How on earth do I get players to join my team?

Without advertising?

@SaNsItHu_AbEy_2012 said in #1:
> Without advertising?

Please post it in off topic discussions instead of general chess discussions.

ok!

@SaNsItHu_AbEy_2012 said in #1:
> Without advertising?

you cant, you can only invite them by giving your team a link on the lichess PMs

EDIT: Though that's not really advertising, if you post in other teams, tournaments, or forums that advertising.

I think the team feature is best used to recognise and order pre-existing organisations, clubs, friend groups, etc.

The best way to meet this pre-requisite might be to build a community through making friends on the website/in real life.

Occasionally teams are created first to fill a void/demand, e.g. "Team of Israel," may be something Israeli players will be looking to join, or anyone interested in joining, without the entire country of Israel agreeing there should be a lichess team for them.

Totally Agreed.

So make friends with people during games or at tournaments,
once you have liked eachother (thumbs up on their page) and regularly play against eachother
you can message them once you feel comfortable about it and tell them about your idea (or your team).
But just messaging some random person without knowing them isn't gonna work.
I get a few such messages a month and generally ignore them.

Put Ur team link in desc, play Tourneys to get know AND DON'T WRITE IN PM like #4 said, it is advertising(edit:spelling mistake)

You can write blog posts, you can give simuls, you can stream, you can create youtube content, ...