Luna Bliss

I wonder if an updated item ever really returns back to the search rank it had before the update.

Phil there are lots of gray areas. While I don't know the specifics of Mickey's gray areas, I imagine it would not be wise for Mickey to give examples and reveal her business plan, especially since her cases involve a very saturated market. I can give you one example from myself though, in an unsaturated market - it won't effect my business much as it seems few people are such nature freaks and want a rock that rezzes all sorts of animations and accessories (strangely I guess they prefer furniture..lol). Anyway, this landscaping rock that rezzes everything but the kitchen sink has gotten flagged when I put it in the 'landscaping' category. It's a gray area since it also contains animations, sound, food, garden accessories of all kinds, sometimes plants, weather, and god knows what else since I can't remember it all. So... this rock can actually go in a number of categories - why should I be at the mercy of some flag happy freak/competitor to decide where it should go? I KNOW WHERE IT WILL SELL THE BEST - I AM THE ONE PAYING ATTENTION TO THIS. And this is where the unfairness comes in. Say Mickey had such an item and a few enemies who want to bug her - they will flag this item while her competitors and enemies who get to place it in the gray area of their choice will not be flagged and benefit from their increased sales. However, I do trust the commerce team to hear us out if we believe an item should be in a different category, and perhaps some of the time agree with our evaluation. But...if you have purchased an enhancement for this item, or blogged about it for a sale, the damage is done when it is removed. For example, I had a skybox in the wrong category and when it was removed and I lost the money I paid for that enhancement (my mistake here, but is proof that this does happen). Rya - you can't accurately extrapolate from your business experience and say it's the same for all. Your business model has a couple of variables different from Mickeys that I can see from a casual glance. For some businesses, category matters. And if it's a gray area we should be allowed to place our content where it will sell the best. There are lots of gray areas, and there are many categories that need to be added, and a few that make no sense.

Well Toy this sure sounds better than the visions of Kraken you were filling my mind with the other week ;0 (if anyone hasn't seen Kraken be sure and Google it...quite a treat). What I want to know though....will viewer 1.23 be updated to accomodate the new DD or will this only work for V2? If I have to use V2 I will for sure feel like Kraken has descended upon my workshop..

I've been doing some experimenting, and it appears that updating an item ruins your higher placement in Search. This is true even if you just delete your item in the magic box and replace it with a new item. I never even pushed the update button on the website listing page and this item fell to a much lower place in Search. Is there a Jira for this does anyone know? I would like to be able to adjust prices, add more instructions to note cards, or add better keywords - but it appears this is not possible unless you want to make your item less visible.

I'm sorry that happened to you Pamela. I encourage everyone to post results of DMCA's at the forum that allows it. I really love SL (and some of the other grids too). I don't want everyone to go to the other grids and abandon SL entirely because SL is not addressing copybotting seriously, but it looks like that is the trend.

Mickey...while like you I don't believe in 'tattling' on other merchants this seems to be a case where an exception should be made to protect your business. If you want to send me their name I'll flag their items for you if they're in the wrong category. I've been the victim of attacks here, and it seems the more you put yourself out there via blogs or popularity the more some will try to drag you down. I had one woman running around telling everyone I wouldn't give the prims to her after she paid me for a custom design job on her parcel (we had agreed that I would deed them over to the group and and later she wanted to follow me around for hours buying each buried landscaping prim I guess). I mean this woman doesn't just spew these lies on this grid but on others too (she's a jealous merchant of course). This other guy ran around my store for hours telling everyone if they bought anything in my store it wouldn't be delivered (because I wouldn't sell a store item to him at a cheaper price). Yet another formed a group named 'Ban Bliss' that advocated never buying anything from me because I kicked them off my land due to their vicious hate and harassment of kneeling kajiras. These nutcases are out there...surely Dakota knows that after dealing with the likes of us all day ;0 I pretty much don't post in forums anymore because when I have it seems the flagging gets worse. We'll see what happens this time. I've gone through most of my listings to make sure things are in the right category. Seriously if you want me to flag them I will.

Sounds plausible Paladin...but if the database is messing up all our stuff on the MP gets knocked to 'unavailable' ? My skyboxes are frequently flagged... so I more thnk it's not a database issue...but who knows..

