I have been an active member of several pools in the past. 

50BTC was my first, I was on PPS and learned a hard lesson about withdrawing your bitcoins to your personal wallet, but PPS was very convenient and fair for a low powered miner. 

I recovered from the 50BTC robbery, moved to mining with ASICs, I began with PPS, but soon moved to DGM.  After on going sever connection issues, I moved to BTC-Guild

I started with BTC-Guild using PPLNS and merged mining of Namecoins.  I am very please with the PPLNS payouts and merged mining.  I mine 24/7 with 110 gh/s and 1.2 th/s pending arrival.

If you do start your own pool, I recommend PPLNS and merged altcoin mining, but no matter what pay out method you choose, please be sure you have a reliable serve with consistent access and stable.  Please, Do not rob ever your miners like 50BTC did, I do not like moving pools, I am happy to stay with one group and support it.  As long as I can connect, earn and feel cheated!

Mtnminer