Help with Attracting Traffic To Clubs

I'm not sure if this has already been answered elsewhere but i couldn't find anything on it. Basically i've just started working at a Club in SL called Club Butterfly and i dance in the mornings aswell as in the later day, i've been asked the owners too try and come up with a few ideas of attracting more traffic too the club in the morning and i'm now running a blank.

I know of the typical going out too other places and headhunting so too speak but i really don't know how too approach people. I wouldn't wanna get banned from clubs really for acting the wrong way.

So please any ideas or tips on how too approach people would be amazing, if you own a club that's even better, i'm sure it can be done too make a club busy in the early SL morning because of Platinum Escort Club they are busy all day long.

Thanks all
Misty!!

As stated in recent posts in another thread, you make lots of friends solely based on your quest to bring more bodies to the club and constantly spam them with TPs.

I hear that goes over real well.

Nice self-promotion! Well done!

If we had ideas on how to draw traffic better than other people....every club would be successful. Plus, your club owners need to be doing the marketing, not you.

Go chat up newbies and impress them with your emoting abilities and give them a lm to the club, maybe that will get some bodies there.

Oh yes, this works *really* well!

Bots and camping. That's how they get their traffic.

I hear bots are the new alts for SL

Here is what you do:

Step 1: Setup a contest with a 1000L prize.
Step 2: Make sure everyone knows.
Step 3: Profit! err.... wait a second...

No, stealing customers from other clubs in person is a huge no-no.

The accepted method is to get lots of your friends to join the club group. Then the club sends out about six or eight notices and group chat messages a day urging everyone to Come On Down!

It's still annoying, but not as much as patron-thieving.

Yes...but they somehow lack personality....

I own a club that been getting 25k-35k traffic lately, without bots or camping. There's really two parts to it, a more social bit upstairs with a big 15-seat couch & a dance floor & some dance poles and a naughty part downstairs with the usual sorts of naughty toys. Where the traffic is between these two spots varies wildly.

Some random tips:

Don't expect to make any money. Really. Better to expect the place to be a complete time and money sink, every month.

Have some sort of theme for the place - just 'generic club' won't do - but remember that the more specific you make it, the more narrow the audience. Feel free to only allow in purple transgendered neko demons if you want (they are out there) but this will discourage those that don't fit that exact description. Pick one or two characteristics as the main theme and allow everybody in.

Don't try to cram a huge club into a small amount of land. It will (usually) be laggy and you'll really piss off the neighbors if you get popular.

Try to find good neighbors. If you want, say, a purple neko club and can find land next to somebody that has a public-access purple neko pool or store or something, and it's somebody you get along with, moving in next to them might benefit you both. Moving in next to 'The dogs who hate nekos, especially purple ones, club' is a less-good idea.

Be tolerant of newbies. If you open a club, you WILL get nekkid guy newbies with their bits hanging out, IMing every girl in the place with the same lines. Better to give them a few tips on how not to be complete dorks than to just toss them out. Maybe they'll turn out to be decent people and remember you. Everbody's new sometime. (I should have hotkeys defined for saying "er.. zipper check" and "laundry day?" to guys)

Similar, encourage your guests to also be tolerant of newbies.

Don't have tons of rules. Write up few big ones - my two big rules are 'adults only' and 'everybody is welcome here', though I use a few more words to describe them - and then have some FAQs about how those rules are usually applied.

Hang out at your own place.

Make it easy to get to. If you're on the mainland and don't need to have it in a skybox, put it on the ground. Putting it in a skybox means that only people who TP directly there will find it - I get a surprising number of people just wandering by. Some stay and hang out, some don't.

Don't spam people with group notices!!

Try to get a DJ in or do some kind of event at least once a month.

If you're going to have dance poles & such, set them to group only - don't want nekkid boxhands camping on them all day.

Don't expect to make any money. (worth saying at least twice)

Twice. Daily. 365 days a year.

Signed,

Former Club Owner

LOL.. Or at least twice montly, on tier day.

What you’re really asking for is the Holy Grail and that’s the reason most on this post are not responsive. I’ll try and give you my thoughts and maybe that will help.

Why do people come to clubs in the first place?
I think there are a few reasons but I put people into three categories for this, Watchers, Socialites, and Prowlers

Socialites are the come and see me type people. I try to hire as many of these as I can because they are the ones that aren’t really in it for the money. They are the ones with the best emotes, they encage people in conversation, and they are not shy about themselves, what they say or how there avatar acts. As customers, they are the tips how love to see there name as the last person doing the tipping and usually shout out challenges for people to tip higher then they do.

Watchers are the ones that like to sit and watch. They never sit by the stage as that puts them “out there”. They like to sit more in the middle. They like to hear what is going on in the club and yet don’t want to participate in open chat. However, they love to be engaged in IM’s. They will tip only if they are included somehow but you have to figure how to do that without them taking all your time.

Prowlers are the ones that like to be at the front of the stage. They like to make open comments and gesture but there real objective here is to find someone that is entertaining for them. Not usually sexual but someone that is friendly and includes them and makes them feel special.

OK, now what makes a club that people want to come to?
You need all three to make it successful but…

1. You need a niche that people search for. Make sure yours is spelt out in the SL search path. It could be an all Male Stripper review, or male and female strippers on the same pole, for furries or vampires or gangster hangouts where shootouts are allowed (turn damage enabled on at a specific time). Just have a niche.

2. If you don’t have enough people to fill the club 24/7, make it specific times. I know that club owners would love a 24/7 club but usually through that back to the dancers to make a cliental if they want to dance at a specific time. This is very hard for one or two dancers to do consistently.

