DragonLady Merlin

For the last two weeks, ALL of my online sales -Real Life and Second Life have dropped off dramatically. I've noticed a sales slump seems to follow really upsetting world events, and I think the troubles in Syria are putting people in a somber mood, so no one feels much like shopping.

Yes; I do absolutely agree with that.

It does make sense, but so far I've only sold five tee shirts in-world. The rest have all been on the marketplace. I know that I often find something I think I want in world, then make the purchase later on the MP after I've read the extended description and the reviews. It also gives me the ability to leave a review, which seems to be a better method of gaining a seller's attention if something is wrong with an item or if I need help making it work. So, to that end, I'd love to see more stats. My RL business is not so different from my SL one (do what you know), and the shopping venue I use, my shopping cart program, and web hosting together provide me with tons of data about my visitors. I can see what they're looking for, whether or not they viewed particular items, whether they added something to a wish list or cart. That helps me determine what may be going through their minds. If 50 people put something in their wish list, but only a couple actually buy, it tells me they're interested but reluctant. So I can work on my photos, write different descriptions, offer an incentive, schedule a sale.... Without that info, every item is a random role of the dice. So far as freebies, I do think they've been made necessary for the SL business model, but I wish whoever started it hadn't. I struggle to tell people with RL shops that giving away free products and continually devaluing their work is not the best route. You really can't even give something away if no one wants it, but you can sell it at a reasonable price to someone who does. The "trick" is finding that someone, and making sure they're happy enough to keep coming back for more. But in SL the hard part -finding the people who want what you have- is difficult because there are so few venues for finding out who your visitors are, how and why they stopped by, what they were hoping to find, and whether or not they're likely to return.

I have the same issues. I think it's just the way the MP works.

Are there any third-party sites that provide better statistical information for the Marketplace? I know other sites like Etsy have a lot of 3rd party apps that gather stats for shop owners -like the keywords used to find items, or the general demographics of people viewing the pages. It would be very helpful here!

I just build a plain white box, put the item inside, put in a hanger if desired, zoom in close and snap the photo. The white "infinity" background tends to be the best for selling most items that aren't on a model.

Okay; thank-you everyone for all the great advice. I'll have to read though it a few times to really absorb all of it.

I opened a t-shirt shop in February, and now I'm looking for good ways to market it so I sell more. I've rented small spaces in a couple of places and put up a few samples with landmarks. I've just made a sign board so I can rent ad space here and there. What are some other good tactics to help spread the word?

I bought it last night in-world, and am so far very disappointed. :( I own both Prim Generator and Mesh Generator by the same creator, and am very happy with them -have been planning to buy them all- so I'm sure this is a good product. I looked at the example builds, and thought it would be just as good as the other items. There's no English support and I don't speak a word of Japanese, so I'm at a loss to explain the distorted results I'm getting from it. I assume it's "operator error" and I hope someone here can give me a hand making it function better? I use the different models provided for different stitching types -even though they all say "sphere" on them- and put together my build. But when I upload the finished sculpt, it's distorted and flattened. Even a simple sphere appears in the preview to be flattened and rough. :( Any help at all would be greatly appreciated!

Even without the invisiprim, none of the shoe bases I've tried now actually hide my foot. I *detest* mesh clothing and shoes, because I don't want to edit my avatar. I'm sure I'm not alone in that, so there must be some way people are getting around it now?

Yes; the shoes have an invisiprim. Should I edit them and remove it? I have a freebie package of alpha hiders for heels, but none of them are shaped right for these shoes.

I've been out of the game for a while. My computer died, and now I'm using an older one that can't handle the higher graphics the other could, so I've turned them all down. I was working on a pair of shoes, when I decided to turn the graphics back up to make sure they looked good at a high resolution. But when I did, the alpha shoe base disappeared, leaving my heel visible through the shoe. I can't figure out why it disappears as it should at lower graphics levels, but not at the higher ones? I'm using the latest version of Firestorm, and have "render alpha masks" checked for "advanced lighting model" both enabled and disabled. I don't have the official client installed right now, so I haven't tested to see if the problem is isolated to Firestorm. Is anyone else having this issue? Has something changed in the last few months I just haven't been aware of?