No I wasn't in the alpha test for DD, though with this happening I wonder if I am. After returning tonight I see all the skybox files returned to my inventory at least. I really can't believe that flagging items on the MP and making them unavailable would cause a deletion from the magic boxes but it did. I guess if we're thinking multiple magic boxes are a good backup system we need to think again.

Strange scary things happening.. 5 of my skyboxes were knocked over to unavailable on the website as well as deleted from my magic box AND they disappeared from my inventory !

@Ami ....... it would only be a winwin situation for LL and the very top earning merchants here. I would not be willing to stay if my income dropped down to 20% of what I'm earning now, and I doubt most others would be either. Yes...tier needs to drop...and I would be willing to sacrifice some...but 80% is way too much. Besides, if LL is making 75 million in profits each year why can't the majority of it come from that?

@Rya The love exuded as you describe creating and running a business is infectious...makes me want to go out and buy one of your boats right away...and I don't even have enough water in my lands atm to use it

@Mad -I don't think the Dash Deal was created as a way to decrease our income. I think the new Lindens in charge here are trying to help, but I fear this is going to make things worse for us if our content gets devalued through too many people participating in the program so that a huge amount of near freebie content is available at all times. Once it gets known (and a lot of people do shop on the MP these days) then shoppers would know to look at the Dash Deal to find any category of merchandise they want at a greatly reduced price. Regarding your observations on how the economy works, I'm not too good with numbers, but it seems if we got less of a 'paycheck' that we cash out each month (real money going to our banks) then LL would keep more money. It would benefit LL's bottom line if we were happy to create here without taking too much real money out of the game. However this would be a big mistake if implemented, and as far as I know it's not the plan - a big attractiion for SL is the idea that one could make some real money here through hard work and talent. However as content creators we do need to keep mindful of decisions that affect our income and try to make our preferences known among all the other voices trying to control the development of the 3D internet.

It's a mystery in many cases why some businesses succeed here and others fail. There are so many actions we can do to increase our chances (be the best we can be as well as the 6 other factors described in the cr*p article). However we can't control everything, and many things remain a mystery. I have often wondered why many people so much better than me in nature design have fallen and why I keep sailing on. And I have wondered why those as good or better in structural design compared to Pamela have fallen. I can only conclude there are some unknown factors and many things we can't control. I write this not to discourage people from trying - there's a good chance if you're failing it's because you haven't worked hard enough to make your content great, or that you haven't marketed effectively or followed other important business practices. It's just good to keep in mind there are some variables out of our control, and to keep in mind that you can be the best content creator SL has ever known and follow great business practices but still fail (and it does not mean your stuff is cr*p as the cr*p articles advocates). _________________________________________________________________ Factors enabling success or inhibiting it that are out of our control (or in some cases we have minimal control over them): You are lucky enough to love creating and sell a type of content favored at a particular time. You are lucky enough to meet people who mentor you and give you an advantage as you develop your skills. People in management positions within SL give you an advantage, favor you in some way. A stranger comes along and fancies your stuff, places a lot of it in prominant positions, thereby snowballing your career. What you love to do is not really understood or valued by others (thinking of someone who paints plants that the masses don't appreciate enough). You were born with a certain kind of temperament, for example sensitivity, that enables you to see what people/customers want easier than those of a less sensitive nature. You had some sort of training or life experiences that gives you an advantage before you came to SL (training in psychology and landscaping for me, training in art for others). The ability to be organized and work very long hours. A strong need to succeed (for me, I better succeed cause I quit my day job and can't go back to it). The total takeover of the freebie mentality - this could become so much the norm that people will not pay for expensive content. Merchants imitating and undercutting the price of your content - forcing you to lower prices so much that your business fails (well unless you feel ok about making 2 cents an hour). The eternal mystery of Search. So much more that I haven't thought of.

@Suella - We're discussing the merits of the cr*p article over in another thread "The Best SL Business Advice Ever" so I won't go into it anymore in this thread that is supposed to be about the Dash Deal. I am still really concered about this Dash Deal thing and pray that it doesn't become the Kraken that Toy described. The freebie mentality has been a major contributing factor in destroying the value of our content in-world and would likely do that on the MP (if many merchants participated, and especially those in less niche markets).I'm going to remove my MM board and withdraw from a hunt I was participating in. Not long ago I accidentally left something at the default $L 10 price when updating, and the freebie hunters descended on my store to suck it up like locusts. I heard they scan stores to see if merchants accidentally leave an item set at $L 10 and then pass note cards to other freebie sucking groups. I felt invaded and taken advantage of. Finally a loyal customer messaged to tell me what was happening. I don't believe these kinds of hunts and freebie activities help a store at all...it only serves to feed the freebie frenzy where residents love the game of paying nothing for content.

