|
|
NavigationPhase 1: Site Setup; Phase 2: Layout Basis; Phase 3: Content Count; Phase 4: Link Button Plan; Phase 5: Cleaning the Court; Phase 6: Extending Your Fame; Other Site Tips & ReferencesUpdates
November 19, 2009: New affie & place I'm listed at. What else does Apartment Nine need? =3 November 14, 2009: Since my skills with GIMP have been rapidly improving, I made a lovely new banner! (: I'll be changing the css to match shortly. November 9, 2009: I feel like I'm missing something...if you have any suggestions for this site, PLEASE neomail me! C: November 5, 2009: Finished up the review site mini-guide & tips for button request sites! (See them under Phase 3.) November 3, 2009: Fixed up broken links & finished the directory mini-guide! (See it under Phase 3.) Link BackThanks Lauren, Amy, Steph, & Rebecca for the gift buttons! :D I took down all of the buttons I made for A9 because all these gift buttons are so much better.
AffiesApply here. Your site must be of good quality. I do not accept everyone.
listed at
my other sites
Fan BaseDrag & drop where applicable.rankings Ranked #2 in guides
awards
fanmail
CreditsApartment Nine was coded, created, and written by evileh. No stealing, please. Everything I made on this page is protected by Copyright Law. v.2 Maraquan Royalty was made November 14, 2009.
|
 Welcome!making a site?Nowadays, I feel there are falling standards of sites, where everyone is focusing more on affies, getting listed, awards, and reviews. The content and quality of the sites are going down, and I feel that the only way to stop this is to make a good petpage tutorial for the future of Neopia so everyone can make a site they are proud of. Proceed, and good luck! I believe in you, guest. ^^I'd like to hear from all of my visitors! Feel free to neomail me with any questions, comments, suggestions, fanmail, etc. anytime!
*Notice, I do have references to offsite links like Boingdragon & Picnik, but I don't expressly say dot com or anything, I just mention the name & tell you to Google it. =3 need filter solutions?
Phase 1: Site SetupThe essentials of the first phase is undoubtedly planning. It's much better if you go in ready to make a site and barely improvising, than if you go in not knowing what you want or what you're going to name the site. Plan out everything from layout to colors and content before you start, so you've got a good, clean foundation in your mind. Let's get started!
genreJust what kind of site are you going to make? "Sure," you think, "I'm already past this stage" - but sometimes people are looking to make a site, just any site in general, and need ideas. Well, here are the basics:
• adoptables You can also shake it up a bit by making up your own kind of site! Like I used to have a site called Whisper* that was set up like a classifieds (you know, like in the paper?), and another kind of site called a RANKING SITE, where you put the top 5 sites of each basic category up for all to see. Get funky! Nothing's holding you back. :) site namesNeomail me if you use one of these names so I can strike it off the list! :D I will be adding more every now-and-then. *No credit needed if you use a name, but it'd be nice. :)Asterisked (*) names from Purple, "plussed" (+) names from Pip, bracketed [] names from Lauren, and ones with a $ sign next to them are from Leena! Thanks! A lot of these names could also be for review sites, if you wanted.
 Townhard DisasterPassive Intermission[The] Concentrated AbyssPoptropica+Club Desiree+[Classical Fuse][Closed Encounters][Mystical Dreams][Special Moments][Vertical Weights][The All-Seeing Eye][Renaissance Fairytales][Shielded Emotions][Pearl Hues]Deep in the Abyss+Stylish Trends+Ready, Set, Don't Start+Show Me Some Love+Falling CardsPopcorn Tin$The Neighborhood$Vai$Rokkd$Seeing Stars$My Name in Lights$Review Site Names:The TreatiseFlagpoleFallen ReviewsArraignFranchise+Irrevocable Reviews+ Rebellious Reviews+[Zen Reviews][Stretched Reviews]Medium+To the Past+Strictly Professional+Queen of Hearts$The Notebook$Misunderstoods$Understatement$Under the Stars$Once in a Blue Moon$Phase 2: Layout Basiscolor schemeThe first thing you have to start with - that is the backbone structure of your site - is the layout. If you're going with a premade or a custom, skip this. But if you want to be able to pretty much make your own with a base coding of mine, then stick around!So firstly, pick a color scheme for your site. Whether it be vague, like jelly or winter, or more specific, like pink-white-blue or something, just pick it! You kind of have to be organized when you start a new site...winging it ends up being more work when you go to clean up your site and make it presentable! Visit my favorite color chart site, Neocolors, for help on hex codes. Just remember not to use any dull colors or too many dark colors or grey. Get a balance of your color! Layout TemplatesEdit these to your heart's content, but please keep the credit on. You may use these in your OWN premades, but in your site's credits there MUST be linked credit to Apartment Nine.
