Guild Recruiting and Retention of Members

[Heeresman]

Hi all,
I have a lvl 25 Guild (GM) and have some Questions for the GM's of Guilds (and others ofc) as to the Recruitment and Retention of Members to your Guild.
I have a level 25 Guild with approx. 200 members, with 4 Officers and myself as GM. The Guild is considered a social leveling guild with occasional transmog runs, classic raids etc etc. No hardcore raids etc, although we do wish to start up a 10-man, but, the following will indicate that even that is going to be difficult to attain.
I'll get to the point of this thread:
My troubles seem to be that we cannot retain members once recruited. Sure, they stay for a few weeks, maybe a month, then they leave. Mind you the recruitment isn't exactly full on either, in that when i announce via trade chat or other means either a 'no ty' or silence at the other end greets us (the recruiters).
I have attempted to "sell" the guild to prospective members by putting up witty or funny recruitment messages, also including things like weekly comps or raids, transmog runs, stuff like that. Sure, some bite, so to speak and join up.
I attempt to run a social friendly and fun guild and by and large, the people that are in the guild are certainly that, infact they are a good bunch of people.
However, there are also no more than 10 people online at any given time, and worst case scenario, 2 to 3.
Shameful, i know.

Guild Lotto Draws, transmog runs, achieve runs, boosting, helpful friendly attitudes, always intiating lively gchat, all these things have been tried, and still are to some part, ie the friendly helpful attitude and guild lotto....
I am at a loss as to what to do to pick this guild up and really boost it's activity, both in gchat and also in numbers.

I am curious to see if there are any GM's amongst you here who have similar issues, ie with only a handful of people online at any time, or recruitment and retention issues, and what you have done to counter those issues and heralded in a new age for your guild, one that is active, with recruitment always active and retention of members steady and strong.

End note, the members all have ability to invite players to guild, with only the 'new recruit' rank not having this option available until trial period is over.
The guild has guild repairs for all ranks, and has 7 tabs, with access to all except for new recruits.

I'd be curious to get some good, constructive feedback on this from other GM's, Officers, and folks who are in guilds which are active always, with a steady stream of recruiting numbers and what are they doing to hold your interest and membership in that guild?
Cheers.

[Darsithis]

No offense, but what you offer is no different than a lot of guilds.

For me, I remain in Mattachine Knights because they're my friends now. Most of the 25 man raid team has met in person at various places around the country, so we've gotten to know each other. We stick together in the core group because we work well and share similar values.

Your biggest problem: letting people invite. Keep it close-knit. Recruit quality raid members through applications, not random people in the world. Restrict age and maturity levels through a formal trial period for anyone joining. We operate as a raiders-only guild + friends & family of the raiders. We don't hesitate to boot people who bring drama and problems to the guild but we've remained strong as a 25 man guild from BC (I've personally been a raider with MK for 2 years).

A guild, if you want it to be successful, has to be made up of driven and successful players, not random Joe Blow who is trying to level. There is a place for him in WoW, and that's in the very type of social guild you are now that you're trying to avoid.