The true cost of freebies

[Codex Alpha]

On 3/6/2018 at 8:36 AM, Desudesudesuka said:

Wondering what people's thoughts were on these. When they should be listed if ever, how other people have used them, what people like to see out of them, and strategies for giving them away.

L$1, L$5, L$10 "freebies."

I noticed a practice of people selling items for L$1, which I don't entirely understand or agree with - I've decided not to "purchase" things simply because I did not want to navigate the L$1 deals after scouring actual freebies, and I never looked into L$5 "freebies" at all, partly due to attention span. Is there a benefit to  L$1 "freebies" other than nickel and dimeing people or are they a mistake?

Demo freebies.

There's the case of things that are limited versions of full products, particularly eyes being given away in one garish colour to try to get people to purchase other colours. I like this idea more than the idea of linked DEMO meshes, since it can serve as free advertisement and doesn't really clutter the store.

Group gifts.

Not much to say. Often overlaps with the other categories. Encourages people to join your update and profile advertisement groups.

Full featured freebies.

In the case where there is no "superior" version of the product available, it's just a promotion for the store in general or a gift. Could be ethical or due to respecting licenses. Goes without saying why this is a good thing but it could cut into potential profit. Good use of "waste" versions of products that don't meet the standard there is for sale items.

My free items are gifts back to SL'ers for giving me TRULY free gifts when I joined SL, and some items also function as examples of my work which leads to other models based on it, so it effectively becomes a DEMO that they can keep and use.

Kind of like a loss leader... If you like this free item, you may want to consider looking at this advanced item in the same genre..

[Alyona Su]

30 minutes ago, entity0x said:

Could I mitigate this with a very informative video that may include a walk through, instructions and demonstration of the item? Not sure that after I upload some more complicated items that demo items would even help, when a video might be much better.

A video DOES help, if the product can be helped by it. For example gadgets of any kind (magic HUD, Particle Generator HUD, etc). When I was on the hunt to fill my Dancer HUD and looking for dance animations - there were a few creators who included video as well as in-store poser-demos. The videos helped me to decide the general quality of the animations.

In the case of a vehicle, for example (boat, aircraft, etc.) - gotta have a demo as, for me, how it feels to drive is more important than how it looks or any whiz-bang features like spinning this or turning that, etc.

I guess the main point being that I want to get the feel of what it is, what it does, and will it fill my wants or needs and I want to know this as much as possible before I plunk down 5000L$. So, if it's time-limited demo in world, a demo I can "buy" in MP, a video - if it can show me what it does and that it will fill my need: then yes: you will have a sale. If it comes close, but still not sure, then I will IM the creator and ask "Hey, looking your product and I really need it to do this or work this way, does yours?"

Edited April 6, 2018 by Alyona Su

[Tamara Artis]

Some will say how group gifts are for items that aren't good enough to become a real vendor, IMO the quality of the group gift will show the quality of the brand. This is why the best ones usually have few thousand members in their groups or subscribers and why, when there is a new group gift in the store, the sim is full and you can't tp in.

That's my goal, for my little shop  

[Klytyna]

4 hours ago, Tamara Artis said:

Some will say how group gifts are for items that aren't good enough to become a real vendor

Couple of years back, a store called Shi, put out a free gift at the Hair fair... A short razor cut hair style, nice if you are into short edgy modern bob cuts (not my taste but still), the gift was a full fat pack, with all the colour huds... regular retain price... 1250 L$.

A very nice and very well made gift, it's not some special edition, they just gave away a 1250 ls store product during the fair.

And even then I heard people dissing it not because of how it looked but because "it's a freebie and worth what you p[ay for it".

*rolls eyes*
 

[Fionalein]

1 minute ago, Klytyna said:

And even then I heard people dissing it not because of how it looked but because "it's a freebie and worth what you p[ay for it".

Kinda like "How dare they show they have no money in my presence!" ?

[Tamara Artis]

Well that's just lame. I guess there will always be "that kind of people" who who judge before checking the actual item, I'm not really bothered about it... often the quality they represent is lower than the quality of the items they b**ch about  

Can you imagine how many people was happy during that hair fair, when they got a real fatpack of the awesome Shi hair and, specially if they are new in SL and don't buy lindens, how long it will be some special gift that they discovered.