JUMPER CABLES TO THE HEART! Restart Your RP

It finally happened. Your site is DYYYIIIING! Only one person checks back regularly and keeps asking where everyone went. That other guy pops in now and again to say hi then leaves. You don't know what to do. All those members say they'll be back, but they don't actually show up. A bunch of them fell off the edge of the earth. Some just plain old won't come back. Too busy or whatever (probably rping on that shiny new site that's more popular than yours >. > ).
How do you get life back into your site?

DON'T

CLEAN OUT THE ENTIRE SITE AND START FROM SCRATCH

"Scrub, slave! Scrub!"

Cleaning out your site usually entails that you are deleting characters, past rp threads, and any relevant history. Most owners think "It's going down the tubes. Let's just start over and try again." While by far one of the easiest things to do, it just does not work.
Trust me.
Hundreds and hundreds of times I have seen owners do this, cause usually I'm the lone figure checking back every day/every other day to say hi. I talk to the owner. The owner sighs, shrugs, then says "I'm going to wipe the site and start over." They do. Nothing happens.
Sites do not die because hey, you need a do over. Sites die because there are things wrong with fundamentally. Players leave because they are bored. If players are having enough fun, they will make the time to rp. Cleaning out your site is not going to change the fact that your site is boring.
Yes, for a moment, your site will once again be the shiny new toy, but the novelty will very VERY quickly wear off.
The ONLY time you should wipe your site and start over is if your site has been COMPLETELY down for an entire year. If it has truly been abandoned that long, then it is safe to wipe out everything and start fresh.

CLEAN OUT THE ENTIRE SITE BUT "HEY I ADDED A FEW THINGS!"

"There's gotta be audience interest under all this character development..."

This goes pretty much hand in hand with the above. Again, your players are bored. That's why they stopped playing. Yes, adding things is good. Adding things is always good. And yes, if your site has been abandoned for a year, cleaning out the site is good. BUT, if there are still members and rps floating around, and you suddenly clean out, it's probably going to turn them off.
I tried this before. I had a small, fairly popular site going. Activity dropped. I thought "Hey, I'll clean out and start new, but add/change it up!" Never got a single member.
Again, if your site was abandoned for over a year or so, by all means, feel free to do whatever you want.

DO

BRAND NEW SITE LAYOUT/DESIGN

"OHMYGOD OHMYGOD OHMYGOD OHMYGOD OHMYGOD"

Sometimes, giving the "appearance" of shiny and new is enough to spark a bit of interest. Totally redo the layout. Add new graphics. Whole new color scheme. Brand new template. The works. Go all out. Sure, the fundamentals aren't new. The rp is still there. But ERMG IT'S SO BEAUTIFUL! Just the breath of fresh air a new design brings is mentally stimulating enough that members want to come look at the place at the very least. So they look. They explore. They remember all the fun and whatnot. They get back in the game.
HOWEVER, this should go hand in hand with other things.

SURPRISES

"Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa~?"

Surprises. It's like birthday and Christmas and HORY SHIET WHERE DID THAT COME FROM????
Members LOVE surprises. And the more thought you put into them, the better.
Never announce the surprise. Not to anyone. make sure the surprise is good though. A "surprise" like "ermg, I just blew up all these characters" is not good (I did that and it was not a good. dun do the thing)
But an example of a good surprise is something like a WHOLE NEW PLOT! Ermg! The bad guys are doing what now? A sudden change in leadership is fun too. Reveal some big, huge twist about a character. Tell members you are hosting opportunity for them to be Storytellers for a day (and be sure to follow through). Or suddenly surprise them with brand new content (make it awesome, but not too over the top).
BAD surprises would be ridiculous plot twists that do not conform to the site theme (ermg, everyone suddenly wakes up and realizes their entire lives actually take place in a virtual reality video game!), massive killing off of characters (unless those characters need to be killed off anyway because members left the site), or anything in general that would make you personally cringe.
Another example, something I actually did:
I knew that around six months after a site is born, site activity tends to drop. So, I prepared in advance.
Here is the chatango conversation that followed when my members accidentally discovered the secret before my announcement:

So, this morning, I went onto AuraBound and saw this conversation:

26 May 13
Dawny: Why are there two aisthesis sites???
Mania: you mean aurabound and aisthesis???
Dawny: If the other one is this one, then yes: http://auralost.weebly.com/
Mania: oooh well you know how the first one was called "rotten to the soul" or something, episode 1? well this is the next part of the big plot thing Nii has going has to do with all the missing people (because of the Venantium I assume)
Mania: I'm also going to assume that this town is where the missing end up
Mania: since it's different
Mania: hot dang there are different families too!
Dawny: That's so wierd! The two sites are going to end up coming together???
Mania: no clue, probably (and Nii's two Pendragon kids here have to do with the Pendragon family)
Dawny: Oh yeah. But unless they're missing on that site so they came here, there would end up being two of them, wouldn't there?>
Mania: there are apparently two missing kids from the pendragon family
Mania: yep it is indeed them
Dawny: So....should we be making characters on that site for when they come together or just pretending that site doesn't exist until they come together or something?
Mania: one of Nii's friends has been joining and has charies, so i'm assuming we can unofficially join now
Mania: as it she just hasn't told us yet
Dawny: They've started rping, too.


