__Ari_ got their homepage at Neopets.com

Fact: Guilds are great! Guilds are one of the best assets Neopets has to offer. Guilds help Neopians get to know other members who share the same interests as them, creating roads of potential friendships. Guilds help you build a great social network to enjoy Neopets in ways you may not have known of before.

However, guilds can also be a very difficult thing to manage. Many Neopians create one thinking it'll be a blast, but after a while get bored of it and abandon it. Others try their best, but they can't get anywhere with it. That's why this guide exists! To assist those who want help, get the help they need.

Step One: Motivated? Dedicated?
Before you even click on the link to create a guild, think about it first. Are you 100% sure you are going to be truly dedicated to your guild? Spend as much time as possible to come up with good ideas, entertaining events, and make your members have reasons to stay?

Guilds take a lot of effort, time, and (at times) neopoints. If you don't have either of these things, don't create one. Please don't clog up the guilds pages. When you go to search through the guilds in the neighborhoods, there are more guilds that hold just 1 member rather than 50. It would be best if you simply avoid creating a guild if you know you won't be able to do anything with it (at this time); it hinders other people from finding a good guild when all they see are abandoned ones.

Step Two: The Name
Thinking up ideas for names can be very difficult, but once you find that perfect one it can bring in many people. They don't have to be literal, mystery attracts people too. Just avoid having looooooong guild names. Avoid having guild names *@lIkE THiS!~! too. It's alright to use numbers in your name, but don't go overboard. Unless your guild for some reason is centered around l33t speak, don't use numbers as letters.

Step Three: Theme
I made a board the other day on what the most popular guilds were. Only a few responded, but celebrity-themed guilds appeared the most. That's alright, but from my personal experience, I believe the best guilds have no theme. It's just there to help fellow Neopians and be a pleasant experience. Faerie-themed, paintbrush-themed, anime-themed, etc. are okay too, it's a common interest that draws people together. My only suggestion is to do some research first.

Try to frequent the Guild boards and tally up what the variety is in the themes the Neopians are advertising. If you see 50 guilds dealing with Harry Potter, it might be best to not do Harry Potter. That is unless you love the series so much you want to take the chance.

Step Four: Neighborhood
The neighborhood does not need to be of great importance, but it can help you boost up that member count. How? Normally for those who still use the neighborhood searches instead of the Guild boards, they will click on the less popular neighborhoods to search better through the guilds available. So try to place your guild in one of those, that way you have more of a chance of people stumbling upon your guild.

Step Five: Description
Once you have the top four done, you can now think of a good description to attract others. It's not a good idea to introduce yourself in your guild's description, that's what your user lookup is for. Hi, my name is ___ and I'm __ years old. I've been playing Neopets for __ months and..... Please avoid this! Describe what your guild is actually about, with proper grammar if possible (believe me, it's possible).

Step Six: Co-Owners
Every time I visit the Guild boards, I see about 5 - 10 threads asking if anyone wants to co-own a guild with them. This is a definite no-no. Why? Because you want someone you can actually trust and come to with guild problems you may have, rather than some stranger. Am I right? There are many greedy users out there, a sad thing to admit, that can take advantage of the members of your guild and yourself.

It's best to have your co-owner somewhat financially stable and knowledgeable. That way they can help you host events, although please remember contests are not allowed on Neopets. Either way, your co-owner can and should be helping you.

Step Seven: Other Council Members
On your council, besides yourself and your co-owner, you have 3 places left. Give them away wisely, not to the first newbie that applies. Make requirements for certain positions so you'll end up picking the best. I'd wait a while to get to know my members first before anything. Or you can have 3 other trustful friends on Neopets ready to help fill in the slots, so the trouble of looking for other council members is quickly taken care of.

Yet at the same time, please make sure that they all pull their own weight. Don't just place your friends on the council for kicks, make them actually work. I'm one to be a semi-perfectionist... so when I see I'm doing all my council work, but the others are slacking off, I get fed up and just leave the guild. We don't want that now.

Step Eight: Administrative Powers
Now I can relate to others and understand why many guild leaders don't like letting others take care of some things for them. But, it doesn't make it right here on Neopets to take care of everything yourself. The council members are there to help YOU, to make things easier for you, that's why you chose them right? So let them do their jobs.

