Free Vendor Space - for Newbies trying to get started

this seemed to require its own thread, but it's a follow up to the thraed asking how to get started:

i have found a place that offers free vendor space. because i no longer own land and have only successfully located yard sale type places that i can afford to put my things, i have placed something there. I have sold nothing so far, and i don't see a ton of traffic going through, but i might not have the right type of "stuff" for such a themed location.

if you are interested in a small spot that allows only 10 prims, and you MUST stay within the boundaries of one little box, i would be happy to share the location with you, via landmark inworld.

if you know of such places, please post your name here for others to contact you, as well.

I'm amazed that this hasn't had any replies. I think it's a good idea for helping people who want to start a business. I don't know that it applies to newbies though. You didn't say if the place you found is for newies or not.

Following the camping threads I thought about doing something for new people, but I realised that it can't be done. Register dates can be got, of course, but if there's free money to be had, there's nothing to stop old hands from creating alts to gather it. I don't know of any way to knowingly help newbies who are strangers.

i am not a newbie and i have my stuff there. it's for anyone, but i thot new vendors to SL would jump on it. it's not full, so there is still room to "try" and see if it's worth the time.

it's only 10 prims. it brings up YOUR traffic legitimately. it's in search, so anyone can find it.

no takers is fine.

I am interested, please send me a LM

Thanks
(just saw the thread)

I might be interested. Could you send me a LM please?

Hmm, it would be nice to see more of these. I've on occasion allowed friends to place vendors in my store, it might be interesting to see what space I have left over with my new store and maybe add a few "freebie" parcels. Maybe give someone a little chunk of vendor space for free for a month then let someone else have it.

/me nods

This is how I'm trying to set it up.

I've got a garden/hangout-type place where I'm in the process of opening up a little shop (which is proving to take forever) and I've asked some friends of mine who make great stuff to put some of some of their items out in and around the shop.

My shop in progress is sat in the garden, so I'm hoping one friend will put out his water feature, another her danceballs and I've asked someone else to put some furniture in the store itself for the gents to read the paper or something while the ladies shop.

Not quite setting up vendors, but I'm hoping it will help promote and sell their items without turning my precious garden hangout into a complete shopping horror.

Personally I love the idea of this kind of cooperation, whether it will work remains to be seen of course.

On that note.... anyone ever seen or done anything like what I'm describing? Does it work?

Hi all

my mini mall has not been full since the day I opened it, being offline long term ill has not helped. but if you are interested would be willing to let some of you have space for nothing, would rather see the spaces used than empty.
am off to physio soon, but will be inworld for a while tonight, so anyone interested either message me here or IM me inworld and I'll hook up with you soon as I get inworld later around 10am sl time.
Have a great day
Rhiannon xx

this place i'm talking about cleans house every sunday. so, it's first come first served. for some reason, it's not full right now. again, i have sold nothing, so i can't really say for certain the effectiveness of it. it's a clever build, so explore a little to.

btw - when i said (above) that "it brings up your traffic legitimately", i meant to the parcel owner who hosts it, not the vendor who puts their stuff there. i think it's a really nice idea, and i will gladly place my little builds anywhere anyone has one, so please please please kindly send me an invite if any of you host such a place. =D

we can all take up a little space, get your place popular, and out as you need to fill the vendor spots with paying customers. =D

I don't want to use this as an advert but we reserve 1 shop for start-up creators. I'll not list the top designers we have, you can check my profile for that. The olny stipulation is it's not 'sex' goods or Business in a box. Start-ups get 4 weeks free to see how it goes.
In fact, I'd say we have about a 50% success rate of people starting up and going on to do great things.
I have the shop free now if someone wants to contact me with a description of your creations. This is ONLY for genuine start-ups and I'll vet each person who responds to ensure this is so. Also, please don't be upset if we decline.