3. Hire as many socialites as you can. Good chatter in a club is a draw once you have your niche. They will make the Prowlers and Watches show up.

OK, I never answered your original question because going door-to-door selling your club does not fit this marketing strategy. As a matter of fact, asking your employees to do this is just a make work idea and if it happens to do good, all the better. If not, the employer has nothing to lose (not even his time).

Identifying your niche and then attacking that niche is the key. As an example, if you’re into the gangster thing, approach the local mafia about how you can be a hangout for them. Work some type of RL deal that is a win-win.

So, one of the niches I use is a game I built called JARS Head. Its basically a game that asks a simple math question to a random person. Get it right and you get a point. I ahve it set to a specific time and a set amount (usually like $20L - $50L) and run it for 30 - 40 minutes. its something for my customers to do while they dance and interact.

Ok Honey it wasn't a self promotion it's not actually my club for one i was just looking for advice and a few tips. The only thing i've heard people doing too attract people is going around and grabbing people from other clubs. I don't like that idea so i wanted a few tips.

Hi Sindy thank you very much for the tips, i'll pass these onto my Boss hopefully they should help us Oh quickly though we are a pretty good club as is, we have good traffic from about 11am and onwards it's just those pesky early mornings that we aint.

Thanks aswell JulieAnna i'll pass these onto my Boss see what he thinks

If you're mentioning your bosses' club name, then it's self-promotion for someone, even if it's just you by working there.

you are a dancer not their PR..if a club does not have the traffic or a plan to get it then get hired on at more than one club..let the club do thier job and get the traffic..your job is to Entertain and keep them coming back for more..
The title is Dancer not sales person..let them do the selling and you concentrate on getting your experience up with dealing with people and building a list of people that want to see you dance..trust me you don't want people looking at you as a spammer..
there are too many dancers falling into the routine of doing anything they can to draw traffic to clubs..it makes you look bad in every ones eyes..
you can believe it or not but a big part of a dancer is her reputation as well as her look..

You worry about improving your skills to be the best you can for any club you work for and let the clubs work on their skills for supplying you a slot that is worth your time..

Well said. Unless the club is owned by friends and you are helping them out, I'd be more concerned about finding other baskets to put my eggs in, so to speak...

Ahem... Yeah I know that came out sounding kind of wrong but I think you know what I mean

It seems to me that one of the top ways of getting customers is when everyone who works there (owners, managers, dancers) bring their friends in, and their friends bring in their friends, and so on.

You could say it's the owners' job to bring in customers. But the reality of the matter is that your owners have limited time, and all the advertising in the world won't bring in as many customers as networks of friends.

Plus, the fact is that your success is tied to the club's success. It's no fun dancing in an empty club. Doing what you can to bring in business will make you happier, despite whether it's your "job" or not.

One thing you can do is don't spend all your time in SL at your club. Spend part of your time at the club, but make sure you spend plenty of time socializing. And I don't mean just talking to people for the sole purpose of coming to your club. I mean making friends first, hoping they turn into customers second.

The best advertising you can do for your club is to mention your club in your profile, let it show up prominently in your group list, and put it in your picks. There are a lot of profile readers. In fact, good profiles give people icebreakers they can use to talk to you. (Frequently strangers start conversations with my by mentioning that they see in my profile I own an art shop, what kind of art is it?)

You can effectively bring customers in to your club. But there is a zen to it. You're most effective at finding customers when you are not looking for customers. Make friends, customers will follow.

Use a really big magnet.

Hmmm

same title and exact same words:

http://www.sluniverse.com/php/vb/general-sl-discussion/25534-help-attracting-traffic-clubs.html

lol Ceka but i love this club and i wanna help it as much as possible, they are like family too me, i'll work on improving my skills though

Hi Amity, thnk you for the tips aswell. I do alot of that i think, including having it in my profile and also in my picks... i don't have many groups in my profile so they have a large section lol

lol Argent a big magnet eh

Yes LittleMe that's me aswell, i wanted too get info from a few different areas... it helps too get opinions from all sides i think.

well there is a difference with helping someone start out because you like them or their club..that's different than getting hired at a club with no plan..
i just see so many new girls getting sucked into new clubs and hearing all kinds of great things to come..they get excited and believe a lot of what they are hearing because they have not seen the bad side of the coin yet..

I'm not trying to turn anyone off of a club..more just saying to be picky in the ones you choose to put all the effort you are going to put into them..
A lot preach they are one big family and want to be a place where the customer comes first..
new clubs and new dancers are both going to run into that first big club drama and you are going to see what i mean when that time comes and the family part is put to the test..

Stay out of the gossip stream stay out of the drama and just work on doing what you love to do and you'll be alright..
let them see your performance and not who's side you are on when it comes time..

Clubs do need team work to survive..they need a good Head manager if the owner does not have all that time to pay attention..
their job is to get the ball rolling and make sure it keeps rolling and to make sure the drama is contained and the club is running smooth..
that means dancers are on stage even when there are not events going on.

A good dancer will be there in slow times and in busy times picking up stragglers that wander in..if nobody is there that's traffic lost..

As i said before..too many clubs live or die by the events..
if you want traffic in the slow times you have to build in those areas..
you hire for those time slots and get people that work those hours that feel the same as you do..they want to make a club work..

but someone has to be there all the time or you miss out on people that may have been a building block for filling the weaker time slots..

a club without a good manager and an owner with not as much time as they would like leaves a club with too many chiefs and not enough Indians and Custer closing in fast lol