Ai Velde

Brooke Linden wrote: Excerpt: One other question that has come up concerns negative reviews received due to failed deliveries. Please flag the review using the link provided below the review comments, and these will be removed from your listing if the failure is due to a technical problem with the Marketplace. Hi, Brooke! I wanted to ask if this is just for the interim focusing on this particular kerfuffle, or if this will be available to merchants permanently. The marketplace constantly has delivery failures on some percentage scale, and many customers don't understand that concept. They will review items 1 star for not receiving the item, and I see this every single day, on good items from good merchants that don't deserve it. My deliveries are blessedly good, but they weren't always that way, and when the marketplace started, I was getting failed deliveries left and right no matter what I did, or how many magic boxes I had out in a myriad of sims. There's only so much a merchant can do, but a lot of customers don't "get" this, and it's really frustrating when we're powerless to unfair gaming or abuse with the ratings over things that aren't our fault. Then we're handcuffed by the TOS and completely unable to do anything but be embarrassed whenever anyone sees our item rated so low. In the past I have completely delisted items and deleted them to avoid this embarrassment or stigma against my business or items. If this is just a band-aid for now to remedy the fact deliveries have been exceptionally poor lately, is there anything merchants CAN do when they feel they have received an unfair review due to failed delivery on the Marketplace? I feel this affects all merchants - its even something that frustrates and embarrasses me, and I have a norm of successful deliveries (*knocks on wood*), so I can only imagine how stressful it is with merchants afflicted by lower success rates. If there is something merchants can do, or if this is a permanent tool of understanding and assistance for us merchants, I will be so impressed and grateful to LL, as I feel this is a glaring unfairness that's been allowed to go on too long.

My deliveries are still 100% stable, knock on wood.

How... is that acceptable behaviour from the person you spoke to? I will never enter in large amounts to SL. Never. It's not worth the risk of being stolen from then treated like a complete retard. I just can't even. No words. I'm glad you got it sorted out, which is what should have happened regardless, but that doesn't change that level of customer service. I just can't imagine how things like that are even acceptable, but maybe it's me. Maybe I just have a very high standard of customer service, which is to resolve ALL issues even at the expense of yourself. Period. If the customer has a problem, you should always resolve it and ensure the customer is happy. You don't say "ITS YOUR FAULT, BYE." I had to contact customer service for a RL item I purchased and someone wrote back to me an email in COMIC SANS with third grade spelling and I nearly hit the ceiling. Mostly from laughing so hard. *Edited by moderator for vulgarity*

Dude. I hate how fragile our businesses are in the hands of anything LL does or doesn't do. It's so SCARY. So far okay over here; I use ReachWorks' SecureVend and don't seem to be experiencing any issues thankfully. I checked my magic boxes and despite a slight delay they seem to be delivering alright for now.. Those of you experiencing issues, that's just frightening, I don't even know. This is a huge blunder, I can't even. lol

This was one of the first questions I asked when I started out. All you have to do is right-click and in the pie menu, select "Edit" (or ctrl and 3 on keyboard). Then hold down the shift key on your keyboard and click other objects you want to select. This way you can move them all together without losing their set arrangement and whatnot. If you want to select and take more than one object back into your inventory, delete, or what-have-you, follow the above steps once all the items you want are clicked and highlighted, right click and select 'take'. Then it will return to your inventory as a coalesced object (icon looks like small yellow cubes stuck together). You can find it quickly beneath your recent items tab; it will be named after whichever was the root prim, or the first thing you clicked, but will have all the items in it still in their respective arrangement. To rezz them all again as they were, just press ctrl and 3 on your keyboard to go into edit mode and drag and drop them from your inventory, this way they are all rezzed as they were, and all still selected so you can move them around. Good luck!

