Thinking of starting a club.

[hamaziko]

Hello, i am thinking of starting a dubstep club in secondlife but i dont have a clue on how to go about this, can someone please help me. i could also do with knowing how much i am looking at spending on this club and the furnishings. please help.

PS: im not sure if this is in the right forum.

From H

[Megz Ling]

Hi hamaziko.  I rarely post on the forums, but I had to respond to your post.  I have been in SL since 2007.  I have had multiple clubs of my own as well as run clubs for other people.  All I can tell you is they are money pits.  I started mine with the same good intentions of giving people a place to hear good music and to make a place for my friends to hang out.  However, all in all, over the years and different clubs... including tiers, furnishings, uploads, entertainment, etc... I've probably spent well over $1000 USD.  If you have that kind of money to spend on a video game, good for you... do what makes you happy.  You can make small clubs, but keep in mind, if you make a smaller club and have 75 people there, you're going to make the other renters on the sim upset and unhappy with unfair use of resources.  If you're in the club business to make money, I hate to be the bearer of bad news.  Of course there are rare exceptions, but mostly, it's a money losing business.  If you still wish to pursue it for fun, I suggest at least 1/4 sim rental, which varies in cost across the different land companies.  If you want to go even further, you can get your own sim, but again, that's not cheap.  Furnishings vary on what kind of stuff you want to have and if you'll be making anything yourself.  But it can definitely get up there in cost and very very fast.  My best wishes to you in pursuing what makes you happy in SL.  Personally, if I could do it all over again, I would stay far, far away from the club ownership thing.

[Indio Quinnell]

Megz pretty much nailed it.

The days when you could set up a club and make money off it -- or even just have it mostly pay for itself through donations and tip-sharing -- are pretty much gone, assuming it was ever that way to begin with.  There's simply too much competition out there from too many other SL residents who all have the same idea you have.  And that's especially so when it comes to clubs oriented on techno, trance, dub, and so on.

So, whatever you do, don't even think about setting up your own club until you know what you expect to get out of it.  

If you just want to build one for the joy of creating a place for you and your friends (and maybe some of their friends) to come hang out, and as long as you're prepared for the fact that your club's patrons will have other things to do in SL besides stay in your club 24/7, and as long as you're willing to subsidize the place to the tune of at least US$100 a month in tier or rent payments, contest prize money, etc. (and it could easily be a lot more, depending on how much land space or prim capacity you need, and whether or not you can find a partial sim for rent whose other tenants won't complain about your club sucking up all the sim's resources)... then sure, go for it.

If, on the other hand, you can't afford to subsidize the place out of your own pocket, or were hoping to generate any significant amount of actual income from it...  prepare yourself for disappointment, I'm afraid.  

[hamaziko]

Thanks for the replys, after much consideration i think i shall go into land sales/leases to see if i can make a bit of money.

Thanks again

H

[Ashy Calcutt]

Sorry for the late reply to this.. but  there are some rare instances that clubs aren't loosing money some actually gain money from being popular take IYC(International Yiff Center) they been around a long time and is very popular with furries and nekos and some cases humans lol and some other ones that gain L.. It depens on what club is caterd too and what Genre of music is going to be played plus is it going to moderate or adult themed . thought should be taken in what kind of club.  and again this is a late reply and i apologise once again