Luna Bliss

Lots of good advice here Icade, and there are a few more words of wisdom (from my experience) I can add. First off, the passion and sense of wonder for nature and design I sense in you will carry you far! I think it might help to call yourself a designer, a landscape designer, a landscape architect, a landscape painter, an artist, or a designer. Somehow the term 'decorator' seems to trivialize what you do. You ARE a builder too, even if you use elements created by other people here - the underlying design is as important as any of the elements you will use to create your landscape painting. Also, what type of designer do you want to be? Do you want to come in where someone has placed their house and so landscape around it by planting a few trees and plants around in a pleasing way, or do you want to create a revolutionary, unique design? The latter takes a lot longer so be sure and price accordingly. This has been mentioned before in this thread but it can't be emphasized enough - be very very clear on the boundaries of the job and create a written agreement that is signed by both parties. Include exactly what you will add to their land in terms of garden elements (waterfalls, streams, pathway, lights, general feel and style or theme, time-line for when job will begin and end, and so on). You may not know the design until it unfolds, but you can give a general idea of what will be included so your customer can't come in at the end of the job and say something like "but I thought there would be more waterfalls". To begin the process ask the client to write a list of what they want, and then add to it or change after a first consultation. Ask them to be very specific, and ask more questions if they have trouble articulating. The fact is that most clients don't quite know what they want until they think and write about it. I've found it really helps to have the client send a pic (either RL or in SL) of landscapes they like to get a general feel for their preferences too, and ask them what their favorite colors are. Also very important - specify in your agreement that once work begins if they want major changes the price will increase. I have enountered clients who want to use me as a kind of drawing board and this can really eat up extra time. Many are wannabe designers who bought some pretty trees and plants and discovered there is something underneath it all (the design) they can't figure out. They are often exploring landscapes in SL and can change their mind at the drop of a hat when they see a new theme/style they never encountered before. I simply say something like "sure I can change over to that theme, but it will cost you X amount more because I've just spent 2 days working in the theme we initially agreed on". One horrible example of this is when I built an entire village in a specified manner that hubby wanted (California fishing village style) and they were very pleased with it, but later on the wife saw a Venice type village and wanted me to build an entirely new village in that style - and do it without paying me one cent more! Remember that there really is no such thing as a small job - even a small job requires drawing up the agreement/contract and much of the same customer support that most large jobs require. It's also important to get half your money up front and half when done, or if a huge project break it down into thirds so you get a payment when work begins and about half way through. I've had couples break up in the middle of a job and nobody wants to pay me. I know you only asked for finanical advice, but I have to add some emotional advice as well, and that is to develop a very thick skin and never let the craziness you will encounter in this business take away your love of nature and creating. If you are sensitive, as most artists and lovers of nature are, the demands of a a few annoying clients can really get to you. I have kept note cards of the worst encounters and the best. Writing about the worst encounters is a kind of catharsis and helps me move on, and writing about the best serves to remind me that most clients are nice and fair people.

yvw.. Yeah that has happened to me too. You might try making sure you put your new item into the right category on the website...it has to be assigned correctly. Also, sometimes if you keep resetting and updating the vendor and stuff on the website it eventually displays correctly.

Hi Julie...just drop the plug-in script into the toolbox/rezzer. Click the toolbox/rezzer and choose save after you get it in the right spot. Make the toolbox/rezzer transparent and drop it into the 'rez item' button on your vendor.

Rya...take your little boats and [edited to prevent being banned from forums].

Tari...I think it's pretty clear what your position is on all this and why you take that position. Repeatedly you have mentioned how your skills are lacking, and at one point said you may embrace freebies because you want to 'stick it to the big guy". I have run into this before - people who champion freebies because they're unable to make money. And you are poloarizing this discussion though you have denied it - can you admit that possibly even one sale might be lost because someone sees item A for free when the same item B costs 600 $L? People that can't admit the other side has at least SOME merit are polarizing and will not cope with anyones opinion but their own. That's why your characterization of Rene is so comical - you are projecting...you are the one doing what you claim he is doing. At one point in this long thread, one of your posts was deleted where you decided you would not buy items by merchants who believed freebies were not ok. Do you see how fanatical this is? Please take a look at what is driving your posts here. I'm sorry you are sick, and I hesitated confronting you because of this. But I am just as sick myself right now, perhaps sicker, and I need the money I earn here to help pay my bills. I feel this position you are taking is one of the factors contributing to the decline of SL - making it nearly impossible for anyone to earn money here. As I've said before, those entering SL have no market when most everything is free - they get frustrated and leave. I know many of them, and I also know more established creators who already left because they can't sell anything here anymore. Yes I agree there are many causes - an overabundance of freebies is one of them.