2-column with CSS:
2-column without CSS:
3-column with CSS:
3-column without CSS: Just CSS: No credit needed for the following.
Scrolling box:
Non-scrolling box: premadesDon't feel like editing a template? Want high-quality premades? Visit the sites below – they're the finest in Neopia! *But make sure you read the site's rules first before using their premades.
css/html/sitely guidesDon't know CSS and HTML well? There are plenty of guides to help you, if you only you would take a look at them.
Amy's Petpage Tutorial
Find more at Soroptimist Directory! banner && fittingFirstly, all I can say is that if you don't want to download any program to make a banner (or any other graphic at that), Picnik (Google it), which is MUCH better, easier, and quicker than Photobucket's image editing, is right for you! *But if you want to download an awesome, free image-editing program, look into GIMP. (Google it.)Don't make your banner too wide or too short, as the next step is to adjust the width of your layout so the banner rests exactly right on its shoulders, like this site's does. IF you don't have the banner the same width as your layout, then it looks sloppy O.o You don't necessarily have to have a banner, but it's certainly a plus. The purpose of the banner, other than to proclaim what your site's name is, is to catch a visitor's attention when one first comes to the site and make them want to stay and poke around.
backgroundTo make your background match nicely with your banner, plop it on Paint and use the eyedropper to select the color(s) you want and make a background (striped, solid, etc.) that way.One thing you really should have is a fixed background. If your background isn't, it keeps moving whenever you scroll, and it's distractingly annoying. Just add "fixed" inside your background coding like this:
Phase 3: Content Countwhat's going on your site?!These are pointers straight from my old site, Catalogous, giving you in-depth site information and what is expected of each kind of site. Good luck!
Site Ratings Popularity Level? It means in general, how popular the type of site is based on if people would want to visit a site like that or not. Common Level? Is it really common or no? Are you being a trendfollower or a trendsetter by making one? Difficulty Level? How hard it is to get this site together. Maintenance Level? How much you have to update & prune your site after its completion, excluding affiliates. Recommended? Yes/No. Whether or not it's recommended to make, based on the other scores.
Adoptables Adoptable sites encompass anything from pixels to pet vectors. Most people choose not to do adoptable sites because they take so much time to make and not that many people adopt them anyway. This isn't recommended because there's not much sitely stuff to fuss about. You make the adoptables, you leave them, you're done. It's pretty boring. Also, adoptables pretty much are graphics, but they're a different type. They don't usually have a practical use unless they're resources or something.
Popularity Level? Medium. Common Level? Medium low. Difficulty Level? High[est]. Maintenance Level? Low to low medium. Recommended? No. Only if you're good at it, you like doing it, and have lots of time. example:
Contests This is a new trend among sitemakers, especially button site owners! People have been turning out entire contest sites or adding them to their existing sites, so why not join the craze? This is more-or-less like a SOTM, but with different skill involved. In a SOTM, it's your site overall. But here, you can make the contest of anything - graphic making, button making, you name it! (Button making is by far the most popular, but there's, of course, icon, site name, banner contests, to name a few.) - and THEN you just tally up the votes! It's a lot of fun to see the skills come out, so go grab a layout and get started!
Popularity Level? Medium high. Common Level? Medium low. (rising number) Difficulty Level? Low [est] All you do is add the graphic and tally up votes! Maintenance Level? High. Contest Suggestion: Making one of these? Get listed at Weaponstar's directory of ranking sites, contests, and SOTMs, Life's A Game! Recommended? Absolutely yes. examples:
Directories Ah, directories. Next to review sites, they are the easiest sites to make! There are two types of directories: links and pets. Link directories are sites that list links to sites, and pet directories list links to pets. Directories now have text links instead of button links (since people without an 88x31 button can still get listed), and the number of them are ever-growing.
