Pink Poogle Toy Forum

Pfft...just because you leave Neo doesn't mean I'll allow you to leave PPT, bub!

I couldn't possibly quit...I'm horribly...horribly addicted.

And I know it.

If Neo ever did die, I'd probably be the one fool constantly refreshing the 404 page...and sighing. Over and over, till they lock me up. And then...in the asylum, I'll be calling my shadow a shoyru and start clicking my finger on an imaginary mouse button, all the while confusing the nurses with my chatter about "How I hope I get a dubloon from Coltzan today..."

What I haven't seen anybody mention here is the fact that internet advertising died shortly after Neopets was founded. It is also a fact that internet advertising is just starting to rapidly expand again. When they said 'no popups' and all that, every other site was being plastered with popups and ads up and down the page. They never wanted that to happen, and this pales in comparison to that kind of advertising.

Yes ads are annoying. Blah blah blah. But they're here. 'Ol Dougiebuckets is very forward thinking. They're lining up all these advertisers. These advertisers see what a huge site Neo is and will probably find it a great place to advertise. Therefore when ad rates increase as internet advertising continues to be more viable, Neo can charget them more and they won't want to run away. For Neo it ends up being like finding free Omelettes and Jellies at every turn. They already stated in their 'bleh' page that this revenue is going to be pumped into the site. If they didn't do this it would be like throwing free money away. Companies that stagnate die. I would rather see Neopets grow than wither and die.

I get very sick of people complaining about Neopets not needing more money. Until you have some facts and figures to present, what's the point? There's no point in making stuff up just because you think it is a certain way. Are you going to close down your shop when other players accuse you of being too rich? Will you start giving away pieces of your gallery because someone thinks you have too much? Yeah yeah, np vs. real money...but you get my point. You want the site to get better, but you don't want them to have more money. But you can't state exactly where their money goes, how much they have left over, and how much is allocated to futre projects, etc.

Adam's been more than nice, coming in here and letting us know what's going on and dropping hints that we could block the ads by using Firefox. It doesn't matter if we do, how they assess the performance of ads is not based entirely on the CTR (click through rate). It sure must be hard for him to see his baby changing like this :-/

The only thing I am really unhappy with is that the new sidebar themes are so squished at the top now :-/

You're all clever and smart, why not go dig up some news articles about internet advertising in 2004 and the future to back up your claims one way or the other?

Actually, we have. Why don't you?

ETA: neopets doesn't make its revenue public -- you can buy an online gaming report with all the stats, but I'm not about to shell out for it. However, according to any article you can find about the site, it's doing extremely well.

According to Dohring, Neopets gets more than 60,000 new registrations every day.

Nielsen//NetRatings reports that the average time spent per person on Neopets is greater than any other site on the Internet, including eBay, MSN, Yahoo! and America Online. Additionally, the site generates more than 3 billion page views per month.

The privately held Neopets was officially incorporated in April 2000 and was profitable within three months, according to Dohring.

You just try to tell me a site like that doesn't make a ton of money. Anyway, you're missing the point we're making here, which is that Neopets has never put much stock in "traditional" web advertising, so the state of it -- good or bad -- shouldn't affect the site at all. Immersive advertising is -- or WAS -- their MO, and they prided themselves on staying away from traditional popups and banner ads, at least until four months ago.

I've bought hundreds of dollars of neopets merchindise and this is the thanks I get.
They should make it for people who have entered over 10 rare item codes they can't see the adds.
I mean come on, I pay them for their merchindise, why don't they pay me by not seeing this ugly banner?

Ask and ye shall recieve, I have no problems finding the data to verify my stance on the issue.



Internet advertising NEVER died. If it did, we wouldn't be pestered with as much ads as we do these days. Where are your figures on that? It went up simply because, as the internet became more popular, more people became online and had home computers and internet access.

In the beginning:

Internet Advertising generated $1.92 billion in 1998, double the 1997 figure. (Internet Advertising Bureau)

Now:

"NEW YORK, NY (November 15, 2004) Today, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) announced that Internet advertising totaled approximately $2.43 billion in the third quarter of 2004 - the eighth consecutive quarterly increase for the industry and the fourth record-setting quarter. Q3 2004 represents a 35.3% increase over Q3 2003 ($1.79 billion) and a 2.4% increase over Q2 2004 ($2.37 billion.) The IAB sponsors the Internet Ad Revenue Report, which is conducted independently by PwC."

Internet ads never died....they GREW.






Indeed. He's a business savvy man. And a business savvy guy knows that the average demographic age range of neopets players (Gen Y Internet users (ages 8-22)) are also the ones with the shortest attention span. Keeping the site popular has been well an issue about future measures. Most companies invested in that demographic usually use the pump and dump economic technique. Why? Because that demographic loses intrest so quickly, the best way to make a profit is by taking what you can while the popularity is at it's peak. Normally, through advanced massive marketing techniques. It starts as a small fad...but then the merchandise comes next, and usually the kiss of death is a movie. At the peak time a movie is released, the most public awareness of said item and merchandise hits max, and then....death. Have you ever noticed the biggest trends always get marketed out the wazoo when a film tie in is released, and then suddenly, within 6 months after the film the intrest is lost, and the fad is no more? That's the case for this demographic. Need examples of history?

80's:
Alvin and the Chipmunks: Movie + Mass Merchandising = Death.

