Deja Letov

Sassy Romano wrote: Deja Letov wrote: Since I don't use the reporting, that mainly leaves: 1. Ease of updating customers on product updates of things they have purchased. 2. Ability to have a customer loyalty program 3. Ability to have gift cards for your store 4. Affiliate vendor opportunities Some other typical features:- Customer self service (redelivery) Staff usage (sales logs, redelivery, whatever ) and one key feature in our in house vending system is the ability to have multiple creators each have their own server while selling as one brand. No passing of full perm items between each other which would otherwise breach licensing of third party content, plus is a huge opportunity to make permissions mistakes. That is actually an awesome thing Sassy. Years ago I had a partner and we had to pass full perm back and forth and I hated it. Such a better idea! I wonder if Caspervend does this.

Sassy Romano wrote: I would ask what are your goals? If you expect to make changes, enjoy the analytics, reports, ease of use of looking up customer history, expect to have multiple locations at some point, issue affiliate then a vending system makes sense. If you're not then don't. There are few benefits with using a vending system though, the expense is negligible in the long run. It's funny this topic came up because recently I've actually considered to stop using scripted vendors. I use the Caspervend system and don't get me wrong, it's really good. I have no complaints other than the lack of reporting. The system is solid, they have a good support group, it's pretty inexpensive in my opinion. So I really have no true complaints....but...in the last 1-2 years i've used it, I really haven't found much of a use for a system like that. Sassy makes a good point, that if you don't make use of those things then it's not worth it. I use my own third party system for reporting. The reporting in Caspervend is pretty bad, but I did hear that Casper is redoing the reporting system so maybe that will take care of that issue but for the last 1-2 years, it's been completely useless. I love my own reporting system, all the little charts and I probably have more reports than most people would care to have, but what other features of a vendor system makes it worth it to use? Since I don't use the reporting, that mainly leaves: 1. Ease of updating customers on product updates of things they have purchased. 2. Ability to have a customer loyalty program 3. Ability to have gift cards for your store 4. Affiliate vendor opportunities For me, I really don't do many product updates. I could easily just use a 3rd party script to send out customer updates, without the use of a scripted vendor system. Gift cards are nice to have up in the store but honestly...I rarely sell them. I mostly use them as prizes to give away. GC sales are non-existant except maybe during the holidays. I don't do affiliate vendors. I guess the only real use I get out of it the loyalty program. It really is the only reason I haven't switched back to regular old buy it now objects in my store. I'm not sure how my customers would feel about losing that. For the original OP...if you do go with a vendor system, I've tried all of the major ones and Casper is definitely the one I'd go with.

This is somewhat of a double post, I mentioned it in another post but I thought since the team was looking here maybe we should post here to. FYI...I have regular MP customers who are now shopping in world because they can't stand the new changes. Here are their complaints to me. 1. It's ugly and boring on the page with the payment option. (couldn't agree more). 2. Can't hit the backbutton to go back to the store they were shopping in after you pay. (haven't tried this yet myself, but I'm assuming it's true) 3. The processing time from clicking the buy button to process the payment is horribly slow. 4. You used to be able to add things to your cart and then if you're about done but just need 1 more item, you could click on Buy Now and it would let you check out for your whole cart. Now, if you click on Buy Now it only lets you pay for that one item.

