SL Exchange Completely Useless?

I usually buy inworld, but I do nearly all my searching, browsing, and decision-making on SLX. I almost never buy from sellers that aren't on SLX.

i have had a ton of sales on SLX.

I have always had pretty steady sales on SLEX. I sell very little in-world but then I have a pretty meagre in-world presence.

I'm also a guy. I hate shopping. I hate the lag-fest people make out of their shopping builds - the bigger the worse. So, I too, would search SLEX and then go in world to that one spot and buy that one thing. You do know this is how guys shop in RL and SL? We don't shop, we hit and run!

However, I do think SLEX works with more unique items. Search for say, shoes, and you may as well give up the will to live.

SLEX could be a little more reliable at times. But then, to be fair, SL could be a little more reliable all of the time.

I always use SLX to research before going shopping in world for something big and expensive. If it's a little something, I buy it from SLX if I like it.

Remember they had a server problem, which was resolved. Might account for the connection problems which have been mentioned in this thread.

I have also had excellent results with SLExchange. I find it works for me in two ways...

1 - A way for people to find my more obscure products.

Let's say you want a Victorian Post Box - the free-standing sort. Now, where would you begin to look for that in world? Pop to SLExchange and type in Victorian Post Box - bingo, you will find one (mine, by amazing conincidence, hehe) and you can then go see it in world if you like. I sell lots more Post Boxes on SLExchange than in world. In fact, amazes me the demand for them, hehe.

2 - A very convenient sales catalogue

Let's say you now require a gypsy caravan/vardo to live in. You COULD hop to some prefab builders in SL, on the off chance they have one. Or you could go to SLExchange and type in Gypsy. Well I never! Elgyfu Wishbringer makes one! What luck.

But this is a complex prefab, not a simple postbox. Buying it on the strength of a description and some photos is perhaps a bit rash. So you go to see it at my store. Hopefully you fall madly in love with it and get one - hehe. Basically, if you look at my caravan on SLExchange it has only sold a few directly from there. But in game I sell them on a daily basis. As quite a few customers have told me there were specifically looking for a gypsy vardo, I asked how they had heard of mine - they said (you guessed it) - SLExchange.

So even though my sales of this particular product on SLExchange are not very impressive - I wouldn't want to remove it from there - no siree.

Just for the record, I have noticed, however, that people seem quite happy to purchase my Castle Princessia prefab from SLExchange - funny when sales of the two prefabs in game are about the same.

*dons her Sherlock Holmes deerstalker and goes to find a magnifying glass... the game is afoot..........*

I just bought one of your British Beach Houses a couple of days ago. I actually kinda broke one of my buying rules - I didn't see it in world first. Do you have a shop? If so, I couldn't find it. Anyway I'm very pleased with it, it fits beautifully on my teeny 512 water front land.

Conclusion: SLX isn't completely useless.

Aww Midi, thats sweet of you to say. And Im so pleased you like it, thats as important to me as the lindens.
I make houses that I like for my own pleasure and then list them for sale. Some of them have been commissioned builds, which people got cheap with the proviso I could also sell them.
I dont have a shop, I honestly dont think I could justfy the expense of the land. But that reminds me, I should add to the Slex listings that I can demonstrate a rez of any of the builds in world for ppl.

I love shopping on SLX plus they have a great General Discussion forum. On the other hand, there have been hardware failures, multiple magic box upgrades, and failed deliveries lately. These are the first real problems I've ever had with the site; I presume they are just temporary.

I sold enough through SLExchange to maintain 40 USD/mo of tier for years (I just recently shut down sales to revamp some things at West Trade).

As a consumer, not a merchant, I can say: I use SLEX frequently. I use it to search for products as well as for currency transactions. When I buy a product, I will often visit the merchant's store inworld, if they've provided a link. If not,I'll buy it off the Exchange.

Were I selling things, I would definitely use the site.

