I have to totally agree with GrossEyeEh. It looks dodgy to me when people have their GB's maxed out by the same player's all the time. I have had these thoughts for some time now about some in my hood.
The reason I have these thoughts is that I am in a very large guild and also have quite a lot of friends. I have only 2 GB's and its taken me 7 months to get one of them maxed out. The other is at level 6. It seems very lucky to me that some can get 5 or 6 GB's maxed out in what appears to be no time at all.
Rant over.
A lot about getting GBs leveled faster is also about socializing and networking. If you make proper friendships with some people and if people in your guild tend to know and like you, they will be much much more likely choosing your building (opposed to ala #53 guy on the guild list who has never said a word in guild msges/forum/chat and last visited your town 4 months ago).
I remember a high ranked loner diamond player in my world. Everyone else didn't really like him and thought he was arrogant and whatnot. But I helped him out with some trades and advice etc got talking, and turns out he was just some nice quiet ex military bloke not too much into socializing etc. I saw literally thousands of FPs from him over next half a year, super loyal.
Also helps a lot if you are in some sort of position of power where you are respected and/or maybe even feared a bit(leader of the guild, biggest player in guild, etc). Players in authority position will always be at avantage in regards to getting GBs leveled and P/M rate, admit they it or not, it is just in human nature. So in that sense in regards to getting GBs leveled up faster, it is sometimes better to be the big fish in a small sea than small fish in big sea.
One of the best ways for a power player to make friends is also using his goods stock to help out other players, guild leaders etc. If you have thousands of goods, it won't really hurt you giving away few hundred here and there in hopes that the player remembers it and maybe feels a bit in debt in future, choosing your GB as one of his/her targets.
Some players plunder the neighbors who do not donate into their GBs. I used their possible inability to produce the needed goods and hence the possible excistance of excess FPs in order to arrange benafical trades for them based on the amount of FPs they donate me. I find it a somewhat more effective alernative to the terror/fear strategy and more win-win for both sides. And to be honest, I have never been a harsh plunderer in my hood. This has prolly cost me due to not frustrating enough dead weight neighbors to quit the game, making me stuck in a poorer hood further away from merge, costing me potentsial PvP and rank points. But on other hand, I have seen many of them often in my GBs.
Another key element which helps quicker growth is being one of the first ones in your world or guild to build some spefic building - it will go up faster then.
It is also good if you can keep the GBs moving, trying to keep the momentum, maybe arranging FP deals with guildmates or whatever - most BP seekers love the 'in movement' GBs and are always willing to jump along if they see they are not alone actively donating into some GB. Couple of months ago I built St Marks and Lighthouse on 7 worlds(14 total) with super casual FP investment, and activity of movement was always one of the key factors when choosing target GB - would rather invest 30 FPs to get a BP in 3 days than invest 1 into a dead one and hope someone will level it few months later landing you a cheap BP(altho that is viable strat for 2nd priority GBs).
I have donated away all the FPs I make for months to my guildmates. And how do I choose the targets? Even trying to be fair, every time when I'm in a hurry or whatnot and can't choose proper, I tend to discover myself donating the FPs to the people who are most active, social and/or power players in my guild - generally the ppl I like. So I think the social factor is one of the biggest ones of them all.