Pamela wrote: "@ Luna -- did you read the article Luna? Right under the graph it says: "The graph may have been intended as a parody, but it’s still not that far off from the truth. You can hype the hell out of your product, get people through the doors in droves, but if your product isn’t good it won’t stay." It is making a point by being funny. No one has taken an actual survey of ppl's failing businesses to see if their stuff is crap or not. ______________________________________ @Pamela Yes I did read the article, and yes I understand parody, and yes the author of this article has many points I agree with, but I'm afraid I'm having trouble with the huge pie statistic that says if a business is not succeeding then it's most likely because their stuff is cr*p - somehow that makes me not want to hear what else she has to say.. Please take into account that although she explains this graph portraying how content creators creations are cr*p is a parody, she also states 'but it's still not that far off from the truth". In other words, she believes it's true - that creators businesses are failing primarily because their stuff is cr*p. Because of this, I don't feel it's a good article to link off to, or at least if one does a disclaimer would be nice. It's very hard for businesses in SL right now - most are struggling and hurting bad, being hit from all sides. I'm watching talented creators drop like flies, and most days I feel I'm barely hanging on by the skin of my teeth - nobody needs to log into the forums and read such untrue and blaming "help" (even if it has some truthful and informative tips within it). Furthermore new creators don't need to think that their creations are bad because nobody buys them. There are so many factors stacked up against succeeding financially now, and this woman with her pie chart is .....not a good teacher. I realize that you and Suella had good intentions though. And I really don't care about discussing anymore about whether this was or was not a good article - I just want businesses who are trying to succeed in SL these days to know that if their business is failing it is not 95 percent certain that the reason is because their work is cr*p.

Suella...Pamela..that website link you posted (with the pie showing the reason most businesses fail is because their stuff is cr*p) is mean and untrue. I know lots of creators who make fantastic stuff but have no marketing skills and their stuff doesn't sell very well...their stuff IS NOT cr*p. I'm not sure how big that category should be (let's call in content that is not so high in quality rather than fellow merchangs who make stuff that is cr*p)...but I would venture it should be 1/3, and that marketing should be another 1/3, and that the final third should be a stagnate SL that doesn't bring in enough customers and causes excessive competition.

Ami...I don't think this will devalue stores that have a niche or create products that take a long time to make. Just remember that eventually your market will have more competition..and they will be participating in this 'deep discount' fiasco...and your store will suffer some serious crumbling. Suella...Pamela..that website link you posted (with the pie showing the reason most businesses fail is because their stuff is cr*p) is mean and untrue. I know lots of creators who make fantastic stuff but have no marketing skills and their stuff doesn't sell very well...their stuff IS NOT cr*p. I'm not sure how big that category should be (let's call in content that is not so high in quality rather than fellow merchants who make stuff that is cr*p)...but I would venture it should be 1/3, and that marketing should be another 1/3, and that the final third should be a stagnate SL that doesn't bring in enough customers and causes excessive competition.

Go ask Alice When she's ten feet tall.......... /hugs Darius

I'm very concerned when I see RL business concepts applied to SL and its unique features, because more often than not it just doesn't work. When individual businesses decide to make one of their products a 'loss leader' it is for ONE item and not their entire line of products, but the effect of management determining the 'loss leaders' means that as more and more creators participate the entire market will become valued at the 'loss leader' price. Why would any shopper pay a decent price for anything when the market is flooded with an abundance of 'loss leaders' just one click away? I'm afraid this will just cheapen our content even further, and in a way that lines LL's pocket even more. If there are few merchants participating in this type of advertising I'm sure they will have an increase in sales, but the more who participate the effect will be, in the end, that they earn far less.

I know it's advised to let LL take care of the matter lest they go underground...but I would message the guy with a threatening wall-o-text (if you have the theft well documented). I did that once and my content on the MP was gone in a matter of minutes. At least nobody else would get your full perm stuff (if he is selling it with full perms).

