Lucky Chair/Board/Etc groups

Why not? If someone sets out a sample, do you feel obligated to enter and buy out the store? I mean, in RL.

Mrs Field's cookies knew that samples would get word of mouth going. They caught people going back and forth to home or work, but knew even if they did not enter the shop right then and load up, they'd be back. That is how samples work.

Sounds like you have removed the pack from the lucky chair. I'd say a better place for a prize worth $1000L, unless you truly could see it given out without feeling rancor for those you GAVE it to, would be a midnight mania board (with a high achievement number, whatever made you more comfortable) or one of those price-lowering boards (requiring people come and stay, for the price to drop, although those seem borked half the time with prices rising/falling nonsensically) or as a group gift on a special occasion, or as a once-monthly prize drawing for having your store in their picks. Something like that.

I take a landmark of shops I see something interesting/unusual in, and I rename the landmark to say what I saw that I might want to return for later, or others might find useful there. I give out landmarks, and remember to search my inventory for that thing later so I can return for the item. So just because someone doesn't blow their $Linden piggy bank on the spot does not mean your promotion did not work. Some people cam the whole store in the time it takes to collect the prize. And as I said, if it's alts, then, they already have (seen the shop.)

Sounds like your real ire was for your partner putting a prize there that was 'too generous' by your standards. Sounds like it's been 'rectified.' But do'nt blame people for enthusiastically spreading word about the great prize...that's what you WANT to happen. Lol

(If you would like a welcome mat that has a visitor list script in it let me know, I can send you one, free. Then you can keep track of repeat visits.)

So those are some other ways to do things if you dislike the result, but again, blaming your guests seems unfortunate, to me.

No, but I also don't go to the grocery store on Sunday just to eat all the free samples, either.

You should try running a sim, or at least having your own business before you decide so vehemently what your policies are regarding such things.

You are wrong to assume that anyone who disagrees with you doesn't run a business, or that anyone who runs a business would agree with you on this point.

Your lucky chair has succeeded in bringing avatars to your shop, and in getting your product out on the grid where people can use it and see it and gain you word-of-mouth exposure.

If you aren't satisfied with these results, either because the avatars who are attracted to your shop by the lucky chair don't behave the way you hoped they would, or because you find yourself giving away more in the way of freebies than you wanted, you can put less valuable material in the lucky chair, or stop using it.

Reevaluate your lucky chair plans, and balance what you're giving away with how badly you want the traffic.

If you're giving away something valuable, people are going to go out of their way to come get it. You had to see that coming.

I think well managed a Lucky Chair can be what it's supposed to be- a traffic generator- I have one in my shop with 3 items in it- I suppose I could add the words "Lucky Chair" to my land description but I never have- I change the prizes every few months and then announce it in m store group- these are already proven customers- it's how they ended up on my my group in the first place. Once in a blue moon I mention it in a general group announcement. I guess I use it more as a sample giver than an attractant. In any case, it has proven much more 'fun' than the Freebie Ring.

The *only* shop I allow on my sim belongs to my RL friend Sophia, she has a Lucky Chair in there. *gasp* OMG, Can this be Gabriele allowing a traffic generating device on her land?

No, see they can be operated without traffic being any kind of consideration at all.
Sophia uses her chair to distribute samples of her products, the timer and the letter provides a throttle to how many actually get given out and give a good distribution spread.
In addition to this she has the Popfuzz and OxDOS station extensions enabled so that people with chair seeking HUDs or who visit the Popfuzz station to search for Lucky Chair with their letters can rapidly get their sample from us.
She works on the principle that it is a lure to get people in the shop and looking around but not a necessity for them to have to stand around generating traffic.

If this chair were operated in any other way, if I thought it was primarily for generating traffic, I would not have allowed it. PERIOD.

So the message here is to keep in mind that like with all useful things there is a good, valid way to use them and a way to misuse them.

Sim and Business owner here. I have a Midnight Mania board. 80% of the people only come for the board, but fact is, that the board boosted my sales in a way I never held for possible.

Traffic has doubled but I am nowhere near the 1st page. These boards work for me.

Someone actually said out in the open: 'Why should I pay if they are giving it to me for free.'

I responded simply by stating her the facts that the board is, and will remain there because not everyone thinks the same way. And no, i did not ban this woman.

