Version 2.0

Counter started on Jul 24, 2006 Welcome to my shopkeeping guide! I'm going to cover all the basics of every day shopkeeping. If you do a good job at shopkeeping, then you can have an awesome shop and make lots of NPs. Well then, let's get going! Updates 3.17.07 Hmmm...it's been quite the while since I've logged in/updated. Hello everyone! :D It's good to see ya. So, here's the deal. I'll be checking my neomail on Mondays, Thrudays, and Sundays. If you want me to see your mail, then send me stuff on those days. Also, I'm still not going to even attempt to update the guide. I'll have a lot more time over the summer to do that, as I stated before. You all have a nice St. Patrick's Day. :D ~Topaz 11.26.06 Dark_Dream has returned, and her restocking guide has been returned to the affiliates section. Wow! It's been an entire year since I created the guide...it's been a wild ride. But, unfortunately, I have decided to close down my guide. I just don't have enough time to keep track of all the neomails that come in on top of being up to date with the neopian market. I'm in high school, and I have to make life altering decisions that need my full attention. So, I will no longer be evaluating shops or updating my guide until (probably) over the summer. This is really sad for me to do, but I feel like there's too much pressure from keeping up with this. Thank you all for all the support you've given me, all the neomails you've sent me with encouraging words, and all the nice things you've done for me. I really appreciate it. I really really do. Just to make sure I'm clear, I will not be updating the guide, however I will leave it up. I will not answer any neomails you send me, so please don't. I will no longer be evaluating shops. It's been really fun. I'll be seeing you all this summer. ~Topaz 10.2.06 Version 2.0 of Quadtails' Shopkeeping Guide is up! Most people would probably do orange and black for the holloween season, but I didn't feel like it..Haha. I hope you all enjoy it. :3 Oh, and on a side note, I'm getting an eye sore reading the Tahoma font, so I switched it to New Time Roman. A new version should come with a new font, right? 8D ENJOY. 9.13.06 It's been forever and a half since a restocked my shop, but I finally did. So, if you're interested, then check out my shop. I've also changed the font of the page. I hope it's to your liking. If you don't like it, then let me know and I'll change it back. ^.^ I've also added a Shop Evaluation section. If you neomail me, then I'll evaluate your shop and tell you what you excel in and what you need to work on. So, get to neomailing. :D I also plan on making an FAQ soon...so stick around. It might be on another petpage...I'm still deciding. But, please look foward to that! 8.30.06 I forgot to update this when I started my counter...but I've added a new counter to the site. I started it on July 24, 2006. Thank you all for visiting the site and giving me 2k hits! :3 7.24.06 Our affiliate, Dark_Dream, has requested that her page be taken off our guide temporarily. We hope that she returns soon, and that all goes well with her. ^_^ Thank you all for supporting my webpage! I hope that it has helped. 7.20.06 I've updated the "Decorating Your Shop" section. Thank you all for supporting my webpage! I hope that it has helped you all. 7.17.06 Well, not a lot has occured since my last update. I did get an award, which can be seen on my sister, Harmonys page. We have a new affiliate as well. Thank you for contacting me, Dark Dream. Thank you all for supporting my webpage! I hope that it has helped you all. 5.18.06 Oh my goodness! I'm really backed up on schoolwork here...But, since the school year is coming to a close, I will definetely have more time to hang around Neopia and give you all hints and tricks. ^_^ I apologize to all those who have sent me neomail and neofried requests for the past couple of months. My long absence has denied me the time to see all of these messages, and time has erased them. If you would please send your comments to me again, I would greatly apprecite it. Thank you all for supporting my webpage! I hope that it has helped you all. 3.22.06 Woah...it's been a while since I updated...I've been extremely busy with schoolwork and such. if you've sent me a neomail since I've been gone, i dind't get it. So...send it again! Hahaha. Anyway, let's get to business. I've added a new secion called "About me", which shows all my stats and tell you something about me. I hope you like it. 12.15.05 I've finally put up my freebies list. Sorry for not updating for a long time. I've been so busy with schoolwork and everything. The Advanced ShopKeeping Guide has been deleted, since I don't really see a need for it right now. I might not update this page for a while since I'll be helping my brother, Kadamel, with his NeoPoint making Guide. 11.23.05 The Advanced ShopKeeping section has been updated. More information is to come tommorow, but a brief summary is there for your benefit. 