• Charismatic and bright leaders
• Prophets
  
• Followers
• Demographics
  
• Sense of community/brotherhood/fellowship
• Connection to earlier religion
• Open to all
• Social connections
• Sense of being part of something exclusive (distinctiveness/uniqueness)
• Membership card/perks for joining
  
• Sacred book
• Message (simple enough? deep enough?)
  
• Sense of need in a society/sense that other alternatives for meeting those needs isn't adequate
• Good/evil distinction
• Attractive ways to worship (places to worship, music, arts, religious calendar, relics)
• Symbols/imagery
• Sense of hope
  
• Finances
  
• Place to worship, but ability to go beyond walls of worship center
• Sense of history
  
• Credibility (evidence religion is true including first-hand testimonies, holy writings, miracles)
• Ethical standards (guidance for family life, economic life, etc.)
• Incentive to conversion (rewards and punishments/fear)
• Consistency of message and practice
• Ways of dealing with conflict (stopping doctrinal divisions, class divisions, etc.)
• Handling of opposition, persecution (turning persecution into a plus)
  
• Education/means of transmitting faith to next generation