Czari Zenovka

Toysoldier Thor wrote: Czari Zenovka wrote: Great posts, Toy & Deja...except....after seeing those, to me, huge cash-out amounts you two bounced around...I'm depressed...lol. lol sowwy... When I started creating and selling in SL in 2008 I was freaked right out when someone bought my first tapestries i created. A whopping 100L then and i thought WOW! I never sold many. I was sooooo excited after like 6 months that my SL account had $100US in the account! I never thought in a million years I would ever see $1000 US come out of SL!! But I would say my SL business as been successful as much because of luck as other factors - like amazing advice from a few ppl... like one that told me I should take my animated water sculpties out of my build and sell them as raw packs of sculpties.... like a theme pack!! best single advice i ever got. I know if I would have continued to create more packs I would have made FAR more $ money but.... as my post said... I got interested in something else. *Grins* My "lol" at the end of my post indicated I wasn't truly "depressed" depressed; more of a, "Ok - I need to pay attention to these posts and learn." I know the feeling of someone purchasing those first products; I was stoked for days just because someone actually paid lindens for something I built. Finding a product/s that has great appeal is certainly one key for success in merchandising - RL or SL. I enjoyed reading how you began selling your sculpty packs, Toy. Another issue is pricing. I have a friend who keeps telling me my prices are too low, but I feel for what the current items are based on utility, detail of build, etc. that they are priced pretty much on target. I actually sell quite a good volume but it takes a lot of sales to equal any appreciable RL cash. That is where I am currently spending time learning more building skills and/or purchasing necessary building tools to add more value to my products which can bring the price up a notch. Where is this karaoke you mention?

Couldbe Yue wrote: semi off topic... relatively speaking they're not huge amounts but going on the last figures that LL published back in 2010 it puts them in the top 5% of income earners in here. (things may have changed since the last figures but I would think that the % would be smaller (ie 3%) rather than lower as I suspect money is more distributed these days). There used to be around 2000 iirc earning above 500usd per month (before expenses). Moving from that figure (remember that's not even a minimum wage if you're putting in 40 hours a week in here) into the next band of over 1000usd per month is a lot harder (1000usd per month is still not minimum wage). If RL dictates that sl is the best way to generate income then anyone who is pulling in over 500usd per month is actually extremely sucessful considering the conditions we operate in. It's just a matter of changing perspective. I can remember when I got excited because I was getting close to earning minimum wage in here (by income not time spent) - despite the fact I earn more than that in a couple of days of rl working. It's all relative but the main thing to remember is that this is a lot tougher operating environment than rl. Sucess in here is nothing to sniff at. I really appreciate you posting that, Couldbe - it does put things into perspective and, now that you mention it, I do recall when LL posted the % of top income-earners and what a small number make good (which is very relative from person to person and their circumstances) money. As I mentioned in another thread awhile back, I don't envy (in a bad way) those who are successful in SL because at some point in time a lot of thought, time, work, etc. went into those businesses, even if they now run like a well-oiled machine they didn't start out that way. Even though I began my business in 2008, 80% of my time in SL was spent elsewhere, so I would consider perhaps late 2010 to be when I got more serious, thus the "real" beginning. Then I was out of SL due to RL circumstances for about 6 months toward the end of 2011; just returning to hear about DD going live. Great timing. (I did, however, come into SL to pay my shop rent, check on things, and take care of customers as needed.) Therefore, for my time/effort vs return, I'm happy with my business and look forward to expanding my skills, both creatively and business. Thanks again, Couldbe; that reality check was good for me.

Great posts, Toy & Deja...except....after seeing those, to me, huge cash-out amounts you two bounced around...I'm depressed...lol.

Perrie Juran wrote: Czari Zenovka wrote: MoiselleErin Teardrop wrote: Expecting anyone to read that big ol long post is a form of griefing. LOL...I was thinking the same thing. I tried reading it but after a paragraph of "Valley Girl" language, I kind of lost the intent. She has been griefing us with these posts for a long time now. Any attempt at a mature conversation is futile. As I said in an earlier reply, if her posts are any indication of how she interacted with others in these RP SIM's, well, I think you would understand what I am getting at. Understand perfectly. The forums can be a good "filter" sometimes.