As a merchant, I do fine on SLex. It's a decent percentage of my total sales.
And it IS free. They take a small commission if you actually sell, but it's not like you're forking out a weekly rent to be there.

My stuff sells fine on SLExchange, under a different name. I sell more in world, yes, probably 10x what I sell on SLExchange, but that hardly means SLExchange is "useless".

I have made a total of 52 sales on SLX in 6 months and none were freebie sales. That, imo, is not useless. If I could produce at a much faster rate, I would probably have more sales. I am satisfied with SLX.

I'm doing great on Slex. I make about thirty dollars US per week, sales constantly increasing, I'm paying all my expenses in SL and then some, and I've only been in SL since June. I'm looking forward to the new year.

Ding ding ding ding

I have never purchased anything directly from the site. I do however use it to look up products and then will go buy them in world. Even without a link. I can find the product in world by looking up the sellers profile.

As others have give you great reasons, I'll also toss in my philosophy: You can't control how or where your potential customers shop - so you need to have your stuff listed anyplace where they might be looking. This includes Onrez, SLX, Search, Classifieds, etc... A lot of people browse the 3rd party shopping sites from work where they can't log in to SL. Most won't actually buy from the 3rd party site, but they will look you up in world to actually see your wares before completing a purchase.

I use it constantly. (even though my box is offline now)

I grab freebies off there so I don't end up paing for junk in-world
It's a good way to take a look at the competition's primmy quality and price

and I sell a few things now and again. Will it make me rich? Hardly. Is an extra $500l for little or no work a good thing? Yep. Also, as I start putting my bigger builds online, it'll be easier to show through the site than in-world. Who can really have a rezzed version of each house for sale?

I plan to have my store items link to the exchange site for more views.

Denise, you are totally not reading my initial post. I am very satisfied with my in-world sales while I can't seem to find sales in SL Exchange...

Thanks for that. The items became unavailable a couple of days ago. That should work now.

If you arent at version 3.04 on your SLexchange box you HAVE to update it, Improved communications with SL was the focus on these updates including resets. When you update you have to remove your old boxes from the SLexchange web site also.

As for sales, Any form of advertising does you good. THe exchnage does NOT charge you for making a listing unless you purchase enhanced listings so the price is right.

As for sales. Somedays very good sales, some days poor sales. How many people have come to our in world store after seeing a listing on the exchange is not known but I do know that when I purchase enhanced listings traffic at our store does increase for the duration of the ads we have there.

it is version 3.04
I got it when the update became an update heh
and removed the old box

This is exactly what I do. I browse the SLEx and onrez when at work or when I don't feel like going in-world. I make a list of stores that have in-world locations, then when I am logged in I visit the stores. Works well for me.

I have also made purchases from SLex and onrez directly, but only when I already know I the designer or creator and I know what I am getting.

Sol

I do! I have about 20+ things and some of the new boxes keep losing contact.

As for sales- Meh. They're so-so. Nothing fantastic, but then I don't sell "Most Wanted" stuff either (a.k.a. Sex things)

Naw, I completely disagree with "SL Exchange being completely useless".

Over the past 3 months I've had over 150 sales of muzzletalk on it, and numerous other copies of my other products. To top that, i've actually had increase in traffic from people using slex to browse for inworld items, all mainly due to advertisements which i pay for on SLEX..

Sure its free and you can put up you items, but it depends on the target audience. some may sell better than others as it all would depend on competitiveness. It might have its hitches, such as a few days back , but its all working again and i havent had more problems since their hardware update.

To be honest, as you ask. The majority of your products on SLEX are photographs. None of your display images contain watermarks. That said, any Joe Blow can just save your images and upload them themselves for $10L instead of paying $300-$400L for them. I suggest you put watermarks on the images and maybe you would see more sales from those items.

Also, you do have most SLEX browsers like myself that just use it as a 'search engine' and then visit in world by using store locations in the descriptions or looking up your profile picks in game.

If anything, you should look at SLEX as free advertisement.

Just my 2 cents.