AFAIK, advertising has been tried a couple of times in the past years and it wasn't 'only' $500 going in either.
The retention rate was terribly low. Even though the server had a huge influx of new players, only a handful of those actually remained on the server for a meaningful amount of time for the advertising campaign to be anywhere near worth it.
Now, with 'only' $500, how do you imagine the situation to pan out?
It has been said a hundred of times before and I'll say it one more time; Minecraft is a game with a declining player base .
Meepcraft has nothing to offer other servers don't have. The only retention-worthy attribute is the community ... and a community won't grow in a dying game. + there's Meepcraft related issues, but that's another story.
