Yet Another Disillusioned Mainland Land Owner

[Extrude Ragu]

1 minute ago, Love Zhaoying said:

According to one post:

Ah, OK, yes. I can see now why it would cause upset.

Well I mean listen I don't mean to have a go at OP, but why not just spend some time to make the adboards a bit more palletable?

Maybe graphics design and visual harmony is not OP's passion - But that is really not a good look for a 'property management' company if every property you touch ends up looking like blight and it seems like most of the thread agrees. If not willing to put in the time yourself, why not consult with someone who can make things a bit more pretty for you?

Some suggestions:-

• Improve the land you advertise on, by decorating your parcels with things that compliment the surroundings. Make some nice mesh flower planters, etc. Come on, you're a 'property management' company. Who's going to want their property managed by someone who actively makes property uglier?
• Get a graphics designer to make your advertisements, seriously, it's hardly legible, the aspect ratio is all wrong, the color contrast and font choice is a visual trainwreck.
• Use a nice mesh sign, and I don't mean a huge billboard either, make something pleasant looking and people will zoom into it out of curiosity. Make something unpleasant like this and people will instinctively zoom out, no matter how big you make it.
• Put something nice on the property that people will appreciate having around the neighborhood, like one of those bike rezzers or something, a park bench. Generally just make the place look nicer than how you found it.

It doesn't take that much effort, you can still make lots of money and you'll actually be appreciated for what you do.

 

[Qie Niangao]

19 minutes ago, Extrude Ragu said:

why not just spend some time to make the adboards a bit more palletable?

That might make sense if the objective were to actually advertise something (as hopeless as that would be). Because the goal is to coerce land owners to buy an exorbitantly priced microparcel, the threat of it being hideous is not a bug, it's a feature.

[Love Zhaoying]

55 minutes ago, Qie Niangao said:

That might make sense if the objective were to actually advertise something (as hopeless as that would be). Because the goal is to coerce land owners to buy an exorbitantly priced microparcel, the threat of it being hideous is not a bug, it's a feature.

Plus, if the adboards the OP is using are not against the TOS, then I suspect the response will be something like, "no".

[Rowan Amore]

8 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Plus, if the adboards the OP is using are not against the TOS, then I suspect the response will be something like, "no".

That aren't against the ToS NOW since she 'corrected' some issue.  Previously, they were advertising her adult stuff which IS against ToS for ad boards.  But as I mentioned, sure hope the 'correction' doesn't cut into her side businesses.  *wink wink nudge nudge*

[Love Zhaoying]

Just now, Rowan Amore said:

But as I mentioned, sure hope the 'correction' doesn't cut into her side businesses.  

Bonus: "Side" is now a position (I just recently learned)!

[BilliJo Aldrin]

2 hours ago, Love Zhaoying said:

According to one post:

 

ETA: Prior to when someone else posted this, the OP only posted a picture of the rock.

I put up a picture of only the rock to show what one of my parcels that are for sale  looks like, to assure people that I wasn't adfarming. Putting up a picture of the ad board might be considered advertising, and would surely be ARed.

 

[BilliJo Aldrin]

2 hours ago, Extrude Ragu said:

Ah, OK, yes. I can see now why it would cause upset.

Well I mean listen I don't mean to have a go at OP, but why not just spend some time to make the adboards a bit more palletable?

Maybe graphics design and visual harmony is not OP's passion - But that is really not a good look for a 'property management' company if every property you touch ends up looking like blight and it seems like most of the thread agrees. If not willing to put in the time yourself, why not consult with someone who can make things a bit more pretty for you?

Some suggestions:-

• Improve the land you advertise on, by decorating your parcels with things that compliment the surroundings. Make some nice mesh flower planters, etc. Come on, you're a 'property management' company. Who's going to want their property managed by someone who actively makes property uglier?
• Get a graphics designer to make your advertisements, seriously, it's hardly legible, the aspect ratio is all wrong, the color contrast and font choice is a visual trainwreck.
• Use a nice mesh sign, and I don't mean a huge billboard either, make something pleasant looking and people will zoom into it out of curiosity. Make something unpleasant like this and people will instinctively zoom out, no matter how big you make it.
• Put something nice on the property that people will appreciate having around the neighborhood, like one of those bike rezzers or something, a park bench. Generally just make the place look nicer than how you found it.

It doesn't take that much effort, you can still make lots of money and you'll actually be appreciated for what you do.

