The BEST SL business advice ever...

[Luna Bliss]

@Rya

The love exuded as you describe creating and running a business is infectious...makes me want to go out and buy one of your boats right away...and I don't even have enough water in my lands atm to use it

[Mistletoe Ethaniel]

Wow, I feel like I'm one of the popular kids somehow.

Hi, my name is Mistletoe, my alt's name is Clover, and I'm the author of the article to which several of you have referred.  It's taken me a while to respond for a couple of reasons.  First, I don't visit the forums near as often as I should; second, I had to wipe the tears of laughter from my eyes before speaking up.

A disclaimer?  Really?  And what shall this disclaimer say?

NOTICE: The article you're reading was written in 2009 and contains a parody graph by Prad Prathivi, which may be offensive to people who don't actually read the article and/or have an unfortunately thin skin and/or take themselves WAY too seriously.

Incidentally, Prad's one and only comment in my blog was about people knee-jerk reacting without reading what he has to say (around about the time of his (in)famous "Entitlement" post):

"<3

It never ceases to amaze me that some people will read what they want to read, instead of what’s actually written.

Thank you, for.. umm.. being able to read.. " 

Luna, you have made up your mind that a parody graph--which has been stated on numerous occasions to be parody--offends your sensibilities so deeply that anything accompanying it should be dismissed out of hand.  And, hey, it's great you have passion about it and I'm sure that turned to something worthwhile like world hunger or something, it would be a powerful force.  But myself I am of the belief that nobody ever has the right to never be offended.  If you really find something so trivial as a parody graph from 2009 to be that damaging, I can't help wondering if the world of SL business outside your fragile little bubble is one suited to you.

[Prad Prathivi]

Ahh, this thread is full of total win!

 

Carry on as you are!

[Porky Gorky]

 

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Prad Prathivi wrote:

Ahh, this thread is full of

total

win!

 

Carry on as you are!

---

I hope this teaches you a lesson about the dangers of creating inflammatory parody graphs young man. They are dangerous and will incite SL drama for many years to come. Now go to your room and have a good hard think about your reckless behaviour.

 

[Pamela Galli]

 

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Porky Gorky wrote:

 

I hope this teaches you a lesson about the dangers of creating inflammatory parody graphs young man. 

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Tsk and after all the PSA's about resisting peer pressure...

 

[Prad Prathivi]

When will I ever learn :smileysad:

For anyone that's interested, you can see all the Graph Parodies I made here.

[Suella Ember]

 

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Prad Prathivi wrote:

When will I ever learn :smileysad:

For anyone that's interested, you can see all the

Graph Parodies I made here

.

---

 

Well, thanks to my ability to 'get' concepts such as parody and satire, and thanks to the fact that those graphs were parody and satire done well rather than some lame joke attempting to pass itself off as parody or satire, I LOL'd lots! :smileyvery-happy:

[Darrius Gothly]

@Prad - Wait .. what? You mean that graph didn't mean I should switch my business to making simulated virtual crap?

So does that mean I have to give back all this money I've made selling my crap?

I SO hate when I misread a graph. Foibles of being left-handed I guess ....

[Prad Prathivi]

Never trust somebody who can't be bothered to label their axis properly.

[Deja Letov]

Not a bad article but definitely in need of updating which since the author posted here we can see is aware of that. It's an old article obviously, but I did enjoy it for the humor sake of it.. 

On a more serious note, some changes to update...

- Profile picks no longer matter.

- I wouldn't bother with groups for shops anymore. Nobody has room for groups. Subscriber kiosks are way better. I jumped from a measly 150 group members that took over a year to accumulate for my shop, to over 600 in just a few months by using a kiosk instead. Everyone touches it and joins. No worries about removing a group.

- Classified ads - In my opinion...compelte waste of money. Does anyone even read those anymore?

- Grid wide hunts - I think this is very bad information. I've gotten a lot of sales from Grid Wide hunts. I am ending the Twisted Hunt here in a few days and trust me...I watch people come in with that "hunter" tag on and I see people all the time lookng around my store and buying quite often. One of my highest spenders for the month, spent 7500L in my store on 2 separate visits. She had never been in before the hunt. I think these are crazy successful, at least they have been for me.

Other than that I think the article gives some great advice. Customer service being most important I am in total agreement with. Alot of businesses lack that even still.

 

 

[Mistletoe Ethaniel]

-Profile Picks no longer matter.

I disagree.  They no longer have an effect on Search ranking, true; but they most certainly matter.  If your friend/customer/alt is out somewhere and someone goes peeping at their profile, there's the Picks.  So I agree, it may not matter in the same way that it used to, but it does still matter.

