Welcome to Visions



Visions is a guide on how to create a great site, and also how to keep it running once it's been created! My name is Kat and I will be your tour guide for today. Please pay attention and read everything, because everything that you see at Visions is important. If you have any questions about anything, please feel free to neomail me.

Click on the at anytime to go back to the top!

Step 1: Getting Started

So you've decided that you want to own a site. The first thing you should know is that owning a site takes quite a bit of time and responsibility. If you know that you will be able to create a site, read on. However, if you barely get on Neopets, I would suggest not making a site.

Genre

So you've decided that your ready to make a site and you have the time! Well first, your site needs a genre. You probably already know what kind of site you want to make in your head, but if you don't, here is a list of good genres for sites.

Premade graphics

Premade graphics are very popular. However, graphics sites aren't just for anyone to run. You should have a decent image editing program, MS Paint doesn't really cut it all the time. Photoshop is great, but expensive. Gimp is free, and it's still got quite a bit you can do. Picnik is a great online photo editing program that is also free, however, you need to pay for a membership to get some of the effects. Owning a premade graphics site takes up quite a bit of time, and there are tons out there.


Custom graphics

Custom graphics sites are very popular, especially if your good at making graphics. Most people would rather use a custom made graphic than a premade one. However, a custom graphics site is very time consuming, and it also requires good image editing programs like a mentioned above.


Review site

Review sites are another very popular type of site. Many site owners want to know how they are doing and what they can improve on. You should be helpful to the sites that you review. Being harsh in a review is a good thing, but try not to be to mean just because you didn't like the site. You should give suggestions and be encouraging at the same time.

Directory

There are two different types of directories, pet and link. Pet directories list a specific species or specific color of pets. Anyone who owns a pet with that specific species or color can list there pet there. Link directories list other sites. It is divided into categories and the sites are listed in the category they fall under. Link directories are very popular because people want to get there site known.

Site of the Month (SOTM)

SOTM are pretty easy sites to run. People enter their sites into your competition and then other people vote. The voting lasts a certain amount of time after the entry closing date. By the end, whichever site has the most votes wins! They should then get an award, so there is a small amount of graphic making involved.

Guide/Tutorial
A bit like this site! A guide is an information page that helps people. Tutorials are just about the same. You can make a guide on just about anything! Site making, image programs and stuff around Neopets! Guides don't really need to be updated that much, since you put all the information down that will help people and then your done. You still need to update though, with new affies etc.

Dailies

Dailies pages list all of the dailies you can get on Neopets. They list the free dailies, wheels, fairy crossword, and everything that you can do on a day to day basis. Dailies pages need to be updated everyday, especially if you have the fairy crossword puzzle answers or the daily puzzle answer.

Quizzes

Quizzes are quite unpopular sites. You make up some fun quizzes and people try them out. It's pretty simple and easy, but you do need to be a bit creative to make one.

Your own idea

There are plenty of other ideas out there too! You can come up with your own unique idea! Why not try mixing two or three site ideas together? (If you have the time) There are tons of possibilities for site ideas.


The Name

So you've chosen a theme? Well the next thing you need to do is start thinking about a name. The name is very important to the site! It should be interesting and eye catching, but not too long. I have listed some site name suggestions. If you use one please let me know so I can cross it off and no one else will use your site name! Please credit me if you use one of my names!!

Ballroom Waltz
Fallen Roses
Overload
Inspired
Starry Eyed
Summer Breeze
Surrendered Memories
Freshly Squeezed
Tranquil Forest
Dark Side of the Moon
Painting the Roses
November Rain
[An] Unbelievable Truth
Milk Jug
Drops of Jupiter
Venus
[The] Open Book
Burning Candle
Cookie Jar
[The] Faerie Sight
Legendary Charm
Poetry in Motion
Overdue
Decoded Hearts
Dear [Your Name Here]... (Good for a request site)
Blurred Illusions
Crystal Teardrops
Time Warp
Selective
Rewind

More coming soon!

Lyrics to your favourite song could also make a nice site name. Listed above, November Rain and Drops of Jupiter are both song lyrics.





Step 2: The Layout

The layout of your site is very important, it's the first thing your visitors see when they enter the site. The layout should be welcoming, nice, clean and organized, otherwise, your visitors won't want to stay. If you have enough knowledge of CSS, you can make your own layout. Original layouts are the best. You can search the internet for guides on coding, but there are also a few around Neopets! Here are some good ones:



If you've tried several times to learn how to make a layout, and you just can't get the hang of it, the next best thing is a custom. Custom layouts are made by someone else, specifically for you! Here are a few good places to request custom layouts:



And then there is premade layouts. They are extremely popular and easy to use. If you do use a premade layout, you should edit it to make it suit your site! Add a banner, change the background, change up some stuff. But no matter what you do, never take off the original credit! Here are some good premade layout sites:



Positioning the Banner

As I mentioned before, if you use a premade layout, you should edit it to suit your site better. A banner is the first thing you should be thinking about. The banner should be nice, eye catching, and easy to read. It should not be blurry or fuzzy. Get an image and edit it so it suits your site. If you know you aren't good at making banners, there are sites that make custom ones. I would be happy to make you one at my site Golden Afternoon. However, it is best if you make your own.

The banner should be positioned at the top of your layout. It should be the right size to fit where you want it. If your banner is too big or too small it doesn't look good. You can use the code below to position the banner. This code goes in the style tags.



