There are three reasons for a man to start a clan in Runescape: gold, glory and God. Now which reason is right for you? Well I'll choose for you. The glory derived from leading a clan is pretty lame, and if you're starting a clan to praise one of Jagex's false idols then I feel for you. The only legitimate reason I've found to start a clan is to make Runescape gold.  Oh, and you get access to Jagex's Clan Leaders forum.  That's a perk as well, I suppose.

¡Make Money with a Runescape Clan!

Before you do anything you must decide what the purpose of your clan will be.  What do you want to focus on?  Three popular types of Runescape clans are:

• Player-versus-player (PVP) Clans
• Skill Clans
• Merchanting Clans

PVP Clans focus their efforts on dominating the game's combat aspects.  If you choose to start a PVP Clan you will need to decide on what PVP arena you want to focus on - Bounty Hunter, PVP Worlds, or Clan Wars.

Skill Clans are comprised of like minded players who are more interested in exploring Runescape's many skills and trades.  Skill Clans can either be general or specialized - meaning you could either have a clan that welcomes folks of any skill aspect or you might choose to focus on a narrow niche such as mining or smithing.

Merchanting Clans exist to aid their members in money making.  Merchanting clans track the Grand Exchange markets and sometimes attempt to influence prices in their favor.

Now that you've settled on your clan's theme, you will want to establish some guidelines and requirements before you publicize.   When creating your application some things you'll want to keep in mind are:

• What type of clan you have.  PVP and Skill clans will want to set skill level requirements.  Merchanting clans will want to specify a certain amount of start up capital.
  
• Will your clan be for members, free players, or both?
• What type of players are you wanting to attract?  Beginners, intermediates, or advanced?
• How exclusive do you want the clan to be?
  

Alright, so anyone can just create a clan out of thin air, but if you want your clan to be legitimate you will need to follow some basic protocol. Here are the basic steps you must take to getting your clan recognized and "official."

1. Get access to the Official Runescape Forums. You'll need to be either a Runescape member or a free-player with over 12.5 million experience points to post.
2. Head to the "Clan Community" section and enter the "Clan Diplomacy & Events" board.
3. Post an application to the "Clan Leaders" and "Clan Database" threads.
   

Now you've established a bit of a presence on the official forums.

Now that you've established your clan and registered its name you'll want to create a site and forums to organize your clan and build a community. For a free forum host I recommend Invisionfree boards. For the actual website itself there a plenty of options. Since you're just starting out I don't recommend a paid hosting solution, just use a free website host or blog host like Blogger or Wordpress.

There are two ways to go about advertising your clan: in game and on fansites. If you choose to go about it in the actual game itself, just go to a Wilderness World and ask people to join your clan. However, these members are very transient and usually will not be loyal members. A more reliable way is to go to a fansite and post on their forums. Some popular Runescape fansites are:

• RuneHQ
• Tip.it
• Sal's Realm
• Zybez

Go to each of these sites and find the appropriate clan forum. You will want to have a standardized template to post on each, with your clan banner, info, and requirements. Members can apply here and you'll give them a link to you clan site.

Now that I've given you the basics to starting your clan, making it a success is up to you. You will need to market it effectively and provide a satisfying experience for your members. The quickest way to kill your clan is to become a tyrant clan leader and not listen to your members.

It is important that you give your members an active leadership role in the clan and let them choose what activities to do. You are still the leader, but you need to relinquish some control to ensure that the clan runs smoothly.