[Looking for Art]

It's not because I am "sensitive"(or an argument for that matter-just a discussion), it's because I'm trying to help you realize that this is *exactly what folks will think... that you intend to "scam" them You're not the first person to ask for full perms art, but odds are most of those before you had ulterior motives. I'm sure many after you will too.

People tend to protect their art, as best they can-well most of it anyway. Even when they want to share it with the world. You shouldn't be offended or something simply because I am pointing out that it's not a reasonable request in my opinion to ask an artist to simply hand you stuff willy nilly with absolutely no protection for them. What if you screw up their artwork? What if you simply take it, and start profiting?  I know, you have no intentions of doing either, right? No one ever admits that they do, though. People will be cautious just handing stuff out like that unless the intention is to allow the next user to do whatever they want with it.

 

I am sure there is a lot of full perm art on the marketplace though. Have you checked there? Usually it will state somewhere in the ad what the "rules" are for the art, and if not you can always contact a creator. It never hurts to ask. I wouldn't be surprised to get told no though. Just move on and keep looking. I bet you can find lots of stuff.

[Looking for Art]

You can build around art. You don't need to link your build to another person's art.

I don't know of any gallery that has multiple artists' work that requires or even requests full perms on the art that gets donated. That's not to say they don't exist, I've just never been to one. I've been to quite a few galleries in sl, some no longer exist and some have been around for years. I know people that own the galleries too and they don't ask for full perms and none of the donating artists even make the items full perms. A couple that I've been to, the artists themselves rez the art, which is pretty cool too. I could see art for sale needing to be transfer but that enters a whole different world than a gallery with art on display. You should take a look around at some of the galleries around sl and see how it's done. Most of them feature SL only artists as well. It might give you some ideas.

Why not work on some art of your own? Then you won't have to worry about perms

 

[What are your SLM sales like currently?]

Yes I know there has never been a time when merchants *didn't make that claim. Doesn't necessarily mean it was a valid claim though. Or that all of those merchants were correct in their assumptions there was a grid-wide slump.

I wasn't saying slumps don't happen, or sales don't dip at certain points naturally, even. In fact I said quite the opposite, as until recently I was having all the same issues other merchants were.

[What are your SLM sales like currently?]

Eh, search is skewed to high heaven. I wouldn't put much value into any results you get from it. Whether it's marketplace or in-world. Results change more often than most avs change their clothes. It rarely, if ever, has anything to do with things merchants are doing differently, which annoys me. It's all issues on LL's end of things. I don't really put much worth into "rank" for that reason alone. The system they use to determine it, is flawed, at best.

Funny how they want us to master the few tools they give us, to expand this great big virtual world, and make it marvelous(for them, so they earn more, of course...and if we want, for us too ). Yet  they can't even master the tools they have to run it. If I had that many employees slacking off somewhere, I'd be ashamed. At least, for now, I can claim(because it's true) lack of skills, lol. I can't build as well as some because I'm just not there yet. Someday I will be, but I make no promises and certainly don't make my customers "pay" for services I *might give them, eventually, perhaps, if I feel like it on a day in the distant future that doesn't end in "y". Linden labs has no excuse for "not being there yet". They have the money and the manpower and still can't fix minor issues. I don't get it. Guess I don't have to though, no one ever said I had to understand them.

Drives me bananas.....and yet, I stay, go figure

(in other words good outweighs the bad...but they still annoy me)

[Looking for Art]

You may not find too many artists willing to simply hand you something full perm. You might want to rethink that approach. If it's not for resale, you have absolutely no need for anything to be full perm. Why do you need the art to be transfer? If you're not selling or giving it away, this permission(at least) doesn't need to exist.

I'd never give my rl artwork(well most of it) to someone full perm unless I was giving it to them to sell, for their own profit. I've given a lot of it out, just never with full permission.I see no reason to leave my stuff modify either, if I am just handing it to someone for display purposes. But that's just my own personal hangup. I've made that mistake more than once and eventually learned from it

I don't mind giving stuff out full perm, most stuff(that I created of course, or have permission to hand out full perm). But artwork meant just for display is a whole different story for me. I don't want to give someone the impression that I am giving them full reign with my stuff. It opens up doors that I don't want opened.

