MP Sales collapsed 3 weeks ago

[Deja Letov]

I'm actually experiencing the exact opposite. My sales continue to increase every year. However, I am very actively marketing and promoting my stores, I participate in hunts, weekly sales events, etc. I think you're right in the case of if you remain stagnant in your marketing efforts, your sales will go down each year, but I don't think that's necessarily the case if you continue to market yourself more aggressively each year.

here is my annual comparison as well with a little bit of explanation (i do monthly not weekly). I just started entering data in this system the last week of July 2010, so there isn't much in the way of numbers there. Also in 2010, my store was rather small, I wasn't marketing nearly as much as I do now and my product line was much smaller. Starting in around Feb or march 2011, I expanded 2 new product lines which I think added to my sales quite a bit and I began marketing much more aggressively and holding sales events. 2012 was even better except you will notice a dip in January and February. I took some time off of SL during those 2 months and didn't do much in the way of marketing and it shows! To be honest I really only compare 2011 and 2012 right now because those are the 2 years in which I feel my stores were comparable to eachother.

*ignore may 2012 for now, I only have about 6 days worth of data in the database at the moment because I'm using that month for some testing of a new report I'm adding to my software so it's dead, but it's slightly higher than April and slightly lower than June. I've been pretty happy with sales in 2012. Since march my sales have been fairly consistent every single month and just sort of have a slight dip or rise in sales. But I will say I was nervous in June, because if you were to look at it by week the first few weeks of June were absolutely dead. I literally had a huge bulk of that month during the last 7 days of June.

[Toysoldier Thor]

Deja,

Your points are all valid and putting a lot of effort and focus on development of more products into you rSL Store/MP as well as the constant marketing/advertising/promotion of your store should - in theory - increase your annual sales (and hopefully profit as well).

BUT....   (there is always a "but" isnt there)....

You entire post and that of a few others with related comments is missing some factors around the "bigger picture".

It involves the the $ VALUE OF YOUR TIME and both its IMPACT to the growth your business is realizing on the charts as well as the RATIO of your Time vs the additional Revenue and moreso profit that your time influenced. 

Also closely related to this first factor and something your chart did not include what would be very critical is how much input costs have you put into your SL business to creating and promote and grow your business in SL - and what is this ratio to your raw sales?  Posting revenues is nice but has little relevance to indicating success if you do not account for all your cost inputs.  This is referred to as profit.  Show us your year to year comparison of your PROFITS since really that is what is the most important number.

 

So questions related to these very critical factors are:

 

1. How much of your RL Day and what % of your SL time is focused on / dedicated to creating, packaging new products and all the promotion, advertising, marketing, servicing around your SL Business?  I am assuming your SL business takes up the majority of your SL time and a good part of your RL time.
2. If you DIDNT put in most of this time to new product creation and intense weekly inworld and MP marketing and promotion (i.e. running hunts and that alone is a big job), what would your sales and moreso your PROFITS be like over the same 3 year period?
   
   Lets use your own charts to estimate this...  Exclude the time of the 1st 3/4 year of your SL business where you HAD to invest a lot of time to establish product and a store and get everything in place, lets assume you decided to completely COAST on your business efforta starting Feb 2011 and just put in enough effort to keep the store/MP running and service customers but not participate in intense promoting or product growth. 
   
   Your chart shows that you would have realized about $30K L / month in lost sales.  Yes, this gap might have been actually bigger because stale products and market saturation of your products would erode sales but this is countered by how much additional input costs you would have saved or diverted elsewhere.
   
   So "thumb in the air" guess is that your intense effort on new products creation and heavy promotion and added costs for larger inworld store and ads and and and means that likely your heavy dedicate influence and input and focus on your SL business only had about a $25US to $100US per month positive influence on your business operation.  Lets assume the bigger number in this posting.
3. The question you have to ask yourself is.... " Is all the time I spend on my SL business and the percent of time this takes up of my RL day worth the additional $3.30US / Day that I am making on my SL business? "
4. For each and every one of us, our time & effort we spend during our waking lives has a VALUE to it.  We all want to leverage this time to maximize this value.  We do this by putting our time toward what has the most value per hour.
   
