How to Create a Good Gallery by glowing_dreamz |  |
GALLERY SPOTLIGHT: Want to enter into the Gallery Spotlight, but don't know how
to start a gallery? Want to know some good techniques to making a good gallery?
As being one of the owners of one of the biggest Faerie-related item galleries
in Neopia, I would like to share my ideas about galleries and help other Neopians!
Ever since the Gallery Spotlight was released on January 22nd 2003, the topic
of galleries has been a major topic amongst Neopians. I hope that after you have
read this article that you will apply the techniques that are discussed below,
and use it to your advantage! Enjoy!
Collecting Gallery Items:
1. Choosing what to collect: Before even making a gallery, you have to decide
on what to collect! Will it be petpets, unbuyables, paint brushes, or something
else? That is for you to decide. If you plan to make a gallery, choose a certain
type of items that you like! Make sure to be original and creative, and to collect
something that expresses about yourself!
2. Making a list of gallery items: After deciding on what to collect, make
a complete list of items that you will need for your gallery! Making a list
can help you decide which items to get for your gallery, and is a very organized
way of budgeting yourself later on. I suggest that you split your list into
different categorizes, based on prices or the worth of the gallery items. (For
example, buyable and unbuyable items!)
3. Make reasonable goals: Okay… after making your complete list of gallery
items, start making reasonable goals for yourself! Reasonable, you ask? Don't
make goals that you know you can't accomplish! For example, if you plan to make
a Battledome items gallery and you only have a budget of 10000 NP, making a
goal of getting a Jade Scorchstone next week is unreasonable! Make goals that
you can complete in a certain amount of time, and that are possible for YOU
to complete!
4. Budgeting: Now that you have chosen a certain goal to complete, start budgeting
the NP you have! Don't go spending all of your NP at once! Make sure to budget
your NP so that after spending your NP on gallery items, you will still have
some NP left for doing restocks, quests, etc.
5. Start to collect your gallery items: Yep, time for you to collect your
gallery items! When collecting items for your gallery, start from the cheapest
items that you can afford, and then go up in price. Trying to get the most expensive
item you need for your gallery isn't a good idea, as seeing that it will take
a long time to get that gallery item! Even if you had one REALLY expensive item
in your gallery, a gallery isn't a gallery without a LOT of items! Having only
one item in your gallery, isn't much of a gallery. Though this is my opinion,
I think that the more items that you have and the more valuable those items
are tells how good a gallery is. Just don't get yourself cheap items for your
gallery, and get yourself some good-priced items too!
Getting some expensive/rare items in your gallery makes any gallery impressive,
and which makes it special! Anyone could get a bunch of cheap items and still
call it a gallery! Be special and original! Make your gallery impressive, so
that it's clearly distinctive and when people see it, they will be admiring
it in shock! So balance the content that you have your gallery, and make sure
to have a bit of buyable items and a bit of unbuyable items, too!
Creating a Good Gallery Layout:
1. Blogs: Yep, blogs. Blogs are cool graphics that contain text boxes with
your shop descriptions and anything you would like to write in it! Blogs are
very common to many shops these days, and make any shop good! (Check out my
gallery to see what a blog looks like!) When making a blog for your gallery,
make sure that it isn't too big, and that it is original! Using pre-made blogs
isn't very creative or original, and chances are, a lot of people will have
the same thing! Making your own blog gives your gallery something special and
unique, something that stands out from the crowd!
2. Colors: Colors, they are what make anything look good (or bad)! When having
colors in your gallery, make sure that they match with your blog and everything
else! Make sure to use text colors that are easy to see and match with everything
else! Don't use colors that are too dark or too light, make sure that all of
the colors work well together! Don't be afraid of spending a little time to
make sure that the colors look right!
3. Fonts: Fonts! Ariel, Times New Roman, Verdana; these are some of the many
fonts you can choose to make your gallery's text look fancy! When choosing a
font, make sure that it is appropriate and easy to see! For example, don't bother
to use a font like Wingdings, where all of your text turns to symbols! Use something
that people can actually read! People won't bother to look at what you have
to say if they can't even read your text! And make sure to choose a font size
that isn't too big or too small too! Choosing a font that is too small will
make text harder to see. On the other hand, fonts that are too large look ugly,
and make any layout have a messy and unbalanced look!
4. Graphics: Graphics, graphics, and graphics! The things that make ANYTHING
on Neopets look good! You need these wonderful pictures in your gallery! Having
graphics in your gallery make it a lot more colorful, lively, creative, appealing,
and fun to see! Having a very empty gallery with just some text isn't very exciting
to see, or special! When choosing graphics to add to your gallery, make sure
that they are appropriate, colorful, easy to see, and not too large/small! Not
only that, make sure that the graphics have something to do with you or your
gallery! (Or else it won't make any sense having those graphics there!)
5. Loading time: Loading time?! You must be wondering what I am talking about.
Well, the term, "loading time", refers to the amount of time needed for your
gallery or anything else on a website to load! Yes, people these days are VERY
impatient! In order for more people to see your gallery, try not TOO many graphics!
(Adding graphics is good, but don't get carried away!) Having lots of music
also slows down your loading time, too! Many people do not bother to wait for
5-10 minutes just to wait and see what you have that gallery of yours!
Try as much as possible to NOT add anything that you REALLY don't need in
your gallery, it will only make your loading time longer! (Of course, if your
loading time is long because of the number of items you have, you can't help
it! If that is your case, then leave your gallery as it is. If people know that
your gallery is very complete and impressive to see, they will wait for it to
load even if it takes a couple of minutes… because they know that it is worth
to see!)
Well, I do hope that this helps you start your gallery or improve it! If you
have any concerns or questions that have NOT been answered in this article,
feel free to Neomail me. Until next time, see you and good luck on your gallery!
Keep on collecting those items!
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