Beggars At The Door

by iabella

I would say that as a Neopian citizen I've done pretty well for myself. I have a large shop that is usually fairly busy, a gallery account with a fairly large gallery of items, a guild that is now over 500 members, and 8 pets who are well cared for and trained.

But I'm not just some snobby upper-class Neopian either! I give to the Money Tree every day on both of my accounts, my guild has daily giveaway's where members can get free things, and the prices in my shop (when it is stocked) are always reasonable. Basically, I try to help out poorer Neopians whenever I can. People Neomail me for tips all the time, and and I try to answer them. However, since most of my wealth was pure luck (winning the lottery several times and winning some scratchcard jackpots) I don't have very much advice that is all that helpful. But when they do write me I try as hard as I can to help them.

I even go so far as to post messages in the chat boards once a month asking people who need NP to Neomail me and I will go and shop at their shop. I don't mind helping out fellow citizens who are truly TRYING to succeed. The people I have problems with are people who don't even try. I can understand if you are just starting out, have a small shop, and just need a hand up to help you get started on the right track. However, more and more people these days seem not to be taking those steps. It seems that nowadays more people are trying to earn their money through begging. Take, for example, this Neomail I recently received from a fellow Neopian who shall remain nameless: "Give me money! I have no money and you have lots. So give me some you dummy!" Now I ask you, if you received this Neomail would you want to help this person? I think not.

Here are my tips for poorer Neopians, guarantees to help you out a little. Please heed these and don't resort to begging! How embarrassing....

First, start a shop. If you want to make NP this should be one of the first things you do. Start a shop and upgrade it once, so that you can carry 10 items. Find some fairly cheap items and sell them for just a little more than you bought them for. For example, you can buy a bitten apple at the food shop for about 3 NP. Then put it in your shop and sell it for about 10-15 NP, and you've made your profit!

Second, advertise your shop. The message boards are great ways to keep people informed about your shop and if you're having sales. Post a message every once in a while while you're online, and keep restocking. People will see how cool your prices are and will buy things from you. If your shop is small this is the only way to get customers, since shops below size 20 won't appear in the marketplace.

Third, play games. I know everyone says this, but it really is the best way to make NP. I suggest Poogle Solitaire. You can win up to 750 Neopoints a day, and if you get the method for winning it figured out you can win all the time. Plus, sometimes you get cool items there that you can sell in your shop. Lenny trivia is also great, because the questions are easy and they all give you NP. You can only answer each question once though, so you don't have to play too often. If you don't have a lot of time to spend playing games just play something simple, like Kacheek Seek. You get free NP, and the easy maps don't ever take more than a minute.

Fourth, if you're training your pet I would not waste any time collecting the secret lab map. You can go to the lab once a day and it will do things to your pet. Yes, sometimes it can do bad things, like make it lose levels, change it's color or sex, but the benefits far outweigh the costs. You will save so much NP on codestones and training that it will be well worth it!

Finally, join a good guild that gives away stuff to members. This way you will get free items that you can sell and make some money. My guild gives away around 40 items every day to random members, but about once every week or so every member of the guild gets one or two items in a special giveaway. So far there have been 3 food giveaways, 3 Battledome giveaways, a toy giveaway, and a PetPet giveaway. You can check out my guild and see if it's for you, or check out some other guilds that offer to give stuff to members.

Always remember that people will respect you more if they see that you are trying to succeed. And richer people are far more likely to want to help you if they sense that you are doing something more than just begging from them! These are just some thoughts, and I hope I haven't offended anyone. You can Neomail me if you want to talk about this article, but if you Neomail me to beg you'll have missed the point.