Medhue Simoni wrote: Deja Letov wrote: Medhue Simoni wrote: As far as users with high or low end PCs. Who cares!!!! If you make for the HIGH end pc user, than it works right for every1. If you do not, the higher end pc users, who again had the extra cash to splurge on a PC and probably has the extra cash to buy more SL items, is going to look at your items and not be so impressed compared to 1 with all the texture maps. For the life of me, I don't understand why any1 would purposely cater only to lower end machines. I'm actually excited for materials so don't take this comment as meaning I don't, but I do want to answer this question because I also cater to people on lower end PCs. Why? Because a lower PC has NOTHING to do with how much they spend in SL. I've talked to many people with awesome machines but they don't spend anything in SL because they have better games to play. I don't focus on creating for people with a higher end PC because that's NOT the majority of customers. Plus, if I make sure they look GREAT for lower end, they will look great for higher end too. Rather than looking GREAT only for higher end and looking OKAY for lower end. Most people are on your average every day machine. Sure as a creator, we have these awesome super graphic and fast processing machines, but I don't create for creators. So why would I purposely cater to lower end machines? Moola my friend. $$$ They are where the money is. I understand what you are saying, but I'd also argue that there are exceptions to everythings. Your observations aren't always the norm. Imperically, people who don't have money, don't spend money. I'm not saying that people shouldn't make things that are affordable to most. We all should do that. I'm just saying that it is a serious business mistake to cater only to low end machines. Early on in my SL career, I learned that it is easier to make more if you create items that cater to those with the money to spend. Of course, animation is a bit different, as you can make a whole huge package, but any1 can just buy the individual animations. So, I'm never really out of the range of any customer. By creating large packages for people with the money to spend, I instantly became profitable quickly and quit my day job the first year. I'd have to sell thousands of small packages to make up for only a few sales of large packages. At 1 point, at least in the animation market, it was kind of a battle to see which merchants would release the largest animation or AO packages. Why? Causing people were buying them like crazy. Now, of course, Deja, I understand you've gotten a certain amount of success in SL, but don't let this success blind you from the obvious. In no way am I saying don't sell to lower end machine or to the average SL user, it's a given that they are the main customers. Many times now, I've told myself to focus more on the usual customers, and it's still something I need to focus more on. With my Lycan update, it's a huge package, and every update just gets larger and larger. I love the product but it's getting to the point that the size of the package is scaring some customers off. The customers tho, are telling me they want more. What is the solution? What I decided to do is break the whole package up. I used to try and put everything in 1 package, to try and give the cusotmers the most bang for their buck. This just keeps pushing the price higher and higher tho. Now, I'll try to supply the original package at a reasonable price, and put all those extras into smaller packages. Hopefully, the end result is more overall sales, more returning customers, and the customers can pick and choose what they want. Yes and I think we are somewhat agreeing in a round about way. I probably shouldn't say I cater to lower end PCs...I more or less try to make my products look great for those with lower PC's so they can enjoy things just as much as those with a higher end PC. So I think maybe it's jsut wording. I like your idea of breaking things up into smaller packages. Makes it affordable to everyone, even those with little money. Just means the ones with money can get even more. Now I'm gonna run off and see what I can make in the furniture that could be modular like that lol

Funny you mention this...I had THREE people just yesterday alone who came into my shop who have bought off the marketplace before from me but have never been to my shop. All three were in complaining about the new marketplace payment system and said they refused to use and are now shopping in world. Honestly, I am THRILLED. LOL I would much rather have people in world and the Lab just hooked me up. So what where the complaints? This is what the 3 who came in discussed with me. 1. It's ugly and boring on the page with the payment option. (couldn't agree more). 2. Can't hit the backbutton to go back to the store they were shopping in after you pay. (haven't tried this yet myself, but I'm assuming it's true) 3. The processing time from clicking the buy button to process the payment is horribly slow. 4. You used to be able to add things to your cart and then if you're about done but just need 1 more item, you could click on Buy Now and it would let you check out for your whole cart. Now, if you click on Buy Now it only lets you pay for that one item.

CommerceTeam Linden wrote: We are currently working on a fix. We will get this out as soon as possible. Good to hear!

Medhue Simoni wrote: As far as users with high or low end PCs. Who cares!!!! If you make for the HIGH end pc user, than it works right for every1. If you do not, the higher end pc users, who again had the extra cash to splurge on a PC and probably has the extra cash to buy more SL items, is going to look at your items and not be so impressed compared to 1 with all the texture maps. For the life of me, I don't understand why any1 would purposely cater only to lower end machines. I'm actually excited for materials so don't take this comment as meaning I don't, but I do want to answer this question because I also cater to people on lower end PCs. Why? Because a lower PC has NOTHING to do with how much they spend in SL. I've talked to many people with awesome machines but they don't spend anything in SL because they have better games to play. I don't focus on creating for people with a higher end PC because that's NOT the majority of customers. Plus, if I make sure they look GREAT for lower end, they will look great for higher end too. Rather than looking GREAT only for higher end and looking OKAY for lower end. Most people are on your average every day machine. Sure as a creator, we have these awesome super graphic and fast processing machines, but I don't create for creators. So why would I purposely cater to lower end machines? Moola my friend. $$$ They are where the money is.