[Are virtual pets just the latest money pit?]

Only a money pit if you make it so. I've never considered mine a money pit, but even if I did, who cares? Maybe others do consider them that, but they must enjoy something about them, or they wouldn't have them at all.  For most of those virtual animals-well the breedable ones, people can make money off their offspring. Sometimes quite a bit of money, sometimes not. Sometimes the offspring simply pays for basic upkeep of the original animal(s) too. Not too different from rl in many aspects, lol. I'm sure there are plenty of other areas in sl that people are constantly putting money in, for basic upkeep/functionality of something. Anything can be a money pit, if you want it to.

Virtual animals that require being fed to function, have been around sl for quite some time. Not everyone enjoys them, but those that do usually have a lot of fun with them.

[So, Merchants...what do you love about being a Merchant?]

That's exactly how I feel as well. All too often merchants look at things through their merchant glasses and forget that they too, are customers, in one form or another. At some point in sl, we've all had to "pay" for something and we've all been a consumer. We've all also been new at this, that, or the other. Which is something people even nonmerchants lose sight of way too often.

That's not to say all merchants think about is money. They just lose perspective sometimes, in some cases not so sure they ever had it, lol. I try to look at everything from more than just my own pov. Even if I don't agree with the other person, it helps a heck of a lot to at least TRY and understand their pov too.

Certainly makes fixing silly mistakes people make much more fun. When I can recall instances where I too, have done the exact same, or worse, to something. Often times it ends up turning into a "ok, this is how you'd do that if you wanted to" lesson. Can't say anyone has ever been offended when I've offered advice that way. Guess they would if I put it out there in a condescending manner. Which is something that happens more often than some people seem to realize. Don't think it's always intentional, or even that the merchants realize they are doing it. But it's a big reason, imo, why people refuse to make any sort of comment-complaint or otherwise. You never know how the person will take it.

[What are your SLM sales like currently?]

Sadly I can't contribute my sales info to help prove any sort of decrease, for once. Not that I am complaining.

But this has more to do with the fact that some of my newer products sort of have a niche market..kinda, and the sales for those products always increase when I first bring them out. I've added quite a few new things recently with more to be added in the next day or so.

So overall my marketplace sales are up. But I am really small potatoes compared to most merchants. Thus far I haven't found too many merchants who are having the same experience I am. Not all too long ago I wasn't having it either.

They sure seem to have done something to hurt merchants on the marketplace lately. Really stinks, and merchants have little to no recourse. It's adapt or die...but no one can figure out HOW to adapt when things get wonky. At least that's how I felt not too long ago myself. Granted most years that I have been reading these, well *any sl forums, I have seen merchants say "such and such time, expect a decrease" or "during this time, sales are always low". It seems to be expected as the norm. I probably should, but I don't agree with that opinion. I think if given the proper tools merchants could have way more "up" time than down and there would be no expected waves of low sales. But LL doesn't provide those tools or even help people better understand how to use the few tools they DO give.

I only know what I do because I'm nosey as heck and read a lot. If I were a new merchant, I would be entirely lost and likely ready to give up the first time I hit a lull in sales.

[So, Merchants...what do you love about being a Merchant?]

That's so very true. I take complaints, well actual ones, a bit more lax than most do, I think. It takes a lot for me to complain about something. Mostly because I know how much likely went into creating it. But also because most creators do *not want to hear they've done something not right. I'm not real sure why merchants feel insulted. Personally for me, I am *never insulted when someone has an actual complaint. I recently got a review on one of my products from someone that was, well, entirely false. But had that person actually contacted me(or if they chose to *now contact me), or even actually stated what the issue was, I would have fixed it. I can't fix what I don't know about. That was actually the first complaint I've ever gotten like that. I've gotten people who contact me with "HELP", and similar messages though, lol. Usually it's because they rezzed something and moved it wrong(playsets for example, they need to sit a certain way for my swing script to work right), or re-textured it accidentally, or sl is just being **bleep** retentive and mucking up the performance, things like this. Easy for me to fix in most cases, but a headache when they happen for the customer I'm sure. I've helped lots of people when marketplace fails to deliver, who wants to bother with the ticket system, when it's easier for me to just hand it to them. In one instance an empty box came, really not sure how that happened at ALL.

