Opening a new club and strip club. any advice?

[HelloDarling2]

I'd really love some advice about getting our name out there and generating land traffic :)

[Sassy Romano]

Wrong forum? This one is for merchants.

[Bobbie Faulds]

First and foremost, don't expect to rake in money....you won't. Clubs are notorious money pits. You might, after a couple of years, start to least break even. Do it because you enjoy it.

Strippers are actually knda passe now.

You want a good DJ. You'll have to decide if you want to provide the stream or if they need to. 

Don't depend on the "best in whatever" contests to bring in people. They'll come but won't really spend any money. 

Do choose a theme for you club. Those that follow a theme tend to stay around longer. One of your major investments is going to be in your dance balls. Make the investment in a couples ball, like Intan, and in good dances. Same for the singles. You don't want to load it with the tired freebie dances that have been around for 8 years or more. Invest at places like Humanoid, Akeyo, MyAnimations, etc for good mocap dances. 

[Nalates Urriah]

Getting the word out is a challenge. A Facebook page, Twitter, Plurk, SL Destination Guide, SL Events, participate in hunts and fashion events. Talk to people doing events that need publicity, make an in-kind trade.

You will probably find that promoting the club is more work than running the club.

Best of events with cash prizes bring in people. Having people in the club is important. If there are no guys there, I am not likely to stay. Figure out what will draw women to draw the guys...

I don't know of a club that makes money. I know several that bring people in. Like Dance Island the money comes from renting land around the club to shop owners.

You may be able to work a deal with an animation maker to exclusively or not so exclusively promote their dance animations. Starting out with a new club might your venue may not interest the animation makers.

There are lots of Catch-22's. Persistence wins.

[Codex Alpha]

Have a great looking club.  Getting the word out only goes so far if people come, see how ugly it is, and leave never to return.

It cannot be mediocre.

It cannot be a simple square for a dance floor and cylinder prims for the dancers to dance on.

It cannot be garishly decorated with empty store ad boxes around the perimeter. Advertising is fine, as well as selling products, just put it off to the side like a souvenir shop, not front and center. After all , we don't go to our local pubs and nightclubs and have clothing ads on the dance floor by the owner of the bar.

If I were to build my own nightclub (one day I will), it will hopefully be architecturally and asthetically cool, but I would also sell items that are directly related to the experience (furniture, building components, music equipment, textures, props, etc) so that anything you see in the bar can be sold, right down to the booths and seats. Not only would there be music and a live DJ on the weekend at least for events, but the rest of the week there is enough for people to see and do and explore in related areas nearby that people come back the rest of the week.

Of course this is just my opinion only, but I think it goes a long way to the success or failure of a nightclub in SL is how it looks. People arent just looking for night life in SL, they want a hangout that they can return to regularly - so it has to look and be cool.

DJs before streaming radios is important. Streaming radio stations have a very limited selection of songs that repeat quite noticeably, I don't even use them much on my land because of it. Though streaming radios on off-times is acceptable, on a Friday or a Saturday night when I'm stuck in the house, I want to hang out at a cool club in SL that has a live DJ and/or live set at least.

One must recreate the live experience in SL, or bound to fail.

Advertising is important as always, but an empty club won't keep anyone.

Also, I'm not sure about how events work in the SL Viewer.. and event will say 8pm SLT, then you go to the club or land and the event isn't even happening.. this kills SL and the experience as well. Events need to be on time, or actually valid.