Do you get much business from Events listings?

Since there are so few ways to advertise well in SL, I've thought about holding events for my art gallery and my furniture store. The posting is free, but is it worth the hosting time?

Also, has anyone had success with specific events/promotions? I've read in the forums that hosting live music brings in bodies, as do offering free items. But does that translate into sales?

Thanks, all y'all!

I get a decent amount of traffic using events for my yard sale.

And anytime I am looking for someplace to go, particularly dancing, I always check events.

I am a host at a nightclub and it seems to work for us. We get a lot of new people streaming in,so I assume that some find us through events.We post them twice a day for every event. Not sure about the sales though,since we don't actually sell anything IN the club. But the owner might be able to answer that for you,since she has adjoining stores.

Can't hurt. Although my guess is the cost to host a live music event would far exceed sales proceeds. Even some of the most popular and established musical venues tend to get 25-30 guests. But the most popular performers charge a premium. And who's to say those 25 people will buy anything.

BUT they could come back and look another time, or refer a friend. It's really up to you. I think most live performers are accustomed to using the venue's stream and that costs$$$.

Now about the event listing... I guess if you make it sound exciting enough some will come. NO ONE comes to my boring open houses to sell my 512 mainland parcel. Haven't gotten a nibble all month! You'd think with 60k people online, SOMEONE would stop by for a look-see.

BUT if you're going to be in your shop for an hour, there's no harm in listing an event, giving away some champaigne and a little freebie. Just remember that you have to be there and it has to be an 'event' in a true sense to list it in that search area.

One note about Events: The online Events page's Category popup is broken. It has not worked for over three weeks. (A friend submitted a ticket on it and was erroneously told it was fixed.)

So, those of us who like to use the online list to browse a category of events are no longer doing that (except for people with a lot more time and patience than I have). I've tried it on both my Macs (Safari and Firefox), Windows NT (IE), and friends have tried with Windows. (The in-world category popup in Search > Events works fine.)

What's so frustrating is that this cannot be that hard or time-consuming to fix.

I had some art up at a special art exhibition with many artists. There was also a live musician that played for the event. No one looked at the art, just starred at the musician (it was very odd, I had seen this singer perform before, and most of the time people dance at her events, but not this time; but no one was looking at the art, just standing there).

A special type of event, geared specifically to getting the art seen, works better. I have been to "meet the artist" type events, and largish crowd examining and talking about the art.

Increase in sales from specific events/promotions. Yes, though very limited. Or I should say an increase in sales, but indirectly. Most of the increase in sales involved people that looked at the art before and after the event because they knew an event would be occurring and they were curious. Nothing sold during the event, though.

Freebies? The only thing I will say about freebies is to make sure that the freebie isn't inferior, or too different from the rest of the products as some will use the freebie, or deeply discounted item to judge whether or not to actually buy a more expensive item there.

I have noticed, though, that a well thought out treasure hunt can lead to some sales. More lead to traffic numbers, but some sales increases. Especially if you are selling something someone might like but would otherwise not see but for the treasure hunt. Hunters will likely look all over for those items, and will have their eyes glaze across the items for sale. Of course, glaze is something of a correct term. Somewhat more by accident will they see the actual items for sale and buy them.

but thats improper use of events. A yard sale business is not an event and its against the rules to use events instead of a classified ad.

Awesome way to trap all the *&^%$'s using the events to sell $#%. SALES ARE NOT FREAKING EVENTS.

~ohm~

all better now

When I first opened my carpet store on a relatively new sim, I used events and had a lot of visitors. As the sim has developed, I have found I get traffic from folks that are visiting other establishments and I have stopped using events. If I were to have a sale, I would announce it in events. Otherwise, I just count on search and neighborhood traffic. Of course, I'm not in it to make a RL living... it is just fun for me.

You can use events with a yard sale. You just need to actually have an event. Say a live music performance at a set time at the yard sale location, or a party or whatever. Set time, with a host, with a set duration.

A lot of people are just spamming events listings, though. Personally, I think posting a "monthly freebie" 10-20 times daily as an event is against the rules, as well as those who post about parties when there will be no host, or dj, or special events.


I use the events listing to post when there's an event in the club I co-manage, such as a contest, or when we have a hosted event with a DJ or other special things that we don't offer 24/7. I use it for my clothing business when I'm offering a special deal just for the 3 hours of the event.

I just don't feel right about posting multiple events listing when there really isn't an event. I know everyone else is doing it...but I've never been one for peer pressure.