Pamela wrote: "I filed the DMCA, I filed an AR three times, I have a copy of the copybotted item with the copybotter's name as creator on every prim -- and he is still here. Why is this now? Whose side is LL on?" Maybe they switched to the Sesame Street channel where everything is free.

I realize you are trying to sort out the boundaries of how to package your freebies, but I am suggesting something else...and that is to stop obssessing about freebies altogether....the freebie mentality is cheapening SL, driving away many people to other grids, and making it very hard for content creators to earn compensation for their efforts. While some comparisons can be drawn between SL and RL in many instances I don't think this is a case that works (your recycling analogy)...the economy in SL is just too different from RL in many respects so a valid comparison can't be drawn here for the most part. Not that long ago if a person such as yourself worked hard they could earn a decent amount of money. Not so anymore, and a major factor contributing to this is the freebie frenzy...people are starting to expect everything to be free. I don't believe we are really doing anyone any favor by giving out things for free - human beings by nature place value in what they earn through their efforts - we are made to grow, to learn, to achieve - and to then earn compensation for our talents. So when people are given free things they generally don't appreciate them. If they value getting everything for free they either have a criminal mentality and/or are remaining at the level of a suckling infant without capabilities - and we are fostering that mentality when we contribute to it through freebies. I don't want SL to be known as a cheap, trivial freebie sucking game as opposed to the multi-faceted immersive world it once was. And I want content creators here to be able to earn some compensation for their efforts. Please take into account that people who can afford the type of computer and high speed internet needed to access SL generally have SOME money. It is not uncommon for me to encounter people earning 100,000 dollars a month with their RL jobs yet some of these same people have expected me to work for them for pennies an hour on their projects. I'm not saying the rights to give things away should be taken away - it's just good to remember that people generally don't appreciate something they didn't put their energy into (earning money through their efforts and subsequently buying what they need in life). They may say they're appreciative if you give them something free, but deep down few are. I've noticed this with the sims I've created for others - the first ones to go were the ones that people paid me the least to create. There are people who genuinely cannot afford much, and all the above does not refer to them. I donate entire sims to charity here and offer support in other ways as well, and we should all help people truly in need. But time and time again I have seen that it's more often us creators/merchants who are poor and not our customers.

Ishtara...what? It's early morn here...maybe I'm still dreaming...or is this an early April 1st joke? The new viewer doesn't allow you to purchase ?

Hi Marcus It's great that you're doing so well right off the bat. I agree with most of what has been posted here regarding how to grow your business. I thought of one more thing though to emphasize strongly...you might want to specialize in some aspect of your plant business. Not that you wouldn't have a wide selection, but from observing the way SL is moving I think most businesses need to find their niche and make themselves unique in some way (if your goal is to be profitable). You commented on classifieds, and it can be really hard to figure out if these work. At some point you might try experimenting a bit, but like you said, when an ad is so far to the bottom it doesn't have much value. I experiment by placing an ad and then removing it, but I really can't tell for sure if it makes a difference due to so many variables, but I know some creators are sure it does or does not help. I've heard talk about classifieds not working well in the new viewer and wonder if that's fixed yet. One way low priced classifieds could work for you is to take a 50 $L ad out for something you specialize in like 'vines' or 'shrubs' or 'desert plants'. These types of plants might show up higher in Search even with an inexpensive ad. I once needed a particular type of vine for a custom job that I had no time or talent to paint and it would have been nice had it shown up in Classified Search. I finally thought to message a friend who luckily had it. I can't emphasize enough, as Toy did above, the importance of marketing these days. I have a friend who makes high-quality sculpts as does Toy.. However it's usually Toys sculpts I buy because Toy is always out there showing off his new stuff while I have no idea what my friend is creating - and I even talk to my friend on Skype from time to time. One more idea is to make a little book (a fake one where you click it and link to your MP store) and send that to your customers ever so often. This idea was given to me by a gardening store friend, and this reminds me that I need to get busy right now and do it...thanks for the reminder

Marcus... I would definitely get a signature going in here. I create sims for others, and often I refer various parts of these (homes, scripts, furniture) to other people I've discovered in these forums. I can't do that if I don't know what you make.