Walking through the ghost towns

My partner and I decided to go for a long walk the other day - one of the grand roads of SL passes close by, and I had never walked along it, or even thought of doing so.WHAT a weird experience. By the roadside there are chains of stores, mostly rather down-market, selling odd little gadgets, flags, low-design sex aids, etc. The road is bleak and empty and so are ALL the shops. We did not see one single person at all. The silence is tangible.

(Half way through I was called away suddenly to RL, and apologising as one does I had to go, but stayed logged in. When I eventually got back my partner was pink and breathless, having pushed my av another kilometre or two down the road, for something to do. I WISHED I had been there to see that. BUT she didn't see anybody else either).

What happens with these ghost towns? Have their owners just walked away? Do you have property which you leave apparently functioning but having abandoned all hopes of making an income from them? It does seem a huge resource - can't we make use of them in some way?

There has been discussion of yellow ares on the map - but these to me seem more interesting, the ghostly grey areas. How many are there? Do they cluster in certain regions? What will happen to them, the dying museums of past hopes?

TBH roads have rarely had a lot of PEOPLE on them ... in my experience.

AND always had a lot of yellow ... prime location, your road once was.

Maybe originally cos of dwell ... I miss dwell ... and events ... and ratings ...

Lots of SL is grey now, and not even with goo. Something to be happy about at least.

try going to avalon..if the mall even exists anymore..not for sure..used to be a stark white mall..very sci fi..very "post" Logans Run(sorry to all you kids for that dated reference.)

They have "avatar cut outs"..playing tennis..standing and chatting...mingling...a very eerie 1960s Italian horror film feel to it...and yea..especially when you're the only one there.

~Lana Tomba

I haven't wandered the roads in a while, but I used to spend a lot of time on them and only very rarely met someone else. Not even vehicles, but that could be because you sink into the ground when you cross sim borders.

I've recently been searching out forgotten clubs and I found a few really nice ones.

What is more depressing than empty malls are beautifully crafted sims that simply MUST be seen, where no one ever goes.
It seems sad that someone would create such beautiful things and then can't share it with people because no one knows about them. I really need to keep remembering to put such places in my picks.

As for empty and forelorn malls, well if all people can offer is obsolete inventory and sex aids then they probably deserve to be deserted.

I used to live near a bondage sim, that place was crowded 24/7/365.

Only because they were all tied up and couldn't get away

you really should go to sleep sometime.

ROFL

I luv the bleakness of my empty Sim, like a sadly dishevelled artistic depiction of down-town Miami or LA, with the fragments of "dollar-stores", out-of-date skin offerings, flying machines rumbling in shop windows that never worked and never will work; this part of SL is an image of our lost hopes and dreams; Many of us wish for businesses and homes in real life, and sl provides us with the "end-game"; bankruptcy and the sheer wantoness of our careless and uncaring world. Something destroyed our world, I imagne, and I am left staring out of my condo. window, with pin-pricks of equally eccentric neighbours busying themselves in their ghostly plots. And no one comes by. Soon, I will become a very sexy Miss Haversham (see "Great Expectations" by C. Dickens). Lonely, uninstalled, a prey to all those huge griefers and their equipment.
Thanks for cheering me up Hal.

They had a beautiful pirate ship on the surface (the bondage dungeon was in the sky) but to get to it you had to land on an adjoining sim and fly over. If you dared teleport directly to the bondage sim you were thrown into the middle of the dungeon and boy you better have your track shoes on and try to run to the exit

For some of these places, they *are* busy, but at different times than when you tend to be around. I would imagine that the Japanese sims tend to be most active when people in Japan are awake and have free time, for example.

But there is also FAR more barely-used space in SL than there are avatars to enjoy it. As noted, the are a lot of beautiful builds that no one advertises, and few know about.

There's also a lot of 'retail clutter' like that road the original poster walked down, where people at one time bought land and set up shops, and now only nominally maintain them. It could be that the owners of those stores don't care much, as long as on average they get some sales, and maybe break even. But so many people in Sl fail to make a "positive income" that I would guess most of those stores are losing money.

Before point to point teleporting came to SL, you had to TP to the sim's telehub, and then had to actually fly or walk or ride a vehicle to destinations in a sim. That made roads far more desirable retail sites, especially if one end fo the road was at or near the telehub.

But now? You look in Search, find a store, TP in, buy, TP out... You might never even look outside the store to see what else is in the sim.

Yes, sad but true.

Well, one of the reasons no one knows about specific stores or malls is that they don't advertise and market efficiently or even at all. Malls would do well to host events on a regular basis...but sadly, a lot of them do not, which brings in little traffic, and the average store will suffer because of this.