Popularity Level? Link: low. Pet: low medium. (It REALLY depends on how big your directory is! The bigger it is, the more popular it'll be.) Common Level? Link: High Pet: high. Difficulty Level? Low[est]. Maintenance Level? Low[est]. All you do is list sites! Directory Suggestion: Don't just wait for people to come to you to get listed. Get your directory listed at a lot of places (a ton of them are listed at my directory, here), get affies, and go out and ask to list people! Well, you should actually just list as many sites as you can, but by asking, you get them to link back too, so you can get more popular. ^^ Aim to have the most sites listed, not the most site views! Recommended? Absolutely yes. example:
Graphics I think these are /the most/ popular sites you can find in Neopia, next to guides. Graphic sites are, as the name suggests, sites that offer graphics like icons, blends, blogs, backgrounds, banners, and more! Some graphic sites also feature resources (like textures, color palettes, & button bases) and premade layouts. There are some exclusive anime and Twilight graphic sites that you can find.
Popularity Level? Er...medium low. There aren't that many popular graphic sites, though there are a lot of graphic sites in general. Common Level? High. Difficulty Level? High[est]. Maintenance Level? Medium to medium high. (You gotta add new graphics, right?) Recommended? Not especially. It's not as easy as you'd like to get popular, and if you think about it, this isn't a good way to spend your time. So - only if you're good at it! example:
Guides/Tutorials Guides and tutorials are one of the most numerous of the sites. Guides and tutorials are a bit different; guides tell you all about something, and tutorials show you how to do something, usually step-by-step. So, guides are like avatar guides, game guides, and guides to Neopian elements like a specific food or pet. Tutorials are how-to's. How to make a button, how to make a petpage, how to code a blog, etc. Guides & tutorials are usually lumped together and on directories sometimes just called guides. They're also of a different level than graphic sites in a sense that they're less of skill and expection, and more of I guess "intelligence," or the show of it.
Popularity Level? Medium to low medium Common Level? High. Difficulty Level? Medium to high medium. (depends on what kind of guide) Maintenance Level? Pretty much rather low. Recommended? Yes. examples:
dailies
Dailies are basically sites that list ALL of the Neopets dailies (like free jelly, free omelet, find the hidden nps, etc.), which are activities that you can do every day. They also usually include quick, easy games you can do each day for a good amount of nps, quests, wheels, and more.
Popularity Level? Medium to low medium. Common Level? Medium low. Difficulty Level? Medium to high medium. (finding links, organizing, navigation) Maintenance Level? Low[est]. Recommended? Yes. I guess only if you can find all of them. It's only time-consuming getting all of the dailies UP. example:
Premades Ahh, your favorite. Can't make your own layout or lookup? Get a premade. The sitely society of Neopets lives off premades. And are they worth it? Of course, and it's immensely satisfying to see your work into use. The good thing is that most premade sites aren't mediocre like a lot of graphic sites are (since most bad graphic sites use premades anyway). Anyway, premades are any sort of anything coded like petpages, guild layouts, or any kind of lookup. "Premade" banners, backgrounds, and such are not of acutal premades, they're graphics. But be on the strict lookout for stealers.
Popularity Level? High. (If your premades are good.) Common Level? Medium high to medium. Difficulty Level? Medium high to high. Maintenance Level? Low medium to low. Recommended? Yes. Only if you are good at coding. example:
Ranking Sites Here, it's quite easy in theory; you have 7 categories, the basic sites: adoptables, customs, directories, graphics, guides, premades, and review sites. You pick the top 5 sites that you think are the best in each category, and lay them out for all to see. You can also have the BOTB, or Best of the Best, which are different categories like Best Site Name or layout or idea or whatnot. There are a lot of different "add-ons," as I like to call them, to this site that you can employ. Here's an idea I thought of: the Ranker. All it is is that people submit their sites to you to be rated by stars (like out of 5 stars, you get 4, you're one star short of being "perfect") and then ranked out of the other sites to be the best. So this idea is dependent on lots of rates in itself. You can also have a SOTM-like thing in having people submit/nominate their/other sites to be considered for the top, or have people vote on it. Lots of fun! xD
Popularity Level? Medium. Common Level? Low. It WAS steadily climbing, then it went out of fashion, but now it's making a comeback. Difficulty Level? Medium. Well, for finding the right sites. Maintenance Level? Low to low medium. Ranking Site Suggestion: Making one of these? Get listed at Weaponstar's directory of ranking sites, contests, and SOTMs, Life's A Game! Recommended? I suppose, yes. examples:
Requests/Customs Requests & customs are are actually different, but directories may go by one or the other and so can site names. Request sites take requests for a specific graphic/layout, which is then available for everyone's use. Custom sites make you a custom graphic/layout, like a link button or banner for your site. Here, you basically have services you offer that are customized by sending in a request for such. Examples of requests sites include button, petpage, and graphic requests. The most popular is button requests, and then the next is petpage requests because customs are better than premades, right? There has been an outbreak of many button request sites lately, not all of them very good or professional. Some custom petpage & graphic starts are along the same lines; I have yet to see very many good ones. My suggestion here is to go for what you can do well, but if you are mediocre, this is not for you.
