A Neopian's Guide to Increasing Membership in Your Guild

Congratulations! If you have just created your own guild on Neopets, then you're well on your way to having a lot more fun on the site. As fun as it may seem to be the head of a guild, however, it's a lot of hard work. The hardest task facing most Neopian guild leaders is acquiring new members. With over 900 million users on Neopets, it would seem as though you wouldn't have a problem with having too few members, but the reality is that relatively few registered users actually join guilds. That leaves you with the question: how do I get more people to join my guild?

First off, put a little effort into making your guild's homepage look nice. Find a themed template from a Neopets-related site or ask someone on the forums to make one for you. Having more than just the basic layout shows Neopets users that you are committed to making this a great guild.

Freebies, or "newbie packs" are especially popular in Neopets guilds. A small trade lot, consisting of a couple good items, can be offered to those who have been a part of the guild for 1-2 weeks (it's better to wait, rather than giving the newbie packs right off the bat, because many members will take the items and leave if you make it easy for them). You may want to add further requirements to receive newbie packs, such as twenty posts minimum in the guild's forum, in addition to the 1-2 weeks of membership. So, how do you pay for the items in these newbie packs?

Guild shops. This can be your own personal shop, or another member whom you trust. Many Neopians price simple items such as sands, omelettes, and plushies at prices between 1,000 and 10,000 neopoints. While this may seem ridiculously overpriced, members who buy these items are transferring their own neopoints to the guild (since direct neopoints-transfers don't exist yet on Neopets). You might want to hold donation drives to encourage purchases from the guild shop, such as giving the biggest donor of December a Christmas Petpet Paintbrush, or the biggest donor after five weeks gets two codestones. Don't give out lame prizes, or there will be no incentives to donate in the first place.

One-neopoint auctions are also popular in guilds. By making everyone in your guild your neofriend, they will gain access to your neofriend-only auctions in which you may price items as low as 1 neopoint. Offering faeries, codestones, or other valuable items for 1 neopoint to guild members is a great reward for their membership in your Neopets' guild.

Marketing your guild is very important if you are looking for new members. There are thousands, if not millions, of guilds on Neopets, and if you don't get the word out, you'll never find new members. Hold membership drives, where current members go on the Guild subforum on the Neopets' forums and recruit members. Offer prizes to those members who recruit the most newbies. All you need for confirmation is a post from a new member on your guild's forum, stating who they are and who recruited them.