Guides

@Svaeshtari I have this saved on my computer at home actually, lol. It's very useful :D (I also stalk the sales forums)

@Faelwen Here we go. :)

• Try your RULES section with the dots instead of numbers and see if you think it's an improvement. Sometimes using numbers can give the impression that there's a lot more material to get through than there actually is.
• I don't think Rule Number 8 is necessary. It's fairly self-evident.
• Make sure to center your hatchling images and descriptions, and consider using a quote box for the descriptions. It's not a big deal, it just makes the listings look a little more polished.
• Be careful about putting new material (ex. a raffle) in your most recent post rather than right at the top. What you may want to do instead is reserve a post for special events, such as raffles, somewhere in the body of your hatchery rather than down among the bumps.
• As far as the content of raffles, that really isn't the area of this guide, but for hatchery promotion a good tactic is to use food items rather than dragons. That way your dragons are not devalued, and since everybody needs food you will attract more people. Obviously you may want to set such a raffle in Item Sales and link to your hatchery - take this all with a grain of salt, I have never done raffles personally.

Your section headers are simple and colorful. Good job!

@Redpyre Ahh lovely banner.

• I think "dragons with a story" is a really powerful opening statement. "...not pretty or popular" however, is selling yourself short. I think you should leave out your opinions on how pretty the hatchlings are and let the customer decide. :)
• To go with that, you may want to consider putting a bit of description in each of your hatchlings' "information" sections on their profiles, and alerting your customers that such descriptions are present. There are people who will buy just because they like the story.
• The first breeding pair image was a little mystifying at first, but I see it is simply because that dragon has four potential mates. It's all good.
• I like your bg texture splashes for the breeding pair images- would it be possible to make the white portions of the images transparent?

Very nice job with theme and graphics. :D

@icyfuzz
Thanks for the advice! I've made changes to formatting and for content like raffles I'll be using 3rd post. There's not much expect any additional info and/or updates in it, so it shouldn't look too crowded (and in case there's fourth one).
As for raffles, I've never hosted one... food would be pretty nice, but I wasn't able to grind much in Coli recently due to lags, and since I spend most gathering turns on Scavenging or Digging... if this one would fail (nobody would buy any tickets), then I'll do a raffle with different prizes. I think I'll make a thread in Raffles later.

@twitchy Could this be moved to the new Guides forum?

@icyfuzz, moved!

@Icyfuzz

Hey I was wondering if you could quickly scan my hatchery? I just threw it together so hopefully it's alright...

I have a signature banner:

A bump image:

And a new babs image (to go with "bump" posts for new baby arrivals).

Would it make sense to use the BUMP image as a Hatchery Advertiser (in threads that invite bumping)?

I'm a Gen1 breeder (or trying to be). Would you suggest adding that to the signature? Maybe the banner aswell?

I'm going to include all my breeding pairs, ungened included since I will be breeding them as I gene and breed change them (they get named exalted and/or trained since they don't sell as anything else, unfortunately). But they're still available as regular purchasable dragons.

Okay that's all I have to add to the not seen stuff. Do you plan to make a banner for this guide? I want to add this thread to the Drib-Drab post. c:

Also thanks so much for your help! It was invaluable!

@icyfuzz
I really like your guide here :3 I used it to remodel my own hatchery, and I was wondering if you could give any advice?

(I'm aware that it's missing some art pieces, and that's being worked on currently :3)

http://*******.com/k6pt3d4

@icyfuzz

I'm wondering, do you use your hatchery to sell non-paired dragon babies? Like if you have an unmated dragon who breeds with another users dragon and you split the clutch, would you also advertise those babies? Would you advertise them differently?

In my case I make Gen1 pairs (so pure Gen2 dragons) but any dragons bred outside those pairs would not meet what my hatchery would be "known for" (since it's not known so...) should I still use my hatchery to sell them? If so, would you suggest creating a different format (I feel like I would state, in bold, that these babies are not Gen2 or something).

@JerryDionLoth

• I recommend making a custom alias for your tiny url: on *******'s page just type something related to your hatchery (preferably short) in the little box. For example, the ******* for my hatchery is http://*******.com/banasaboat
• There is a lot of text in that first post and it takes me a couple runs with my scroll bottom to get to your hatchlings. Try and shorten your sentences to phrases, and limit the number of them. For example, "Please follow and abide by all Flight Rising rules and regulations;" is unnecessary
• A hatchery called "Unusual Colors" really deserves a colored banner of some kind. :) The one you use in your sig would probably work well.
• Speaking of your sig- make sure you center it!
• Under your FOR SALE section, I would change "Base Price" to "Price" and limit your underlining (don't underline the actual price). You want people to be able to quickly sort out information with just their eyes.
• Under your UPCOMING section, take out the sentences about your pairs' genes and incorporate the genes into your breed images instead.
• Some of your breeding pair images are very extravagant and beautiful, like "Desert Flames," but try and stick with a consistent organization for all of them to make scrolling through easier on potential customers. If there is too much information, people are more likely to skip over it!

Good job. Definitely finish up those breed pair images...you may want to simply remove images for any of your pairs that aren't complete so that your updates can be closer to the top. People may not be willing to scroll through all those pairs to get to it.

@Moofius

• You have a similar layout to JerryDionLoth's with complete pairs AND wip pairs. Personally I would not post wip pairs, as they can confuse customers rather than informing them about your stock.
• "Double Gened with plans to be Breed Changed from Plentiful Breeds" this is very wordy and confusing. I would rewrite your introduction to something like: "You'll find a wide range of Gen1 pairs here! All pairs are double-gened and common breeds or higher.
  
  My pairs range from incredibly tight colours, genes, and breeds to a wide range. It's a literal Hodge-Podge of dragons! You might find bright colours, dark colours, or dull colours, and pretty much everyting inbetween! You can be sure all parents are Gen1!" Even if you retain your WIP pairs I would not mention them here and instead clearly delineate their section in your line-up (ex. with a separate post for them, as you have already done).
• I would move the note about imps being Gen2 to your RULES.
• Your images are all very nice and clean, but they also look very similar to each other. For example, your bump looks almost identical to your hatchery banner, so when you post the bump it looks like you've posted your banner twice. Try experimenting with different colors for your other images.

As far as non-paired dragonkids I have never actually studded any of my dragons. I would probably put them on my acquisitions page rather than the main hatchery. If you have an acquisitions page, it can cover babies from studdings, dragons you are reselling, old breeding pairs you are selling off, and anything else that does not meet the criteria of your main hatchery.

In your case if the parents are not Gen1 I would definitely separate those hatchlings from your main hatchery page.