Thank-you both! I'm just learning to make clothing, so I thought shoes would be somewhere between prim building and clothesmaking...but now I realize it's a whole world of it's own. I'll read through the link and see what it leads to.

Hya! A couple of people have asked me to start carrying shoes that will match the outfits I'm making. I went looking at pre-made shoes to start with, and found a few that I like. I grabbed a couple of demos and some freebies to play with, and discovered I'm in waaay over my head, even though I'm a decent builder. I have no idea how to make my foot fit the shoes, or vice-versa, and have no idea how to edit them properly to look right. The person who made them is extremely nice, but has limited English and wasn't able to really help me out much. Any tips, advice, great links or other suggestions? Thanks in advance! ~DL

Nice sweaters are hard to find. I've been working on making a few, and hope to make more soon. I have one version in my store now, and a couple more being developed. Check 'em out and let me know what you think! My store

IMO, they look best if you are tall and not too top-heavy.

I"m glad to know it's not just me! I'm new to making clothes, and have noticed this on several items. I thought it was something I was doing all wrong.

The fastest way to make L$ is to get a RL job and import some of your earnings from it. For the amount of time you have to spend on the job, you get paid much better in RL than SL. Equally important, you don't end up tied to your work all the time in SL. If you don't want to import money, however, I think it's wiser to emphasize keeping expenses low than to obsess about raising income in world. Yes, yes, of course. I have a RL business, and so I'm here on my computer most of the day everyday. It was doing great, until my husband lost his job and I had to spend my operating capital just keeping us alive. Now, I spend far more time in SL then I did before; mostly because it's a great way to alleviate the depression that comes from watching a bank account that was steadily growing suddenly start shrinking at light speed, but also because I have more spare time and just sitting here waiting for the phone to ring or an order to come in or a customer to ask a question can become a form of torture. If I can make money while I'm playing, then that will help...if only to make me feel like I'm doing everything I can. PS...why is it so hard to type here? Here and in-world both...my keyboard feels like I have to pound on it, and the page jumps every few seconds.

There are a bunch of free programs that will open both .zip and .rar files. My personal fave is 7-Zip. It's free, and I've been using it for years now with no trouble at all.

Yes; I consider myself an artist, and I work with several media on a semi-regular basis. Textiles, watercolors, and art journalling being my faves; I also bring my vision to my photography and anything else that allows me to express myself. For me, really well-made clothing has always been more important than the latest trend. In RL I look for fine fabrics, careful stitching, appropriate and well-placed details. I think that will be my focus here, as well. I will probably never try to torture a mega prim into masquerading as a bra, but I do very much appreciate creations that look right and are made with a lot of attention to small details. But...I also need to make lindens, and quickly. I have to start paying my tier out of my earnings here, or give up the land and home I've loved for so long. So...I'm hoping to balance the two and find a happy medium that allows me to continue to create and gives me the chance to develop new skills under the most comfortable circumstances.

Is there a place to ask for critiques of item listings? I have no idea what gets the most attention or what formats or techniques sell the best here.

Yes; that's true. I'll have a look around, and see what is available.

Offering shoes to match an outfit is a very good point. It can be very hard, dull, and time consuming trying to find shoes to match at a second shop. Yeah; I hear that. I don't like to buy shoes for just one outfit, unless it's something really special. For now, I'll just try to make sure that any nice pair of black shoes will work with all my outfits, until I'm able to offer them dyed-to-match.

KISS check. Anyone else?

I want to thank everyone again for the great advice I've gotten so far, and ask another question (I'm full of them). Would you be more inclined to buy single pieces from a line that mixes and matches, or to buy a whole boxed wardrobe of pieces that work together, but might contain items you will rarely or never wear? That is, would you buy an 8-piece ensemble that could be endlessly combined, even if it included a skirt you didn't like? Or would you prefer to buy 7 seperate pieces that you love?