Aw, that's really awesome, Medhue! I was saying earlier here that the best thing about having and thriving in your own personal business in SL, is that you can do what you love and what you enjoy and profit from it. And a lot of times, we don't get to chose the job we get into IRL, due to necessity or other factors. Very few people actually get to do their 'dream' job. So it's really awesome that you're able to support yourself with your home-grown business in SL. Especially without having to deal with any jackasses. It's tough being self-employed, no matter if it's through SL, eBay business, or IRL. That is one definite uphill battle, but it's so much more fun and rewarding I think.

I have 4 boxes on my land. I have around 200 items listed and have 100 in each of two boxes, and then a copy of those two boxes. I used to have awful delivery rates but they've been much better the past few months. I usually get around 5, sometimes less, sometimes more of those "Delivery partially failed" notifications now. I wonder why some people are more predisposed to having issues like that than others? And even then, how likely you are to have problems varies on how the wind is blowing that day. Marketplace delivery is like having a cold. Some people are more susceptible to problems than others, and it just depends which direction the germs are blowing when you have those problems. :smileyvery-happy:

There is a very thorough wiki page for just this sort of thing! Maybe you can find something that can help you retrieve you item there? There's lots of tips and tricks and things you can do to ensure you're able to retrieve your object, as well as explanations as to what may be the problem. Hopefully it helps. Here -> http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Inventory_loss

Okay, now to hit my replies. @Madeliefste: I glazed over the short version and went to the long one and that was a very interesting read. You have had a very eventful SL so far. I love stories like this about how successful businesses get started. And it's neat how you can remember the foot work that went into it; like going to other shops, looking for price ranges and trying to get a general idea on how to go about things. It's awesome how you've been able to be successful in your business, and it certainly looks like a lot went into getting to where you are now and obtaining the sort of income you have now. For me and my small business, I can 100% agree with this point too, "Besides the financial gain I enjoyed the contact with the customers. Not only because they keep telling how they lóóóóve your product, but also to help them solving possible problems." I find working with my customers just as rewarding as the profit. I'm a people person and a social butterfly and I just love being able to just talk to people when it comes to my products and assist them. A lot of people loathe going through the ropes of customer support, both on the supporter side and the supportee side, but I love it. lol. I agree that first and foremost, us merchants should focus on doing what we LOVE. I will never consider doing something I don't love, and while I do feel a desire to withdraw an ok amount of money from my profits in SL to have some extra pocket change IRL, I have always considered the income a bonus. I've always sold my stuff cheap compared to similar products pushing 1000$L, because I do it for fun, and that should be all merchants' priority I think. Because IRL, we are often forced to be in jobs that aren't our "dream jobs", usually out of necessity. However, in SL, you can design your own business that you can be successful at. You have the ability to choose what you want to do, and profit from it. Unfortunately, that's often not something we get IRL. But here's to you and your continued success, Madeliefste. Your story is absolutely intriguing, and I hope you continue having fun doing what you enjoy in SL! @Relm: Cashing out is such a good and rewarding feeling when it comes to being a small merchant. It's something I highly reccommend you dabble in. :smileyhappy: The first time I cashed out, it was 10USD, and bought a new mousepad, and was so GIDDY about it, I might as well have been a kid in an amusement park. At this point in time while I'm working on my own store, the only decent advice to make more money I can offer is make more PRODUCTS. Especially for the marketplace. The more good items you make, the more chances you have for a sale, and the more you'll show up in search. Have a shop in world and on the marketplace if you don't already, and just keep upping your product count and expanding. And.. *whispers* If you want to cash out, hit up Virwox.com for the best and fastest way to do it, straight to your paypal or whatever. It's what I use. ;D @Ziggy21: I figured it had been asked before, but it's probably a valid question most of the time, because people's success is always changing, sometimes for the good, sometimes for the bad. There are always fresh merchants who are just starting out who need to see the potential of success. I think we can probably get away with asking this question several times a year and will always receive a wide variety of responses as the SL world keeps changing. I agree with all the tips you outlined full-heartedly, and I am still in that phase of inviting bloggers with good deals, giving out lots of holiday gift specials, running discount events, and doing all that fun stuff to get my name out there. And yeah, it's an uphill battle. You need to work work and then work some more, but it's SO rewarding to go from making a sale every now and then to it being bizarre if you go 12 hours without a sale. Yesterday I didn't make a SINGLE sale, and had to laugh at myself because that was so far out of the norm for my business that the thought was so humbling and funny. I was like "wow, that's weird, what happened?" And the fact that it was odd I went without a sale for a day was such a good feeling, actually, because it reminded me that I do pretty good for myself in terms of SL business. I suck at numbers though. I'll never be able to convert anything in my head. Hell, I still count on my fingers for basic math. Don't judge me. I'm a creator, not a mathmetician! :smileyvery-happy: @Sea: This is why I consider the word "success" to be so subjective from person to person. It all depends on what you actually expect to get out of your business in SL, and where you want to see it go. For me, I feel a measure of success now that I've been able to cover a serious RL expense, such as a bill, and am able to purchase little things my family or myself needs or wants. Like a toy for my cats or something. lol. If your goal in your SL business is for it to be a hobby that will afford you something nice now and then, then you are successful in your goal!