Probably so. Either way is fine with me! Thanks everyone for your help, much appreciated.

Darkie Minotaur wrote: Use POST insted of GET - that should do the trick. ETA: Of course you could use the GET method, too. The parameters would then have to be retrieved from the header with llGetHTTPHeader Changing to POST gave me connection failures, but I was able to use the code Miranda posted below to get the header info. Thanks guys!

Yay Miranda! That worked like a charm! I kept the GET method but called the uery string and it worked. Thank you so much!

I don't think teens have anything to do with it. I was around when the merger happened and didn't notice any change. I think the griefers tend to be people new to SL...no matter what their age. I recently put that Gold Hunt game on 2 of my sims. It was great at first, brought in some nice traffic so yay for me. But I also noticed it brought in a TON of new avatars. And I had more problems with griefers than ever, all of them were less than 3 months old. I had these 2 jerks show up and were harassing my customers. They have these completely rediculous looking avatars and were bumping into customers trying to push them off the sim. Was so annoying, I banned them of course but that's just one example. It kept happening so much I had to take the Gold Hunt game off my sim. I talked with a few and they found the game right away when they joined SL when asking around about making linden. So it's being promoted to new players...which really doesn't do me any good anyway as a furniture maker. They won't have a house yet so it's pointless. Anyway, I'm rambling but point is, it's not teens. Any age can be stupid. I think it's more people who are new and don't yet have a vested interest in SL, friends or even themselves as avatars.

I first found SL...I think must have been around 2005 or 2006. I was doing a lot of research into virtual reality games. I even had one that had a huge headpiece I had to wear to play. I found another game, I can't remember the name, but they had these chunkified avatars but it was nothing but people standing around on a flat surface talking outloud. Then I found SL and loved how I could customize how I looked. I got into the whole vampire RP thing and ran a fairly large vamp clan for a long while. the sad part is I was on another avatar for about 2 or 3 years before this one, i can't remember her friggin name. I'd love to get on her again one day if I could remember.

oh wonderful.

here is what I'm using to send the data....I don't see anything funky that I can see. (i'm sure that url will change by the time this is seen since I'm making changes to the script, but at least you can see what I'm doing.) <form method="get" action="http://sim10521.agni.lindenlab.com:12046/cap/495bdbc8-5fb8-2570-a543-cabd894e01f3/" id="addform"> <input type="hidden" name="avatarname" value="Deja Letov" /> <input type="hidden" name="message" value="This is my message" /> <input type="submit" value="submit" /> </form> What I want to do on the other end is spit out the avatarname and the message. Right now i have it sending back the get received message and the body and the body always comes back blank. If anyone wants to test, Ill try to keep that URL updated as this thread goes on.

I have a webpage that I want to send variables to a SL script. Right now, I have a regular HTML form that is sending via GET to the URL for the object in world. It's sending and I'm getting a message back of "Get Received" as I have that coded in. So it's working from the web end as far as the web page talking to the prim and the prim talking to the web. What I'm having trouble with is reading the variables I want to send in from the form to the SL Script. I'm not sure how to reference them. I tried "body" hoping that might be it because I've used that before in httpresponse code I've done before, but I'm not getting any results for that. If I am passing in 2 variables from that form, how do I reference them in this script below since body is giving a blank value? is there something else I should be calling to loop through those? This is the code I am using in the SL script:(I'm trying to call the form variables from the condition for "else if (method == "GET")") http_request(key id, string method, string body) { if (method == URL_REQUEST_GRANTED) { url = body; } else if (method == URL_REQUEST_DENIED) { llWhisper(0, "Error! I was unable to get an HTTP url for server communication. " + body); } else if (method == "GET") { llHTTPResponse(id, 200, "GET received!" + body); llOwnerSay("GET received!" + body); } else { llHTTPResponse(id, 405, "Method unsupported"); } }

I'm sure the new payment method is all exciting for some and all...but where the heck did my revise this item link go. Right under price it used to allow me to edit the item I was viewing, now I get "At checkout, you will be able to pay with any supported currency." the "my store" option is such a better way to find products you need to edit than the listings page on the merchant account page. I need pictures. But now I can't edit from there? WTF LL...come on!