And meaningful jobs too. Don't give out random jobs, like assigning someone to get a certain number of views each day on your guild... that's not cool! While we're on the subject, be sure to give your co-owner all administrative powers, that way they actually feel like a co-owner.

Message Board: Deletes board messages, removes messages from a certain user, or removes messages older than a certain amount of days.

Layout: The power to create/edit/delete the guild's layout. Also has the power to delete/upload a new guild logo and edit the hierarchy.

Poll: Create/edit/remove the guild poll.

Members: Can delete, change rank, suspend, and ban members.

Calendar: Removes entries from the guild calendar.

These jobs don't need to be given to one certain person each; some council members should have access to more than one jurisdiction. Think clearly about how you give these powers out. To name an example, the layout. Only 3 people should have access to it: Owner, co-owner, and the layout creator (Who is suppose to know HTML/CSS and is not just placing up premade layouts).

Now I have seen many guilds give this power to all the council members since they have a council chat. My personal opinion on that is to avoid it. Mostly because it serves little purpose. That space could be used for more important information regarding your guild. If you have an announcement, just place it under a news blog or in the message board. If you insist on having a council chat blog, make sure it's used well.

Besides what is listed above, you can also give out jobs like managing the 1 NP auctions, handling the website, newbie pack duties, and more. Please make sure for all these jobs, everyone is doing it right and on time.

Step Nine: Sub-Council
Before even creating a new blog on your layout for a sub-council, stop and think. Why have them? Do they serve any purpose, or are you just doing that to attract more members? People on sub-councils are just members whose names are featured on the layout, many guilds don't even give them jobs. So unless the sub-council can have an actual purpose, don't create one and ask for people to apply to be part of it.

Step Ten: Ranks
Guilds have 5 ranks besides the council. A default for when someone joins the guild, and then the 4 higher ones. People with certain ranks can only do certain jobs, like invite others to the guild (More useful if the guild is private), but aside from that it isn't really all that important. Most guilds I've been in make a requirement of donations, a certain number of member recruits and/or a certain number of posts to reach these higher ranks. The guild's website (Details further down) should have information on ranks. Neopets does not allow donation requirements for higher ranks, which I believe is a good thing. To donate neopoints just to get a a different status name is wrong and actually seems odd.

Step Eleven: Layout
We finally reach the layout problem I've seen so many guilds have. Let's start off with saying that premade layouts are not bad, however public opinion has shown that a large percentage just don't prefer them. Custom layouts are favorites to most, because it shows effort was put into trying to bring in members with visual appeal.

Always remember that many people do not have fast internet connections, so be considerate. If your guild takes too long to load for them, or it freezes up their computer from just viewing it, take down that layout immediately and find a new one. For help creating guild layouts, you can visit this petpage.

Music, the dreadful noise that can scare many away. Unless your guild is music-centered, or you're using a low toned midi, don't put random mp3's in your guild. It slows down many people's browsers from loading the page, or may even freeze up a person's desktop. There's always the possibility that visitors might not like the music you picked at al!.

To host your layout, it might be best to not use Photobucket (the free version). All other images should be uploaded there except the main layout picture. Bandwidth is an issue you're best to stray away from (and Photobucket won't help you much there). If you want a lot of views and a lot of members, then stick to a free image hosting site like imageshack.us or imagecave.com. Or you can use a private FTP host to avoid the Bandwidth Exceeded logo. That logo, seen below, can cost you a lot more members than you'll know.

{ Explanation on Bandwidth: Assume bandwidth works like money. Photobucket gives you $20 every month (An allowance). Your pictures are small amounts of bills themselves. Everytime someone looks at any image in your Photobucket account, you lose money. When people view too much of your stuff, you go over the $20 limit Photobucket gave you to start off with. So now you have to wait until a new month restarts your balance and you receive your next allowance. }

When putting up information in your layout, try to avoid placing things such as a blog introducing yourself, a council chat, etc. Only place meaningful information members and visitors will be interested in. Speaking of which, I've seen many guilds avoid putting up a layout altogether and simply pasting text. Do NOT do that. That's unattractive and shows no effort!

Continuing on this matter, many people do not have the advanced graphic skills like some others do. Though it is a disadvantage, there are many people willing to create a custom one for you for free. I stress the Neopet rule of paying for layouts. Don't do it, the person charging you is not allowed to do this! You can give them an item or donate to their shop only if YOU suggest it, not if the other person demands it.