Couldbe Yue wrote: here's some food for thought, although it does come with a warning that the figures may be out of date because LL no longer publish the stats (and haven't since oct 2010), so these figures are approximate based on the last 18 months worth of stats (and heavily rounded so they may be a couple of percentage points out, I can't be bothered doing a proper calculation) So assuming nothing has changed since oct 2010 (har,har)... There's around 70,000 accounts that have a positive monthly cashflow (ie they receive at least 1l during the month) around 83% of these make less than 50usd pm around 89% made 100usd or less per month so, if you make 50+usd pm you are certainly well within the top 20% of income earners in sl if you make more than 100usd you're in the top 10% if you make more than 500usd pm you're in the top 3% around 1.75% of people make more than 1000 usd per month (that's around 1200 people) - that's minimum wage remember and also remember this is before tier etc - so a 4 sim estate owner with rents may make over 1k but after tier etc may be only making a couple of hundred a month. and as an added aside, you've got more chance of joining the mega rich in the us than you do in sl as there's a greater proportion of mega rich there than there is in sl. (relatively speaking of course). and as a completely spurious aside - my first cashout was many years ago but I still remember it as I bought myself a pair of thigh high laceup boots with 5" heels.. I thought it was an apt way to mark the occasion.. lol Whoa, seriously? I usually make between 20,000 to 30,000+ per month. So around 100 USD. I make about 25 per week, 35 on a good week, sometimes 15 on a slow one. I guess in terms of "Business in Second Life", I'm more successful than I thought I was. o_O *hyperventilates* That's so cool. :smileyvery-happy: I mean, I need to make a bit more to supplement my real life a little bit better, but I don't have any intention of making a living off SL and am ecstatic that 100 per month is considered pretty good as far as SL goes. I do make money in RL though, just with 4 cats, a dog, and a partner and a crap economy, I could stand to have a little extra pocket change now and then. lol If I made 50$ per week some day, that'd be a dream come true.

You should detail which viewer you're using. Like 2.0, Phoenix, Emergence, etc... This fix may help you though: -> http://www.geekblogger.org/2010/10/second-life-game-initializing-vfs-error.html Be sure to save any chatlogs elsewhere so you don't lose them if you wish to keep them. Someone else may be able to provide another fix, but you can also go to the third party viewer directory and download a different viewer to see if it works. -> http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Third_Party_Viewer_Directory Also, it also would help to know what operating system you run, and what kind of graphics card you have. Do you meet system requirements to run SL? -> http://secondlife.com/support/system-requirements/ Aaaaaaaaand I looked and there's a similar thread with more information that might be helpful to you. -> http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Technical/Stuck-on-Initializing-VFS/qaq-p/753465

How I do it is: Hold down the shift key on your keyboard and click the two or however many objects you want to align up with your mouse to select them. In the editing window while building, select the 'align' option, then tweak with the red, green, blue arrows until it's how you want it. Tell your friend to test this out with some basic cubes first so he gets the hang of it!