*Should have added that having a shop is only part of it. We also advertise and use our group to announce arrival. Plus, we give what support we can on how to set-up the shop to maximise potential. Why do we do this? Because when we started we struggled and appreciate the need for some guidance...Yes, we still struggle

I'm curious what folks think would be the most "merchant friendly" way to do this, ideally. I've got more space and prims than I need in one sim, adjacent to an outdoor shopping area (not mine) that has a lot of rented stalls. So I could easily set up a few stalls, too, and make them available for the free use of guests (perhaps newcomers to one of the Show and Tell events, for example). But I'm debating whether it would be better if they were all just part of one parcel so they can share traffic statistics, or if they should be separate parcels deeded to separate groups so the merchants can have more control over their own advertising (and prim limits would be self-enforcing). Whatcha think?

Qie Niangao with nearly 9 months experience in giving residents free land and free tier, making them responsible for their own parcel is the way to go, with prims, even the most honest ones will try to use a couple more than they should if prims are shared. Also if you may want to set a system up that enables you to move traders on once they become established, or even just older, so it opens up spaces for more newbies, one way is having a system that counts unique visitors to their plots and the ones with falling counts goes. However, even with this made explicitly clear that one day they will be asked to leave, expect 3 hours of unhappy IMs when they do go.

Also they would have to leave return objects at 0 and have 'create objects' & 'object entry' for 'all residents' off and only leave them on for group.

There is a lot to consider.

this is a graet idea to have them each individual, but that forces you to be involved regularly. it also gives a space to one person, which means others happening along aren't invited. of course, if that is your plan, the individual spaces is a GREAT feature.

free vendor space would probably best prosper if they all shared the traffic counts.

i am not a newbie, but now homeless, and looking for a 'place' to rent... but i'm not in a hurry, and i don't really have anything new to sell. so that's why i like this vendor idea. having control is always wonderful, and would spoil a person rotten.

3Ring,
I agree with what you are saying about yardsales. They are under rated and under used. Most of the time, when I go to one I will be the only one there. It is a lot like freebie shopping, however. There are some rare gems to be had but you have to sort through a lot of rubble to get them. I like the concept. It is a nobel cause. I would not think it would be worth the effort to set up shop all over every week where no one will see your products.

If you want to set up a new store, I would advise finding a busy mall. If it has camp pads, move on to the next mall. Get a ground floor booth if you can. Negotiate the rent! The more open stalls they have the more likely you can either get it cheaper or have them add a few more prims to your allotment. Once you have found the perfect place, start the process all over. Keep 3 or 4 shops up. Watch the sales, when they start dipping in one place find another.

We are creatures of habit. We tend to re-visit the same areas we have been to before. So to keep getting your product in front of people who have not seen it before, you have to keep moving. If you want to run a store, design and building the product is only 1/3 of the work. Packaging and photography, vendor scripting, bookkeeping and prospect hunting all take up a lot of your time. Well, if you want to stay solvent they do. But for the time I did run a stroe, I was always trilled when people bought buy things. When some one sends you an IM out of the blue to say they like your designs, it's almost a mental (well, I don't think I want to use that word here; it would just start another sex thread)

I love yard sales. Love, love. That's what I will be doing if bored in-world, 9 times out of 10. As for the free 10 prim store? That is so awesome. I have a little storefront that has very few sales. If there aren't any more I will close it..and be looking for something like that to replace it. No need to pay 200L/week when you're not making any money off of it.

well, i personally am not really a "builder". i made a few things, and actually made some good sales. i'm not really trying to establish anything. but i did happen upon this free vendor spot and thot it a worthy idea, so i am sharing the news for anyone who might be interested. i tried it "just to see", and i like the whole 'free vendor' idea for many reasons.

about yard sales, which is a whole different animal - i go to every yard sale hosted in events, as well as treasure hunts. if i see freebie stuff, i leave. but there are tons of these yard sales PACKED FULL of original creations so they are worth at least the look.

I don't go to yard sales because so far, every one that I have visited (10 or more) has had stuff for the same price as I can buy it in the creator's store. When I go to a yard sale, I expect to get at least a slight reduction.

Heh - I missed this thread somehow

I posted this to another thread a while back, but here it is again:

The Shelter offers free vendor space to New Residents under 90 days old that wish to sell their creations. The primary restrictions are 10 prims, and items for sale must be created by the seller, and PG in nature.

Anyone who's interested should contact Reina Quine in-world, and she can get you setup. There's a limited amount of space, but spots constantly come open as folks reach 90 days old.