Tari/Mickey - I don't think MOST people believe freebies are the ONLY cause for SL's decline, nor do they believe they should be totally removed from SL. Please stop polarizing this discussion - whenever issues are debated there is almost always truth to both sides. It's important for each merchant to evaluate if freebies might be contributing to the decline however, and make changes in their freebie policy according to what they determine. My best guess is that some freebies can help some businesses but it has become unbalanced, there are way too many freebies available, and so it is now causing harm. I'm concerned about the newer merchant starting out - I just don't think they have a chance to compete against all the freebies filling up SL now. Sure there may be some niche markets like Josh's hole business, but for the most part new merchants have no market anymore. And yes there are many hobbyists who aren't interested in selling and happy that another person might even want their creation, but I still think a big draw to SL is the satisfaction of creating and selling your content, and when many of these newer people can't do that they get frustrated and leave. Many creators of more complex items in SL think the freebie market doesn't concern them at all (because what they create takes so long to make that few would spend that amount of time and offer it as a freebie) - however If we don't do something to facilitate markets for the newer merchants then those developing mesh and honing their skills in other ways will have few people to sell to as SL continues to decline. I don't see most merchants being willing to cut down on how many freebies they offer - in fact many seem delighted to offer volumes of freebies and low-priced content as loss leaders in order to draw in customers to their expensive items, and in the process totally wiping out markets for the new merchant. The only solution would be for LL to limit the amount of freebies each merchant could offer on the MP. It's a good thing to impose limits/laws on people sometimes if it preserves the whole - this freebie problem seems to be one of those cases.

It's just not true that everyone who uses freebies would not be your customer anyway. Try listing some items on the MP for free vs the exact same items at regular price and see which sells more.

Made wrote: "Yep, Luna.. I party agree. Also many give up because their efforts are devalued. You think that is caused by freebies, and I think that is caused by competition. And we both cannot know for sure, because we have no hard figures at all" No I believe competition is also a factor, but I think the damage of freebies is felt much more by beginning merchants - the 'little guy' you and Tari were mentioning.

I don't think most people appreciate what they get for free...so it follows they would devalue SL if it's all free.

Tari Landar wrote: But cutting out the little guy because he sells something for $0L that others are trying to sell for say $50L, isn't the solution to the concurrency problem. In fact, it won't help it at all. It'll push the little guy away....one less person in sl. Multiply that by however many little guys there are, and you've got an even bigger problem. Made wrote: That is exactly my problem, it will push people away. I think the reverse is true - that many give up because their efforts are devalued (they can't sell anything because so much is free). Many who enter SL still want to earn some money..it's a big draw.

Well Mickey I can't say if excessive marketing works for me personally, but it seems to help your business. And you are definitely increasing expossure for SL in general so maybe we should all network more outside of SL.

Though I've had an account @ Twitter for some time I just posted my first tweet, and also informed everyone that I'm eating a sandwich...let's see what comes of this. Will this show up in Google or what? I don't understand..

I'm trying Mickey... I started acting like an auctioneer in my group, announcing prizes I gave out... "Betty Boop just won 100 $L, and Betty Bop just got a gift certificate for 500 $L!" "Get your FREE camping spot in the beautiful Bliss Gardens Park below the store!" ... and a bunch of people left my group

Madeliefste, your sculpt maps are expensive compared to many, but they are good quality, and I have purchased them. However if my business was not doing so good, and I saw sculpts for half of what you charge, or freebies, I'd buy those instead. Freebies do contribute to the decline of the economy - not the only factor but they do contribute.

IMVU has no freebies true, but you earn so little money (as you pointed out Rene) that they might as well be freebies. I fear this is the trend for SL.

It's bedtime everyone..

"I would think you'd be used to it by now" I cannot get used to it Rene! lol And Madeliefste I do agree with you - I wouldn't want to get rid of the 50% that use freebies and don't participate in the economy (like you said, many of them contribute in other ways). By a freebie mentality I mean something like this: Occasionally I drop a free skybox on someone (yes despite my reluctance to embrace freebies I do give them out, and even have a free campground in my 4-sim wilderness area below my store). These are elaborate skyboxes, some with homes and furniture, and each one can take from a month to several months of full-time work to create - and they are holodecks where you fly to the sky on a flower and rez multiple scenes (quite a bit of scripting work to get that going). Anyway, I dropped a scene on someone as a freebie, and she complained because I didn't include all the scenes (like 30 or so scenes, all of this taking well over a year of full-time work to create). I like how the thread has turned - discussions on marketing. It seems different types of content needs marketing more than others - more defined items need less marketing. For example, each lovely home of Pamela's is its own little ad sitting on someone's land, whereas Mickey's great designing talent lies in the overall design of a furniture set (matching the colors and arranging the setting) and cannot be as easily seen (since people often tear designs apart I so painfully know). So Mickey really needs to advertise more. Madeliefste it seems your best marketing might be right here in a forum that builders read - at least that's where I learned about you and purchased your sculpts.