Popularity Level? Low to high. (Depends on how good you are.) Common Level? Button requests sites are quite common, but not other types of requests. Difficulty Level? Medium high because of the amount of work it entails. Maintenance Level? High[est]. Button Site Suggestion: Making site for button requests? Don't request link buttons for your site from others! By doing so, you're falsely advertising your site skill. You see, when people click on a button site's button, they expect to be able to request a button of similar quality. But if it was someone else's skill that was exhibited on your button, it's mighty disappointing... Recommended? Maybe. Only if you have time, skill, & dedication. example:
Review Sites Aha, the most popular of Neopia's site collection! You do no wrong making a review site! Now, a review site is a site that reviews anything, really, but of course, almost every review site you'll see reviews sites only. Most of them do not review other review sites (which, I'm sure you can see, would be kind of awkward), and hardly any review guilds. Now, only a very few of review sites out there are terribly tough in grading; others are moderate; and still others are ridiculously easy. You can have a review site any way you like, with a grading scale or not and reviewing whichever style and sites you like. Feel free to be crazy and fun in your reviews (I'm looking at you, Kitty! xD) and make up a pretty original grading scale. Go wild!
Popularity Level? Pretty high. Common Level? High[est]. Difficulty Level? High/'high stress' because of the amount of work it entails; especially if you get a lot of requests! Maintenance Level? High[est]. Review Site Suggestion: Being a harsh, picky grader is different from being mean. You need to offer constructive criticism, not just criticism. Don't say something like "I don't like your layout." Who cares?! You should say "The layout would look better if..." That way you're presenting your opinion in a more professional manner and people are more likely to listen to you. Also, don't criticize ANYTHING if you can't offer a suggestion to fix it. Like don't say "Your layout is ugly." Yeah, and...? Elaborate on your statements as MUCH as possible - be very thorough, concise, and in-depth. THAT'S how you make a successful review site. Recommended? Definitely yes. Only if you have the time, dedication, and frankly, the ability to grade in-depth & fairly. example:
Site of the Month (SOTM) Whoo, let's make a contest and leave the outcome to the people! A site of the month (or SOTM) site is where you submit your site to the SOTM and see if you win by number of votes contributed to you by Neopians. It's very easy but high maintenace, so only make this if you get on pretty much every day. SOTM is monthly, so it doesn't call for too much alteration other than the entrees and votes.
Popularity Level? Medium low. Common Level? Medium. (rising number) Difficulty Level? Low[est]. All you do is add sites and tally their votes! Maintenance Level? High[est]. SOTM Suggestion: Making one of these? Get listed at Weaponstar's directory of ranking sites, contests, and SOTMs, Life's A Game! Recommended? Definitely yes. They are VERY easy. example:
directory mini-guideDirectory template:Please leave the credit on!