If you put quotes aorund the phrase it does search for the name as a whole, but if you do it without the quotes it searches each word in the phrase as an individual item. For example, I have a product called Dark Prince Gothic Bedroom. If I type that in several things pop up. In fact, mine is not the first one even though my product is exactly named that. but if I put quotes around it, ONLY my product appears.

Thanks we hired someone.

Madeliefste Oh wrote: I think it depends on the kind of products you sell and the type of customer you aim to reach. For cYo I have newsletter subscription only. But what I would prefer even more for my customers is an option on marketplace to follow this merchant. LOVE LOVE LOVE that idea. I'd love it for some of my favorite merchants too. Very awesome idea.

I'm looking for someone who can come in and do some "demo" shots of products for my store. For example, if I have a chair, it would be shots at different angles with the various animations. These would be used as additional images in our marketplace listings. So nothing too fancy. This will be a bulk project of many different products. If interested, please send me some sample product (commercial) photos of your work and what your rate per image would be, or hourly. However you charge.

Perrie Juran wrote: Deja Letov wrote: Krueger wrote: I think they can have a positive impact and a negative impact. The positive comes from a friendly, laid-back, helpful attitude, and, in situations where help understanding a product is required, their furnished information can seal the deal on a sale. The negative comes from pushy sales reps and those whose personality is found off-putting to the consumer - or both! THIS ^^^^ exactly right. If you're gonna have sales reps, be very very very clear with them, they are not there to push sales. Only to be a helpful and welcoming face in the store. Pushy sales will turn people off and they absolutely will leave and never return. my assistants are to greet them with a hello, and let them know that should they need anything they are there to help...that's it. No following people around, no product suggesting unless asked, etc. Then don't call them Sales Reps. Call them something, but don't call them Sales Reps or anything with the word "Sales" in it. My job as a Salesperson is to get you to take your wallet out of your pocket or purse and get you to hand me the green stuff (or whatever the color of your local currency may be) over to me. It is how I earn my living. When you come into my store I am not there to give you guided tours. I am there to sell to you. After I demonstrate my product to you I am going to ask you to buy it. A little secret about the people you are worried about pissing off is that they never would have bought any ways. The reason most people are coming into your store is not only that they have money to spend but that they are wanting to spend it also. So as a Saleperson I help them acheive their goal. I don't call mine sales reps...mine are called "Shop Assistants". I called them "assistants" in my post, but their full title is shop assistant. Actually in my store they are called Assistant Gothlings for their title lol

Krueger wrote: I think they can have a positive impact and a negative impact. The positive comes from a friendly, laid-back, helpful attitude, and, in situations where help understanding a product is required, their furnished information can seal the deal on a sale. The negative comes from pushy sales reps and those whose personality is found off-putting to the consumer - or both! THIS ^^^^ exactly right. If you're gonna have sales reps, be very very very clear with them, they are not there to push sales. Only to be a helpful and welcoming face in the store. Pushy sales will turn people off and they absolutely will leave and never return. my assistants are to greet them with a hello, and let them know that should they need anything they are there to help...that's it. No following people around, no product suggesting unless asked, etc.

Oh no I didn't figure I would find one already in the biz. I'm always hoping to run into one though...of course as antisocial as I am in SL that's not very likely.

oops yes I meant moderate.

I've had this happen many times. I've stopped taking on partners because of it. About 4 or 5 years ago I was partnered with someone in my store and after awhile he was just gone, so I ended up dropping him. it got so confusing for people I had to change the name of my business. People probably don't remember, but I used to be called Bleeding Heart way back when I started in 2007. But Elegant Goth didn't come around til 2008. But I digress. I do all my own designs, except mesh and sculpting. I just haven't had a chance to do that yet but it's on my list. But I typically do my own textures, definitely do all my own scripting (I'm a programmer in RL so it helps). I do work with a custom animator who is awesome and gets me all my requests within 1-3 days in most cases. She rocks my socks! What I would really like is a custom mesh maker, but of course I'd want someone who created strictly for my store and not selling them FP on the MP. We already have such an issue with everyone's items looking the same because we all shop the same FP creators. It would be nice to mix in some unique build stuff. But I don't think Ill ever find that. boohoo