On your guild council, you should already have or be in the market of recruiting a good graphic maker to make custom layouts for the guild, it saves you time. A good idea would be to try to have a new layout bi-monthly or so. Or if you have one so good it keeps attracting many members, stick to it!

And referring back to premade layouts, if you're going to use one, leave the credit up so it can link back to the place you found it. AND please remove the TEXT HERE writing the blogs carry for premade layouts.

Step Twelve: Website
Everyone guild should have their own website. It helps new members find information quicker and the old members be up-to-date on things. However, when I say websites, I don't literally mean you need to go to a free web hosting site and create an account. You can use your petpage! But remember to make it look nice. Don't paste a variety of blogs that Neopets offers for shops as information blogs for your guild. It's not creative and looks sloppy.

Make sure your website has actual information, not just a clutter of banners for people to advertise with (more on banners in the next step). Have an explanation of rules, trivia, special events, auctions, newbie packs, guild ranks, etc. on your website. Have useful links (whatever you left out of the guild layout to avoid a mess), and most importantly... actually UPDATE.

If your last update was somewhere in January when we're all the way in August, your members will get disappointed and probably leave the guild :( It demonstrates inactivity!

Step Thirteen: Banners/Graphics
To advertise your guild, create banners to attract those who see them. However, I stress the size of your banners. I've seen banners the size of wallpapers. That does not attract more people, it just shows how inexperienced the graphic creators of the guild are. Have them at a meaningful size. Not too wide, not too lengthy. And do put effort into them, like the layouts. If you are just simply going to paste text on a image you find randomly on Google, it won't get the attention of many.

And if you are going to use premade banners from other sites and just add your information on the banner, give credit to that site or Neopet user, unless it's already on the banner. Do not erase the credit from the premade banners, as well as layouts. Actually, any graphics you take, never remove the credit.

Step Fourteen: Message Board
Be sure to create rules for your guild's message board. If someone joins and all they see is a 3 page conversation between two people on how the color blue is not such a pretty color, most likely they'll leave. Keep people from spamming, and have an active board. You can make a requirement for people to post meaningful posts twice or once a week, proving they are still alive. Unless you don't mind an inactive board and inactive members, you don't need to worry about this part. But just because you don't care about the unfriendly people in your guild who never post in the boards, others who join might.

Step Fifteen: Friendly
Be friendly, no matter if you're part of the council or not. Friendliness brings more people in. Making them feel welcomed, showing you actually acknowledged that someone joined, makes others feel important/special. An idea to achieve this is to do a daily or weekly check on the members list and see who joined recently (Unless they've already introduced themselves on the board). Give them a warm welcome, and some warm soup!

Step Sixteen: Newbie Packs
I'd like to start off by saying you don't need newbie packs! Personally, I just find them to be a nice incentive. If you'd like to reward your members for being a part of your newly established community, newbie packs are a great way to do that. However, be sure to be cautious. You don't want to have members that only join to get items. You end up losing things you could have given away to trustworthy and dedicated members.

For the newbie packs, make them have a requirement of staying for a certain amount of time. Don't make it a year, as that's unfair, but somewhere around 2 weeks or so. Having to post a certain number of times too, showing they are active, is also good. But remind the members that spam doesn't count towards their message count.

Also, don't put junk in your newbie packs. Things worth 1 neopoint are best to avoid. You don't need to give away expensive items eeither, but at least let the members feel their contribution to the guild's activity is appreciated. I won't name a certain price range, use your best judgment. Again, it's not necessary.

Step Seventeen: Contests
The following was taken from the Neopets Help Section. This proves that contests in shops, guilds, and anywhere else inside Neopets that the site itself isn't hosting, are not allowed.

Contests, raffles, or any other promotions promising a prize are not allowed on Neopets whether it be in a user's shop, guild, etc. The Neopets terms and conditions state that promotions offering prizes of any sort (including contests, raffles, lotteries, chain letters or any kind of giveaway) are not allowed.

If you come across a guild or shop owner that is breaking this rule, please use the abuse reporting form to inform the appropriate parties. We need your help to enforce this rule. Some people use so-called contests or raffles as a way to scam people out of their NP and/or items, which is why they had to be banned altogether.