11.22.05 QuadTail's Shopkeeping Guide has been created! Be sure to check back every once and a while as I continue to write up my guide and make it grow. Decorating your shop So, when decorating your shop, you want to make sure it looks good and doesn't repulse people at the same time. Here are some no no's you might want to consider. Black backgrounds: I personally, can't stand black backgrounds. You have to highlight the entire page just to see what's for sale and the prices, let alone what the name of the item is. I don't even bother to look around a shop that has a black background unless I think it's seriously worth it. Too many blogs: Just keep all your information in one or two blogs. It's going a little overboard when you use more than one, and it takes about 20 minutes just to get to your items. Too many images: It's OK to have a couple of animated images here and there. But, don't go overboard, lest you want people to get distracted and forget why they visited in the first place. Some people are completely turned off by too many "blinkies" or animated pictures. Music: Okay. So, I'm enjoying the peace and quiet of my home, surfing shops and seeing what's going on. Then, out of nowhere, my speakers blare with "Since U Been Gone," by Kelly Clarkson. Now, this isn't the first time that's happened. It's soooo annoying when music is put in shops, especially music that you don't have a particular liking to. To make it even worse, some people have it so it goes over and over and over and over. It's just as annoying as blinkies. Music is disrupting, and it might attract some, while it repels people like me. Just be safe and don't put music in your shop. When decorating your shop, you should also have a theme for it. My shop, for example, has a Shoyru theme. To see my shop, click here. Another theme that a friend of mine has is Poogles. You see, there can be a whole variety of themes you can choose from. It's up to you, though. I suggest going through the shop blogs page and looking for a blog, then basing your theme on a blog that you like. Items to sell First of all, you should already have your pets in the NeoLodge. It saves money and keeps you from having to feed your pet all the time. If you don't have your pets in the NeoLodge, I suggest you do that right away. Now, I'm sure you know all of the daily freebies that you can collect every day. If you don't, here's a list for you. Coltzan's Shrine The Neopet Fruit Machine The Money Tree The Meridell Rubbish Dump Turmaculus* Grumpy Old King Giant Omelette Tiki Tack Tombola The Snowager** Wise Old King Symol Hole* Guess the Weight The Advent Calendar Potato Counter The Soup Kitchen The Healing Springs Lost Tomb of Geraptiku Underwater Fishing Monthly 2,000 NPs & Food Everything that you get from these events should go into your shop, unless you are absolutely dazzled by it and want it. Another exception is junk, such as rotten driftwood, sandles, rusty cans, etc. Everything else should be put in your shop. These are the first things that you need to have in your shop. Other things that you should have in your shop are things that you've bought from Neopian shops or just found during random events. Once you earn enough NPs, I suggest you find a specialty and stick with it. For example, I've been selling food and rarely other items for the past couple of months, but I've decided to start selling books, since there's a bigger demand for books rather than food. But, that doesn't mean I'm not going to sell food at all. I'll sell mostly books, but I'll sell bakery items when it's convinient for me. *Only works of you have a petpet. **The Snowager is awake for only 3 hours of the day: 6-7 a.m., 2-3 p.m., and 10-11 p.m., according to Neopian Time (West Coast Standard Time). How to sell But QuadTails," you say, "I don't know how to sell my items!" Don't fret, my friend. I'm about to go over that right now. The first thing you want to do is go to the Shop Wizard. Remember, the Shop Wizard is ALWAYS your friend. You should have another window open, and have your shop stock open. Copy and Paste the name of the item you're trying to sell in the Shop Wizard. Then click on Search. What you should find is a list of prices that other people are selling the same item for. What you need to do is make your price lower than the one on top. Refer to the picture below. Since the Green Cabbage is being sold at 90 NPs, you want to make your price a little lower so that it sells. So, you should sell your Green Cabbage at 85-88 NPs. How to buy QuadTails," you say, "You still haven't told me how to buy at main shops yet." Be patient, mi amigo. I'm about to get to that. In order to buy from a shop, you have to click on the item and be prepared to haggle for it. First you have to enter the number of NPs you're willing to pay for this item. You can't go crazy and say 1 NP, because it won't work. Refer to the picture