MoiselleErin Teardrop wrote: Expecting anyone to read that big ol long post is a form of griefing. LOL...I was thinking the same thing. I tried reading it but after a paragraph of "Valley Girl" language, I kind of lost the intent.

Perrie Juran wrote: Sassy Romano wrote: Perrie Juran wrote: For instance, my biggest pet peeve is that there is no practical way to filter "Demos" out of search results. Try this for example, search for "mesh hair NOT demo" It works but it would be easier to a) have a check box that said "include demos" and b) a check box that let us search for mesh. Merchants have an option to specify whether a listing is mesh but consumers have no way to ONLY search for mesh model items. I have tried using Boolean terms with hit and miss success. I know from the Merchants Sub Forum that this is an issue too that affects us. And from personal experience trying it. I've seen some very wonky results trying to use Boolean terms. I was looking for a very specific item the other day on the MP and used Boolean terms. Not only did I get a bunch of listings that were not pertinent to my search, I even had some shoe listings thrown in for good measure when I was searching a particular type of housing. (And no, not The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe. )

Jo Yardley wrote: It would make things a lot easier and less confusing. Imagine having just one group that has sub-groups or roles in it for tenants, sim managers, visitors, club visitors, etc. You can give the tenants rez permissions, sim managers powers to eject and ban, etc. You can start a group chat with all members of the group or just the club visitors for instance, to let them know the DJ is 5 minutes late. We don't need more groups, we need more roles with more options. Roles already are pretty good, just not enough and to really get rid of all the groups, we would need the option to be able to chat/send messages to just a role, not the entire group. EXCELLENT idea!!!!

It sounds like what you're experiencing, from reading other posts, is likely an IE clash with MP (I use Firefox and never had those issues) however.... ...the MP *is* currently borked with a number of show-stopper jiras that have been unresolved for 4 months now. Take a peek at the Merchant Forum if you want to read more on this. Merchants are pretty much tearing their hair out, atm.

Porky Gorky wrote: Cool, thanks Sassy, I shall continue to adopt my "can't be arsed with it" approach then. :matte-motes-big-grin-evil: I like that motto

Sassy Romano wrote: How long will this sit in test, will the resolution FIX all the incorrect images or will the burden be placed upon the merchant? Except that in many cases, including mine, the merchants can do nothing about the mixed listings since they don't show up in "edit listings." I've tried contacting the merchant whose photos (different ones over the months) have showed up on my images. In one case the merchant was no longer listed on the MP nor in world (ie. no profile). Another merchant showed up as having a MP store, but no listings (also no in world profile), and the remaining merchants never responded to my IMs/note cards (I always send both when in doubt). We could be stuck with these mixed listings for who knows how long.

Josh Susanto wrote: Don't worry. When Direct Delivery is finally deployed, it's going to fix all this. Bwhahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!! @Jaylin - A new low indeed. I am just dumbfounded reading that response, especially the length and detail the responder went into - more involved than the typical "File a jira."

Thank you for beginning this thread, Melita. I wish all my fellow Americans a Happy Independence day as well. My favorite Sousa march is Stars and Stripes Forever. I loved watching it played by the Boston Pops each year as a finale. Below is a link from one such concert that I found on YouTube. It really captures the American spirit. While looking for this video I came across an absolutely amazing video of a piano virtuososo originally from Russia who now lives in the US - Valery Kuleshov - playing Stars and Stripes on the piano. Truly incredible. What is priceless in this video is the facial expressions of the orchestra as well as some of the comments on this video. I have been playing both of these all week. Maybe someone else will enjoy them.

Having played EQ for over 7 years and WoW for a time, I can say that I've had much better customer service with both of those than SL, especially lately.

That's great to know info, Deja. This is actually the first hunt in which I've participated as a merchant and wasn't sure how it would translate sales-wise. I signed up for 2 more hunts - 1 in Aug. and 1 in Sept.