naming a directory:There really isn't anything wrong with putting an adjective or something in from of "directory" and calling that your site! However, make sure the adjective or other word relates to listing/helping others/etc. Like mine is Soroptimist Directory, and a soroptimist is a member of a welfare work club - so they help people like I do @ my directory! You see? "Systematic" is also a good name that doesn't have directory in it, yet it relates to the general understand of what a directory is. (Systematic means "having, showing, or involving a system, method, or plan," which makes sense, right?) Something like "Jane's Directory" or "Spiffy Directory" is VERY boring & unoriginal, and people are likely to pass your site by.But also don't have something random, like Penguin or Decked Out, as your name. People won't know it's a directory and will probably be less likely to click it! Building a directory:The first step to building a directory is getting an attractive layout. (That's why I have a template up there.) Who honestly wants to spend time looking at a really ugly layout when they're trying to find a link, eh? (This is really obvious, but it's present in directories even now, so I just wanted to stress how ugly layouts = BAD.)Now, first off: don't have a big long form for people to fill out or big long rules or a codeword in the rules or anything. It's really stupid, unnecessary, and annoying. Just keep your rules short & sweet and have a really quick form so you can attract more listers! A directory is all about convenience of the visitor! Oh, and make sure you go by text links (so people without 88x31 buttons can get listed and so you can stay neat) and alphabetize your listers. Next, don't just wait for people to come to YOU to get listed. Go out there and list as many sites as possible - you don't need to ask; people create sites to help others & would want word to get around about it. You might also want to politely neomail the owner about listing their site, though, so you can gain popularity too! ^-^
maintaining a directory:You don't really need updates, but I would recommend it so people know what's new, of course. I also recommend somehow marking the sites you'd recommend in your directory (with a pixel or symbol, you choose) so people can get to the best sites faster. What, you might think, is the point of listing "non-recommended" sites, then? Well, for one, it's to give people options, and two, your opinion is different from others so others may like a site more than you or whatnot.You should get on fairly often (ideally every day) so you can list those new sites ASAP! Closing requests to get listed is sort of silly; listing a site takes all of two seconds, and if you're too busy to even do that then announce you're on a hiatus or something. (Even so, I don't see why people couldn't submit their requests for later. -Shrug-) making a directory unique:Mm, maybe this doesn't make it unique, but have a banner for your site! It'll set you slightly apart from those sites that just grab a premade & try to get going; those sites aren't original at all. Also try coding the layout yourself!You might think that directories can't really be that original. Well, think again! My directory, Soroptimist Directory, is a "pioneer" of sorts for the directory community. I more-or-less introduced the idea of marking a recommended site; I have other ideas exclusively by me, like putting the top recommended sites of each category up & even putting links in columns; and I also have SearchSoroptimist, which is an extension of my directory and has very in-depth categories that I can't offer at Soroptimist's page so you can find /exactly/ what you need! Having a theme for your site is pretty original as well. Like my directory is pirate-themed, The Faerie Compass is faerie-themed, and so on. Think outside the box to be able to have at least one tiny thing at your directory that NOBODY else has. Because face it, directories in general aren't original - not unless you make it so! professional sitemaker advice:Here's advice for making a directory straight from the professional directory owner, Adzs (xsnowstar101x) @ The Faerie Compass!My advice would be...to not be afraid to do new things, and to try new things! Really, once you get up to that stage where you've reached your goal, it'd feel really good and you'd look back to say "I did that, I tried and I succeeded!" ^-^ Don't steal, start new ideas, bring out your inner creativity, stretch your imagination and remember there are no limits. C: ending remarks:Please, please don't copy others! I see directories around that are nearly carbon copies of mine, and that's STEALING, folks! Everything on any of my sites is protected by Copyright Law - so you don't want to break the law, DO YOU? Have some integrity and don't steal. If you want to use an idea of mine, neomail me FIRST to let me know & then credit me if I say it's ok! Is it really that hard?Also do not steal Soroptimist Directory's css. This has happened a few times and IS NOT ACCEPTABLE!! People just grab my navigation css and might change it up a tiny bit (though I know my coding so it's quite obvious), which disgusts me. If you want navigation, take the coding from this site, don't steal it from my sites! =__= That's all for my spiel on stealers. Have a good time making a directory! ^-^ review site mini-guidereview site templateEdit all you want (that's the POINT of a template) but DO NOT edit, delete, or move the credit!naming a review siteOf course, there's nothing wrong with putting an adjective in front of "Reviews" for your name. But, just like with directories, "Sparkly Reviews" or "Bubble Reviews" are extremely boring and uncreative. You can do better than that!My suggestion would be to look up synonyms of "review" and see what awesome words you can find! how to reviewNow, this is the biggest problem I see with most review sites nowadays. They aren't in-depth, they're easy, and/or they take off ridiculous amounts of points for ridiculous reasons. Sure, a review is your own personal opinion, but if you don't present your opinion professionally & lined with reason, nobody will want to hear from you at all.For example: you think the banner of a site is ugly, and want to let them know in so many words. You should NOT say "I think that banner is ugly. You should change it." You should try saying "That banner's quality isn't as good as it could be; it's actually rather unattractive. If you did this, this, & this, it could look a lot better!" The first one is indeed honest & to the point, but it's sort of rude, and people want your professional, "factual" opinion, not your outright ones. Getting me so far? stupid reasonsHere are all of the stupid reasons I've ever seen for people taking points off. =__= They're ridiculous, honestly! I hope YOU don't grade like this!
