About 8 years ago I created a virtual pets site at AdoptMe.com, where kids can adopt free virtual pets (such as dogs, cats, horses, turtles, and fish) and learn the responsibilities of pet ownership by feeding, walking, and taking care of them. It became popular, with around 10,000 visitors per day and 2000 new members per day, but I had zero revenue from it because the site was designed in Flash and there was not really much space for ads on it, plus back then there were a lot fewer choices when it came to putting ads on a site.
One idea I had to make money was to sell an AdoptMe stuffed animal (they now call them “plush toys” I guess) in a store, where the plush toy would look just like the virtual pet the user adopted so they could play with the same pet both online and offline. The toy box would have an ID code on it that the buyer could enter on the AdoptMe website to adopt the virtual version of the exact pet they bought. But, at the time I was overloaded just running websites and had no interest in doing any business that was non-virtual.
I happened to mention all of this to the person who setup my California office for me (the place I have never been to and where I have never met any of the employees) and he thought I was crazy for not trying to do more with AdoptMe.com so he offered to setup a partnership to handle the toy part of the business for me. Since I had nothing to lose because I was never going to do it myself, I agreed.
I will get into the topic of various partnerships I have been involved with in a later post, but it did not go too well. The good thing is that eventually we did get some plush toys produced, and we started selling them at the AdoptMe.com website. I don’t remember the exact figures, but our cost was around $2.00 per animal (manufactured in China) and we sold them for $14.95. You can see a photo of the toy on an old page that is still on my server. We sold around 1 a day, which was fine, but our goal was to get them in stores to sell millions and get rich. We got some sold in some small local stores, and I even sold them for a while at a kiosk in a local mall I was renting to sell flowers from the local florist I owned (the one I bought online without ever visiting it or knowing anything about flowers – but that is another story).
Eventually, after a huge amount of negotiations, we were able to convince Toys “R” Us to test the AdoptMe plush toy in their stores. Originally they were going to do a big test in 60 stores, but in the end they just placed in order for their Times Square NY store. This was one of their busiest stores, so it was a good place to test it at least. The AdoptMe toys ended up selling pretty well, considering we did no promotion for them other than advertising on the Adotpme.com website. But, in order for Toys “R” Us to continue selling a product in that small high traffic Times Square store, it has to be a big hit, and our toy was not.
We could have tried to get the toy sold in other stores, but at this point 3 years had gone by and it was not making money, and product liability insurance alone for the toy cost $800/month, plus the cost of an employee and office suite, so we decided to dissolve the toy company. I still own the Adopt Me website which is doing well, and overall I am happy I was at least able to give the toy business a try even though it did not end up making any money for me.
Sounds like Webkinz to me.
Yes, but I came out with Adoptme Toys several years before Webkinz was selling their products. They did exactly what I was doing.
Very good story. Had you not taken your “plush toys” to market you would have regretted never knowing the results.
I’d be curious to hear the process you went through to get a toy placed into a retail store, how you procured a manufacturer, etc. That’s some useful info.
Yes, I will give more specifics about the AdoptMe Toys business when I do a future posting about partnerships, since I did this with 2 partners and this led to some of the problems.
– Eric
not bad for a $2 toy to be sold as $15
the toys looks cute, but the Adopt Me phrase actually works against the sales in my opinion.
even now you can sell them if you change the strategy.
Yes, I think they would sell better now, since Webkinz is popular. Stores that don’t carry Webkinz could carry AdoptMe Toys. But, I run over 400 websites and everything I do is virtual, so I really don’t want to get involved in manufacturing and selling real products. I would rather licence the toy rights to somebody (I have never had an offers on this unfortunately).
This is a very great read. Wow you got those toys made cheap for you! I would never expect insurance to be that high though on a little toy. Maybe try to sell all the extra toys on ebay for very cheap?
That domain name rocks, let me just say that first. What a coup just securing it. Do you find it puzzling that monetizing the site hasn’t gone better? It seems like there would be more ways to make it profitable.
About a year ago I put Google ads on Adoptme.com and now I make $5000/month from it. I should have done that years ago but never got around to it since I run 400 sites.
I love the entrepreneurial spirit. There are opportunities to make money in most industries if you can think outside the box. Sounds like you’re willing to try most things. Keep up the good work.
How could you able to manage hundreds of websites?
I just can’t manage my own portals (3). Any ideas you would like to share?
i love your website i really want a plush toy from it. do you know any places where i can still get them from?
Please open up your buisness again because alot of friends love the site and we love it so much we want the plushies.
since webkinz is popular you should open your buissiness up again and maybe you will get more customers since the webkinz era is happening right now. to get more customers you should charge less.
please i want the pink poodle plushie, tears are welling up in my eyes cuz i think its so cute!
Sorry, I don’t know where you could buy an Adoptme Plush Toy. I am pretty sure no stores sell them anymore. Yes, now with Webkinz being so popular, the Adoptme Toys would probably do a lot better, but it is not something I want to go through again. Manufacturing a product and trying to get it sold in stores is too slow and risky compared to starting businesses online, which mainly is what I do.
– Eric