Deja Letov wrote: Interesting. Did anyone else experience low sales for the month but an increase at the end of the month over the last few days? I've talked to a few in game and they said the same thing. As I mentioned in a post near the beginning of this thread, my sales for the past month have been the best since DD was deployed. I did do two things that could be contributory: 1. The entire month of June was the Silk Road Hunt in which I participated. This definitely drove a LOT of traffic into my store, but that may or may not result in sales. 2. I've joined several more designer groups very specific to the items I sell and have been posting the hunt and new products in them. I am very pleased to see that I had more in world sales this month than I have all totaled from probably the last year. I'm convinced that the above 2 items have contributed to the in world sales, although I did well in the MP also this month.

Emma Krokus wrote: Hi I learned a lot from attending free building classes at the Builders Brewery. Other places such as NCI also run classes that I have heard about. At Builders Brewery anything from basic to advanced building is covered and there are also classes on scripting, using some of the main sculpting and animation programmes, and much much more there. The other bonus there is that the sandbox is usually busy with people building, and you will meet people there to chat to and ask advice from. The Builders Brewery Group chat is also really useful - I've learned lots from just listening in and people have been more than helpful if I wanted help on any issue. Hope you'll succeed in your dream! Emma I second this! During my second year in SL all I did basically was take building classes, sometimes 3 a day. And it does help meet people with similar interests.

Ceka Cianci wrote: here is a post i made over at SLU about banlines and the joy they can bring to those that know this little trick hehehe From SLU "i remember discovering that if you went up to the top of them and got ontop of banlines..it was like a trampoline.. me and some of my friends used to look for them and bounce on them..it was something to do when we were bored hehehe A friend and I did that once!! It was entertaining although, out of respect for the landowner I wouldn't do it if they were in the home. Although I am pro-landowners' rights, I personally dislike banlines since they, at least in the past, were a visual blight, especially in lovely neighborhoods. Now the viewer/s have the option to turn banliness off, which I do, but then one can be strolling along (or flying at low altitude - as in flying sans vehicle to get from point A to point B on a sim) and smack into the invisible banline. Which is why I prefer orbs if I'm going to use security. I have to agree, though, using them as trampolines was fun

Kennylex Luckless wrote: ISo to answer my own question about orbs so do I think they shall be classed sa grief if they follow user and not is stationary protecting a smaller area. Oooooo...that reminds me of some items that were discussed on this debate several years ago: There are some more creative measures than just banlines or orbs - one woman posted that she had a swarm of bees. When someone entered the specified area (and I believe received a warning, although not certain about that), a swarm of bees surrounded the person until they left the area. This person said "It was hilarious to watch someone haul a** with a swarm of bees on their tail." It would be worth it to find who sells the bees for the comedy factor. Shortly after reading this post, I happened to see a "security shark" for sale on the MP, which included a video. This ingenious security device also followed the intruder, making chomping noises and, iirc, played the theme from "Jaws." These days I have no need for an orb as I live on pretty much deserted mainland 4000m high, but back in the day (2007ish), the highest one could place a skybox was - oldbies help me out here? - was it less than 1,000m? I used to bring up the profile of anyone who was in a 20m radius or so of my sky home. I was amazed to see one person whose groups consisted of "Voyeur" groups. I'm not kidding! This individual was in at least 6 of them. I opened one of the groups to see how it was described - something along the lines of "Join others who enjoy watching others and learn new techniques to do so" although not worded quite as, shall we say, delicately. Ahhh, good times!

I'm sorry if it's inconventient for you or makes your flying around the grid difficult.......well not really, but I'm trying to be polite here. I see the problem with them......but that does not negate my desire to be left alone when I want to be left alone. This sentence reminded me of the thread on how to save mainland - ie. there is currently a glut of abandoned land on practically any mainland sim I've been on lately; thus there should be plenty of empty airspace at the moment.

