There really is no point to having your own network for a couple channels. IMHO, that's a waste of bandwidth. Having it on a public network would attract more people.
The only advantange of it being on your own server is you can kline/kill people. Once you get over the power hungryness, you realize those options aren't really needed.
Much easier to open another channel window, then having to connect to another network, and have more open Windows. 3 IRC networks for myself is already enough as it is.
/sigh