 

Ouch, however, a 16 sq m parcel supports 5 prims, my ad board is 5 prims, not much left over to pretty things up. Annnd, from what I've been told over and over, no one even looks at ad boards anyway, but thank you for your suggestions.

[Coffee Pancake]

1 hour ago, Qie Niangao said:

That might make sense if the objective were to actually advertise something (as hopeless as that would be). Because the goal is to coerce land owners to buy an exorbitantly priced microparcel, the threat of it being hideous is not a bug, it's a feature.

100% .. the "advertising" angle is just a blunt attempt to justify the overall behavior, this has been the case with all the land cutting businesses I have observed so far.

 

5 minutes ago, BilliJo Aldrin said:

I put up a picture of only the rock to show what one of my parcels that are for sale  looks like, to assure people that I wasn't adfarming. Putting up a picture of the ad board might be considered advertising, and would surely be ARed.

getting caught in a lie and hoping to rules lawyer out of it .. I mean .. ok

 

[Love Zhaoying]

18 minutes ago, BilliJo Aldrin said:

I put up a picture of only the rock to show what one of my parcels that are for sale  looks like, to assure people that I wasn't adfarming. Putting up a picture of the ad board might be considered advertising, and would surely be ARed.

This has me all kinds of confused. Wasn't the rock on the same parcel as the ad? And if so, how is that different than adfarming?

Or, if the rock was on its own parcel and the adboard parcel was "not for sale", does that mean the adboard parcel is "not adfarming"?

* ouch, my tiny brain *

[BilliJo Aldrin]

8 minutes ago, Coffee Pancake said:

100% .. the "advertising" angle is just a blunt attempt to justify the overall behavior, this has been the case with all the land cutting businesses I have observed so far.

 

 

 

I have the ad boards because it amuses me to have them. I can just be a straight flipper, I never pay more than $250 L for each parcel I buy. I could  relist them for $500 L and they would sell in a week or two.

 

 

[Love Zhaoying]

13 minutes ago, Coffee Pancake said:

100% .. the "advertising" angle is just a blunt attempt to justify the overall behavior, this has been the case with all the land cutting businesses I have observed so far.

"I cut because it allows me to FEEL!!"

[BilliJo Aldrin]

1 minute ago, Love Zhaoying said:

This has me all kinds of confused. Wasn't the rock on the same parcel as the ad? And if so, how is that different than adfarming?

Or, if the rock was on its own parcel and the adboard parcel was "not for sale", does that mean the adboard parcel is "not adfarming"?

* ouch, my tiny brain *

No, the rock is on the parcel that is for sale.

The ad board parcel is networked advertising, totally different.

Ad farming is not allowed, networked advertising is.

[Extrude Ragu]

11 minutes ago, Coffee Pancake said:

100% .. the "advertising" angle is just a blunt attempt to justify the overall behavior, this has been the case with all the land cutting businesses I have observed so far.

I'm going to be kind enough to give OP benefit of the doubt and assume she's not intentionally trying to make SL unpleasant or engaging in nefarious business practices.

However, I would suggest that even if it were the case that OP was trying to bully people into buying microparcels, I would argue it's actually not a very sustainable business practice in the long run and very short sighted.

I mean think about it, most of SL's audience is aging and moving on with their life, and the young audience aren't going to be interested in 2009 SL, or dealing with land baron issues when they can just play VRChat. In order to sustain a customer base in the long term, the mainland needs to be enticing and modern, and the people who are selling land to them need to appear to be with the times. Sure you could bully a few people with the threat of ugliness outside their door today, but really all you'd be doing as a land business owner is shooting your businesses chance at a long term future.

Personally once upon a time I had considered buying close to half a sim in parcels at one time about 5 years ago, but due to nearby blight I had decided against it, and opted to rent with a private sim instead. Whilst this might be OK for someone like me who is kept entertained by creating, for a typical resident, ultimately to have less neighbors and interesting things around them keeping them on SL, which means they're less likely to keep playing, and less likely to keep renting, and the pool of customers shrinks.

[BilliJo Aldrin]

Way back in 2020, I had 47 ad parcels, all with the same ad, but a change in the rules rendered them all illegal, so I sold them all at a nice profit.

Right now I have about dozen and I still have about 250 sq m available. When I max out, I'll list some of them for sale (with a rock, not the ad) so I can continue buying them

[Love Zhaoying]

10 minutes ago, BilliJo Aldrin said:

No, the rock is on the parcel that is for sale.