• You didn't make all or any of your link buttons. SO?! For one, not everyone is good at making buttons or really has the time or inclination. There's NO problem with having all requested buttons, seriously! If a reviewer says "I'd like to see more buttons made by you," I think you should ignore them if you don't like/want to make buttons, since it doesn't matter!
review site qualityNot only should your layout be quality (duh), but your reviews should, of course, be so as well. Don't just say "nice layout, good colors." Say "I like the layout, but maybe you could - ?" ALWAYS offer suggestions. If you can't suggest something better, you probably shouldn't mention it. And don't take off ANY points unless you can & do explain why you took off every single one. Reread your review once it's done to catch spelling & grammar mistakes, too!Yeah, and don't make your rules long and boring and have a codeword for your application form and stuff. That's stupid, annoying, and unnecessary! Most review sites have the same rules: no off-neo sites, only real sites (like no about me pages, guilds, etc.), link back, don't complain, and so on. Think things through from the perspective of the visitor before you do something! tips for button request sites• Don't request buttons from other button sites. You should be showcasing your work, not others'. Some button sites nowadays won't even let you request if it's for a button site.
• Don't get so hyped up about credit. I saw one site that said it was going to report you if you didn't credit them after 3 warnings. Extreme much?! It's just one little button you probably spent max 10 minutes on. It's hardly the pride & glory of your life. Don't be stupid about credit. Remind them once, and put it in your rules, but don't bug about it or anything. That just makes you look moronic. Like, who cares? • Try limiting requests to up to 3 so you have room for more requests at once. Seriously, who needs more than 3 buttons anyway? • I would recommend not making buttons for guilds, as they are usually short-lived and, in my experience, always forgetful to read the rules and give credit in particular. But it's up to you, really. • If you make an ugly button, redo it. Don't be lazy and subject your requester to using it. • Don't be a crybaby if the requester doesn't want to use your button. Obviously, it's ugly, but they just don't want to say it outright because they're trying to be polite. If they don't use it, just get over it. • Absolutely DO NOT make gift buttons for others unless your buttons are really good. This spares others from having to use perchance-ugly buttons they didn't ask for. I get ugly buttons as gifts sometimes, and I'm like, dude, don't "force" your bad quality stuff on others. • Then again, if you're good at making buttons, gift buttons are a good idea because it spreads your popularity. Make your gift buttons the BEST they can be! Phase 4: link button planfinding your way backIt really astounds me as to how some sites don't have link buttons! -__- I guess those sites are totally into text linking, but still. Anyway, since I already have a tutorial on buttons, let's check it out: Ashyaruu's Button Tutorial! Or you can request a button from the following lovely sites:
Also, if you're without an idea of which image to use on your button, try to keep it related to the site's theme/color scheme! You don't have to but it's a suggestion :) Lastly, make sure your button is 88x31px in dimensions! That's the size pretty much everyone goes by nowadays. Phase 5: Cleaning the Courtpage anchors/navigation cssDO NOT neomail me asking for help on these because I have explained it to the fullest here and I can't help you anymore if you don't understand!NOTE: You do not, of course, have to use the navigation css to use page anchors. I just added it in as a bonus! ^-^
Not working? MAKE SURE there is NO space between a. and nav. If there is, then the code won't work! How to use these for navigation!Use this as navigation link itself:
Back to navigationIf you have a navigation, a visitor will be wanting to get back to it after using it, right? So I advise you to have "back to navigation" links like I do at this site. Just grab the nav box links code above, change the NAMEHERE to something different from your regular navigation links, and use that the same way as described above! C:Of course, you can always make our "back to navigation" links the SAME coding as the regular navigation links. ...Not just for navigation!This navigation code can be used for anything! Navigation, affies, you name it!
If you're NOT using these for navigation, then just class=NAMEHERE inside the
site checklistAre you organized and neat? Check yourself against this checklist to make sure!