@Toy: I'm very good at keeping costs to a minumum. I've practially grown up like that in the real world, so I can pinch a penny so hard a booger will pop out. :smileyvery-happy: For me, I rent a small lakeside parcel for 750$L a week, and that's the cheapest I could find while still attaining the number of prims I need for my in-world shop on my sky platform, as well as my little lakeside cottage down below. So I'm very happy with the cost of my living situation. It probably could be less, but I share my home with my RL partner as we do SL together, and I wouldn't want us, in essence, to be "homeless." I might own land some day, but it's not a priority. I rent from one of, what I consider, the best and more-prim-for-your-linden rental 'company' there is, and I'm happy there and don't have any desire to move. I pay 3$ per week from my revenue for my rent and that's perfectly fine for me. And I think 'pioneering', so to speak, for change, or rather, improvements in SL is good. We need people to be aggressive and push for improvements to make it more enjoyable for all merchants to be merchants. Because with the decline of the SL economy, I've noticed it has stopped being fun for a lot of people, and that is the real tragedy I think. @Sassy: I was the same way. Technically, I'd been a merchant just on XStreet since mid January of 2010, 3 months after I first came into SL in mid-September '09. But up until the marketplace transition, I only ever reinvested the little amount of money I did make back into SL. It never occurred to me until this past September at my 1 year anniversary and the marketplace transition that I could cash out. The fact I COULD really motivated me to get my game up - I started an in-world shop with ALL new products and got rid of the old crappy ones, and have been gradually expanding since and am beginning to see real promise in my business. It's a great feeling being able to cash out, especially when you can put it towards RL things you want and need. I hope you have continued success. @Imagin: I think in you're class of land-related business with land barons and renters and developers, you're in that top class that stand to make a LOT of money in SL. Some of the most successful business in SL, at least to what I've read, are rental and land-related businesses. So it doesn't surprise me you're able to make a living with your SL business. I think that's really incredible how selling bits of land and the like can bring in such a good profit, but for me, I don't think I could ever do such a thing. You need money to make money in that respect; and while you do for 95% of the other businesses (like simple texture upload costs), I couldn't lay down a 300$ set up fee (or whatever it is) for a chunk of land to split up and sell. :smileyvery-happy: @Ami: Yours are products I'm familiar with, and I would have honestly thought that you would be making quite the good living, as your products are numerous and jaw-droppingly incredible from what I've seen. As someone who admires your work, I also have to say yeah, it's good you keep up your scenery sims. They're stunning and it's obvious a lot of work has gone into them, but I understand tier payments take a huge chunk out of your profit. I hope you continue your success though, and have better times ahead of you, since I know the LL screw ups have been hard on you too.

Oy. I'm very friendly and hospitable, but it's almost every day now that someone just walks right to my house, opens the door, and invites themselves in to shove me around and derp about on my things while I'm busy. Most of the time I'm getting shoved about or they have a huge wiener on. I don't get PO'd about being griefed; just turn on Phantom and let them do it for the 60 seconds they can before they're auto-ejected. 97% of the time it's hilarious and I don't mind. Ahh, SL.

