I don't have much experience in the mall owning department but I have been a shopkeeper for a few years now, so I'll try to help as best as I can =) I think the first question to ask yourself, and please don't take it the wrong way as it bears no ill intentions, is whether you feel qualified enough to run a mall. One of the things that makes a good mall owner is experience in shop keeping and malling in general. You can't quite guide your members in the right direction if you're not sure where you're going yourself. You can learn much by simply joining an organized mall or observing how others run their own (without copying their ideas of course, I'm talking about learning from their experience ^.^). Should you still be wanting to run your own mall, then here's what I suggest. First, I don't think trashing the mall altogether would be a good idea. Potential members of the new mall may be wary of your leadership if you just shut down your previous mall, fearing the same will happen to the new one. Not to mention Temps_Bons made some very pretty banners for you guys, would be a shame to waste them really =) What you can do is weed out the inactive and "lazy" members and hire some fresh new faces. Make sure that rules are being enforced from now on and give the example to your fellow mallers by keeping your shop at its best. It's always harder to run a mall for smaller shops, with no exposure from the marketplaces and all, but certainly not impossible. Make sure you and your members keep the prices reasonable (to maximize shop hits from the Shop Wizard as its where most of them will come from) and shops well stocked. Selling out is actually not a good thing as people will find themselves in empty shops and leave, never to come back. If you keep yourself stocked at maximum capacity, or close, you'll find yourself always having a good selection of items, even with low prices =) In the end, what makes a good mall isn't a pretty banner or catchy name, its a group of smart shopkeepers working together to make a profit ^.^ I wish you the best of luck with the Small Mall and hope this helped a little. ..::Neggs, MPs, PBs::.. http://www.neopets.com/browseshop.phtml?owner=cerberus_neo

The mall looks full and the rules look pretty solid. Its hard to help with problems when we do not know what they are :P When you mean improving do you mean hits? sales? the members? or just overall in general?? ;D one thing off the break i would say is get all the members to get a shop counter B) ------------------------------- www.youtube.com/TKDJamesPakTKD Check out my Martial Arts samplers =)

Just looking at the mall page and browsing through some of the shop my biggest advice is to not allow size 20 shops to join. Make it at least 50 and therefore the whole stock issue isn't the thing and make sure that the person who is joining already has a full shop with that category therefore they don't join and then end up never stocking enough. With a size 20 shop there isn't enough variety especially when you want at least 3 of the same item in stocked therefore when it gets sold there is a back up in there until a restock can happen. Also I'd have them upgrade more than 3 sizes per month - especially if you're a really small shop size. I'm size 145 and my goal is at least 30-50 sizes per month. Yes its a lot of NP but unless the mall starts growing its really not going to get anywhere in my opinion. Also do you realize how many shop categories are missing on your banner? Maps, Morphing potions, Paint brushes - those are great shops to draw attention to the mall and they aren't listed. And some of the ones you have listed can be combined. Plus I'm never sure about random shops - I feel they take away for the rest of the shops because its stocking everything. It's just like someone owning their own shop - not a necessity. http://www.neopets.com/browseshop.phtml?owner=evilbluemunkeyz

random shops wont usually take away sales. It's just that hardly anyone will click on a "random" shop when there are other shops that are more specific as to what they sell.

The biggest problem I see with the shops right now is stock. Of the 12 shops I've visited, only 3 has more than a page of stock and two users have completely empty shops! Sure you can get people to visit your shop, but they're not going to buy anything if there's nothing to buy. I know it's hard getting a large variety of items with a small shop, but maintaining at least one page is manageable. Also, figure out which items are profitable, and stock those. Encourage your mall members to learn more about malling themselves... maybe join Neomallers and read a few of the old threads? A lot of people with small shop sizes just aren't that into malling though and RL is busy etc, but I'm sure some people are willing to work on their shop and make improvements. I'm not sure if you do this already, but it's a good idea to get members to advertise on the shop ads board. That's the only way (other than the SW) small shops can use to gain exposure, since they're not in any huts and cannot afford 4mil NB ads. That's all I can think of right now. I'm certainly not the best maller here and I don't have the biggest shop size, but I've learned a thing or two from malling and I hope this helps. :) Petpet Paradise http://www.neopets.com/browseshop.phtml?owner=mizleah

What i found out in my minimal mall owning experience is that when people are looking for malls they generally want a mall that does notice board ads. Ps: pick me, oo oo pick me!

[quote=bionicgirl11]What i found out in my minimal mall owning experience is that when people are looking for malls they generally want a mall that does notice board ads. Ps: pick me, oo oo pick me![/quote] It would be very foolish to want NB ads. I paid 370k for one and all i got was 60 hits. That one bombed.

[quote=saudor][quote=bionicgirl11]What i found out in my minimal mall owning experience is that when people are looking for malls they generally want a mall that does notice board ads. Ps: pick me, oo oo pick me![/quote] It would be very foolish to want NB ads. I paid 370k for one and all i got was 60 hits. That one bombed.[/quote] Yeah I feel like its just best to give the option of joining an independent mall banner instead of making it a requirement. Therefore each member can choose whether or not to be in it - and if you want one for the mall then make an independent one, make it optional, and then just get fillers. http://www.neopets.com/browseshop.phtml?owner=evilbluemunkeyz