The ad board parcel is networked advertising, totally different.

Ad farming is not allowed, networked advertising is.

Thank you for explaining the distinction.  The entire "which microparcel is used for what" part of the discussion went over my head. (Kind of like if 2 bees were trying to explain the difference between their individual hexagonal compartments in the same honeycomb, or if 2 ants were describing the difference between their grains of sand.)

Please do not take this as criticism, but I feel that the argument "I cannot show you my ad, as that would be AR'd" is a completely specious argument.  In this entire discussion, the assumption is - and your admission is - that others abandoned their parcels because of your adboards.  Of course, we want to see it. Showing us your adboard as part of a discussion does not mean you are advertising it.

On the contrary, AVOIDING showing us your adboard as part of this discussion, implies that you are "hiding something".  Like, if your adboard was garish, tall, blocked the view, etc. Despite what you asserted earlier, I cannot see how that your adboard would NOT block the view.  (Putting up "screens" to avoid seeing them would ALSO block the view.)

In that context, Coffee did us all a favor by showing us your adboard.

 

 

Edited June 7, 2023 by Love Zhaoying

[BilliJo Aldrin]

2 minutes ago, Extrude Ragu said:

I'm going to be kind enough to give OP benefit of the doubt and assume she's not intentionally trying to make SL unpleasant or engaging in nefarious business practices.

However, I would suggest that even if it were the case that OP was trying to bully people into buying microparcels, I would argue it's actually not a very sustainable business practice in the long run and very short sighted.

I mean think about it, most of SL's audience is aging and moving on with their life, and the young audience aren't going to be interested in 2009 SL, or dealing with land baron issues when they can just play VRChat. In order to sustain a customer base in the long term, the mainland needs to be enticing and modern, and the people who are selling land to them need to appear to be with the times. Sure you could bully a few people with the threat of ugliness outside their door today, but really all you'd be doing as a land business owner is shooting your businesses chance at a long term future.

Personally once upon a time I had considered buying close to half a sim in parcels at one time about 5 years ago, but due to nearby blight I had decided against it, and opted to rent with a private sim instead. Whilst this might be OK for someone like me who is kept entertained by creating, for a typical resident, ultimately to have less neighbors and interesting things around them keeping them on SL, which means they're less likely to keep playing, and less likely to keep renting, and the pool of customers shrinks.

I pay for 8092 sq m every month, I have 3 primary parcels I call home, the spare tier is free and If i can use it to generate income by flipping micro parcels, its all profit to me.

[BilliJo Aldrin]

3 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Thank you for explaining the distinction.  The entire "which microparcel is used for what" part of the discussion went over my head. (Kind of like if 2 bees were trying to explain the difference between their individual hexagonal compartments in the same honeycomb, or if 2 ants were describing the difference between their grains of sand.)

Please do not take this as criticism, but I feel that the argument "I cannot show you my ad, as that would be AR'd" is a completely specious argument.  In this entire discussion, the assumption is - and your admission is - that others abandoned their parcels because of your adboards.  Of course, we want to see it. Showing us your adboard as part of a discussion does not mean you are advertising it.

On the contrary, AVOIDING showing us your adboard as part of this discussion, implies that you are "hiding something".  Like, if your adboard was garish, tall, blocked the view, etc. Despite what you asserted earlier, I cannot see how that your adboard would NOT block the view.  (Putting up "screens" to avoid seeing them would ALSO block the view.)

In that context, Coffee did us all a favor by showing us your adboard.

 

 

Of course it blocks the view if you are standing looking right at it, but as I said before, you buy the land, not the view. If you are not facing Linden owned protected property (not abandoned land) you have no guarantee the view you got when you paid for the land will exist any time in the future.

And, that goes for all land, not just micro parcels.

 

[Rowan Amore]

41 minutes ago, BilliJo Aldrin said:

no one even looks at ad boards anyway

No one looks at the ADS on the ad boards and thinks, "hmm, let me check.that out" unless.they are new and looking for...stuff and things.  They certainly aren't looking for micro parcels, though.

[Ingrid Ingersoll]

On 6/4/2023 at 9:36 AM, BilliJo Aldrin said:

I bought numbers 2 and 4, put my ad board on #2,

You dropped a big turd in front of his lawn and he left. Better luck next time trying to extort someone. There's tons of mainland for sale, super cheap. Enjoy paying for your micro parcels that people won't buy anymore. They'll just move like this guy did. Get used to it. 