Thank you for responding! Even though I know that there are merchants that make more than that, for me, I think 100$ per week is AMAZING and is something that I might be able to accomplish someday too with my business! Heck even 50$ per week would be epic. That's another thing I love about hearing the stories of bigger merchants who make real money they can use to cover real expenses or buy real things that they need or want. I think it's good for aspiring smaller merchants to hear things like that, so that they're motivated to continue improving and devoting themselves to their business. For small merchants, especially when the economy gets rough, it's hard to stay motivated to stay in it. So I think it's really good when there are merchants who have a level of success that is attainable. Like for me, if I made 50$ per week, I would consider myself successful by my standards, and that's a goal I think I can reach as a small merchant. Here's to you and your continued success, Toy. I've seen you disgruntled a few times due to the marketplace dev team, so I hope something changes (positively) soon and your sales get back up! But yeah, I can imagine that the people who rely on the competence of LL to sustain their living situations find dips in the economy and screw ups a complete nightmare. :smileyindifferent:

@Phil: I had always heard that it was possible to make a living off SL businesses, but I don't know, I am not a well-off person by any stretch of the imagination. I've been a serious merchant for a little over a year, but seeing as I do struggle a little bit in real life, the prospect and possibilities that an SL business affords someone like me leaves me a bit... star struck I guess! I do hope more people like you with such a neat story of their success stop by this thread, because yeah, for me, it's something to really marvel at. @Monalisa: Yeah, that's what I'm sure is a concern for people who do make a living off SL, but that's probably the way it is for all self-employed people who have a business. You rely on the chance of customers and don't have a steady income, so you take a risk. But if you are good at setting portions of money aside into savings for times where you may go a few days without a sale (like if the dev team screws up sales on the marketplace with a 'fix' lmao) then people making that living probably don't have to worry about too much.

Thank you, thank you! I know it's not much but it's enough for me to be feeling pretty giddy about it. I still consider myself a pretty small merchant so I'm very tickled. It's definitely good for motivation. Now see, that's just awesome to me, that someone could even make a living off their revenue from their SL business, and live pretty decently at that. That's why I thought this topic was a good idea, because I find such a thing fascinating. It's unfortunate that your business is deteriorating, though. I know a lot of businesses in SL have been having an uphill battle to stay afloat. Some of my favourite creators have had to close up shop. But if it's your decision for that to happen, then I guess you're not, or hopefully not suffering because of it. That's just so neat though. Congratulations on your success too! :smileywink:

This has PROBABLY been asked before, but if it has, it was a long time ago and I missed it. I have always wondered about this and I think it's a very interesting topic. Not only that, but it also can illustrate the usefulness of having a successful ("successful" being subjective to each individuals' standards of course) business in SL. Basically, my question(s) is, are you able to cover real world necessary expenses - bills, gas money, food, etc, with the money you make from your SL business when you cash out? Or, do you cash out at all, or do you always reinvest money you make back into SL? OR, if you do cash out, do you use the money you make only for only leisurely purposes like.. buying some candy and other stuff. :P For me, I'm still relatively new to cashing out, and today is the first time I've cashed out a pretty good amount. I don't make a lot off my business (and I'm fine with that), but I've been saving my Lindens and am all giddy and feeling proud of myself and accomplished because I can totally pay a bill today with what I've saved in SL the past week and a half. :) So yeah, who else has had the opportunity to buy or pay for real world stuff with the money you've earned in SL?

You should be able to recover your system folders for free here, as provided by LL (specifically Torley Linden) incase something goes wrong: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Stillman/136/75/23 It's in a big brown box in the back next to the ramp with pinkish rails and it says "Old Library Content" - your slurl beacon should be right on it when you arrive. Just walk to it. Hope it works.

Interesting question! For me personally, no. But I'm a socially handicapped person. But I do think it could be a good opportunity to teach the teen about Second Life like we teach our kids in the real world about life. Such as things like places to go, and places not to go, people to talk to, and what people you should avoid. Plus, and this is hypothetical, but if the teen in real life doesn't have a lot of parental guidance, I know of a lot of adults who genuinely care about todays' youth that would feel very good to not really be a parental figure, but to be a wise knowledgeable friend to someone who may not have a lot of people like that in their life. It's tough being a teen, and I think us adults on SL should reach out to the teens now on board with us as friends and helpful figures. Perhaps you'll be helping someone who needs it in more ways than just teaching them about SL. (:

Good grief! I knew Linden Lab support was bad but this is extremely, extremely worrisome. It doesn't affect me, but I'm completely shocked by this. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, but this level of negligence is not something I would expect from LL even on their worst days. I am not one to scream the sky is falling, but your post raises so many concerns about using any real money on or relating to SL. So sorry this happened to you. That's got to be stressful and quite frankly, I'd be pissed off. I don't want to sit and yell how bad LL is - I'm not a cheerleader but I'm not anti. But something like this would be enough for me to downgrade entirely. I'm glad I don't have a paid account, or have any mainland. The horror stories I've heard are just wow. Concierge level, owning mainland, and having paid accounts causes more grief and stress for people. I honestly don't think I've ever heard a single good thing about any of these services, just horrible horror stories of extremely bad encounters and situations. O_o

Well, according to Linden Lab, this sort of thing isn't happening. Sure, us merchants SEE it happening, COMPLAIN about it, but Linden Lab covers their ears and goes LALALALA DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT. Porky Gorky wrote: My previous post is based on what Dakota Linden told us last month in this thread here http://blogs.secondlife.com/thread/54992?start=15&tstart=0 Dakota stated the following in a response to a post from Mickey Vandeverre. Mickey, like myself doesn't think it's our job to flag listings. Here is what Dakota Linden Said "Hello Mickey, Why shouldn't you be allowed to flag a listing for the Product Listing Review Team to look at? And yes, if you are willing to accept other breaking the rules, then you are part of the problem. It isn't necessary for the person flagging the item to know what the correct category should be. That is why resident do not have the power to unlist any item from the Marketplace. They only have the power to flag a listing for review. If they flag a listing, they must choose from the options why they are flagging it. If the Product Lisitng Review team doesn't agree, then nothing happens to the listing. But if any resident is viewing a category on the Marketplace and sees that an item isn't flagged as Adult Content but has nudity in it, then they should flag the listing so that it can be addressed. Same with Category Selection. If you see something in the main Home & Garden category and it is bed, and you now that there is a furniture category, and a bedoorm sub-category to the furniture category, and you do nothing, then yes, you are contibuting to the problem by not flagging it." (sic) So apparently they have a mythical "Product Listing Review" team that is pulling your items. Thus, according to LL, abuse of the flagging system DOES NOT EXIST LALALALALA CAN'T HEAR YOU LALALALA. (:

Oh, that would make me mental. I'd just stay home. :smileyvery-happy: I have no idea what my rendering cost is, but it's probably too high. I think that wouldn't be very good for the SL economy if you look at the big picture. People would be sim traveling a lot less I think if they're banned from getting in somewhere until they change.

Lyra Blackthorne wrote: They also more than doubled the cost for enhancements! Soooo not worth it Really? No way. Which ones/by how much? They weren't worth how much they were before, I can't imagine LL would increase the price of them without a MAJOR effectiveness increase, because you might make one or two sales off them usually. lmao

I don't know about Infohubs, few I go to have ever had many people, but TELEHUBS on the other hand... The great thing about telehubs is people are ALWAYS there, because people who try to go to a region that's down are immediately sent to telehub. :smileyvery-happy: So people are often there, sometimes very confused, and sometimes people are just sitting around watching as people fall in to see what sort of people ARE falling in. Sometimes you get some pretty weird and funny stuff happening. The only problem is that if there's several regions across the grid offline people are trying to get to, they're all being rerouted to the telehub which can make them EXTREMELY laggy enviornments. If you go to one, just pick a place to sit cause usually in the rezz zone there's a crapload of people bumping into each other and causing 2fps for everyone. Generally, I find telehubs to be a lot of fun and there's always a lot of people wanting to talk, and often a lot of new people too that need help. Sorry I can't help much about infohubs but if you want to meet more people, I think telehubs would be something good to try too.