I'm always happy to help people with things that go wrong, if they do that is. Even if they did get negative or even hostile with me, I'd likely just smile, take their words at face value and continue trying to help them as best I can. But then I have rl experience with customer service and, imo, people can be way more brutal in person. In real life you can't just click the x I don't take it as a personal insult, even if someone hated my product, I wouldn't. There's no point in doing so, imo. I'll get a lot further if I simply fix what's broken, wrong, not working and do my best to keep the customer happy. I don't think I'd be able to give my all to the customer when trying to rectify the issue if I was sitting there feeling insulted.

There has only been one product since I came to sl that I have ever had an issue with and *not been satisfied with the results when I complained, though(not that I complain very often, it's a rarity). I had a pretty lengthy exchange with the creator. Several of us in his group had an issue with the exact same product(part of it being simply sl and the way it works, the rest being the way the product was created, it boasted things that it actually does not do properly). He promised a refund, which never came. That is probably the only negative review I have ever left. Now had the creator actually made a good faith effort, I would have put that in my review, and subsequent follow up-part  of it *is in there. That's really all it takes, show me you care about more than my lindens and you won't get a negative review from me. Even if you *can't refund, just tell me you can't, don't promise it and not follow through. But this person seems to have a track record I have come to find out from others with similar experiences. Such is life. Just as it's possible to run into a "bad"(if you want to use that word) customer here and there, it's possible to run into a "bad" creator here and there. This one has been my first, and only not so good experience with a creator.

Sometimes I think creators believe their products can stand on their own. Or their products are so very good that the loss of one customer means absolutely jack. Personally I think that it really doesn't matter how good your products are. If your customer service stinks, that alone will speak for you, in many ways. Bad word of mouth travels a heck of a lot faster than good.

[So, Merchants...what do you love about being a Merchant?]

First time posting since the forums went all wonky on us(read 'em daily though). But figured there's no better place than here to start, right?

 

What I love about being a merchant is the opportunities I am given simply because it's Second Life. I can create anything I want to(or, well, TRY to, hehe), with minimal to no cost. I can build for others, and fulfill their dreams, wishes, and desires. I can picture something in my head and, assuming I actually finish the project, I can make it a "reality" within this virtual world.

I'm a very small time merchant, most would call me a hobbyist. I happen to hold the opinion that most business people are hobbyists, in one form or another. We certainly don't go into business doing something we hate I tend to not stick to any sort of theme and simply build/create whatever tickles my fancy at the time. Usually products that get added to my store(s) are ones that spawned from a build request made by someone. I tend to do more of that, than anything. I wouldn't call it customs, because it's not so much in most cases. But I really like building for other people. I suppose I specialize in whimsical nonsensical..stuff. Sometimes it has a purpose, and sometimes not.

I love getting messaged by people who've bought my wares, it doesn't even really matter what the message is about. It could be a cry for help because something broke, or I didn't explain it well enough and they couldn't quite get it to work. It could be a simple thanks, or a "would it be possible for you to...". Heck it could be a rant because they hate something I made and they want a refund right now. Granted no one likes to hear those, but without them it would be hard for a business to grow. Have to take the good with the bad, imo. There's just an element of "wow, someone noticed", you know? It's really hard to put that into words.

In real life, the only folks I have to please, are my children, lol. I think I do a fair job at that, 90% of the time, like any other parent. But in sl, I've the opportunity to reach, help, assist, whatever, so very many people. I love it. Of course I love the money too, but again I'm small potatoes. I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy the money, though. It would be hard to pinpint what I love the *very best, because I love all aspects of being a merchant. My creative juices flow much better when I've not got so many restrictions(ie, real life). I can do so much more in sl with that creativity. Sure I've fifty million projects I;ve never finished, or work on a little bit and then put away. I still enjoy building now, as much as I did when I first started. Perhaps even moreso, as the years progress and I sharpen my skills a little more. Maybe someday I'll be a big name in sl-heh. But right now, I'm quite content being the little fish in a great big ocean. I've got way more room to grow, to explore, to learn, than a great big fish does anyway