   AND... very importantly, value is not always if not most times quantified by $ Money.  Value could also be quantified in "pleasure when time is spent with loved ones" or "spending more time on doing a hobby I love" or "working on another business venture or life experience" or "time spent socializing in SL or relaxing and going to the countless art galleries or live concerts or karaoke clubs singing" (hint hint).
   
   So based on this, lets assume that you are working your business in SL or on SL business related activities for about 4 hours each day (just a guess).  Are these 4 hours you spend each day on intensely growing your business vs just care & feeding it worth the $0.83US / hour you realize in profits OR could you be spending these 4 hours each day doing something that gets better value than $0.83/hour?

The reason I am saying all this is because this is my business model in SL and in perspective to what else I do in SL:

 

1. Back in 2008 / 2009 I was like you now... I spent a lot of time trying to grow a business in SL... because I loved it and found it a challenge to create content and actually get paid for it - as little as it was.
2. I got addicted to trying to find that magic product that SL customers would want and I could make a good business on.  I actually even did custom building in early 2008 for customers but quickly gave that up when I realized how much time it took vs the $ I made for it.  I struggled in 2009 making all sorts of products (you can see a lot of these old products still in my MP store) that never sold unless I pumped a ton of effort into MM and hunts and promotions and traffic generation etc.  Even then they didnt really sell well.
3. Then in fall 2009 I found the magic formula for me... I made my first of 6 master builder themed landscape / terrain sculpty packs.  It was an instant hit on xstreet.  Over the following 12 months I created 5 more of these sculpty packs - last one I created was a pack in August 2010).  My early efforts promoting these terrain packs to my target market in SL paid off.  By Aug 2010 I was making about $600US / month - amost all of it from my 6 sculpty packs.
4. Then thanks to my 2010 spawned addiction/love for creating SL Photo Art, I lost interest in creating more landscape sculpty packs.  Almost all my time I spent on my sculpty store was directed to just enjoying creating art and singing karaoke and "socializing" in SL.  I have not made a new sculpty packs since Aug 2010.
5. As you can see on my recent charts, even though I have not created a new sculpty pack in almost two years and even though I all but stopped any promotion of my SL business since 2010 (no hunts, not participation of my packs at major SL events no trying to expand my current products to new customers no MP or inworld advertising), my Monthly sales have slipped to about ~ $300US / month.
6. I should now point out the more important number... my Profit margins on my SL business.  When I take into account all my monthly costs (rent, advertising, promotional sales, etc.) and not including my own time, my SL business runs at about a 94% profit margin!  i.e. of the ~ $300/Month I make RL - $280US is money that goes into my RL PayPal account!
7. I have even had several of my loyal customers IM me and ask me to make new theme packs or make them in Mesh format and I would like make a huge new spike of sales as the 100's of my loyal theme pack customers would likely buy these new packs... but the value of my time is greater elsewhere.
8. On Average, I spend about 1-2 hour a week on my SL business - often less than 1 hour.
9. I have taken my love for SL art and vastly expanded it... and as of this year started a RL online art to canvas business.  Its slow to start but in my first 2 sales on my new art business in RL I make more RL $ profit than I would make in 2 weeks of SL sales.

Sorry for the longggggggggg winded response but I wanted to be very clear about a couple of the critical factors that you and a couple other were not taking into account on my SL business model vs yours.

I am not saying your model is wrong at all.  Likely your intense time and effort you spend each day on your SL business where you are realizing a dollar value benefit of about $0.83/hour is only part of the value you gain from your efforts in your sl business.  I am sure you have a love and passion for making the business grow - even if it didnt offer you any $ value.  the value for you is intrinsic.  THAT IS GREAT!

For me my time is best spent elsewhere.

[Deja Letov]

I think we are a lot more alike that you think, I think you just have the wrong assumptions about me.

Let me just say first, the numbers themselves aren't necessarily what I am interested in comparing with anyone in particular. I am more interested in the flow (decreases and increases) of my own numbers. if I was at 50K a month or 200k a month, the number isn't the important part in this chart, it's the increase or decrease in sales. But let me see if I can answer your questions...cause they are really good. And I'm glad to see someone else as into these numbers as I am so don't apoligize for being longwinded cause I'm probably as bad if not worse! LOL

1. How much of your RL Day and what % of your SL time is focused on / dedicated to creating, packaging new products and all the promotion, advertising, marketing, servicing around your SL Business?  I am assuming your SL business takes up the majority of your SL time and a good part of your RL time.

