I’m sure many people have heard of Neopets (http://www.neopets.com) and I’m just wondering a few things…
[size=1]First of all, I’m not here to advertise =)
[size=2]I’ve played it for two years a year ago. There are many games, features, virtual places, and persistent updates. Other than on the site, I’ve also seen them advertising at huge places, either for page clicks or employment, which are also full time employees.
So i figure this must be a huge company. It has Mannnyy members that visit the site everyday. But here’s my question - **how do they make their money? **There aren’t ads on the web site. There are no liminal messages. Nothing. And they keep it so tidy, professional, and big. I’m just wondering, how in the world do they keep the site running and their employees from fleeing to McDonalds.
Well now they’ve got a crapload of merchandise onthe shelves. Lots of stuffed animal toys and a card game, a la pokemon and yugio. I think they did have some advertiser links before. “100 neopoints by clicking on our sponsors ad”, etc. I’ve played some of the flash games on the site and they have movie and cereal tie-ins, too. It does seem like a massive project for not a lot of in-your-face advertising, though.
Yeah, and so what if a 20-something y/o guy was playing around on neopets. I even got a friggin lab map, so there.
are they the ones you can buy gifts to give to other people and their pets? Like what would cost 5 dollars in real life costs like 5 cents in their imaginary store or something? I could be thinking of something else, but that seems like a decent way to go.
They have a huge marketing thing going on, selling stuffed animals, virtual pets, clothing, etc. Plus, some of their games or special events are sponsored by big companies.
They have sponsors. Lots of sponsors. The marketplace, once neat and tidy with only the bare necessities, is now overridden with Disney stores and… um… well there were a lot of stores last time I was there! It’s been awhile… 2, 3 years… Anyway, have you seen Claire’s? That place is full of neopets.
