OK...Your turn..."Honest" Solutions for Business Owners

OK...So many of you have stated here today that you wouldn't buy from people using bots, or campers, or whatever other methods people are using to "game the system" (your words).

In another thread, I posted this to Talarus:



But Talarus....how are you going to find these honest, understanding (of what?) business *people*?

You won't find them in search because they're buried...unless they take steps to elevate themselves.

This is the thing that all of you are seeming to miss....it's not that anyone *wants* to cheat the system. It's that LL has created this situation because they should have killed traffic, when they killed dwell.

LL missed an obvious "cheat" to the classifieds system, which has now been resolved, but how many of those honest people went out of business before they did?

Phil has been stating for as long as I can remember that LL needs to discontinue traffic. I run a nice Mall, very reasonable rent, recently remodeled, with nice tenants (some forum members). I can't afford a million linden for a classified. I optimized to the best of my ability and I gave up trying to find my mall after page 6. So how are we supposed to let the public know that we're there?

When you can answer that question...ANY of you...I'll be more than happy to listen.

~~~~~~~~~

OK...so your turn. Tell me HOW I'm supposed to elevate my business so that you actually shop in my mall?

What are the "honest" solutions to this problem? You all have wonderful explanations of what the "wrong" thing to do is...so tell me what the "right" thing to do is?

Phil...PLEASE...as my friend, stay out of this one. I don't want a fight....I want to hear the other side present me with THEIR ideas for getting my business name in front of the people.

/me listens intently

I take my money and buy appropriate ads in the places that have alot of the people that would be my customer base. I run around the grid once a month searching for good spots. Then I monitor the results from each one to see which were more effective. I get involved in things like HAIR FAIR or that new clothing expo - those events are always good for exposure and I seek out ads in SL Magazines. Those things circulate forever.

And place a freebie on SLexchange and include your landmark in it. Pay for some high ranked spot there to get it out to people. Also a banner ad on Slexchange and Apez is effective.

If you are not going to spend a trillion lindens on classified you have to go grassroots and do the legwork to get noticed.

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Lias, you've known me for two years, and you taught me SL business management. I've done the ads. I've done the adboards. I'm charging 3L a prim for rent which doesn't even cover my tier. It's to *help* pay my tier and help other business people.

You don't. I don't shop at malls, because when I find a mall on search it's always full of bots. I have also pulled all but three of my mall spots because I don't make enough sales there any more to make it worth paying for stall space... and the three stalls I keep up are in locations that have traffic for other reasons than the general mall.

I honestly don't see how anyone makes money selling stuff in malls any more.

Argent's got a point. I almost never go to malls anymore; so many of them are filled with crappy BIAB stuff that I've given up.

I do have a classified ad, for what it's worth (next to nothing) but I also have a money tree for newbies, and donate a couple hundred L$ a month into it. It's cheap and it gets people to at the very least land at my shop. I advertise now and then in the SL mags as well.

Maybe you could try hosting a live music venue, and bring in potential shoppers that way?

A Mall is sort of random. There could be vendors there for a very eclectic mix of goods and in no particular arrangement that is relevant to a shopper.

How about getting together with a number of people who produce goods that complement each other?
It would be more like a department store than a mall.
That way you could have a sensible structure and could share the marketing efforts and ideas with others.

Well, let's see....I had KISS over there a couple of weeks ago. I announced it in the forum group, among others. NOBODY showed up except three of my tenants...the rest were with the band.

Plus, all these performers these days want money....upwards of 5k per performance...and you get nada (ok, almost nada). But that's all for another thread where fights brew, not this one.

Obviously, you haven't been to my mall

Honey,

as far as finding them in search...

If it's a popular type of search, often I'll instantly skip to page two of a search, and only then start actually looking at results.

Or I'll at least skip past the top 50 or so results, and start looking at the lower half of the first page.

and this is both for places, AND classifieds.

Argent is right. You have the Mall then you need the attraction that makes the traffic. I did a mall and made it a quirky theme - using Bettie page. I also added a gallery on the second floor that we can post in events.

I love marketing my wares and services (I am offline now making a new gallery card for a new exhibit opening). Some see it as a chore But I see SL as having endless marketing opportunities. if you explore it with marketing in mind you may run across some that really work for you.

Also get a alt to join those free marketing spam groups (noobs always grab those and get in a few of those lucky chair groups) These are tried-and-true methods of creating traffic.


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Oooh, now that's a good one, thanks!!

Also wanted to mention that I'm also participating in the hunts as a vendor.

Honeybear....there are a ton of ways....and different methods for different types of businesses...but some should work across the board. I understand your frustrations...I still have them.....but try not to concentrate on what the others are doing, and focus on what works for you....and you have to experiment with a lot of different things to find out what that is.

This works for me:

Heavy Group Promotion
Constantly building group (so the above multiplies)
Classified Ads (a 100L ad goes a long way with the right words)
Keyword Tweaking constantly
Labeling Product effectively (label your park benches)
Forum Classifieds (I know you already do this - I see them all the time)
Xstreet (maybe as a mall you could sell a T-shirt with your logo - or give it away - or even produce your own items to sell, just to get them to the mall)
Cross Promoting with other businesses (huge benefit)
