Tricks for publicity and hiring people?

[Glitterophelia Khaos]

I hope I'm posting this in the right place, if not, I apologize.  I work as a manager at an adult club in SL.  However, none of us know much about advertising, and we need to hire more people.  We put an application at the front of the club, we are in the search menu, and for awhile I was able to post our special events on the SL website, however I'm not able to do that anymore, and I'm told this is because I'm not an "admin" on the sim, and my boss has no idea how to make me one.

My bosses put a lot of money into this, they bought the land, built the club themsevles, and even built a mall there (which we are still working on getting sellers to join up).  When I was strugglling with my linden home, they were nice enough to build me a larger home and rent it to me....

We've come up with several ideas, including paying the dancers hourly (though they can only afford to pay four hours a week) and of course the dancer gets her tips too.  However, we keep losing people or ending up with our djs flaking out on us etc.  Any tips on where I could go to hire people for this gig? If we don't have dancers we don't have patrons, and with no patrons then the dancers aren't going to stick around....I'm at my wits end trying to come up with ideas on how to get the word out about our club so we can hire some people and get the place really moving!

I heard there was a forum for hiring people, but silly me can't seem to find it. Could someone point me in the right direction, and perhaps if anyone has any advertising tips for an adult sim that would be fantastic.

thanks everyone in advance for your help!

-glitter

[Thinkerer Melville]

May help:

Employment services, Virtual Worlds

 

Earning "real" money in Second Life

 

Earning Money (or Lindens)  in Second Life Update

 

You might want to post notices on Facebook and Twitter

An admin on a sim probably means estate manager -- the owner can appoint you in the  estate/regioun  window. 

The inworld Hobo Kit carries notecards about how to promote events and other things in Second Life.  You can get a copy of the inworld Hobo Kit from the poster-giver on Cookie:

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Cookie/136/102/22

Unless there have been changes, events marked adult will only be available to people logged in on an adult-verified account.

[Dark Larkspur]

I am definitely not a great business person myself; but from what I can tell, your whole business set-up must work like a well oiled machine just to get by... You have to get sellers in your stores to help pay the land tier, and you need to get traffic to come see the stores so the sellers stay. The club and dancers may serve to draw the traffic (you still have to get them out of the club an into the stores) but the club usually costs money to keep running and never really Makes much... (I know someone who would argue this point with me; but Oh My - they closed their club and entire SIM because it was a big PITA to keep it running properly and not taking all their RL Fun Money) !!! Go to your top left corner to your tools and look to 'Move' your Blog/Post/Thread and see the different catagories where it could possibly go - some are people offering work and looking for work kind of catagories.... If you really want to be such a help to your 'Bosses', then you need to be given more Group Rights, maybe made an 'Officer' with almost as many rights as an 'Owner'... Just a thought; still don't know if that allows you to post the advertising you made reference to,,, I never did any of that...

[Irene Muni]

Publicity?

Ask yourself:

• What have my club (or what should have) that do not have other hundreds of clubs in SL?
• What have my dancers (or what should have) that do not have other hundreds of dancers in SL?
• What have my DJs (or what should have) that do not have other hundreds of DJs in SL?
• What have the seller of my (or what should have) that do not have other hundreds of sellers in SL?
• What have my events (or what should have) that do not have other hundreds of events in SL?

Well, maybe an exaggeration, but I think it is clear what is essential.

The question is not a "I have a club". The question is "I have a SPECIAL club because...".

Publicity without special/different content is a waste of time.

[Faithless Babii]

Glitterophelia Khaos wrote:

 

I hope I'm posting this in the right place, if not, I apologize.  I work as a manager at an adult club in SL.  However, none of us know much about advertising, and we need to hire more people.  We put an application at the front of the club, we are in the search menu, and for awhile I was able to post our special events on the SL website, however I'm not able to do that anymore, and I'm told this is because I'm not an "admin" on the sim, and my boss has no idea how to make me one.

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Estate manager is what you need to be, however this role comes with a lot of responsibility. If youre new I could understand why the sim owner might be worried about giving that permission. If the estate owner rents the sim, they might not be able to give that role anyway.

