Question relating to new guilds.

I've just started a guild called the Vanguard of Steel. I've got a cape and a hall (Damnit, I could have spent that money on Elite Armor instead!)

But I'm faced with a bit of a dilemma. I'm not a very active player, but I do like to mess around and relax more than I like to participate in Player versus Player battles. Being a writer of fiction, I'm even toying with the idea of making a roleplay guild. (Thought to be honest I've never roleplayed before)

But I digress. The problem I have is one of recruiting.

How does a guild with no members acquire them? How does one start from scratch and build a community of players with similar interests?

It seems a little silly when you try and recruit players to your guild, having no members to begin with, when at the same time there are so many other guilds, often with over a hundred members, vying for their attention.

To those of you who are masters or members of guilds more successful than mine - Would you share any tips?

The most successful guilds started with a group of friends as the core and grew from there. Others, like my own that didn't have that core group, are still limping along with 2-4 members. There is not guaranteed successful method of recruiting.

Players want to join a larger (20+) guild with lots going on. They don't hang around long enough for you to get to that magic number. You would be better off quitting your guild and joining a role-playing one until you have a group of in-game friends who want a change.

The guild leader doesn't need to be active, but from my own alliances perspective, it takes at least 3 active and halfway competent officers to recruit and keep players.

As the above post said, starting solo is a fool's errand. Unless you have a couple of friends that would be on board for such a venture you're pretty much out of luck.

Players join guilds primarily to get help or to have people to group with, at this stage in GW, spamming LA/Kama/Ascalon will mostly net you noobs who don't know any better and will likely go dormant in a week or two if they don't outright leave. Better players are mostly seeking stability and people to play high-end content with (their own guilds are likely deteriorating also) prepare to lose those in less than a week.

It's tough, but this is the state of the game. You really should have gotten that elite armor...

They are right in that the more successful guilds start from a core of friends who seek a change from present circumstances and go forth to create their ideal organization. Potential recruits for your new guild look for companionship and people to help out with missions, quests etc. In a guild of 1, there isn't that much help to be found.

Join a guild and make friends...then create your own guild if you still want to.

Not exactly a bad move from my perspective.
Think of the bright side,now he doesnt have to get pmed every 100 steps from a recruiter.
And OH BOY them guilds are hungry for faction slaves!
Besides after all this time all i can say is to sit and take your time,and invite people you deem are good and fun.
Leave the drama and infighting to the competitive guilds.

In my guild, we usually play together and sometimes pick up someone for a mission in a mission outpost. Sometimes, we stick together for the next mission, or sometimes we meet the next day for this mission. And if this person feels he rather want to play with us than with his current guild, he gets an invitation from us. This happens perhaps once a month, and such a recruit usually stays for a very long time.

Then there are friends from alliance guilds or foreign guilds, who frequently join us for an evening. I don't exactly know who picked them and how they got here, but they stick. They become close friends, just like guild mates. They usually stay with their original guilds, but if some trouble arises with their guild, they leave and join our guild. Trouble could be that their guilds becomes increasingly inactive, or some internal quarrels. Some persuasion over some months is needed for them to finally join us, but sooner or later they join.

Or sometimes, I see someone looking for help in the local chat. If the call looks serious and I have nothing to do, I jump in and offer help. After doing a quest or mission or something else together, I know more about him, and if he seems to be unhappy in his current guild, I invite him. Sometimes, he comes over. There may be some persuasion needed, if he has, for example, made his own (permanently empty) 2-person-guild and don't want to give up his investment.

The last variant I saw with my second account. I said to myself: "Well, let's join the first guild in Kamadan who ask me to join". 3 minutes after I left the NF tutorial I was in a huge 95-person guild with no obligations. It was a friendly guild with one very eager officer (now leader) who nearly did all the recruiting. He permanently invites about 5 persons a day, mostly newbies, and about the same amount of persons leave the guild each day or is kicked after some months of inactivity. Now, after 4 months, I am one of the older guild members. There are a few members who constantly play together (10-20), but the other 80 mostly play alone. The atmosphere is a bit anonymous in comparison.

As a former officer in several guilds over the past 4 years, I can offer this advice:
Get a core group together first - you cannot create a large guild by yourself
Decide what sort of members you want to attract (age, experience, pvp/pve, activity, etc.)

Forming and maintaining a large guild requires a lot of work from both guild leader and officers.