Congrats for turding. 

 

 

Edited June 7, 2023 by Ingrid Ingersoll

[Love Zhaoying]

Here's a thought experiment.

Initial assumptions:

1. I want to sell microparcels.

2. I want to advertise my business using microparcels.

3. It may be against the rules to have adboards on my "for sale" microparcels, since that may be considered "ad farming". So, I will only EITHER have microparcels "for sale", OR adboard microparcels.  No microparcel will both be "for sale" and also be an adboard microparcel.

4. People are less likely to buy microparcels with adboard microparcel nearby.

If I then have my adboard microparcels next to my "for sale" microparcels...

Won't people be less likely to buy my "for sale" microparcels since there are adboard microparcels nearby? (See assumption #4 above.) 

In other words, aren't I hurting my own microparcel sales by placing adboards on microparcels nearby?

 

 

[BilliJo Aldrin]

36 minutes ago, Ingrid Ingersoll said:

You dropped a big turd in front of his lawn and he left. Better luck next time trying to extort someone. There's tons of mainland for sale, super cheap. Enjoy paying for your micro parcels that people won't buy anymore. They'll just move like this guy did. Get used to it. 

Congrats for turding. 

 

 

That's they key, its in front of their lawn, it's not their lawn, they have no say about what I do with the parcel after i buy it. Besides, If they wanted it, they would have bought it instead of me

Every roadfront  micro parcel I have bought I paid $250 L or less, and every one I wanted to sell, I  sold for $500 L.

What do the buyers do with the land? Well, they either use it for an ad board, or they relist it for $1000 L

But $500 L for a 2x protected 16 sq m parcel is the sweet spot, it always sells and it always will.

And its all free money to me  since I am paying the tier anyway.

[BilliJo Aldrin]

36 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Here's a thought experiment.

Initial assumptions:

1. I want to sell microparcels.

2. I want to advertise my business using microparcels.

3. It may be against the rules to have adboards on my "for sale" microparcels, since that may be considered "ad farming". So, I will only EITHER have microparcels "for sale", OR adboard microparcels.  No microparcel will both be "for sale" and also be an adboard microparcel.

4. People are less likely to buy microparcels with adboard microparcel nearby.

If I then have my adboard microparcels next to my "for sale" microparcels...

Won't people be less likely to buy my "for sale" microparcels since there are adboard microparcels nearby? (See assumption #4 above.) 

In other words, aren't I hurting my own microparcel sales by placing adboards on microparcels nearby?

 

 

Actually, ad parcels tend to appear in clumps, mainly due to land cutting. I could have bought all three parcels, listed them all for sale, and sold all of them.

[BilliJo Aldrin]

1 hour ago, Rowan Amore said:

No one looks at the ADS on the ad boards and thinks, "hmm, let me check.that out" unless.they are new and looking for...stuff and things.  They certainly aren't looking for micro parcels, though.

Then my ad boards will be a failure, and I'll give up and move on won't I?

😂

 

 

[Love Zhaoying]

9 minutes ago, BilliJo Aldrin said:

47 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Here's a thought experiment.

Initial assumptions:

1. I want to sell microparcels.

2. I want to advertise my business using microparcels.

3. It may be against the rules to have adboards on my "for sale" microparcels, since that may be considered "ad farming". So, I will only EITHER have microparcels "for sale", OR adboard microparcels.  No microparcel will both be "for sale" and also be an adboard microparcel.

4. People are less likely to buy microparcels with adboard microparcel nearby.

If I then have my adboard microparcels next to my "for sale" microparcels...

Won't people be less likely to buy my "for sale" microparcels since there are adboard microparcels nearby? (See assumption #4 above.) 

In other words, aren't I hurting my own microparcel sales by placing adboards on microparcels nearby?

 

 

Expand  

Actually, ad parcels tend to appear in clumps, mainly due to land cutting. I could have bought all three parcels, listed them all for sale, and sold all of them.

You did not answer my question, but that's OK.

Thanks for your reply!

[BilliJo Aldrin]

Just now, Love Zhaoying said:

You did not answer my question, but that's OK.

Thanks for your reply!

My bad, no, having an ad board beside another parcel for sale will not affect the ability of me to sell the parcel. Ad board owners don't care what is beside them, even if its another ad board.