The Adoption Agency Guide by Ellie

Ever wanted to become a Neopets hero? Im here to help you become that person, with this useful guide that I have written, to help you set up your own Adoption Agency. Creating it is very simple, but maintaining it, its challenging depending on your profits and youre Staff. A lot of people have asked me how to start your own Adoption Agency (or AA), so I came with these steps to help you. Enjoy!

First Step

Take a piece of paper and write down your Menu categories. This may include any Activities, Contact Form sections, etc. The more events you have going on, the more interesting your Agency will be! Heres a list example of what you could have:

The Agency

• History
• FAQs
• Staff
• Contact Us

Pets

• Pets-to-Adopt
• Pets Pending
• Applications
• FAQs

Misc

• Advertise your Agencies
• Banners and other Cool Stuff

Second Step

Now that you have decided how your Agency is going to be divided, its now time to design a cute layout. The key of this is to keep your layout simple, but attractive. Ever seen an advertisement that has a lot of information, a lot of bright colors and drawings? What happens when you look at that advertisement? Doesnt it give you a headache or sometimes you just dont get it? Well, its the same with layouts! If you have too many stuff going on, people will get lost and will never go back (or they might become haters and Neomail you until you die).

A basic layout will include: a banner, a navigation bar, a section for your updates, a color scheme and of course, a section to advertise a pet thats up for adoption. But, how do I do that? You may be asking yourself right now.

You first need a computer program that you can use to make your graphics (banners, pictures, etc.). The most popular ones are Photoshop CS2 (and CS3), Paint Shop Pro, and the basic MS Paint that comes with your computer. Of course, I would always recommend Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro, which you can download for 30 days from the Adobe website because; your images will be high quality. But, dont worry; you can still make greatness using MS Paint.

For the navigation bar and your sections, you need to learn basic HTML or CSS on Tables. There are many websites where you can search for HTML or CSS tutorials. Even Neopets has a tutorial page, that can be found HERE (http://www.neopets.com/help/html1.phtml) to help you get started with HTML. You can always do a Google search on HTML or CSS tutorials. This user has created a Petpage where you can learn more about CSS. This can be found HERE (http://www.neopets.com/~csshelp). Usually, sites that have coding tutorials will have a list of color schemes and codes that will help you choose easily. You can visit this site (http://www.computerhope.com/htmcolor.htm) and you will find a list of a lot of colors you can choose from for starters. You may also want to do a Google Image search and you will get larger panels on color codes. But, under no circumstances, use bright shinny colors! I know for some this is very cute, but we all want to keep our sight intact =). If you dont know how to combine colors, you can Google Color Theory tutorials that will help you decide what colors to use. Under your navigation bar, you should write the list you came up on the First Step. Once it is done, you can look for other ways to fix it, maybe two sections can go in one, and so on. Under your updates, you will write everything that is happening on your Agency. Maybe theres a new pet that is looking for a home or maybe you have to go away for a few days, and so on. Heres a sample form:

(The date of the update) August 28th: (your update) There is a new pet in town! Check it out under the Pets-to-Adopt section.

Dont worry, it looks hard at first, but once you start doing it the fun will make it all easier, trust me. Now, at this point we have a cute layout and our menus! But, what are we missing? Well, the whole point of an Adoption Agency is of course, having pets to adopt!

Third Step

Think about how you want to run your Agency. Do you want to have Staff? If not, how many jobs are you going to have for yourself? Also be prepared to replace any of your Staff members in case they go away on holidays or are sick. Heres an example of a list of Staff Members:

Staff Member 1: Co-Owner Staff Member 2: Graphics Department Staff Member 3: Contact Info and Advertisement Assistant Staff Member 4: Applications Assistant Staff Member 5: Coding Assistant

When you pick your Staff, I suggest you pick people who are experts in every area, at least know the basics so they can replace someone in case they go away. If, you find only one person who is good with Graphics and you arent good enough to replace that person, I strongly recommend you hire 2 Staff members for that category. When it comes to Staff, take the time to select and get to know them. This is very important because, there are people out there who just apply to brag and will only stab you on the back in the end. Open Staff Sign-Ups for at least 2 weeks, that way you will get plenty of applications to choose from. At last, but not least, set up a set of rules when they apply. For example, only request for Neopets Users who have been playing for at least 12 months or so. To run a successful Agency with Staff, it is ALWAYS good to have serious and honest people.

Fourth Step

Your pets and the profits. People are always looking for good strong pets, they dont have to be the strongest, but people want pets in good condition. For this, you need a lot of neopoints so you have to make sure you have enough funds to run to start your Agency. Here are a few ideas:

1. Each Staff Member sends a report on how many neopoints they have available for the Agency. Dont make them send you the neopoints, but use those reports to make calculations on how much you can spend per week.
2. Each Staff Member must have at least 2 spots available to adopt pets.
3. Organize a day on which Staff Members can send a codestone, heal potions, or even paintbrushes to help the cause, or a day on which you all do something for the pets you currently own.
4. Try restocking or playing games in order to earn more neopoints.
5. Assign each Staff Member a Pet section. For example, if you have a Limited Edition pet section, assign a Staff Member the position to keep track of that category.
6. Come up with a set of rules and Agreement for the users.
7. Have fun and dont fight! Even if you disagree, try to come up with a solution to the problem. Work as a team because, if one fails, everything goes down the well.

Right now the Neopets Pound is under maintenance, so you cannot transfer any pets. However, you can start planning your Agency, learn to code and start building your own Agency Empire! Make it a nice experience and I hope this guide has helped you. These are only basic ideas, but you can add as much as you want! – Ellie