Giving "Gifts" (I know you have freebies - call them Gifts - "gifts" seem to imply more value)
Thanking people for visiting (Huge - goes a long way)
Constant new products - constant new promotions

All this is constant effort and constant work. I did an experiment over the weekend to see if my business would be the same without a promotion for the weekend....because I was tired and worn out, and they take so much time. NO...the traffic and sales were not the same at all as with a promotion on the weekend.

Proved to me, that it has to be a constant effort....constant work....I know you work hard already...but finding out which type of marketing works for you....will make your efforts worth it.....there's no pat answer....you have to try Everything.

The best thing that worked for me, is to quit worrying about competing with anyone else, and do your own thing, and keep your nose to the grindstone. Keep track of your stats and set goals for yourself....but don't keep using someone else's stats on traffic or presumed sales as your goal base....use your own stats as your measure for improvement...as long as you increase those every week, and see improvement bit by bit.....that's what counts.

I love shopping at malls that have a great assortment of "good" shops. It can be a blast. If I were a mall owner, I would "select" who goes into my spots, just as a RL mall owner would....they would submit application and be approved, so as not to junk up the spots with fly-by-nights, or poor product, or poor reputation, next to the successful merchants.....is that feasible at all?

In your own store, or you have a "mall" hunt location?

The mall itself.

Watch it...some of these are considered spamming by some members of this forum, and even "gaming the system".

*sighs*

Which Ones???

I know I got blasted for recommending Thank You's one time.

However you don't see the advertising angle from a mall presence. I often go to a mainstore after seeing products in a mall. I usually have gone to the mall for something else in these circumstances, that's one side of a mall that is oft missed if you just look at sales figures.

SL lacks effective marketing tools, its not easy is the answer of your question.

I own a mall which has been opened since Jan 2006...has 120 vendor spots, nearly always full with growing waiting list. I'm not 100% sure why it does so well....its a bit of a mystery to me too! I suppose because we cater to the Niche fashion markets (Gothic,Vamp, Punk, Fetish and a few Mainstream) and we have high calibre content creators there, might be the main reason for its longetivity.

We don't use Bots, the traffic that does visit...are shoppers!. I don't allow Full Perms & BIAB vendors. I hand pick my vendors when the occasional spot becomes available. Quality is a priority.

Edit * ALL Search doesn't really favour malls, its more geared to Mainshop with better contol over land and easier to accumulate IBL's for.

Some of Mickey's suggestions are good....i've also tried Magazine advertising, radio commericals for radio advertising, DJ's annoucing Mall at clubs, hosting Games inside the mall......all of which don't have the same sort of impact as it would be in RL.

*smiles*

Take each item on that list, and I promise you, there will be at least one person in this forum who will object to it. If you're online tonight around...hm...6pm SLT...give me an IM.

We simply cannot please all the people all the time.

And sadly....there aren't any magic beans either.

No doubt there's all kinds of things I could be doing to drive sales that I'm not doing, but even tracking them would make SL a *job*, not *recreation*.

I was just commenting on my perception, and that perception is that malls are in general a waste of time and energy in SL today. I used to be a lot more enthusiastic about them, when I had a higher speed net link and when there were just plain fewer malls, and no bots, and no BIAB vendors, ...

Malls are the ugly kid in the traffic debate IMO because people tend to avoid them for additional reasons besides not liking bots or camping. Having all that lumped together in a mall makes for killer rez times and that's pretty much what keeps me away from them.
The fashion blogs, magazines, and SL websites where you can get exposure (like sl-newspaper) with ads should help. Even the forum's resident smut-peddling pimp has an audience that can help get your name out there, resourcefulness is key. For traffic, things like hunts, raffles, and all vendor sales days seem to do pretty good. I hate rezzing full malls, but I'd probably come shop If I knew there was a group sale going on. Spam the crap out of the events forum here when something special is going on, that's what it's for. If your mall has a specific theme, run with it, use it. If most of your vendors are a common style or niche market, definately use that. Multiple, low cost ads are far more effective than one big ad naming every vendor you have. Work with your vendors and see if you can get them to display a "see my outlet store at XX mall" linkboard in their other stores (or even other mall stalls hehe), offer a discount or perk maybe.

I think the trick is not to have a mall. But instead an area where top flight businesses create their own draw, because they are *that* good. And want to be selling there due to the theme or whatnot.

Even competing car dealerships and fast food chain places cluster together, to gain the size, variety and build 'location' to draw customers.

It's really hard to do.

I agree, especially for a service as unspecialized as providing a mall space for merchants. After all, a search for "Mall" yields over 22,000 matches! That is a huge competition. However if a mall were specialized, such as "Southwestern Mall", there are only 21 matches! "Luxury Mall" and "Designer Mall" have less than 2000 matches. The more specialized a service or product is, the better chance your target customers will actually find you and even better, want to buy your services or products.

It also takes some time to gain the reputation, recognition and respect to be successful in a business, no matter what the service or product. And most important, provide outstanding customer service.

And sometimes, I don't know why, success just happens - my main selling product is #1 in search of 256 matches when searching for it in all categories, and I only pay L$50 a week for the classified and L$30 a week to show in Places under shopping every week. It is a specialized product but not so unique to be the only one. Traffic? It is 38 right now. But, it sells enough to pay the tier for the size of the land it uses.