My best advice from experience of running my own server for 9 months and running the server list.
Use all your time and ressources ON the server - make it good and stand out compared to the other servers out there. Be visible as admin/owner as much as possible and make sure to get some good help ASAP from some of your first loyal players and make them Mods (So you can always serve your players - as owner you should focus on making the server fun for other people and not yourself).
In my opinion it is close to impossible to force grow a server without the perfect management to help players (make them feel welcome and make them feel part of something).
And make sure the server is running stable and update it fast when possible. It is daily work to keep it running good and again all the service to players.
When you have a server people love and use daily (start out with a few), the expansion of players come naturally from recommendation of your existing players. A new player can quicky feel if it is a good server or just some caotic mess made fast.
And players are MORE than willing to donate towards your server when they love it - they know it takes money and effort to keep it at a good high quality.
Many of the servers you see on the best placements on the server list, have used this method:
Build a great server -> Players love it and donate to it -> owner gets more than enough to pay bills and use some on marketing to get even more players in. (A good circle).
Besides buying a featured spot, you can rank well on the site with getting Votes towards your server (requires players who do it - you can use Votifier to reward them).
It all starts with the management of the server - and it takes time to build up a good community.
Hope this explains it a little. This is told from experience and hope you can use it.
Good luck with the server.