Have you seen all those popular guilds out there? Or maybe you've been a part of one of them? Been inspired to start your own guild? Well, this guide is for you! It will help a lot if you have some knowledge of how the guild interface works, how to edit things in the guild and hopefully knowing what a guild is. It will also help a lot if you are pretty dedicated to your future guild!

Just a quick checklist to see if you do actually have what you may need or if you understand what kind of time and effort you are going to put into the guild!

• Do you have enough time?
  Enough time to create and run your guild? In other words, do you have enough time to get your guild established so that it can grow by itself? Allow yourself plenty of time.
• Coding?
  Do you understand HTML or CSS? It's important so that you can edit the way your guild looks like!
• Layouts & Graphics
  Layouts are important in cathing people's eyes! Custom-made by a member of the guild are especially good at this but only if they're nice! If you can't make decent layouts, find someone who can or find a nice pre-made.
• Guild Operation
  Make sure you understand the guild admin, this controls most of the guild options and is very important!
• Be friendly!
  If you are nice, maybe a friend of yours will want to join the guild. Also, no one wants to join a guild with an anti-social jerk of a leader that bites their head off for speaking!

What are you interested in? This is a good question to ask yourself when choosing a theme! I think if you are going to choose a theme that you keep it broad, so NR would be a good choice because that could include anything to do with Neopets (e.g. avatar help, neomillionare, etc.) I personally don't like Harry Potter and celeb themed guilds but it is really whatever you are interested in and something you believe others would like as well! There is also the choice of no actual theme, this gives you so much more choice in what you can do!

Some ideas of themes are: Neo-Related, Celeb, Harry Potter, Scribble, Fashion, Music (any type of music), Avatar, Painbrush, Faerie, Evil, A particular animal (like horses, dogs, cats, etc.)

To me, the name is very important! It can tell you a number of things about the guild (without even looking at the guild's homepage!)

A guild name like, for example, ~.!~ fAEr1e P@lACe!!11!~~ will give me the idea that a n00b would have made it, it would only last a week and rot away (as will the owner), there would be no more council spots left, the guild page would be in bright colours that hurt any person's eyes (colours that make you squint and make you feel blind) and pLz, jiON Mi GUilD An U wiLL gIt COunICl!!!!!1111! would be typed on the homepage of the guild, along with broken links and pictures posted down the page. Ok, it may not be that bad but that is what the name says to me! I would not touch this guild with a 10 foot pole!

Then with a name, for example, ~> Faerie Palace <~ will give me the idea of a nice guild, with an active and friendly leader, maybe a few members, nice and thoughtful layout and welcome message, no chatspeak to be seen, some activities etc. I would be happy to have a look at this guild and maybe even join! So, please think very carefully about the name!

- Keep the name short and to the point.
- Write it in a language that is actually real!
- Relate it to the theme you chose earlier.
- Spelling and grammar are correct.
- You may want it to mean something.
- Stay away from using ~,!,@ etc. too much in the name!
- Try to only use letters.
- Be as creative as you can!
- Ask people what they think of the name.

The layout is very important, it is one of the things that make people stay and have a more thorough look at your guild! A few people will join according to visual appeal. No one wants to join a guild that has a blinding layout that makes your eyes hurt! The layout (along with the name) is the first impression someone will get when looking at guilds, so make sure you make a decent one! It could be the difference between someone joining your guild or someone else!

So when making or choosing a guild layout, make sure it's in neutral colours and a nice/original colour scheme! I've seen a guild that had flashing bright colours, it made me feel sick! Try to match the theme, name and layout to some extent! Make sure that it loads reasonably fast, remember that people do have slow connections. Maybe even try it on a slow connection to see if it loads fast enough. Find a reliable image host, there is no point having a really nice image, if its not going to show up. Try to stay away from one blog layouts, usually, the text is squished up and hard to read in them. If you are making a layout for your guild, try to have a few blogs, at least one for activities, one for news and one for links.

Include all important information on the front page, make sure its easy to update, include a strange fact or a short joke to keep people interested! When typing information, make sure you use correct grammar and spelling. One thing that really turns people off is chatspeak! Make sure that all information is easy to read and follow, even getting someone to read through it for you is a good idea!

Depending on your graphic and coding skills, you may or may not choose to make your own guild layout. Remember, you can always ask your friends and there are plenty of pre-mades out there if you look hard enough! Some people may even make a custom one for you, as long as you keep their credit on the layout. Make sure you follow any rules people give when you are using a layout made by someone else. Also, if someone is making you a layout on Neopets, they cannot charge you Np's or items for it, so don't get caught in a scam of some sort.

Wow, that was a long guide! Hopefully you have gotten some ideas as to what to do when creating a guild, there is a lot more stuff to do when creating a guild but these are just some of the main things!

Any information wrong? Got feedback or comments? Feel free to contact Emily.

Most images © 2000-2008 Neopets. Used with permission. Content and layout © 2007-2008 Glossy-Neo