Yep.

I made a second rp site. Everything was the same EXCEPT the second site had different families (the main factions you could join), was in a different location, and had a different plot going on (in actuality, the second part of the plot the first was going through). I NEVER told my members. I ONLY advertised the second site on places that I did not advertise the first. Not even second site members knew what was going on.

After my members stumbled upon it, I then officially announced the joining together of the two sites. It was extremely cool. Members from both places visited each others home site. They talked about characters and plot, fawned over everything, etc.

It was something new that had never been done before and activity skyrocketed before falling to a steady, good pace for another six months. Then I revealed new things.

The hardest part about surprises is keeping them secret till the big reveal, but the reward is well worth it and your members will love it.

INTRODUCE A NEW FACTION/ROLE/ETC

"OMG our kindergarten just got a TANK!!!!"

Members love shiny new toys that they get to play with. A new faction, role, rank, etc that they can use to create/modify characters with is a perfectly shiny new toy. New conflict will arise. New positions are now open to them. New characters are now being begged to be made. 

BUT be sure to make this in tandem with another. Don't ever JUST release a new faction/thing on its own. Activity will only boom for a tiny amount of time. There's only so much novelty such a release has for people.

HOST AN EVENT

"Dance like there's no tomorrow!"

In tandem with some other thing on this list, hosting an event can help boost activity. It should definitely be held in tandem with a plot, but other things are fine as well. Events can be big or small, but should involve the majority of the players.
Events that involve the characters can be a party, a war, a holiday, a festival, a ball, a funeral, a wedding, a coronation, etc. Something to break up the everyday helps world-build as well as provide opportunity for members to create character plot or for you to create site plot.
Events that involve JUSt the players can be a fanfiction contest, an rp contest (whoever posts the longest post wins!), an art contest, a gift exchange, an OC party (just talk random crap and exchange music and stupid gifs or something), or just about anything else. Taking a break from the rp and just fooling around can help everyone mentally refresh.
Hosting events helps engage players. It gets them to talk and plan. It can help generate new content for the game. Above all, it brings people together and helps build up the community.

CHECK YOURSELF

"Said no site owner ever...."

Don't do whatever you were doing when site activity began dropping. Were you ignoring people? Not being online enough? Not generating enough new and shiny content? Not keeping up with the updates? Not following plot and helping it along?
No one likes a lazy, unaware, indifferent site owner. Always check yourself and correct yourself. If you are struggling on updates or plot, consider hiring staff. If members are bugging you too much, have them direct their questions/comments to a specific area for you to address when you are ready (and DO address things). Keep up your communication. Read articles on writing plot, development, etc to get new ideas. Always try to learn, grow, and adapt as an rp owner. Benefiting yourself will help benefit your players. And NEVER be afraid to ask if there are areas you can improve, or what your members think are your biggest flaws, or what they would like to see you do more of. Consider their feedback and try to make change.

MAYBE

DUMP CURRENT PLOT AND START NEW ONE

"Get in the damn trashcan Shinji!"

If members are not actively investing themselves into your plot and are just reluctantly tagging along after you poke them with a prod... then it's time to do something that interests them.
Never be afraid to ask your members if they are bored, what they want to do, or what you could do that would get them to have fun. Yes, some may suggest random crap that you can NOT do. But a lot of times, they will pop up and give truly constructive ideas. Maybe they don't want to rebel against the government. Maybe they all would rather go to war with the country next door because the leader is an arrogant jerk.
NEVER just throw the plot out the door when YOU decide. Let your members decide. Let them know that it is okay to be bored, or to want other things. You need to be for them, not against them, and vice versa.
IF you ultimately decide to dump your plot, don't just hot potato that thing. Instead, see where you are at, and determine the FASTEST course of action that will wrap it up. Direct the necessary members around to get that done, then instigate the next plot as fast as possible. Be sure to tell your members this. Let them know "Hey, let's wrap this and that up. Cooler things are in store. Just bear with me for the next day or two cause I have a brand new plot in store." Curiosity will help them roll the ball with you.