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My bosses put a lot of money into this, they bought the land, built the club themsevles, and even built a mall there (which we are still working on getting sellers to join up).  When I was strugglling with my linden home, they were nice enough to build me a larger home and rent it to me....

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Its very sweet that you worry aboutt his, but it is the owners problem, not yours. Clubs are a dime a dozen in SL, you can always find work in one . (but I understand the relationship with the owners and how you wish to help)

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We've come up with several ideas, including paying the dancers hourly (though they can only afford to pay four hours a week) and of course the dancer gets her tips too.  However, we keep losing people or ending up with our djs flaking out on us etc.  Any tips on where I could go to hire people for this gig? If we don't have dancers we don't have patrons, and with no patrons then the dancers aren't going to stick around....I'm at my wits end trying to come up with ideas on how to get the word out about our club so we can hire some people and get the place really moving!

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I owned a club back in 2007, I paid the dancers for a session lasting 2 hours, until their tips picked up and it became more popular.

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I heard there was a forum for hiring people, but silly me can't seem to find it. Could someone point me in the right direction, and perhaps if anyone has any advertising tips for an adult sim that would be fantastic

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.Ive seen groups inworld that supply club staff, dancers, hostess dj etc..might be worth looking for those in search.

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I do know many clubs are a labour of love and reap no financial returns whatsoever these days "moneypit" springs to mind

 

 

thanks everyone in advance for your help!

 

-glitter

[Unklebob Hotaling]

Greetings, and best of luck with your club : )

"I was able to post our special events on the SL website, however I'm not able to do that anymore, and I'm told this is because I'm not an "admin" on the sim, and my boss has no idea how to make me one"

The policy changed, here is how the owner of the sim grants permissions for others to post to SL Events:

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Linden_Lab_Official:Events

"However, we keep losing people or ending up with our djs flaking out on us etc.  Any tips on where I could go to hire people for this gig?"

Most clubs have reverted to a tips-only wage scale, that isn't all bad as depending on how good one is at their trade they can do quite well in earning tips.  That said there are groups inworld such as 'djs on demand' that freelance (i'm dated, haven't needed to hire outside of staff in ages, but if that group doesn't exist there are entertainment groups that would fill your demand).  You could also post a notice to your VIP group suggesting 'job opportunities' if you're looking for hosts and dancers... the most loyal staff will come from your vips, as they already like it there... DJs being a little harder to come by.

"I'm at my wits end trying to come up with ideas on how to get the word out about our club so we can hire some people and get the place really moving!"

Have sponsored events.  Approach some well known latex clothing designer as one example, tell them you'll spread the word to all your VIPs about how awesome their line of clothing is, you spam the event in your VIP group, ask the merchant to spam the event in their own group (in doing so your club reaches a whole different group of people)... and if the merchant wants to throw in a cool outfit as a prize or attend the event giving out gift certificates - you both profit in your own ways.

"I heard there was a forum for hiring people, but silly me can't seem to find it."

http://blogs.secondlife.com/community/commerce/employment

"Could someone point me in the right direction, and perhaps if anyone has any advertising tips for an adult sim that would be fantastic."

Do a search on advertising when inworld, join an advertising group that allows you to spam or send notices... thus you are contact people outside of your VIP group... spreading the word and reaching outside of the box and alot of other cliche-ish phrases.

[Glitterophelia Khaos]

Thanks so much for your reply.  After I posted this the owners made me co-owner of the club so I would have more rights and responsibilites.  I've managed to hire 3 girls (one who is a dancer AND a dj) so far since I posted up here but of course we still need more.  However,things are looking brighter,  As Co-owner I was able to place a classified ad, I'm once again able to post our events on the website, and I'm not sure what else I can do but I'm looking for more options.  My owners bought the sim themselves, so making me co owner was not a problem for them.  They also rent a house to me on the sim and are discussing letting me have the home for free for the work I'm doing for them, which would be nice (though not necessary). Things are starting to look up.  I'm aware clubs are a dime a dozen, I mostly spend my time in clubs and have been since I started playing SL, and I work in 3 clubs total in the game, including this one.

