How to sell something nobody wants?

A friend happened to tp me while she was at a "show and tell" kind of presentation for a scripted chat logging gadget this week. I got the impression it's a regular kind of event that's hosted there so it might be fitting .

The creator gave a short explanation of what it's used for along with a demonstration and then took a short Q&A session from everyone there.

I don't remember the sim though . I'll ask her when I see her next time, or if I forget give me a nudge when I run into you at an office hour .

wasn't this discussed in another thread (the item not how to sell it)
I am guessing since it is now in the sig, it is the seeing through another person's eyes (cam) thing.

Ya know, after having seen it I can't possibly think of a way to capitalise on it.

A cam that lets you see what someone else sees on the grid? (ok there I spilled it)

I mean - yeah it's neat and all... but it's not like it really solves any pressing problem that anyone has, really.

But that doesn't mean it's not possible to market it.

For instance, I can't imagine how one could build an entire industry out of selling prim willies, but it's clearly been done...

Word of mouth.

My products sell almost entirely through it; they have a name that is unique to them, which makes them extremely easy to find for people who know they want one. It's just a case of getting a small group of people enthusiastic about your product to use it, and show their friends, who show their friend's friends and so-on.

Advertising gives you a better chance at growing those numbers faster, but ultimately it's the same process for all items that aren't really "searchable", i.e. - they're not something you'd think to enter into search, which sounds like your case.

I've had a good 400 to 500 hits on a classified ad for my products, most of which have translated into sales, because the people finding it are doing so having seen the product(s) in action and wanting one for themselves.

With less unique items I suppose you follow the same trend, but you need to find a hook to MAKE them unique, like a good brand name (the most common one), then it follows much the same pattern. IMO search is useless for finding things in a general sense, like "clothes", it takes ages and you have to wade through a ton of crap. However, it's great for finding something you want like "Haravikk's super sexy clothes brand™" (fictional, I don't really make clothes, just the odd T-Shirt =), so long as it's got a unique name for itself

Heh, just noticed the actual product. I suppose it's not something I'd buy myself since I don't have much time for novelty stuff, but I HAVE been watching Ghost in the Shell recently, this instantly reminds me of that =)

Unfortunately it would seem to suit the spy market more than anything, however I can think of a few interesting uses. For example, an SL performance staged from the actor's view? Or other forms of camera trickery, such as a press conference that you can watch live from seats around the edge, while a scripted item keeps your view on the action (via 'cameras') while feeding you the text or while you listen into the voice channel.

it is a neat thing but I am one of those who do not see a use for it (for myself)

but as mentioned there are some uses that it could be good for

You don't want advertising, you want an ARTICLE written about the thing and its possibilities. You want it in a widely-read publication - M2, The Avastar, or a gadget-oriented magazine that has a more focused audience.

i was not trying to rain on your parade. and you are not responsible for someone else misusing your great product.

but to answer..... i can imagine someone charging someone else the opportunity "to watch" from a great distance away (several sims or continents even), and not actually participate, thereby removing the 'payers' chances of being banned for illegal acts.

i don't know. with my job, i'm rather OVER protective of children in RL and my paranoia's seem to have leaked into SL.

in that regard, however, it is very marketable. the 'sex sells' and roleplay markets, i mean.

I could see it being pretty cool in properly controlled combat sims actually, rez a few cameras at key points and peer through them to see your enemies coming...

I don't think that it's going to be easy to market as a single product though, maybe one to draw people in, but I could see it being more of a custom-job profession where you tailor to different needs.

Fashionistas will love it.

"How do I look?"
"Like this!" (shows on camcast)
"Gah! You didn't tell me I was ruthed!"
"hehehe"

or

"OMG! You have to see this chick dressed in nothing but bodyoil, bling and primboobs!" (shows on camcast)
"Take a pic for FashPolice!"

Maybe give demo models to blog writers and the previously mentioned magazine writers? (I read some SL blogs but no magazines at all.)

I remember this idea being talked about a few weeks ago and thought it would be nice when shopping with friends, as we often end up pointing and saying, the 3rd from the left, at bottom or some such. So maybe that's a market?

I've only seen freebie cam controllers, I know photographers use those and have done so too when taking pics for ads myself...

I otoh didn't have luck with SLX paid ads, the regular listings seem to do better for me, but my stuff is more searchable. Although I just discovered my poses/AO were almost in the 100 most popular tonight which was a pleasant surprise...

So anyways, Reuters even wrote up the Multi Gadget way back when, fashion bloggers might like the cam thingy for shopping like I described, maybe give out demos to them to get the word out?

All my stuff goes by word of mouth really well, SL is a sharing place after all?

hi Qie...

I announced at Show and Tell yesterday that Jenn Hienrichs is hosting an event called "Daily Demo" at noon Monday thru Fridays. It is an event where she has a creator of an object, tool, etc. come and demo it and then hold a Q and A about it. This may work nicely for you in addition to holding your own demo events.

Sadly it is held during my work day but i was off this past Thursday and was able to meet creator of Puppeteer and get some answers directly from him on how to use his tool. Here is a link to her schedule.

http://forums.cleverzebra.com/showthread.php?t=109

florenze

Thank you! I keep looking at this thread in the hope that someone would state was this mysterious object is. I'm not keen on having to search for things, especially when I'm not used to the place that needs searching, so I don't bother.

All of SL could be used for adult-child stuff just as in the real world a Sony Handicam could be used to film child porn. Is that Sony's fault or responsibility?

I think Qie has an awesome idea, I can't wait to run out and buy one. Then find some one to help me play with it.

"CX"

I agree with CX on both points. And I'm surprised that as visionary a person as Desmond doesn't see the use in this.