KILL CHARACTERS

"Someone on Earth had a sudden thought.... / Want me to eat you?" ~ parasyte

This is a super, super tricky route to take that must be done with absolute caution and careful planning.

I am a firm believer in killing/injuring/maiming/traumatizing characters. If there is no risk, no urgency, no sense of danger, the meaning of the characters' lives deteriorates.

At the LARP I frequent the most is a dystopian, horror, survival, zombie-ish LARP. Your character is assigned a certain number of times they can resurrect from the dead based on the race you pick (it works, just trust me). The LARP in general is constantly sending out zombies and variations of such to go and attack players in the woods or town. The sense of danger is very real, and the threat of death is there as well. The players all know that their characters are going to die, it's just a matter of when.

Now granted, not every rp is going to be like that. A slice-of-life in a highschool is not going to feature constant threats spawning in the classroom or tons of teens dropping like flies. But there needs to be RISK in an rp, or the meaning of the characters' lives becomes pointless. 

Trust me when I say that when risk is involved, people will want to get as much benefit out of their characters stories, lives, adventures, and development while they can.

I went through a dark period in my life and, sadly, brought that to the rp table. I constantly threatened to kill off anyone and everyone at the drop of the hat. Do not do this. Extremes are never good. Doing something like that will have the opposite effect: "what's the point of rping if the owner is just going to off my character anyway?"

That all being said, there still comes a time where the death of characters is necessary. 

Change is good. Change can help spark creativity and gives players something to challenge them and work around. Sometimes players make a character they think they will like, only to realize it's just not working out. Now rp is a drag to do since they are stuck playing a character they dislike. Give them opportunities to kill off these useless characters clogging up the works. Then they can make fresh, new ones.

If activity drops, tell your members you are redoing the character site. Create an announcement similar to the following:

"I am redoing the characters site. Please look through all your characters and decide which ones you do not want anymore. Give me a list of these, and we will discuss fun ways of getting rid of them."

Sacrificing unwanted bodies to feed the plot machine is always a bonus in my book. It helps to create a sense of that risk when characters people know get killed off. Even if, yes, they are unwanted and won't be played anymore, it still means something when people can ascribe familiarity with the scene. After all, which are you most likely to react to: your best friend getting caught up in a hostage situation, or faceless man number two?

Also, just in general, if a member has not been active for a year, feel free to dump all their characters into the fodder box for the plot machine. If the member returns, alert them of the situation and encourage them to remake/make new characters.

TIMESKIP

"There's a hole in the space time continuum. Also jump rope..."

Timeskips are super tricky things that must be handled with care. I am actually VERY against these for rps. I did it once before. Never again.
It seems like an ok thing to do on paper: jump ahead a bit and pick up a few years later.
But in reality, rp is too dynamic for this. RP works because over time, our characters go through the plots and develop because of them. Putting in a timeskip is robbing players of the time they need to develop these characters.
This can actually hinder true character development. Since the members have not been rping a year in the character's life, the character has been stuck in a stasis where nothing ACTUALLY happened to them. You can sometimes make things up, but the transition then feels more like a forced backstory than a natural flow. Since rp is so dynamic, no one can really predict where there characters will be a month from now, five months from now, five years from now...
For example, my character Romulus was a dark, gritty assassin whose latest life crisis launched her on the path of redemption. She decided to become a combat medic and save lives rather than take them. I planned for her to consider taking on the assassin profession again later and join a religion whose focus was helping those around her.
But instead, through roleplay, she met a guy and had some very, very deep discussions with him concerning family, moving forward, and forgiving herself. She is now going to marry him, join his religion which is centered more around family, and she has also become a doctor.
Not at ALL what I wanted for her. Not at all what I planned. But rp decided this was how it was going to go, and who am I to fight against my own characters?
This would have never happened if a timeskip or a jump ahead was involved. I probably would have just said, "Oh, ok. It's been a year. She's a hardcore assassin and part of that one religion now." And I would have missed out on all the rp, drama, emotion, and character depth. Know how they say "it's not about the destination, but the journey"? This goes doubly so for any kind of roleplay.
Timeskips are a-ok if your rp has been dead for over a year, no one rps, and nothing interesting is planned. Timeskips should DEFINITELY go hand in hand with some huge, big thing to fix an abandoned and dead rp, like a necessary site clean. But do not use a time skip at the drop of the hat. It is dangerous.

IN SUMMARY

Think carefully before making huge changes. Some may impact negatively even if they SOUND like good ideas.
Do a combination of things.
Always be sure to check yourself and what you can do differently so that activity doesn't drop again.
Never be afraid to ask members for feedback.
Remember: rp is dynamic. Let it change and grow. Do things to help it along and don't hold back for personal reasons.