There will always be people that are only after the free stuff, but ignore them. If you have those chairs or boards for traffic only, You need to seriously rethink your business plan.

Traffic isn't that important these days. word to mouth is much better.

If your business is a mall... Too many around already.

\

You, I am afraid, are the one who is wrong, here. I rarely assume anything, and in fact I checked out the poster's profile, and even went to each of her picks to see if she actually DID anything in SL beside flit around and give her opinions, as she had no classifieds. I found RP sims, and a few stores, none of which she owned. I am not assuming, here.

I am glad yours works for you, and no, it is not a mall. We have stores, and several attractions to draw people.

However, here is an excerpt from a conversation that occurred today with one of these people who are supposed to be doing us a favor by showing up and collecting prizes:

[11:36] Anonymous 1: no transfer samples but no maps
[11:37] Anonymous 2: Right, thats what its supposed to be.
[11:37] Anonymous 1: oh okay so its basicaly just a free sample?
[11:37] Anonymous 1: b/c you can't even use no transfer in builds
[11:37] Anonymous 2: Yes...If you like them, you can always purchase them
[11:38] Anonymous 1: ok sorry to bother you then guess you changed it no point in TPing in friends now
[11:38] Anonymous 2: Yeah I noticed people were abusing the board on a regular basis.
[11:38] Anonymous 1: oh? how so
[11:39] Anonymous 1: i thought the whole point of the boards were so people would call in friends to introduce your store to new people
[11:39] Anonymous 1: pointless when its useless items in them ya know
[11:40] Anonymous 2: You're getting stuff for free to use in your own builds. If you would llike to use them for other builds, you can purchase the actual maps.
[11:40] Anonymous 1: but you can't sell them
[11:40] Anonymous 1: people who use them for themselves don't knwo how to use them and buy from others
[11:41] Anonymous 2: Exactly. Yet, you can use them to see if they are useful to you. I'm not going to give my entire set of sculpt maps away for free.
[11:41] Anonymous 1: well i understand that but thank you for confirming the false advertising on them.


These people have come to think it is their RIGHT to get full-perms sculpt maps. And, they now have the temerity to tell us what we should put in our board. Our board is now gone.

Oh, please.

I'm so sorry I haven't as yet bought a sim. I do own land. Does that qualify me in the upper echelon that's necessary in your opinion, to have my own opinion?

I do plenty of shopping - I can certainly tell you about such things from a customer's point of view. Also, you have no earthly idea what my real life expertise is on any of the applicable topics. Marketing is marketing, and bad business or good business practises are the same anywhere.

As for going to the grocery store and 'only' sampling. The point isn't whether you buy all of the samples' actual products right at that moment. The point is whether you *remember* them when you need such things.

What's so hard to understand - it's advertising, plain and simple.

Now I'm going to go out and buy every single thing I saw in an ad today. I have to!

Is that a strong enough opinion for you??

I don't know why you took such an acidic tone with me, though. I tried to give you more than one bit of advice that I thought might help you. If you don't want people's opinions, don't open a thread to gripe about people taking what you GAVE them to take.

Wow, was this referring to me? You actually went in SL, in a snit, and did that?

The only thing I do in SL is "flit around and give opinions?"

LOL...right.

Lady, or gent - you do not know me from Adam's off ox. You have no idea what I do in real life, which to me is just as valid as anything one does in Second Life. You seem to have a bitter attitude not only toward people who come to your store but people who dare to disagree with you as well.

ETA. What is wrong with supporting someone else's store in my Picks, anyway? A while back one of the forum members asked if some of us would, and I did, and it's been there ever since.

You have absolutely no idea how I spend my time in SL or what I do in RL. A lot of time in both places is spent trying to help people in one way or another, but that is not the only thing I do. You've shown yourself to be one nasty piece of work. Welcome to my ignore list.

I'll make sure I never step foot in your store as well, since customers don't seem to be what you actually want. (If I'm not already banned, for daring to give you an honest opinion. Lol.)

Clarissa, the problem is that you don't actually conduct business, nevertheless you seem to think you are qualified to tell people how to do so.

Regarding "helping" people in SL, no doubt you should be a mentor. I think you would fit right in.

And it's "set foot," not "step foot."

Well said Clarissa.