If your guild has a competition that offers NO reward or prize, this is not considered a contest, so it is okay. Just be careful how you advertise the competition. If you refer to it as a contest, the monitors will assume that it means a prize is being offered and you will likely receive a warning.

Step Eighteen: Events
Many people hold random giveaways in their guilds. Some give away map pieces, paintbrushes, petpets, other rare or expensive items for being the 50th member. These are good ideas to do. Try to be creative, like selecting a member of the day for being so friendly to newbies and such.

However remember what step 17 says, don't make it so it seems like you're hosting a contest. Contests are not allowed.

Adoption agencies are a fan-favorite amongst guilds. Neopets do allow guilds to have adoption agencies, and now with the transfer option at the pound it's made these types of events easier for guilds!

You want more ideas? How about hosting battledome tournaments? You like the plots Neopets comes up with? Well, make your own! Be creative with your events! And remember, not all of them need to cost you neopoints. Just make it FUN to be part of the guild!

Step Nineteen: What To Do With Donations
From the donations your guild may receive, don't keep it all for yourself. That's scamming. Buy something expensive to hand out to your guild members, it's what the donation guild is meant for. Also, it's best to put up a guild till somewhere on the guild's layout, as it helps others know you are not ripping them off.

Step Twenty: Auctions and Trades
Unless the members have stayed for a number of days/weeks, and have been reasonably active, don't let them participate in special auctions or trades. Otherwise it proves they just joined to get the items and will then leave. No one wants that!

Step Twenty-One: Advertising
When you want to advertise for your guild, be sure to have everything already set up. Don't advertise a guild that has nothing on it.

Many people have ads for their guild that are not exactly believable. Receiving a rare book the minute you join? While still giving away paintbrushes every day? Chances are this is completely untrue, and the guild is just trying to buy you in. Don't create a guild and only have items/neopoints to offer. That attracts people that are only in it for the items.

Banners are great, but you can only see them in user lookups, petpages, or shops. When it comes to advertising on the boards, text ads are your only option. Be sure to make your text ad decorative while at the same time informative. However please avoid adding too many *'s, #s, ^'s. It makes it hard to read the actual words. And when someone in the Guild boards makes a thread stating they are guildless, read their entry. If they ask for no anime guilds, don't post your anime ad!

Dont's

Don't start a guild if you're not dedicated and/or able to maintain it.

Don't n00b speak. It annoys people. @nD yOU dNt WÅnT 2 dö tHaT!!1!

Don't let members spam your boards. Set rules.

Don't let anyone host contests. Prevent your guild from being deleted.

Dont let others advertise other guilds they may own on another account in your board. That can cause a drop in amount of members since they are more interested in the other person's guild.

1) Why should you give me advice?!

I have been in many other guilds, and been part of their council in each one, so I know my way around. Problem is, all those guilds had poor management problems. I was just one person trying to do my job while the others did nothing. After a while I'd leave. Now you know my inspiration for this guide.

2) You know all this, but you don't even have your own guild?

I don't manage my own guild at the moment because I'm part of a great one already, The Neo Project. They do everything right like this guide advises!!

3) I followed all your steps! It doesn't work! Also, other guilds that just have 'hi' in the description have over 50 members, while I put effort and only have like 5! What's the deal?

Patience is key my friend... But I have seen this happen several times; it's truly sad. It takes away from the good guilds out there, but don't let it stress you out. There are many Neopians out there looking for a meaningful guild, they'll come to you.

4) Did you make this page yourself? Can you make me guild layouts/graphics/etc.?

All the image editing & coding for this page was done by me, Animefreak869, so please don't take and claim as your own. Also, I'm no longer able to fulfill individual requests, sorry!

5) When was this page created?

This page was created on August 1, 2005. Updated last August 02, 2011. This page is now a part of So You Need A Guide, Pet Guides, Elle's Help Guide, Soroptimist Directory, Zioned Directory, Affinity, Smiley Central, Spark, Plethora, Beneath the Waves, Barcode, HOTL Directory, A Small List, Ellie's Directory, The Faerie Compass, Enchanted, Angel's Directory, Lemon vs. Lime, LPD and Silver Directory.

I hope this page was helpful! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to neomail me! Feel free to link back to this page! Refer to it as many times as you like, and please spread the word. And if you have the time, check out my other petpages!