Actually not much at all. I really don't have the time between my job, family, and real life to spend a bulk of my time in SL anymore. Especially these days while I get to be high risk for my pregnancy and my husband is being a computer nazi about my time on SL. However, my ONLY marketing day of the week is Friday. my store pretty runs itself for the most part, I rarely even get questions or issues from customers, and I do not focus on marketplace sales, so my marketing efforts are in world and my customer base is very loyal and fairly large as far as I'm concerned and I just try to remind them of my (marketing) once a week.

I choose Friday's because I DO NOT want to dedicate a ton of time to SL, I have a fantastic real life and want to enjoy it. but I do dedicate one day each week and take care of a TON of stuff. The idea is to be smarter with your time and use it to the most so you don't have to spend all your time doing business in SL. I might spend about 3-4 hours doing "business stuff" on Fridays and sometimes, I can't even spend that much time. On average, I probably spend around 12 hours or so on actual business stuff per month. Am I on during the rest of the week? Sure! I might get on for an hour here or there to socialize, chat with friends or groups, or just stare at myself naked, who knows! LOL.

What am I doing on Fridays? I log on for about 45 minutes from 3:15-4:00 eastern to submit my 60L items at their location and switch out my current 60L items on sale for the week. I log on later that night around 11PM to send out the 60L notice to my client list, takes all of about 10 minutes and only that long cause I also include a little newsletter of my own each friday to my customer base.If I happen to have something new to share I will also make a post on my blog (which I am bad about keeping up) and my facebook. if I have a hunt item I need to make for a hunt I also can whip these out in no time on Fridays.I should also add...I don't always get to do this every single friday, it's quite common for me to miss a whole week.

Oh I do also spend about 5-10 minutes sending out my "thank you" notecard to all of my marketplace sales for the day, or I may have to do two days worth if I skip a day.

That's about it for my building and marketing. I don't do a lot of building, other than that because my hunt items become new products for my store, so I am still releasing 4-5 new products every month.

now of course, we can nickel and dime time to death because there is also the time it takes to list those items on the marketplace, etc. But overall, i'd say between marketing and building, I spend around 10-12 hours each month actually doing work for my business with an occassional hour or two over that time on crazy months or when i have a ton of hunts going on.

 

2. If you DIDNT put in most of this time to new product creation and intense weekly inworld and MP marketing and promotion (i.e. running hunts and that alone is a big job), what would your sales and moreso your PROFITS be like over the same 3 year period?

Lets use your own charts to estimate this...  Exclude the time of the 1st 3/4 year of your SL business where you HAD to invest a lot of time to establish product and a store and get everything in place, lets assume you decided to completely COAST on your business efforta starting Feb 2011 and just put in enough effort to keep the store/MP running and service customers but not participate in intense promoting or product growth. 

Your chart shows that you would have realized about $30K L / month in lost sales.  Yes, this gap might have been actually bigger because stale products and market saturation of your products would erode sales but this is countered by how much additional input costs you would have saved or diverted elsewhere.

So "thumb in the air" guess is that your intense effort on new products creation and heavy promotion and added costs for larger inworld store and ads and and and means that likely your heavy dedicate influence and input and focus on your SL business only had about a $25US to $100US per month positive influence on your business operation.  Lets assume the bigger number in this posting.

Well, first, my first year in business wasn't 2011 or 2010. I just made this software in 2010 and started using it. In fact, the reason I said I mainly pay attention to 2011 and 2012 so far is because I wasn't consistent in even reporting my own data because I was adding and deleting all the time while I was writing it. But numbers are definitely accurate for 2011 and 2012 so far. But it was 2008 when I first started my business, I just didn't care enough to report anything on it at the time. 2008 and 2009 is the time I used to build my business up so during that time period, absolutely i spent a TON more time in game than I need to now. But I am not sure I would consider what I am doing "intense marketing". Even if I bumped my marketing and building time up to 12-14 hours a month for example if I do a special promo in my store, would that really be intense?