Change the top number to how far you want it from the top, the bigger the number, the farther down it goes. I recommend 15px, but that changes depending on the layout. Left is how far over you want the banner to be. The higher the number, the farther left it goes. Width is the width of your banner image so that changes depending on the size of your banner.

Then use this code below to put the image on your page. This one goes after the style tags.



The Background

The background is another thing your should change. It should match the image. The best images to use as backgrounds are either plain colors or something simple like stripes. This way, it doesn't distract your visitor from your content.

Step 3: The Content

In my opinion, content is the most important thing about a site, it's what your visitors came for! No matter what type of site you have, you need to work hard on your content. For graphics sites, your content should be high quality. Rushing through the images to get a lot up is not good. Quality over quantity! As an example, would you rather use banner one or two?



I bet you said number two. It is nicer than number one. Number one looks rushed, and it isn't very appealing. Take your time when making your images, and go over the coding, so you don't leave anything out. All images should be saved as .png, it saves them in higher quality so the image doesn't get pixelly.

For directory sites, your directory is not very helpful to people with only five links. You want as many as you can possibly get! Don't wait for people to neomail you, neomail other sites and let them know they have been added to your directory. The more sites your link back button is on, the more popular you will get.

If your owning a review site, you should be giving people suggestions. Don't tell them what they did wrong without telling them how to fix it. Again, reviews are something that shouldn't be rushed. Read it over and make sure everything makes sense. It doesn't matter if you've done 50 reviews or 15, if they help people out and you do them regularly, your content is good.

This goes for any site. Quality over quantity should be the motto in your head, no matter what kind of site you own. If you have good content, people will want to come back to your site!

Step 4: Getting Known

There are a few more things we need to talk about before your site is ready to open.

Link Back Buttons

Link back buttons are extremely important to your site, it gives people a way to get back to you. Your buttons should be eye catching and high quality, so that people will want to click on them. Making your own link back buttons is great. If you don't know how, try reading through Ashyaruu's Button Tutorial. If you have read through it, tried, failed, then read through it again, tried, and failed again, that's ok! There are a bunch of sites where you can request buttons. However, if you own a button request site, you should not be requesting buttons. You should make them yourself and show people what you can do. Here are some good button request sites:



Here are a few black buttons. Just copy and paste them into paint or right click to save them and upload to picnik. You must credit me for these!


Affiliates

Affiliates are an important thing to have on your site, but don't go too crazy. Your affiliates shouldn't be just random sites, they should be sites related to yours. For example, if you own a directory, your affies should be other directories. If you own a graphics page, your affies should be other graphics pages. The sites you accept as affies shouldn't be low quality sites, otherwise, your visitors might think you have low standards and it won't leave a very good impression.

Getting Listed and Advertising

Getting listed in directories is very important. The more your listed in, the more popular your site will get. The odds are pretty good that there would be more people looking at your site if you were listed in ten directories rather than two. Here are some good directories for you to start getting listed in:



Advertising on the boards also helps out your site. The best board to advertise your site on is the Help boards, also know as the HC. Use an appropriate title that relates to your site. Your site name is the most important thing that should be in the title. Other good things to add is a site slogan (if you have one), say your taking requests (if you have a customs site), listing sites (if it's a directory) or even that your looking for affies (but remember what I said about your affies).

Step 5: The Checklist

I have put together small checklist of things you should look for in your site before you officially say your site is open.

[] Nice, clean, organized layout
[] A friendly welcome message
 [] Nice link back buttons
 [] A few affies (you can get more as you go on)
[] Be listed in a few directories (you can get listed in more as you go on)
[] Navigation to help visitors get around the site easily
[] Some content (remember quality)

If you have all those things, then your ready to open and get big!

Step 6: Continuing On

So your site is officially open. You've found some more affies, been listed at more directories, and your advertising on the HC. Well you need to continue to grow!

Updating

You should update your site regularly, every day, and if not, at least every other day. You need to have an updates section where you can write your updates so visitors know what's new and when the last time you updated was. Your updates should be in a div scroll box so the pages stays neat. Here is the coding for a div scroll box:



You can edit the width and the height so it so it fits nicely somewhere on your layout.

Reviews

Once you think your site is ready, you should go in for some reviews. Don't apply for one thinking your going to get an awesome score and win an award, because you'll be disappointed if you don't. Odds are, you won't get an award from your first review, unless your site is amazing. Don't let your score get you down if it's not that great. Listen to the reviewer's suggestions and fix the stuff they said needs to be fixed! Once you've fixed everything, apply for another review and it will most likely be a lot better than the last. Here are some good, helpful review sites:



Extra Tips

Here are some extra tips to keep your site looking great:

  • Make sure there are no link borders. To get rid of any, put border=0 after the image URL.
  • Don't use marquee. Marquee is extremely hard to read so nothing should be in marquee, not even affies.
  • Use div scroll boxes if necessary. If you have lots of different types of graphics you can put each section in a scroll box so that the page doesn't extend to long, and stays organized.
  • Don't chatspeak. Most people don't like reading chatspeak and it can be hard on the eyes. Remember to use proper grammar on your site.
  • Be sure everything matches and is easy on the eyes including, bold and links.
  • Put navigation and back to the top links so your visitors can get around your site easily.
  • Save any images as a .png file.
  • Get a counter. It's a good way to keep track of visitors. You can get one at boing[dot]dragon[dot]com.
    • Good luck and have fun with your site!!