Vern, if you post on a public forum you should get used to the idea that *anyone* will give you an opinion and are entitled to do so. You don't want opinions, don't post. Clarissa's opinions are as valid as anyone's and you have no idea what experiences she or anyone else have had unless they tell you. Yes, you assumed too much.

Certainly, they have the right, and I have the right to disagree. And I haven't assumed anything.

Thank you, Gabriele.

Unless this person - who isn't even posting here under the actual store-owning avatar name - has followed me all over real life and Second Life, they are assuming WAY too much.

You have assumed that Clarissa has *never* run a business in SL. She could have run a business in SL in the past or she could still run a business but run it mostly from an alt. She could also be an experienced business person in RL whose experiences have relevance. Yes, you did assume and rudely so.

Welcome Clarissa and yes I agree, it is easy to speak rudely like that when you are on an alt that nobody knows, not very brave at all.

What you HAVE done is personally attacked someone who was offering not merely advice and insights, but an actual scripted object.


Overall, you are one very grumpy person. I can well understand why someone who responds so gracelessly to proffered help might be even less good at giving things away.

I don't think it's a scam at all, but I use my Lucky Chair for a completely different purpose than the OP apparently does - advertising. I stopped thinking about traffic a long time ago, and stopped worrying about getting every last dime "owed" me for the stuff I do, so I filled my Lucky Chair with full versions of all my mainstream products (transfer/no copy perms like the retail versions) and sit back and smile as people make off with them and call their groupmates to get some more. I don't do this because I'm an awesome guy, I do it because the more of my stuff is out there in the world the more chance someone will see something they like and come to my shop to buy one for themselves.

And as others have already said, it's not that far out there to claim that bribing people for traffic is slightly scam-like anyway so ya do get what ya pay for there.

From memoryyou have my store in your picks fro which i am greatful as it helps to get me more exposure, so once again thank you.


Clarissa has actually participated in the Advice on Sales thread on several opinions giving great advice and insight into marketing in SL from the other side, in fact customers are some of the best people to listen to in order to understand marketing techniques and how they might potenitally benefit your buiness.

Lucky Chairs and midnight manias being used as traffic genrators is great but yes understanding thementality that people dont ant to wait too long and will TP in friends accoesiates and people in related groups to com help them flip the item so that they too can get it.

This is NOT a bad thing, in fact if you look at it from the alterntive view more peple are getting a copy of your item. Not all of these people will like it or keep it but the more people who have recived a copy to greater chance you have of return business and this marketing technique restuliing in mroe then merelytraffic alone and actually trasnlating into Sales.

The more people who have it the more people who will wear it, or in your case use it in their buils which means the more chance of it being seen in the community and therefore the more exposure you have ad the grater chance of someone down the line comiing to your store as a result of the item.

If you are using this merely as a traffic measure try those camping for item chairs, it will do you better (though traffic in and of itself isnt a great thing to add to your store, more eyes viewing your item is a better thing)

I have secret knowledge that Clarissa is in fact an alt of Marketing Linden . . .

Pep ( . . . although I am not sure to what extent that helps. )

PS I think the OP is ingenuous and naive, as well as ungrateful and having poor choice in partners; he/she/it is the one that obviously lacks business experience. Does that help more?

I didn't mind it.

Maybe she posts with an alt?
Vern Jules doesn't run a business according to Profile. Doesn't appear to do anything much at all.

An alt does not necessarily have a blank profile.
- people use them to get around the group number limitation
- some alts have a 'life' separate from their mains
- some people pad out their alts so that they don't Profile like alts

Not that it matters much -- the 'you don't have a voice on business ethics because you don't run a business' is a tired old defensive tactic.

You missed the point of that portion of my post. Even if this particular poster doesn't have a business, your statement to her suggested that if she did have a business, she would certainly agree with you about lucky chairs.

About that, you are wrong.

Also: Verne, as I pointed out in the part of my first post that you didn't address in your response to me, you got the expected results from putting out a lucky chair. If you're not happy with those results, then no one will fault you for taking away the lucky chair (as you have done) or for putting a less valuable prize in it.

What people take issue with here is coming in and posting essentially "Lucky chairs suck amirite?" and then getting huffy with people who point out alternative perspectives.

Obviously not everyone agrees that lucky chairs suck, because they are all over the grid. Some people clearly find the results of using them satisfactory for their purposes. But if you don't, then - you don't.

I don't know why that bothers you so.