It can be virtually yours

NORTH PLATTE - If you had the chance to own North Platte, would you take it? How about Lincoln, or even the entire state of Nebraska? A new website is giving laptop entrepreneurs a chance to own their own little piece of the world.



The site is called Weblo.com, and it offers up a virtual world to its members for a chance to earn real world profits. Described as “Monopoly on steroids,” members can lay claim to any property that they can imagine.

“It’s a new kind of economy,” said Sean Morrow, director of marketing for Weblo.com. “I don’t think anybody has ever done anything like this.”


Although Weblo members own properties, there are no bricks and mortar involved. Instead, the Weblo world consists entirely of webpages, with each site featuring a specific person, place or thing.

Weblo provides the framework for developing each site, so no advanced webpage design training is needed. However, Morrow said someone with programming experience can actually enhance the pages even more.

Weblo.com properties can include states, cities, airports, parks, monuments, landmarks, historical places, universities, buildings, hotels, streets, houses and more. Members can also develop free celebrity fan sites.

By developing the site, Weblo members hope to turn around and sell their property for a profit. While the ownership is virtual, the money is not. Weblo members receive actual money for selling properties.

“I think we are the first site online that started paying its members for their participation,” Marrow said.

Buying and selling virtual property can be profitable. The city of Lincoln recently sold for $800. A member who bought Las Vegas for $430 resold it last week for $2,300, a new record for the highest re-sale of a city.

The webpage for each location is ranked, based on popularity. Someone who is able to create a dynamic site that draws a lot of visitors can increase their ranking and earn a small portion of the advertising revenue.

“Every member that is a part of our virtual world actually receives a percentage of all the ad revenue that’s generated from their pages,” Marrow said, adding the percentage is between 10 to 50 percent depending on the level of membership.

When a person owns a city or state, they become the virtual mayor or governor. As such, Marrow said the mayor and governor also earn a commission for every property that is sold within their city or state.

“Which makes owning cities and states a little bit more like an online investment,” Marrow said.

Weblo was officially launched on Dec. 5, 2006, and already there are more than 13,000 members who are snatching up virtual properties. Some are buying for sentimental reasons while others buy for the investment.

“What’s happening is people actually are snatching up the bar that they met their girlfriend at or their favorite restaurant that they love to go to with their wife on their anniversary,” Marrow said.

You can buy the Louvre Museum in Paris for just $300. For more ambitious real estate tycoons, the Las Vegas Hilton is currently listed at $10,000, or you can snatch up the entire state of Nebraska for the low, low price of $4,890.

North Platte is not currently for sale, although the site says you can make an offer. As of Tuesday, the cities of Maxwell, Brady, Hershey and Sutherland are still available from Weblo for a simple $5 registration fee.

Marrow said before Weblo was launched, people spent a lot of time developing fan pages or online profiles. However, they didn’t earn any revenue for it unless they owned the site.

Now with Weblo, people are able to create their own blogs, post news and develop those fan sites about their favorite people or places and get paid for it.

“What’s neat about Weblo is that you don’t have to spend a lot to make a lot,” Marrow said.

Recently, Weblo made it possible for its members to purchase a property and give it to a friend or relative as a gift. Marrow credits the popularity of Weblo to people’s desire to claim ownership in something, even if it is virtual.

“Everybody wants to own the Eiffel Tower or the Statue of Liberty or be the mayor of New York,” Marrow said.