Guild Recruitment

I haven't been posting much lately.  My game activities have gone from being lackluster to insane with Warlords of Draenor.

I have grown the guild from about 20 players to over 340, with 240 active and about 50 raiders.

I won't claim to be an expert by any means, but over the 2 years of this expansion I did my best to try and define what the guild was about and make sure anyone that joins the guild know in advance what we are so they know coming in what to expect.

Here are the things I tell them right up front before I send ye-ole invite.

1. How many people are in the guild.  Some people like large and some like small.   And when I mean people I mean people not characters.    /ginfo will tell you accounts which is close enough.    But, it doesn't filter those that are absent.   So, I make sure to export my roster using ALTS add-on and filter it with Google Sheets.
2. When they can expect player to be online.   This is important if they want to play from 8AM to noon and you guys all come on from 5PM to 10PM.   
3. About how many they can expect to be online.   That is, I may have 250 players, but usually 10-30 are online in the evenings unless we have a big activity.
4. What kinds of things the guild does.   Whether you PvP or Raid, when, what's required to join.   
5. Ask them what they hope from the guild.   I always want to be sure they aren't looking for the 13/13 Mythic raid team when we are the 13/13 Heroic guild with a few toss in mythics.   The goal is to reduce the probability they will leave because you aren't their style of guild.
6. Tell them Guild Policies up front... the big ones.   Can they curse?  Can they troll trade channel?  Can they use offensive toon names?  How long absent before they are removed, etc.

I also do my homework and look for bad signs.

1. They claim to be something they are not.   That is, they claim to be a mythic raider but their char sheet says otherwise.   I am not looking for their skills, I am looking for their honesty.
2. They change guilds frequently.   This is an indicator you might have a problem player.   And, then you can softly nudge them away with phrases like, "I'm not sure we have the kind of guild you want".
3. They rail on their current guild.  If they are bad-talking their guild, guild leader, raid leader.  This is a sign that they will do the same about you when they leave.

Neutral Signs:

1. The guild just kind of left me.  This happens a lot right now in WoW.  I am very sympathetic to this kind of player.   They aren't willing to follow the guild in race / server transfers.   Or their friends all went to play Overwatch and they still want WoW.
2. I pug raid a lot because I don't have a good schedule.   Unless you force players to raid with you, it's great having a few that may or may not be available to fill in and pug raiders still seems to get gear now-a-day.

And after you feel confident they might fit your requirements and they are still interested.  You should let them know, you will be giving them a link to your guild guidelines.  That is, let them know you have rules and how the guild works.   If they are fine, invite away.

There is no promise they will stay, but you should feel more confident that they will be the kind of guildie you can keep long term.