to set expiration dates to the highest setting (one month) in case you are not able to get on the computer.

The options which are in grey cannot be changed.

Setting up the main page:

An attractive main page draws in the viewer. It makes them think that the group is active and has something to offer. There is no right way to set up your group’s main page, but there are a few things which help. If you once again to go "edit page" you can add in new widgets and get rid of ones which aren't used.


Some useful widgets:

A custom box for the rules.

"Featured"

Gallery Folders

Journal

Group info

Deviants

Affiliates


Remember, none of these are necessary but can be useful to admin or members.

Gaining popularity:

This is one of the most time consuming parts of creating your group. It can require hours of work for over a month. Depending on the focus of your group, this may be more or less time. When determining if your group is popular or not, consider how large of an audience you have. Groups which focus on a type of media will require more members and activity to be "popular" than a group which focus on a very select group of people.

When you start your group, most people won't rush to join it. You need to go to them so they know the group exists and is active. You can invite people by using the "invite" button at the top of the page. You can either type their name in the box, or click the button next to text box, which will allow you to invite people off of your friends list. Try to invite people who you think will have an interest in the group. For example, if you're a literature group you should invite writers, not painters (unless the painter shows interest in literature).

Another way to gain members is by affiliating with other groups. Like with inviting members, you can affiliate with other groups by going to the "affiliate" button at the top of the main page and typing in the group name. It's also best to affiliate with groups that have a common interest.

Having art in your gallery with show people that your group is active. Like with people joining, art won't start flowing into your gallery. You can request a deviation by going to that deviations page. If you look on the right side you should see an option which says "submit to a group".

Starting out as an active group is not enough; the group needs to keep being active. Eventually submissions will start flowing in on their own, but you need to make sure that you are there to accept them. Organizing events such as discussions, prompts, and contests gets the members involved in your group as a community. Don't expect every member to take part in these things, especially the prompts and contests.

Etiquette:

As admin, you are leaders of a community within DeviantART and should act as thus. You should take an unbiased standpoint when concerning yourself with problems between your members and submissions. If people break the rules, don't be afraid to enforce them, but do so respectfully and professionally. If a person leaves the group, it’s probably best to allow them to do so without question. If they don’t want to be a part of your group then they aren’t much use to you as a member.