The metaverse is what we will make of it Nef. You can use virtual realities to learn about art and graphic design (not a game) and increase your skills - and demand compensation for your time - or you can let the game gods use us as pawns in their game to make money for only them. By the way, I have often used Toy's sculpts in my creations for colleges and businesses in SL when I design their sims.

Having some freebies seems ok - I'm bothered by a freebie mentality when people expect everything for free however. In a speech not that long ago Philip said eventually all content will be free, and that only those providing a service will make money in virtual worlds. Are the game gods working to bring this about, or is he psychic?

Mickey, demon merchant of SL, you are not gonna get your little badge from the Merit Merchants I'm afraid..lol. Maybe the people who hate judgemental groups can form their own group, we could be the Misfit Merchants, and instead of a pretty brownie badge we would get little horns. Seriously, this idea of a BBB group with a select group of merchants as judge and jury is not a good one, though I do see Chelsea's intention was not to harm - however these types of groups do end up being abusive, and would be especially so in SL where the community is smaller and we all compete for the same customers. People simply cannot be objective most of the time - even those who have training in objectivity. I like the ideas others have proposed - an educational group - but even this could end up being prejudicial. My experience with groups trying to set standards has not been good - sometime back this one guy formed a group to protect consumers against 'the abusive merchants'. He approached me in a very odd way - after purchasing a fence he then tried to get me to refund part of the purchase, saying he didn't feel it should cost that much. When I refused he of course vowed to tell everyone not to buy from me, and then a customer notified me that he was running around my store telling customers not to purchase anything because they wouldn't get the item. In another case a customer turned merchant went to the ends of SL telling everyone I did a custom job for her but would then not give her the prims (we had agreed initially that I would deed the prims to her group, and I did that, but she wanted them in her name). If you've ever done complex landscapes it can be a nightmare to sell each little buried water and rock prim, some phantom and some not, linked in various ways, so I always group-scan and deed them over and plan my prices accordingly). To this day I have people coming up to me telling me how this woman told them how BAD I was. And yet another case - I booted some renters from my land because they would not stop running up to kneeling kajiras in my park spewing the worst hate I've ever heard. These people actually formed a group named 'Ban Bliss' advocating that people should not buy from me. Many of my customers end up becoming merchants and trying to compete against me, hence they have great motive for trashing me. Because of this dynamic in SL where customers become merchants this would make a judge and jury group even more dangerous. When you complicate matters even further with the fact that some of us have been landlords the potential for abuse is even worse. These types would invariably end up in a type of BBB group and try to wield their drama. I think we need a BCB (Better Customer Bureau). No 1. You must read instructions. No 2. Do not contact me with the word 'Hey' No 3. Place all your text in one paragraph instead of capping my messages with "I just" "wondered about your" "blue rug" "and the green tree" No 4. After I complete your landscape and you find out how hard it is to duplicate you cannot run around telling everyone how sh*tty I am. However, given all this I have to say that most of my customers have been great and don't cause such drama. However we don't need to form a group that divides merchants and gives jealous merchants a voice. It's sad but this small percentage of disturbed merchants/customers cause most of the problems in SL, and these types of problems are far worse than a few customers who have bad experiences with merchants. I think most merchants provide good customer service, and if they don't they aren't usually around for long.

Thanks, everyone. I wonder when this new cloud system will be implemented...the video says 2007.

..and are they gone for good? Does anybody know? I logged on one day and they were gone...anybody know if this is permanent? I depend on them to either be there (or not) in some full sim designs.

i have all the business partners I need, but I can pass on this Request For Proposal I received today if you're ready to start a job: [11:07] Resident X: hello hru i wanna u plz design my sim [11:07] Resident X: wait u online

Are you sure this is an accident? I'm starting to feel like they don't want serious merchants here anymore. Maybe I should message Josh..

Tier is due on the 9th. 250 usd. Contact Luna Bliss.