I'd say a closer comparison would be a RL home alarm system that makes a ruckus to (a) alert the home owner to an intruder and, depending on said home owner and (in the US) what state, the intruder may get more than he bargained for or (b) intruder leaves due to the alarm having blown his cover. Still no real great comparison for SL, but sort of a mash of the two: SL owner has an alarm to alert the "intruder" to leave or the orb acts as the owner might if home and ejects said intruder...one way or the other. Either way, this debate has been going on for years and, since orbs are not against the LL ToS, ranting about them is basically an exercise in futility. Edit to add: this post wasn't aimed at you, Peggy...just hit reply below your post instead of the thread reply.

Deja Letov wrote: Czari Zenovka wrote: Domsson Lean wrote: Deja, that's awesome! <snip> So, what I'm trying to say here: your tool looks extremely nice and helpful, maybe you should share. I was going to make the same suggestion, except that Deja sell that script to merchants - I would SO buy one, not being a coder at all. (In my defense, I have probably taken 10 various types of LSL scripting classes in SL and know just enough to tinker with written ones...a little. I am in awe of you coder types!!!) I totally would if it was just a SL script. Unfortunately it's all hosted on my own webserver using a SQL database back end. There is nothing SL related at all about this except I import a SL transaction history log file. Ahhh, ok. Even more in awe of you coder types. I had no idea it was run on a server, etc. I agree with staying stress-free during your pregnancy...and after. *Smiles*

WolfBaginski Bearsfoot wrote: Neither security orbs nor banlines are adequate for people using vehicles. 2: Security orbs give no advance waring at all. Warning times, when you cross the trigger boundary are often inadequate for any attempt to back out, and the only practical response with an aircraft seems to be to continue at speed, and try to get through before the Security Orb takes action. It depends on the orb's creator. I own one that can be set to give up to 60 seconds (1 minute) warning with other settings to either send the person to another point in the sim or back to their home point. I agree 10 seconds is barely long enough to read the warning, but I do think a minute should be sufficient. As Peggy said, this debate has been going on ad infinitum. The grid may have changed but this debate hasn't. :smileywink: One such debate years ago was initiated on the forums by a guy who enjoyed traveling via hot air balloon to sightsee and complained that there was no way to get a slow-moving vehicle out of a security orb's path in 10 seconds (which again, I do agree with, but I also support a land-owner's right *to* the orb if they are not breaking ToS, which an orb is not). I already live 4,000m in the sky so doubt he'd be flying over my home anyway, but many on that thread came to an "agreement" that skyhomes should have a minimum of something like 500m to not impede sight-seeing flying vehicles. Awhile later, someone who flew a jet of some sort complained that wasn't high enough. Can't please everyone.

So after reading this thread, I went to a shop on a mainland sim yesterday, did my thing of opening the map, saw the usual amount (usual for "lately") of abandoned land; was clicking on the parcels to ascertain it was all abandoned and came upon one parcel of land being sold by a well-known (at least to me) land purchaser seller. I have bought and sold from this business several times on my home sim, thus the name popped out at me. Abandoned land being sold by LL - 1L sqm. Land seller's price of a parcel surrounded by abandoned land - 0.6L sqm. For some reason that made me sad. I would guess he may have purchased the land he was selling prior to the surrounding land being abandoned, unless he purchased land for 0.3L sqm. Anyway...bad times for land sellers.

Pussycat Catnap wrote: Czari Zenovka wrote: Check out my post above. Land was abandoned on the waterfront on my mainland sim. Someone did purchase it immediately at 1L/sqm, cut it into 512 parcels, and has it back for sale at 3.5L/sqm. Probably someone who read your post here. If I'd had tier, it would have been me. You and me both

Edward Towton wrote: You know what I haven't seen discussed here? What kind of land is for sale. Based on my travels (no hard data here, sorry), it seems that land for sale is overwhelmingly General land and Moderate land in regions that are next to General regions. Following the merger of the teen grid and allowing under-18s to travel the wider world, SL residents over 18 have fled the General regions and nobody is filling them up again. The majority of abandoned land I see are in Mature-rated sims/parcels.