below. Since this item is worth 207 NPs, we're going to haggle with the number 180. Then you have to click on the most boldy colored Neopet in the picture. After that, you should have a successful purchase! Where to buy Here are some main Neopian shops that you might want to consider buying items from. Neopian Fresh Foods This is the place to buy all kinds of food. I've bought plenty of food here, myself. It's fairly cheap. The Chia Chef is super nice too! Magical Bookshop People say that this is the place to go when it comes to buying books, but I've only bought about 1 or 2 from here. I never catch the restock, but the books I bought sold fairly quickly. Mabye I'm just not very lucky...The Blue Nimmo is always reading, so I've never been able to ask him when he restocks. Oh well... Neopian Pharmacy If you want to buy medicine for your shop, this is the place to go. But, don't buy everything from there. Not everything will sell right away (or at all). I had to learn that the hard way. I'll tell you the items that didn't sell in my shop in my next update. The Elephante there always wants to give me a shot, and insists that I'm sick. But I'm not! So, I don't go there very often. The Bakery I come here all the time for my favorite pastries! It may be expensive at times, but for the most part, it's an awesome place to shop at. The Breadmaster likes to show off when making his merchandise, and I love to watch! The Chocolate Factory Mmm...chocolate. I love going to the Chocolate Factory. Topaz tells me that the Kiko shopkeeper looks a lot like someone she calls Willy Wonka. I wonder who he is...Anyway, some of the stuff there is very expensive, but I've heard that it sells really quickly. Topaz has heard that a lot of the items there are requested in Faire Quests, which would explain why the items there sell so quickly. Faerieland Bookshop This is the best place to buy books! I recommend buying "The Green Book" and "Playing with Fire" and selling them at around 750-870 NPs. I've gotten a lot of NPS from these two books. Don't buy Faeire Folks or that Rainbow Book! They aren't worth anything! The Faire who owns the bookshop likes doing crossword puzzles, a lot. Those are all the shops I buy at right now. Check them out and see what you can do. Expanding your shop size Expanding your shop means making it bigger so that you can sell more items. Making your shop bigger costs NPs. If you think you want to expand your shop, ask yourself the following questions. Do I want to sell so many items that all of them won't fit in my shop at once? Do I really want to spend (cost of expansion) amount of NPs just so I can sell more items at the same time? If you answered "Yes" to both questions, then expand your shop. If you answered "No" to both questions, then don't expand your shop. If you answered "Yes" to one question, and "No" to the other, I suggest you don't expand your shop. Save your NeoPoints Put all of your daily freebies in your shop, and sell them every day. You should continue to do this until you have a steady flow of NeoPoints coming in. Don't depend on your shop for your NeoPoints. Your shop shouldn't be the only thing that's helping you earn NPs. You should also be playing games, entering contests, etc. I will be making a guide on how to make NPs as soon as I'm done creating this guide. Keep at it and you'll be rich in no time at all! Shop Evaluation/Shop of the Week Do you feel like you need your shop critiqued? Well, I'm here for you! If you'd like, Topaz and I can take a walk through your shop and we can tell you want you need to work on and what you're doing very well with. If we feel that your shop is very excellent, then we'll feature it as our shop of the week! But, you have to have the following standards: It must be well organized and neat. The colors must match and they must be adaquete. None of the "Shopkeeping No no's" should be in your shop (music is a small exception as long as it isn't annoying). More rules to come. Contact me Did you find any information in my guide helpful? Do you have any comments, questions, concerns or suggestions for my guide? Perhaps you would like to submit some valuable information. Then, by all means, please neomail me and my owner, Topaz. Credits I'd like to thank... www.cloudneo.com for the awesome background. Al for the list of freebies,HTML help, and Snowager information. Please, please, please don't take any information off this site without asking me and Topaz first. I've worked very hard on this guide and Topaz will get very angry if she finds that you took something without permission. All you have to do is Neomail her. It's that simple. Affiliates This is a great place to learn about restocking. It's one of the best ways to make money in Neopia, and Ayperi has definetely explained how to do it very well. <a href=http://www.neopets.com/~QuadTails><img src=http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/4381/shoyruad3hd.png></a>