How to run a succesful club?

[Pammymy]

Hello dear Marketting miracles.

I've recently start-up a club. (One of fewer things i have never done on SL.) I seem to have every ingredient to a good club, and got very positive feedback from the few visitor i had.

I would appreciate you shareing your idea's on how to get a party mob to enter my club. Once the marbles are rolling and people are tping their friends thats fine, but where do i get that first wave?

xxx

[Mickey Vandeverre]

Hi Pammymy - you might not have any suggestions yet, because maybe people don't know anymore.

By successful, do you mean making a profit, having fun, huge traffic, or all combined?

Slap a honking ad banner in your forum profile and that will help a bit  

[Pammymy]

Heya Mick, if you dont mind me calling you Mick. Hehe.

By successful i mean having fun. A decent amount of people to interact with.

Ahh ill try.

[Mickey Vandeverre]

Yes, definitely Mick is ok.  (much more pleasant than the other names)

Having Fun = Cool  - not so sure many clubs make a profit.

I've never managed a club, but used to go to a lot.  The ones that were fun for me were the ones that had a neighborhood feel, kinda like that Cheers bar on TV.  They knew your name when you walked in, and a drink ready for you.  (even in virtual)

They were also very friendly to anyone new that arrived.  They were not Cliqueish.  And they made newcomers feel very welcome.

There was always some kind of event going on, it seemed. 

I'm not sure how to get traffic anymore, kinda out of the loop on how people are doing that now.  And I guess that depends on when you will operating the club?  What time of day do you want the traffic, because I don't think that anyone gets it all day long anymore! 

[Setekh Ichtama]

Getting people to return to your club on any regular basis will be very difficult.

[Mickey Vandeverre]

You got your info into the sig!

Here's what you need to make it link, this was handy info from Darrius, who hangs out here now and then -

start the typing with    <a href=

then plug your page address right after the =

then add  >Club Name or whatever title you want to appear

then end it with    </a>

and that will make a nice little link like I've got in my sig

hopefully I did that right

[Tari Landar]

Word of mouth is your best tool at this point. Clubs that start off with huge crowds, tend to fizzle real fast. Start small and work up.

There is a club on the sim I am on, though frankly I'm not real sure how long they'll last. They're killing the sim and making it a bear to even live. I'd rather not move, again, I like my plot. But I may have to, because they lack the consideration one needs to own a business of any sort. That's my biggest peeve with club owners, many pay little to no attention to their impact on the rest of the sim. Meh.

But I won't knock them all, there are some who do a fine job of keeping an eye on their virtual footprint-they're just getting fewer and further between

Things I have seen in clubs that are at least seemingly successful...

events-whether they are your good old standard "best in" or some other event, people reeeeeeeally seem to like them(despite what many might say, lol),

atmosphere-staff, party goers and whatnot all included, gesturbating is freaking annoying-yes SOME people like it, but there are tons(like me) who refuse to go to most clubs because they don't keep this under control-blah, emoting instead of chatting is a huge no-no in my book, so don't give your staff emotes to put out in chat periodically "tip the dj, tip the club, tip me..blah blah blah"-I won't do any of the above if you gesturettack me, encourage chit chat, encourage your staff to actually participate in conversations....do NOT allow staff to bring in gf/bf/partner/so/pets/whatever if they can't stay the heck out of their little im boxes and do their job-this is something that reeeally grates on my nerves(and people make it so obvious, lol), a really great dj can both do his/her job and also interract-hire those types...it's really hard(I ave been a dj so I understand completely and not just a playlist dj, lol) but it speaks volumes,

decor-limit it..a lot, no unnecessary scripts, NO particles(yes customers can turn them off, but I still see no need for them to begin with), you can do and say a lot with just a little decor, considering you want a multitude of party goers you're going to want to limit what the machines have to render, a ton of sculpty though it may look nice, could prove to be problematic, mesh-I wouldn't even bother with just yet still too many who can't see it (I visited a couple clubs the other day who use a mesh something or other for dance balls which don't function for the folks who can't see it(it should still work on touch, but it doesn't, I tried using a non-mesh viewer)

 

sorry TL;DR....umm, yeah...create a nice atmosphere, let word of mouth speak for you, have events(and list them), you'll get there

 

[Miyo Darcy]

As I sold many club objects in the past and as this is the reason why I have/had some contacts to people who run a club. I can tell you the biggest problem is that there are already so much clubs and those must share the Userbase of SL who are interested in music and clubbing.

Which means that the lifespan of most clubs does not overtrump one, two or three month. That is the sad reality.

Anyway you didnt´t ask for that.. what I see is you want to know "How to run a succesful club?". And that shows that you worry about this topic. I also believe that this is already pretty good as I think most dont.. they just start but wonder later that they have to close the doors or that they did expect more.

Im not a club owner and I never did run any club. Therefor I hope other people can give you some hot informations how to do it right. I wish you good luck

 

[Chelsea Malibu]

We got Club Jenna up to around 22,000 and held that pretty steady.  We did a pretty significant amount of marketing however, that marketing was event driven.

The key to getting a successful club is in getting traffic but they key to getting traffic is in having traffic.  I know it's sort a dog chasing the tail but dots attract dots while people will just leave if there is no one there.

What we did was hold many events each day and cash prizes drew the best.  This is where it gets hard since you need either a revenue model or deep pockets to really get it off the ground.

The good news is that once it is off the ground, it stays pretty active. Its that ramping period until you get traction that is where so many club owner give up. (Well that and partner disputes which I hear about all the time).

Some clubs have been so successful, they can keep DJ's 24/7 on just tips alone where DJ's are on a waiting list to perform there. But this takes a lot of time and as said, word of mouth works best.

You club needs to be comfortable and spacious, you need a good host team and of course, music that hits your target audience.

[DiJodi Dubratt]

In my experience, the key is groups and subscribos. People don't make many advance plans in SL, but if they are online chances are they'll be looking for something to do. When your event notice comes into their browser a few of them will join you. Last month there were some technical difficulties with the subscribo at the club I co-own, and the number of people at the shows dropped off dramatically. 

As you are just starting, I would look for a DJ with a large following. Expensive? Possibly, but if you are serious about doing this then its an investment. Then let people know that if they like this DJ and enjoy this event, you have similar fun events on a regular basis. Encourage them to join your group or subscribo to receive notices of future events. Then do not spam. You have to find the balance between letting people know what's happening and not annoying them. Then deliver on the promise of fun events. 

Are there groups for Techo-lovers from Germany or Clubbers from France? A group who wants to re-create the London party scene in SL? Can you join these groups? Can you let the members know about your great new club, and the special event you're having with DJ BIGDEAL starting in 5 minutes?  

Post a clear listing in the events section of search. Target the people who are looking for the type of music and atmosphere you provide. Not just "DJ BIGDEAL!!!!!!! Live at NEWCLUB!!!!!!!!!!!" Something that tells me what type of music, what type of club, what I should wear, etc. If its all about the music, let me know. If its all about meeting people while music just happens to play, that's ok too, but let people know.  

It will take a while, but if you're around for the long haul you'll cultivate a group of regulars. You have an advantage having shows in European-friendly times.