- I wouldn't bother with groups for shops anymore. Nobody has room for groups. Subscriber kiosks are way better. I jumped from a measly 150 group members that took over a year to accumulate for my shop, to over 600 in just a few months by using a kiosk instead. Everyone touches it and joins. No worries about removing a group.

If that's what you find works for you, then by all means run with it.  I for one hate subscriber kiosks with a passion that burns with the heat of a thousand suns.  And what few I remain subscribed (willingly) to, nine times out of ten I get a notecard and discard it without even opening it.

- Classified ads - In my opinion...compelte waste of money. Does anyone even read those anymore?

According to my shop's sales and traffic numbers: yes.  But I will agree that it's not a very significant difference, except during holidays.

-- Grid wide hunts - I think this is very bad information. I've gotten a lot of sales from Grid Wide hunts. I am ending the Twisted Hunt here in a few days and trust me...I watch people come in with that "hunter" tag on and I see people all the time lookng around my store and buying quite often. One of my highest spenders for the month, spent 7500L in my store on 2 separate visits. She had never been in before the hunt. I think these are crazy successful, at least they have been for me.

That's great!  Much as I like being right all the time, I don't mind being proven wrong on occasions like these.  If I may ask, did you do anything different during Twisted (eg, having specials on display by the entrance point, etc) than you would have any other time?  Because I think, much like freebies in general, if tools like hunts are used wisely they can (obviously) be of great help.  So I guess what I'm saying is, I (and likely many others) could use information on how to use hunts wisely.

[Deja Letov]

I disagree.  They no longer have an effect on Search ranking, true; but they most certainly matter.  If your friend/customer/alt is out somewhere and someone goes peeping at their profile, there's the Picks.  So I agree, it may not matter in the same way that it used to, but it does still matter.

Yes you are exactly right. That's what I was mainly referring to was the search. I still use picks to find the LMs for items I see in world. But search was what I was mainly working towards.

If that's what you find works for you, then by all means run with it.  I for one hate subscriber kiosks with a passion that burns with the heat of a thousand suns.  And what few I remain subscribed (willingly) to, nine times out of ten I get a notecard and discard it without even opening it.

That may be true for you. But like I said, I am thinking for the general populace, not just one individual person. And sometimes...even if I am not a fan of something, if the bulk of my customers like it, I will do it to please them. I for one, dont subscribe to many groups or kiosks probably for the same reason as you. But my customers seem to. And most of the merchants I solcialize with are claiming the same excellent results. So while I may not (and you may not) if it works for business I am all over it!

I will add...I do use a group for my store. But it is a PAID group to join. It's 200L and is my VIP member group. They get a monthly gift as part of that and access to special discounts. I just started that in February and are around 50 members so far for that. I use a simple sign on the wall, they touch it, and if they want to join they pay the 200L on the join button and it's done. SO with this group, obviously I will agree it is important and is a great source of extra little freebie linden for me.

That's great!  Much as I like being right all the time, I don't mind being proven wrong on occasions like these.  If I may ask, did you do anything different during Twisted (eg, having specials on display by the entrance point, etc) than you would have any other time?  Because I think, much like freebies in general, if tools like hunts are used wisely they can (obviously) be of great help.  So I guess what I'm saying is, I (and likely many others) could use information on how to use hunts wisely.

No, I didn't do anything extra during the hunt. We have an in store hunt as well but that runs all the time, not related to the Twisted Hunt. Honestly, I simply put my item out and made it VERY hard for people to find it. In fact I moved it around a lot so people couldn't blog the locations. It forced people to stay there longer and because it was a puzzle to find the missing box, they looked around a lot. I think the key thing was simply that a lot of people doing the hunt had never been to my store before. I did part of the hunt myself, and I will tell you I dropped close to 10,000L randomly throughout the hunt on stores I had never been in before and found some really beautiful new builds I plan on going back to visit. With hunts, you have access to a potentially whole new customer base, who may not have ever been to your store or maybe just haven't been by in awhile. Right now I try to do atleast one hunt a month to keep a good flow of new people coming into my store.

 

[Pamela Galli]

Bump :-)

[Nefertiti Nefarious]

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Deja Letov wrote:

Grid wide hunts - I think this is very bad information. I've gotten a lot of sales from Grid Wide hunts. I am ending the Twisted Hunt here in a few days and trust me...I watch people come in with that "hunter" tag on and I see people all the time lookng around my store and buying quite often. One of my highest spenders for the month, spent 7500L in my store on 2 separate visits. She had never been in before the hunt. I think these are crazy successful, at least they have been for me.

 

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I do hunts because they force me out of my comfort zone - I try to make something outside the normal product line that requires learning a new skill somewhere.

And it's fun.