Transformers: Movie + Mass Merchandising = Death. (resurrected later, but never hit the figures and popularity as prior.)

He-Man: Movie + Mass Merchandising = Death.

90's-00's:

Pokemon. Movie + Mass Merchandising = Death.

Yu-Gi-Oh=Movie + Mass Merchandising = Death.


I could list a thousand more...but hey...let's try not to make this post too long, shall we?

And here's your Neopets tie in:

"Neopets chairman and CEO Doug Dohring said he is considering a movie next. "Our view is that if we do a Pixar-quality film with Neopets -- and we're in no rush to do that because we're already highly profitable -- we believe that will provide the right positioning and umbrella as to who we really are and what our content is like," he said." *source=hollywood reporter interview

Translation: "Our view is if we do a film, we'll be in the best position to sell merchandise since public awareness will be at it's peak."




The advertisors have always been there. Neo is rated one of the "stickiest" site for it's age demographic. To an advertisor, that's music to their ears. The longer the ads are seen=the more affect they have on the consumer. There is a GOOD reason cereal boxes for chidren are on the lower shelves at the grocery store and the adult cereal on the top shelves. Advertisors aren't dumb. Take a look at this quote:

Doug Dohring:
"Miramax came to us and wanted us to promote 'Spy Kids,' the movie. It was about 10 days from coming out in theaters. So we created what we called the 'Spy Kids' Theater. And our users could go into the 'Spy Kids' Theater and they could click through a trailer of the movie. If the users want to go there, they go there. It's not forced on the user in any way. So we integrate the advertiser's product into the content."

Yep, Mirimax came to THEM. Not the other way around. Advertisors aren't running away...not at all.





With a pump-and-dump technique that I currently suspect and have been pointing out, this is what the advertising rush is actually doing, killing the site. Your Neopets Movie will be the kiss of death. History always repeats itself.





I never said there was a problem with them needing MORE money. It's just a different technique. Pumping and Dumping is bleeding a company for it's value via marketing in a swift manner, to create one large lump sum in a short amount of time, and then tossing the dead company aside for the next venture...the other option is to retain good public relations and providing your clients and advertisors with a product that will last and generate revenue steadier for longer periods of time. It's not the money I'm arguing...it's the technique. Neo has been a good cash cow according to Mr. Dohrings press releases. That's not the issue.

"Backed by an A-list of advertisers including Coca-Cola, Proctor & Gamble, and Kraft, plus a brand new marketing agreement with Viacom, NeoPets CEO Doug Dohring says his 65-person company has been profitable since last summer."- source Businessweek online

"The privately held Neopets was officially incorporated in April 2000 and was profitable within three months, according to Dohring."-source Hollywood Reporter




I make nothing up. My views are normally always based on fact and research I have done on the subject matter at hand from the past. I rarely try and enter a debate without being prepared.



Who said I want them to give away their profits? Don't be jaded into thinking that 100% of their profits are going to be funneled into expanding the site however. This is about making money...not about pleasing customers. If public relations was on the company's agenda, you wouldn't be hearing the complaints you do now. Poor customer service, no customer relations, lack of communications, discrimination between players, thoughtless icings...etc, etc. Don't be fooled into thinking this advertising is being used to make money to make the site better and to make you happy...it's not.



Adam is a gem. But he's not CEO. I don't think I'd see Adam pumping and dumping at all if it was his call. I have zero problem with Adam, from what I see he's a good guy, with good intentions, and a heck of a good walking PR poster.




And there you have it. *points above* Hope you enjoyed it.

I await your rebuttal.

Alright, well, this does require Firefox...but I have good news. I found a way to block the advertisements AND all that blank white space at the top. Follow these instructions carefully.

Step 1: If you don't have Firefox already, get it here. Configure it, etc.
Step 2: Download these 2 extensions in Firefox after installing the browser -
AdBlock 0.5.2
ChromEdit
Step 3: Restart Firefox, then click on Tools - Adblock - Preferences
Step 4: Add 3 new filters:
http://images.neopets.com/buttons/*
http://images.neopets.com/728ads/*
http://images.neopets.com/ads/*
Click Add button to save them. Then click done.
Step 5: Go to Tools - Edit User Files, then click on the userContent.css tab.
Step 6: Scroll all the way to the end, then enter a new line:
#ban { display: none !important; }
Click the Save button.
Step 7: Restart Firefox and enjoy an ad-free NeoPets experience.

valerielundberg, i salute you. that was amazing!

As an addition to your instructions you might like to add that it needs to be Firefox 1.0.

If you were a little eager like me and had 0.9.3* the Edit User files doesn't exist... I was a little confused for a second there.

My bad. I apologize. But anyways, you should really upgrade though. 1.0 is faster and has some unique new features.

xizer... You Da Man!! Thanks!!

That is perfect! Thanks Xizer!

To be honest, I'm not too displeased with this layout. Yes, the banners are huge, and yes, the older layout was a lot better, but It wasn't as bad as I was expecting it to be. It will definitely take a bit of getting used to, but I'm sure I'll get over it.

The NP, UL and Pet name at the top is alright. Very handy.

As I already PMed you, you rule dude.

Xizer, thanks!
THAT IS AWESOME!
NO HUGE ADD!
W00T D0G!

Xizer, that works great! Thanks so much. It looks great now, just like the layout premium users get. Anyone who's bugged by those ads should get Firefox and follow Xizer's instructions.