How to run Discord server partnerships that actually bring members

What a Discord partnership is

Nothing official: it’s a deal between two staff teams. The usual form is an ad swap in a #partners channel, but some go further

• An ad swap: each server posts the other’s description, sometimes with a regular repost
• A shared channel where members of both servers talk together
• A joint event: tournament, game night, contest
• A representative of the partner on your server, with a role of their own

Finding a partner server

A partner that doesn’t look like your community sends you people who leave the next day. Before you pitch anything, check these

• Same audience

  Same game, same topic, same language. A roleplay server and a homework help server have little to trade

• Similar size

  A big server rarely swaps with one ten times smaller, and when it does, your ad drowns in the feed

• Reachable staff

  Find who handles partnerships. Many servers have a channel or a ticket type for it, go through that

• A healthy server

  Look around first: rules, moderation, atmosphere. Once their ad is on your server, their reputation rubs off on you

How to set up a Discord partnership, step by step

The Discord side needs no bot. The one habit to build: one invite link per partner

1. 1

   Write your ad

   A few lines about your server, what people find there, and an invite link. Short and readable, no wall of emojis

2. 2

   Contact their staff

   Through the channel they set up for it. Introduce yourself, say what you offer and what you expect

3. 3

   Put the terms in writing

   Where the ad goes, how often, for how long, and what ends the deal. A pinned message on both sides is enough

4. 4

   Create an invite for that partner

   In Discord, Invite People on your landing channel, then set the expiry to Never. Give that link to that partner only

5. 5

   Post their ad

   In your #partners channel, on the agreed date. Check that yours is live on their side

6. 6

   Review after a month

   How many members joined through their link, and how many stayed. That number decides what comes next

Tracking what each partner brings

Kotbo tracks every invite on your server: who joined through which link, and who left. In the dashboard, on the Invites page, you give each partner’s invite a name. The Sources tab then counts by name

• Joins attributed to each source
• Leaves, and retention: the share of new members still there
• How much of your total joins your named invites explain
• An invite can also be suspended or deleted from the same page if a partnership ends badly

A shared channel with your partner

The Channel links module copies messages from one channel into a channel on the other server, under their author’s name. Your partner doesn’t need Kotbo activated: their server goes into link-only mode, where the bot only relays that channel

/link invite salon:<channel>

On your server: creates a bridge code for that channel, valid for 30 minutes. The invitation-serveur option also creates an invite link to your server

/link accept code:<code> salon:<channel>

On the partner’s server, once Kotbo is invited there: links their channel to yours

/link status

On the partner’s server: what the bot does there, and what it doesn’t

/invites stats membre:<member>

Joins brought by one member, handy if the partner’s representative invites people from your server

An ad that reposts itself

Partnership terms often include a weekly repost of the ad. Nobody remembers it by week three, so hand it to the bot

• Rich messages

  The dashboard’s embed builder lays out the partner’s ad, with title, colour and image, and sends it to the channel you pick

• Scheduled tasks

  A scheduled message task reposts a text or an embed in a channel every hour, day, week, month, or on your own schedule

• A Partners page on your website

  Kotbo’s community site has a Partners block, a list you fill in by hand, readable without a Discord account