Some Malls are lucky enough to have a 'popular' business in their midst--this can bring in traffic, and produce walk-by sales from other patrons. However, it is more likely this is not the case. It is up to both the Mall, and the individual stores to bring in traffic...and in my experience, the majority of stores either have weak marketing, weak products, or no interest or follow-through at all. If I didn't realize this forum consisted mainly of those that 'get it right', I wouldn't believe the recent profit-poll which stated the majority of people claim a 'doing well' status.

Another reason you'll find many locations/stores empty, is because product has far too high a saturation in the market. Unless you are one slick puppy clothing designer...you're going to have a very difficult time building a successful business. Not only do your products need to be slick, but your marketing and advertising needs to be top-notch too. There are so many clothing stores out there...naturally, most of them will be empty, because their mostly carbon copies of each other--unless you have a really niche style, a high quality product, and good customer service, your business may be just another carbon copy, and receive no attention.

High quality niche products are the way to go. A flare with marketing. A unique approach. Stellar customer service. Slick ads and direct understandable ad-copy. Continual collaboration and outreach...these are the things a thriving SL business needs...but the majority of businesses in SL don't go through all these steps. They honestly think that they can create a few pairs of shoes, a couple of default outfits, toss this merch in a room, create a couple of shotty ads in GIMP...and make some moolah! This isn't the case...

You'll usually find the companies that boast an actual profit, follow all my rules. Not sure why people don't understand this but...if you don't know how to design an ad, hire someone who does. If you don't speak English, get someone who does to write your ad copy. If you can't use PS to save your life, don't try and make a clothing business...

Do what you know. Don't just follow the crowd. And if your goal requires you learn a new skill or craft--make that happen. Be the ball.

If you're 'in it to win it', and truly want your company to stand out and succeed...you HAVE to take specific measures. Your only going to waste your own time and money on creating a business...makes sense that you would follow through, and do it right the first time.

I'm not sure whether effective marketing or high priced ads are better. Lately I've been looking at these places that have paid mega bucks to be at the top of the ads and their mere clothing stores or a skin store with nothing really exciting. I guess the voting boxes are worthless these days?

Effective marketing will almost always boost sales--unless you're selling perfume in SL...effective marketing and ad placement can only help.

Now, the questions is, once you get someone IN your store, will they stay? Is your store laid out in a user-friendly manner? I don't know how many times I've jumped into a big store because it says it sells a product, I let everything rez for a few minutes...then I try to decipher how things are laid out but it's impossible...so I leave.

Also, once they are in your store, do they see the same carbon copy product they've seen a hundred times before? Is the product itself high quality?

If your product is unique and stellar, but you don't have any advertising or marketing going on...you will get very little traffic and/or sales.

Also, people are always looking for a cool event to hang out at--and I don't mean 'best in black', I can't believe these even work. Something unique, something collaborative...it doesn't have to parallel your product or business, but it has to be something people are interested in...the problem is, no one wants to outreach for their business...they are too lazy. Putting your product into a room isn't what running a business is all about...there are many other levels to consider.

Most of the time I think people are motivated by money. They will go to a "best in dung" event if there is a chance to win some linden.

I seriously need a temp rezzer/display thingy of some sort, I make these worthless mini castles, but I tediously and meticulously spend huge amounts of time on them and a vendor picture does them no justice. I think Jevn has one.

This "ghost town" thing is really not valid in evaluating an SL business's success. I've got one property that way more than pays for its tier, because all of the 12 residences are occupied. At any given moment of the day, I defy you to find more than 1 or 2 of them there at any one time, and most of the time it's just empty. And this is a residence, so you would expect far more green dots, or "presence" than a shop, where people tp in, buy something, and are gone in 3 minutes.

Michael's pointers on how to get your business publicized are excellent, but I think that's a a separate issue, and a lot of the allegedly deserted businesses you're seeing might be doing fine.

Probably a big difference between commercial and residential. Almost every residential place I've rented from was deserted 99% of the time.

Cunundrum,

Very possibly a bad analogy on my part. However, I do wonder whether people ever come through my place and call it a "ghost town" and assume it's a big white elephant.

I love pushing my friends avi's in the drink when they are afk. Some of them even get a bit rusty before they realize where they are. Now if they log off before they see themselves under water when they come back on they dont have a clue what happened to them that is even much more fun.

I think residential land owners actually strive to make their areas quiet, I know I prefer solitude.

As a residential landlord, this is precisely what I go for - the island style living, although without the island-style price. But some people prefer to live in more "urban" style places where there is more activity and people. In a point-to-point teleport world, I find that to be highly irrelevant, but whatever - I do understand it. But I also realize that SL is so cosmopolitan that you have to happen to luck out to have your neighbors play at the same time. If all my tenants played at the same times, I'd have to totally reorganize my offerings because I'd blow the agent limit.

I made a little box head and put it on someone away. First thing I've ever built inside SL.

Aw that was me, Fayruz.
I think My Av's face never looked better.

Good times..........good times.