3. The question you have to ask yourself is.... " Is all the time I spend on my SL business and the percent of time this takes up of my RL day worth the additional $3.30US / Day that I am making on my SL business? "

Well I just kinda answered this above, I'm really not spending much time so it's really nowhere near $3.30 per day...since 2011, I've actually DECREASED my marketing and building efforts and spending less money on investing on sculpts, scripts, etc because I have a HUGE collection from previous years and am now doing more and more of it myself. Bottom line is with all that, I am making more money. I am just being SMARTER about how I spend my time. And that came out of necessity to be honest because my husband gave me the smack down ultimatum on the time I was spending in SL and it was either cut back or quit it altogether. THe funny thing is, in 2010, i THOUGHT I was marketing like crazy and doing really well but I didn't have a clue, I've learned so much and now I know what works and what doesn't. What I can tell you is that it's nowhere near $3.30 per day, if that was the case, I'd be cashing out around $99 per month, but that's not nearly the case since I am cashing out several hundred dollars in paypal. In fact this was the first year I had to file taxes on my SL business because I made more than the $600 profit required by IRS to claim as income. We can take June for isntance, I made 178,360L, which if I go to the sell L option right now and type that amount in, it tells me the estimate value is US$ 694.01. My payment to LL for mainland is $195, leaving me $499.01. I can also tell you that my expenses for the month of June included one purchase of 75L on the Marketplace and a couple of hundred linden in upload fees for textures. So we can probably take off a few dollars for that. So let's say for June I only profited $490US just to make it an even number. if you take my 12 hours of time I actually spent marketing, that's about $40 per hour. So ya, I'm happy to spend 12 hours per month at $40per hour. That's almost as much per hour as my real job, so hell ya! Why not! Like you, my profit margin is EXTREMELY low, just my simple rent each month and a few upload charges most months. i will admit, 2011 was not like that, that has been only in 2012 so far. I was still buying up a lot of stuff in 2011. 2012 has been fantastic for me so far!

 

4. For each and every one of us, our time & effort we spend during our waking lives has a VALUE to it.  We all want to leverage this time to maximize this value.  We do this by putting our time toward what has the most value per hour.

AND... very importantly, value is not always if not most times quantified by $ Money.  Value could also be quantified in "pleasure when time is spent with loved ones" or "spending more time on doing a hobby I love" or "working on another business venture or life experience" or "time spent socializing in SL or relaxing and going to the countless art galleries or live concerts or karaoke clubs singing" (hint hint).

So based on this, lets assume that you are working your business in SL or on SL business related activities for about 4 hours each day (just a guess).  Are these 4 hours you spend each day on intensely growing your business vs just care & feeding it worth the $0.83US / hour you realize in profits OR could you be spending these 4 hours each day doing something that gets better value than $0.83/hour?

This is where you and I agree 100%!!!! However,  I think you're assuming I'm the typical SL business owner who lives in SL for a bulk of their time. If I was losing myself to SL for FOUR hours a day, I wouldn't be here anymore, no, I COULDN'T be here anymore. Yes because I would be tied up with a rope by my husband but also because I don't want to be here that much! Trust me, I used to do this, in fact I was far worse, probably closer to 4-6 hours a day during the week after work and another 10 hourson the weekend. But these days my husband would never allow it, been that way since around the start of 2011. After he put the smack down on that rule, i really came to realize how much time I was spending in SL and how much time I was NOT spending with my family. now, if I have a slot of four hours to spend in a game, I would rather go grab my kids and my husband and play some Xbox together, go to the movies, go out and eat cake for dinner or head to the lake. So again I can't answer your question here, beause I'm not spending 4 hours a day to make .83 cents per hour. Incidentally...the few hundred dollars that I cash out of SL each month, is actually our "mad money" and what we use to go out to the dinner with the kids, go to a movie or buy a new video game to play together.

 

I am not saying your model is wrong at all.  Likely your intense time and effort you spend each day on your SL business where you are realizing a dollar value benefit of about $0.83/hour is only part of the value you gain from your efforts in your sl business.  I am sure you have a love and passion for making the business grow - even if it didnt offer you any $ value.  the value for you is intrinsic.  THAT IS GREAT

Nope, I just think you misunderstand my model is all and are far off of my actual $40 an hour instead of $.83 cents..

