People asked me how I managed to garner so many votes,
it being my first time in the beauty
contest (and my picture, while I believe it was decent and cute,
was not nearly as good as some of the others I’ve seen). So I’ll reveal
my secrets – because the beauty contest doesn’t end with submitting your
pet’s picture. It only begins!
First, you need a fairly decent picture. I don’t mean
just putting a background on a picture already on the site – the more
of your own work you put into it, the easier time you’re going to have
getting people to vote for you. You don’t have to be a fantastic artist
(I’m certainly not, and some of the feedback I got will attest to that),
but that doesn’t mean you have no creativity. Be original! Be cute! Be
dark! Do your best… no one’s going to vote for something that obviously
wasn’t worked on.
All right, your picture’s set and entered. Before the
contest even starts, you can get to work. Start sorting through your items
and safety deposit box, and stocking your shop. That’s right, your shop.
Hundreds of people will go through a good shop every day – you have a
tremendous source of advertising at your fingertips! I’d recommend removing
most (if not all) decorations from your shop – you can put them back once
the contest is over. Personally, I can’t stand shops with eye-popping
backgrounds or hundreds of dolls, so you might actually draw some new
traffic in from your shop’s faster loading time. ;)
Stock your shop with items – food is great, but just
about anything you want to sell can go in there. Don’t price your items
yet.
Now, go to your home page (you do have a home page, right?
Yes, you do – your pet’s page!) and upload your beauty contest picture.
With a little HTML (NeoPets has an HTML
guide, that will show you how to do this… it’s easier than you
think!), you can set up a nice picture of your pet in your shop, linked
to your beauty contest page. Something telling people what it is and to
click to go vote, is a good idea, so they’ll actually click on that link.
All right, you’re ready to roll. As soon as the contest
begins, price items in your shop to be the lowest possible on the shop
wizard. Don’t necessarily price all your items at once – if it’s food,
you might want to limit yourself to a few items at a time, as the same
person can buy you out. You can generally put more expensive items in
all at once – few people have enough NP to blow on a lot of expensive
things at once.
Your passive source of advertising is now set. But you’re
not finished… oh no. Did you think this would be easy?
It’s time to go to your Neofriends. Now, don’t annoy
them – they’re your Neofriends! But during a conversation, or if you know
them well enough you can ask outright, mention that your pet is in the
beauty contest and that you’d really appreciate it if they looked at it
(you WOULD appreciate that, right?). Make sure you thank them when they
vote, too!
What do you mean, you don’t have any Neofriends? This
is a social game! All right, it’s time for you to go make some. I don’t
mean for the sole purpose of getting votes – oh, no! Time for you
to make some friends.
Cruise around the chat boards until you find one that
seems your style. Remember, General Chat is popular but moves fast – Shop
Ads, few people hold a conversation in. Choose an area that appeals to
you. You can lurk and wait for a conversation to spring up, or start one
of your own. Talk about something that interests you, or that others can
voice their opinions on (everyone loves getting to have their say). Be
friendly, and don’t be shy! There are lots of nice people out there.
All right. Now, are you a member of a Guild? I wasn’t,
but I’m certain that’s a great place to mention that your pet’s in the
beauty contest – on the message board. Make sure your Guild allows such
posts… and I’d advise against joining a guild and immediately asking for
votes.
Phew. Now, the hard part: Getting complete strangers
to vote for your pet.
Let’s face it. With over a thousand entries every week,
few people have the patience (or computer speed) to look at every single
contestant. It’s up to you to bring their attention to your pet. However,
begging on chat boards isn’t a very effective (or pleasant… it’s darned
annoying) way to do this. Make yourself useful… help people, who have
questions. If they thank you, you can always ask if they could look at
your pet. Join in conversations. Feel free to make up interesting boards
and include your beauty page address as an ending to them (but don’t just
put up a title, and then only the address!). Make boards telling people
why they should take a look at your pet – is it cute? Will it make them
smile? Will it make them think, make them sad? Give people a reason to
go see your pet. Those who look, will likely vote for.
Now, it’s going to get harder as time goes on. More and
more people will have already voted, so even if they like your picture,
they won’t be able to vote for it. You might be getting tired of trying
to think up new ways to show people why your pet deserves their vote.
But hang in there – it’s only a week! Keep restocking your shop. Keep
talking to people!
Finally, you might be inclined to cheat... to offer items
to people if they vote for you, or any other method cheaters come up with.
Don't. This is supposed to be fun. It's not worth getting
your account frozen over! And believe me, NeoPets will know if you're
cheating.
I’m not guaranteeing that you’ll win the contest – or
even your species’ division. But I’m telling you that if you work hard
at this, are polite and friendly, and have a good dose of common sense,
you will get votes. Oh yeah – by way of thanking me for divulging my secrets,
would you have time to look at my pet…?
Just kidding! Best of luck, to all those future contestants
out there! | 