• Link borders? • Are any of your scrolling boxes scrolling left/right because some of its content is too big for its dimensions?) • Anything hanging off the end of a sidebar/mainbar? • Is everything that should be in a scrolling box...in a scrolling box? (Meaning do you have a huge "list" of graphics/whatever that can be boxed up?) • Do you have at least one link to neomailing you, if not one to your lookup as well? Make sure every time you mention neomailing you, you have it linked as well. If you don't, who's going to go through the trouble of finding out your username, going to your lookup, and THEN neomailing you? Phase 6: Extending Your Fameadvertising your site!The BEST way to get visitors to your sites is to get affies & get listed! Affies, I'm quite sure you know, is the shortened term for "affiliates," which means partners. The way affies work is: you ask someone (or vice versa) if they want to be affies. If they say yes, both of you add each others' buttons to your respective pages.Now, affies aren't to be taken quite as lightly as most people do nowadays. Affies should be exclusive and selective, not open to just anybody. You should affiliate yourself with only high-quality sites so people don't get a bad impression of your own site standards. Of course, if high-quality sites keep rejecting you, it means your own site isn't even high-quality, so how could you expect getting accepted? It's back to the beginning for you; meaning work on your site to make it beautiful!! (Naturally, high-quality sites COULD accept you, even if your site is quite terrible. But then that bodes unwell for their standards.) get listed!Get listed at popular directories and hopefully your site will stand out from the rest! Here are some of the largest & most popular directories, which are also most highly recommended by me:
getting reviewed?Get a review to see how you're doing and what you can improve on. If you get a bad score the first time/first couple of times, don't lose heart, just improve your site! And most definitely do not close down your site just because you got a bad review! The point of reviews is not to put the reviewee down, but to help them out. =3 Lastly, don't not apply for a review someplace because you've heard/you think the owner is too harsh. You want a harsh reviewer so you can get the max improvement out of a review!
Other Site Tips & ReferencesFor those of you who are familiar with Creating a Petpage or Feel-Good Sites (some of my closed sites), you have read these site tips. But I decided to bring them back for the hordes of people who've never seen them; since I've been told many times that they're quite helpful. Hope you learn something!
reference
What is b/i/u?
It's my abbreviation for bold/italic/underlined.
What is a hex code? It's a 6-character code preceded by a pound (or number) sign: # It corresponds to a certain color. Here's a great color chart that has a lot of hex codes for your easy usage: Neocolors. (You can also Google "Create Hex Codes" to pick your own color and get a hex code for it! Very useful when trying to find exactly the right shade.) But you don't have to use a hex code. The hex code has a name, like #FF1493 is also called Deeppink, and the hex code and name work interchangeably. Remember: there are no spaces in hex code names. And if you're using the hex code name for changing font color in the middle of your text (like this), it has to be in quotes. What are style tags??
The What are some internet image editing sites? I'd like to recommend Picnik. There's also image editing available @ Photobucket. At photobucket you have to have an account – at Picnik you do too (and can use Picnik without one), but unless you pay for membership, then Picnik only saves your last 5 images that you could edit again. There are many more; just Google "online image editing." What are some free, downloadable image editing programs? I'd like to recommend GIMP (Google it), which is sort of set up like Photoshop. How do I get cool fonts? You can go to dafont or fontcubes (Google them) and download a bunch of them from for free. :D It's an okay site, little or no popups – I use it myself. ^^ What does HTML stand for? Hypertext Markup Language. I have no idea why you'd want to know. But I've been wondering myself, so I put it up here. x) counterCounters are basic components of a site's construction, usually put on at the end. I recommend counters from Boingdragon (Google it); it's completely free and easy, and just make sure to add the "Ignore my visit cookie" on your counter so it doesn't count YOU for hits!You can also get a counter thing that shows how many people are viewing your site at the moment (like the blue one I have under credits) from whos amung us (Google it). timingYou see, when somebody passes onto your site, chances are they aren't coming back (if they're not affies with you or don't have a site or anything - you know?). So try to have most of your content, if not all, when you open your site and try to get the "under construction" sections filled out! Because who knows when somebody will go to your site, see what's there and think "Aah. Whatever" when there's so much more to your site?? |
NEOPETS, characters, logos, names and all related indicia
are trademarks of Neopets, Inc., © 1999-2009.
® denotes Reg. US Pat. & TM Office.
All rights reserved.
PRIVACY POLICY | Safety Tips | Contact Us | About Us | Press Kit
Use of this site signifies your acceptance of the Terms and Conditions
tags of your link 
and the 
– the beginning & ending of your css coding.