Edit to add this:

just to show I'm not completely off my rocker, here is a screen shot of my June withdraws. I do them usually once a week or so just for my mad money. You'll notice there isn't one for the end of June, I didn't get around to doing that til July 3rd so I didn't include it in the screenshot since I technically didn't withdraw it in June but it was for another $121.46 for a total of $419.05.

And here is May's total of $519.32

You have to kind of take these at face value though because there is flow from previous months as always but it balances about like this just about every month.

[Deja Letov]

Also i want to add, I'm sure part of your statement on number 4 is probably in response to the comment I made about not having consistent sales if you don't market yourself regularly. I hope that didn't come off as a negative or insulting comment because it wasn't intended as such at all. It was simply a fact of business, that if you do consistent marketing, you are more like to have consistent sales. It wasn't meant to say you "should" be doing that. because like you said, your time versus value is the most important thing to consider. I've just found a way to keep my time to a minimum, the old age old adage of work smarter not harder...or in my case, work smarter not longer.

[Czari Zenovka]

Great posts, Toy & Deja...except....after seeing those, to me, huge cash-out amounts you two bounced around...I'm depressed...lol.

[Couldbe Yue]

semi off topic...

relatively speaking they're not huge amounts but going on the last figures that LL published back in 2010 it puts them in the top 5% of income earners in here. (things may have changed since the last figures but I would think that the % would be smaller (ie 3%) rather than lower as I suspect money is more distributed these days).  There used to be around 2000 iirc earning above 500usd per month (before expenses). Moving from that figure (remember that's not even a minimum wage if you're putting in 40 hours a week in here) into the next band of over 1000usd per month is a lot harder (1000usd per month is still not minimum wage).   

If RL dictates that sl is the best way to generate income then anyone who is pulling in over 500usd per month is actually extremely sucessful considering the conditions we operate in.  It's just a matter of changing perspective.  I can remember when I got excited because I was getting close to earning minimum wage in here (by income not time spent) - despite the fact I earn more than that in a couple of days of rl working.  It's all relative but the main thing to remember is that this is a lot tougher operating environment than rl. Sucess in here is nothing to sniff at.

 

 

[Toysoldier Thor]

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Czari Zenovka wrote:

Great posts, Toy & Deja...except....after seeing those, to me, huge cash-out amounts you two bounced around...I'm depressed...lol.

 

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lol sowwy...

When I started creating and selling in SL in 2008 I was freaked right out when someone bought my first tapestries i created.  A whopping 100L then and i thought WOW!  I never sold many.  I was sooooo excited after like 6 months that my SL account had $100US in the account!

I never thought in a million years I would ever see $1000 US come out of SL!!

But I would say my SL business as been successful as much because of luck as other factors - like amazing advice from a few ppl... like one that told me I should take my animated water sculpties out of my build and sell them as raw packs of sculpties.... like a theme pack!!  best single advice i ever got.  I know if I would have continued to create more packs I would have made FAR more $ money but.... as my post said... I got interested in something else.

 

 

 

 

 

[Toysoldier Thor]

I remember that stat and I was shocked I was in the top 10% for as little as I was making... but the top 3% were making HUGE incomes that would be considered good even in RL.  I knew a couple ppl that in 2007 were one of them but one of them - their income collapse to like 25% of what she had made in previous years.

Im happy what i make with the little effort I put into it - especially with this rl economy and SL sliding in popularity.

[Couldbe Yue]

rather than digging up my figures and having to do the analysis (sue me, I'm lazy)..  I'll point to this..

https://theriseofthesurreal.wordpress.com/2010/03/09/the-economic-truth-of-earning-income-in-second-life/

It's a bit eyewatering in places but these stand out:

"In February 2010, 68948 people had a Positive Monthly Linden Flow (PMLF).  As the chart below shows, only 1.64% earned approximately the minimum wage or above."

"Looking at the figures again, a consistent 83% of those with a PMLF earn less than $50 per month.  This figure rises to 89% when increasing the threshold to $100 per month."

that should give you brain overload for a saturday morning..

