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Petpages:
What Are They and How Can I Make One?

by happehchan

You might hear people talking about it- a petpage. You might see someone asking people to Rate their Petpage, as well. But what does this all mean, and how can you make one? Simple- read on, and you'll have your own petpage in no time!

A petpage is sort of neopets own website you can create. Though, it's not quite like all the other site hosts out there, since the neopets terms and conditions still apply. But all considered, they're pretty decent.

A petpage is mostly as it sounds- something where you can create a page for your pet. Think of it as their own personal website. You can find the area to create it in the section titled 'Pet's Page,' in the Pet Central section. It's a button, displayed just under the banner. Once you have clicked on the petpage button, it will bring you to a page, displaying three important buttons: the edit button, view button, and stats button. The first thing to do is to click on the edit button so you can begin working on your petpage!

Now, once you are in the second a screen, you will notice a whole bunch of words- read them all over, since you'll probably want to remember it. Then, there's a big box with a ton of text. The first thing you need to do is highlight it all, and delete it! This is the generic petpage that comes with your pet- they change, depending on the species. Now, you want to remember that you will use absolutely nothing from this generic page! Your goal is to create an entirely new petpage for your pets. Yes, from scratch. So let's get working!

Now, you're going to becomes friends with the neopets HTML guide. It's located in the help section, and is a button under the neopets.help banner at the top. By going there, you will see a large assortment of html codes that will be quite helpful. But not only this, try going to the following petpages for more help!: csshelp, art, codinghelp. These petpages have lots of info on HTML, CSS, and coding. This will be very helpful around neopia- not just for petpages!

Once you've checked out a few html sites, you have to begin designing your petpage. There are many ways to do this: As a long table, that continues down the page, or as a picture, with a scrollbox on top, or whatever works for you =) The layout is a very important part of the page- I mean, who wants to read a story with yellow words on a blue background, with links that go from size 10 to size 20 when you hover over them? Not I!

The next thing you should think about is content. Pretty much what you're going to say, and what's going to be going on. You can choose a setting for your petpage, in which the pet greets the visitor, or a simple page of content. When making a page, you should try to include the following things: An opening, A story, Info on the pet, Your pets likes and dislikes, Family, Friends, Enemies, Artwork, Adopted Adoptables, Awards/ Awards won, Links to other petpages, and a link other people can link you with. You can create tons of more categories, but these are just the basic ones every petpage needs.

Once you've decided on, say, a theme, a personality for your pet, and a layout, you can get to work! Remember: when creating a petpage, check your spelling over and over. You can use the spell check in your typing programs, so just copy and paste everything into there to check if it works. Also, no redundant things- if you repeat yourself, it gets boring. Keep your petpage interesting! You want people to read it, and to link you. Make the pets preferences according to its personality, to what it thinks. If it's a pink pet, maybe it will like pink items! Or perhaps it really likes it's pink petpet! Expand on anything you can, since quality content is a must!

Now that you've got the basics down, you can go hunting for adoptables, requesting for awards, and linking other people. When requesting a custom adoptable, remember to read the rules, and check if requests are open. The same goes for awards, but even more so! If you don't read the rules... uh oh!

If you think your petpage is doing quite well, and want to try something new, you can make your own set of pet adoptables (normally the same specie as your pet) or even a petpage award. Some things for other people to adopt, like a plushie of your pet is great as well!

And lastly, to get your petpage out in the open, try asking some people if they'd like to trade links with you, and ask people to rate your petpage on the spotlights and galleries boards. People will often give you some good ideas if you ask politely enough, and will give you their honest answer.

So I hope this guide has helped you on your way to creating your petpage! Good luck!

All related images and material are (c) 2005 Neopets , Inc. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission. 
Content was created by members of The Neopian Orphanage.
Site design (c) 2005 wtrswoopes. Site graphics (c) 2005 vegetarewlz.