The Shop Owner's Advice Book

by WillyJL1

Well, I've been playing NeoPets for about a year now, and I've seen plenty. One of the things I see that really annoys me is idiot shop owners. Yeah, you know the type. They'll have a MIDI going by default, have some loud background going so you can't read the text, or they'll HAVE TEXT SO LARGE AND BOLD AND RED SO YOU CAN'T READ IT. Then they'll have so few items at such ridiculous prices that you don't want to buy anything. I mean, aren't these simple enough?

1) Ban MIDIs. I hate having to go to a shop like this. I have Winamp going, listening to music of MY choosing. And while I'm enjoying my BNL and other fine MP3s, over my speakers comes some mechanical nonsense. Thanks for the offer, but I'm not really into that stuff. Of course, my speakers are up, so it blasts, throwing off my concentration, and making me fumble for the volume mixer to mute it. Face it, people...MIDIs are not a good idea for shops, and they make the experience less enjoyable for potential customer.

2) No changing the background. I can't stand it when some shop owner has changed the background image to some loud color. I mean, a nice off-white pastel color is fine, but these loud images are no good. They make the text impossible to read. So don't change them! NeoPets set white as the background color for a reason. I wonder what for? Hmmm?

3) Keep the text easy to read. Keep this in mind: Nobody likes a shop where the text is ugly. Keep the font at Verdana, preferably nothing above size 3 or 4 text.

4) Keep the images tasteful. If the images are large, or are junkily laid out, that sends a bad message to visitors.

5) Give your shop the once-over. Once you finish updating, hit the "Shop Front" link. Look at it. Does it look appealing to you? If not, start changing it.

6) Be reasonable. People won't pay 60 NP for a Red Lipstick. Use the Shop Wizard. That gives you the range of items.

7) Be a better buyer. My plan is simple. Just buy from the shops all the essentials you can get, especially food. Keep in mind that usually you have about 3 or so NP worth of give in the price. For example, if an item is 12 NP, odds are you can get it for 9. Then, just sell it at a FAIR price. I sell food in my shop for 10 NP a pop. Sure it'll probably wind up at a higher price, but I've done someone a favor.

This is how I've run my shop. You might not march to this drum, but thanks for considering it. And feel free to check out my shop. Thanks a bunch!