 

[Deja Letov]

3 or 4  years ago, if I was doing what I am doing now in SL and worked 40 hours a week on marketing, building, etc. I'm sure my income in here would explode. These days...if I ramped up to even 20 or 30 hours a week, I doubt I'd see a huge explosion, maybe only slightly minor. People just aren't spending like they used to and of course there aren't as many spending either. I know I'll never make enough money in SL to support my family on, like Couldbe You, I make in a couple of days in RL what I make in here all month, it's not attainable or even remotely a realistic expectation. Having said that, I am really surprised by those stats. Maybe not so much today because everything seems to be in a decline, but even a year or two ago...so many were still around and were doing so well, I was depressed cause I thought I was sucking so bad.

[Josh Susanto]

Let me boil it down just a bit.

Fact #1) Today has been my slowest sales day all year (so far).

Fact #2) Today is the firs day I have seen "Sorry to keep you waiting" more than once, and I have now seen it 3 times.

Why would boxes or DD even matter if people can't even see the front page of the site?

[Czari Zenovka]

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Couldbe Yue wrote:

semi off topic...

relatively speaking they're not huge amounts but going on the last figures that LL published back in 2010 it puts them in the top 5% of income earners in here. (things may have changed since the last figures but I would think that the % would be smaller (ie 3%) rather than lower as I suspect money is more distributed these days).  There used to be around 2000 iirc earning above 500usd per month (before expenses). Moving from that figure (remember that's not even a minimum wage if you're putting in 40 hours a week in here) into the next band of over 1000usd per month is a lot harder (1000usd per month is still not minimum wage).   

If RL dictates that sl is the best way to generate income then anyone who is pulling in over 500usd per month is actually extremely sucessful considering the conditions we operate in.  It's just a matter of changing perspective.  I can remember when I got excited because I was getting close to earning minimum wage in here (by income not time spent) - despite the fact I earn more than that in a couple of days of rl working.  It's all relative but the main thing to remember is that this is a lot tougher operating environment than rl. Sucess in here is nothing to sniff at.

 

 

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I really appreciate you posting that, Couldbe - it does put things into perspective and, now that you mention it, I do recall when LL posted the % of top income-earners and what a small number make good (which is very relative from person to person and their circumstances) money.

As I mentioned in another thread awhile back, I don't envy (in a bad way) those who are successful in SL because at some point in time a lot of thought, time, work, etc. went into those businesses, even if they now run like a well-oiled machine they didn't start out that way.  Even though I began my business in 2008, 80% of my time in SL was spent elsewhere, so I would consider perhaps late 2010 to be when I got more serious, thus the "real" beginning.  Then I was out of SL due to RL circumstances for about 6 months toward the end of 2011; just returning to hear about DD going live.  Great timing.   (I did, however, come into SL to pay my shop rent, check on things, and take care of customers as needed.) Therefore, for my time/effort vs return, I'm happy with my business and look forward to expanding my skills, both creatively and business.

Thanks again, Couldbe; that reality check was good for me.

[Czari Zenovka]

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Toysoldier Thor wrote:

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Czari Zenovka wrote:

Great posts, Toy & Deja...except....after seeing those, to me, huge cash-out amounts you two bounced around...I'm depressed...lol.

 

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lol sowwy...

When I started creating and selling in SL in 2008 I was freaked right out when someone bought my first tapestries i created.  A whopping 100L then and i thought WOW!  I never sold many.  I was sooooo excited after like 6 months that my SL account had $100US in the account!

I never thought in a million years I would ever see $1000 US come out of SL!!

But I would say my SL business as been successful as much because of luck as other factors - like amazing advice from a few ppl... like one that told me I should take my animated water sculpties out of my build and sell them as raw packs of sculpties.... like a theme pack!!  best single advice i ever got.  I know if I would have continued to create more packs I would have made FAR more $ money but.... as my post said... I got interested in something else.

 

 

 

 

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*Grins*  My "lol" at the end of my post indicated I wasn't truly "depressed" depressed; more of a, "Ok - I need to pay attention to these posts and learn."

I know the feeling of someone purchasing those first products; I was stoked for days just because someone actually paid lindens for something I built.  Finding a product/s that has great appeal is certainly one key for success in merchandising - RL or SL.  I enjoyed reading how you began selling your sculpty packs, Toy.