 

I do have a close personal connection with the owners, they are real life friends and one of the owners is my real life boss.  So of course I want to impress. Two other clubs have been trying to "steal" me away from this club but I want to see what I can do to make it work before I make that kind of decision.  I'm somewhat of a go-getter, so I do my best to get what I want when I want it, and it often works out.

 

We'll see how things go, but I can already see an improvement since I became co-owner of the club and I hope to make the improvement continue!

 

thanks!

 

glitter

[Glitterophelia Khaos]

Well the good news is, shortly after I posted this the owners made me co-owner of the club so now I have more powers to advertise and hire girls which my owners have not had the time to do. I've hired 3 girls so far (one a dancer AND a dj so she gets paid double).  I'm looking to hire more and did put out a classified ad statng so.  We still need more of every position. I've been coming up with back up plans in case a dj or a dancer has an emergency and cannot make it to the club.  I've been training everyone to the best of my ability, and since I have both RL and internet managment under my belt this isn't too difficult a task for me to take on. I just needed the permissions to do it. I feel more positive now that we will be able to make things work.  It could take some time but I think we can do it.

 

thanks for your post!

 

glitter

[Glitterophelia Khaos]

Thank you. I can see what you mean.  While our club caters to everyone it is a pagan club, so many of our patrons are either pagan or pagan friendly. At first we weren't going to allow neko or furrys dance in the club but due to popular demand, we now allow that, and even have "furry nights" as one of our events during the week. We also come up with original event ideas every week (while I notice a lot of clubs just rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat).  We've even had men dance for us, which goes over well because a lot of our guests are in fact women. There are quite a few things that make us stand out from other clubs--sometimes I think these things might be more of a hinderance than a benefit, but on the other hand, we try to cater to our customer's needs the best we can.

 

The club owners made me part club-owner after I posted this, so I now have a lot more freedom to post and advertise than I did before.  I've hired 3 girls in the past few days and they all seem excited to work even though I have warned them that it will be slow at least at first. I think the idea of hourly pay is definitely working in our favor!

 

Thanks for the advice, it was good!

 

glitter

[Glitterophelia Khaos]

Thank so much for your reply.  Shortly after I posted this the owners made me co-owner of the club, so I now have more freedom in advertising and that sort of things.  I haired 3 girls this week (one is a dj so she will get paid extra if she djs for us).  I put up a classified ad, and I did find that employment page you were telling me about (qiuite by accident) and got at least one of our new girls from there. I can now post our events on the website again. Your idea of working with a clothing designer is a good idea, I will run that past my bosses and see what they think.  Since we also have a shopping mall on our sim, I'm sure one of the vendors in that mall would be happy to go for such an event. It would not only bring traffic to our vendor but traffic to our mall. A very fine and creative idea!

 

Thank you so much for your help!!

 

glitter

[Irene Muni]

You're welcome

[Unklebob Hotaling]

"It would not only bring traffic to our vendor but traffic to our mall. A very fine and creative idea!"

Creating thinking, is what a GM does : )

Asking your ventors if you can spam their groups is another way or reaching outside the box.  Some won't like this idea as it is for their customers and topics related to their business, but if you just spam once per day (ie a daily list of events and times as opposed to each event seperately as is club routine) some will realize the idea is getting people there which benefits everyone including them.

Have hosts ensure they have giveaways in their inventory for partons; people love quality free stuff plus if your helping people have themed items that get them on the board, bonus.  Do not have the board set to one-winner; in doing so one person leaves your event pretty content, but everyone else is made a loser... if prop take you have more happier people with a reason to return.  Don't have hosts who think they have to do gestures so it looks like they are working, green spam is icky and open chat is way friendlier.  Don't have DJ s what use WinAmp, SAM gives a much higher quality stream .

I've meant to be in touch inworld actually, I know some dancers hosts and DJs looking for shifts... I'll be in touch.

Best of luck to your club!    *bites his lip when he says that LOL*