Another issue is pricing.  I have a friend who keeps telling me my prices are too low, but I feel for what the current items are based on utility, detail of build, etc. that they are priced pretty much on target.  I actually sell quite a good volume but it takes a lot of sales to equal any appreciable RL cash.  That is where I am currently spending time learning more building skills and/or purchasing necessary building tools to add more value to my products which can bring the price up a notch.

Where is this karaoke you mention?

 

[Toysoldier Thor]

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Czari Zenovka wrote:

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...

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*Grins*  My "lol" at the end of my post indicated I wasn't truly "depressed" depressed; more of a, "Ok - I need to pay attention to these posts and learn."

I know the feeling of someone purchasing those first products; I was stoked for days just because someone actually paid lindens for something I built.  Finding a product/s that has great appeal is certainly one key for success in merchandising - RL or SL.  I enjoyed reading how you began selling your sculpty packs, Toy.

Another issue is pricing.  I have a friend who keeps telling me my prices are too low, but I feel for what the current items are based on utility, detail of build, etc. that they are priced pretty much on target.  I actually sell quite a good volume but it takes a lot of sales to equal any appreciable RL cash.  That is where I am currently spending time learning more building skills and/or purchasing necessary building tools to add more value to my products which can bring the price up a notch.

Where is this karaoke you mention?

 

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yes pricing is a very important factor.  My sculpty packs are "premium" priced even though I have looked at the marketplace and there are quite a few competitiors with similar types of products.  But artistic skills and quality is a factor in the pricing of my product and I decided long time ago that I am not going to gain more sales by getting into a price war with my competitors.  My customers really like my theme packs and my packs still sell so I leave it priced where it is.

As for karaoke... I am writing this as i wait to sing - in 3 singers.  I have been going to SL's old and most well established karaoke club in sl..... O LOUNGE.  been going there for 4 years.

Stop by one night to listen or even sing.  Its a hoot!

[Deja Letov]

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Toysoldier Thor wrote:

 

As for karaoke... I am writing this as i wait to sing - in 3 singers.  I have been going to SL's old and most well established karaoke club in sl..... O LOUNGE.  been going there for 4 years.

Stop by one night to listen or even sing.  Its a hoot!

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I so want to see that! or rather hear that!

[Toysoldier Thor]

  here ya go Deja... a snippet from last night   

I was rocking a tune with a cockroach as my lead guitarist on an awesome Staind tune !

Just a day in the life at the 'O'

 

[Czari Zenovka]

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Toysoldier Thor wrote:

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Czari Zenovka wrote:

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*Grins*  My "lol" at the end of my post indicated I wasn't truly "depressed" depressed; more of a, "Ok - I need to pay attention to these posts and learn."

I know the feeling of someone purchasing those first products; I was stoked for days just because someone actually paid lindens for something I built.  Finding a product/s that has great appeal is certainly one key for success in merchandising - RL or SL.  I enjoyed reading how you began selling your sculpty packs, Toy.

Another issue is pricing.  I have a friend who keeps telling me my prices are too low, but I feel for what the current items are based on utility, detail of build, etc. that they are priced pretty much on target.  I actually sell quite a good volume but it takes a lot of sales to equal any appreciable RL cash.  That is where I am currently spending time learning more building skills and/or purchasing necessary building tools to add more value to my products which can bring the price up a notch.

Where is this karaoke you mention?

 

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As for karaoke... I am writing this as i wait to sing - in 3 singers.  I have been going to SL's old and most well established karaoke club in sl..... O LOUNGE.  been going there for 4 years.

Stop by one night to listen or even sing.  Its a hoot!

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Will definitely check that out...thanks, Toy

[Deja Letov]

hahaha I love it Toy! When is the next karaoke night?

[Toysoldier Thor]

the Olounge has no set event for when SL Karaoke Lovers sing.  Its a 24 hour a day club.  Members just come when they feel like they wanna sing.  Often there are two main period when large crowds gather... in mid day for the europeans and australians.... and the evening for the north americans.  Its a strange and cool club as its still the most popular karaoke club in SL even though its rare that the owner calls a special event or that the group notices are used..... people seem to watch the number of dots on the LM map and gather when they see others there.

I would try about 8pm slt or around 1pm slt

Bring your singing voice.