Folks, this is a great product. Not something that will change the world, but one of those things like MystiTool that, once you use it for a little while, becomes indispensibe.

One of its "add-on" abilities, almost an afterthought, is "mirror cam". In this mode, your own camera snaps around in front of you and becomes stationary. So you can, for example, walk toward it. Great for machinima! And easier than ALT+mousing around to check your prim lashes.

And the HUD is so tiny, it hardly takes up any screen real estate at all.

I think Qie has got something good on his hands here, if he can just get the word out.

I sell a similar item (it's not a CamCaster -- it's similar in the sense that it's an Item Nobody Knows They Need). One difficulty my HUD shares with yours is that it's useless by itself. You have to have two or more people wearing the HUD.

I see that you've made separate Sender and Receiver HUDs, and the Receiver is Transfer-OK (but no copy). So you can sort of give part of the system to someone, but it seems like it would be a hassle.

I went further, and made a demo version. Anyone can pick up my HUD for free, and give copies to all their friends. It's copy and xfer-ok. That means if an existing customer wants to show it to a friend, they can just give them their own copy.

The script inside notes the new owner, and sets a timer. After a week, it shuts down and tells them to pay for it if they want to continue using it. I figure that's enough time for people to try it out and see if it's really useful to them.

OK, I snagged one and played, and IMHO the killer application is going to be that mirror mode. It's going to remove a lot of the frustration from taking snapshots.

This was one of my feelings as well. When I went to the store display to check it out, I found very little information about the item. As a result, I was put off from buying it or even trying out the free receiver. Although I learned later that there was a notecard giver inside the advertising prim (but nothing to prompt you to click to get the notecard), there was nothing I could readily see that intrigued me enough to want to learn more.

In doing webstuff, I was taught someting called a "10/40" test. What this meant is dat you have to give a person a reason to read your page in 10 seconds, and a reason to click further in 40 seconds. In SL, the 10/40 might be even lower. I dun tink the "mystery" sells good in this instance.



Way true. Anyone can use it for ill purposes, whether is it sexual ageplay, upskirt stuff, or whatever. Then again, one can use a hammer to bash a person inna head. People still sell hammers, though, cuz there are legitimate uses for 'em.

Mari

The Receiver is actually Copy+Transfer (in fact, the prims are Mod--just not the script), and the sender gives its wearer a fresh copy of the Receiver on command, to distribute at will. So, I'd kinda hoped that would make it "viral"; so far, though, not a very virulent virus.

As for a demo version, you know, I thought about that. I sell a totally unrelated attachment (not a HUD) that has a ten-minute demo version, but it's something that a solo avatar can at least see in action. I kinda convinced myself that a CamCaster demo version would just be frustrating for buyers, having to find an accomplice to even see what the heck the thing does. So the thinking (such as it was) was to make the free Receiver be as useful as possible on its own, to keep it on the user's screen as a kind of reminder to try the full-featured version (which I tried to price within range of an "experiment" for most buyers). But it's a worthy suggestion, for which I'm grateful. Which brings me to...

For being so generous with suggestions: Free Stuff!

If the asset server doesn't eat them, a copy of this gadget will be on its way in the next few hours to everybody who's already posted a reply to this thread. Even those who think it's useless to them, or those who may have already picked up a copy for themselves might know somebody else who could use it. (Perhaps someone charged with giving SteamPunk tours, for example. )

I apologize if this distribution is too much like spam, or if doing this is an abuse of the Forums. I promise I didn't start this thread to promote the product here, and I hope the gift will be taken as the token of gratitude that's intended. Those concerns make me a little queasy about this, but honestly, I'm really indebted for the many great suggestions. And if a little reward reinforces such constructive posts, well, worse things could happen to the Forums.

And anyway, hey: Free stuff!

I tell you, you need it blogged about. Maybe hit up Hamlet Au.

That's true for websites because people expect to read webpages. SL is more difficult because so many people simply don't read the signs, and they often miss a whole lot about scripted objects. The reason to look closer really needs to be visual, rather than text, and it's something that I'll have to consider with some of my stuff. Perhaps demos that actually run so that people can see that something 'different' is happening, without them needing to read or click anything - curiosity arousing to make them read the signs.

i haven't tried it yet, and i IM'd you with this idea... but wanted to post it here too so that someone might find it interesting to try out.

store owners can have an alt wear it, and basically 'run the store' while they are out shopping and playing. this way, they could TP in when needed, and enjoy SL at other times. this would be especially handy during scheduled events.

i have to see if i can get my alt to wear it and then upload her on SLeek and have it still activated, since i use that on another computer. can't seem to get SL to work twice on my main puter.. at least, not 2 AND play. so the SLeek idea would be REALLY handy!

This is interesting, and I don't see any reason why it shouldn't work with a SLeek client as sender--*but*, in case I didn't make it clear before, the range of the cam is limited to either a sim or about 100m, user choice. So, at best, the shop owner would be tethered to the same sim as the shop. And really distant viewing within a sim may be kind of strange because as your avatar moves far enough away, smaller prims start to disappear regardless of where your cam is located. (This is often seen when one uses a teleporter to a distant location while the cam is alt-zoomed: the structure left behind is still visible, but the smaller prims will start disappearing.) There's no work-around for that because it's pretty central to control of the viewer memory footprint. So, really distant viewing may not always be satisfactory.

Also, as I understand the suggestion, the sending SLeek client would have just a fixed view--you could watch it remotely, but you couldn't control that client's cam. That opens up a whole different possibility that I'd never considered, which is to view and *control* another avatar's cam remotely. That's subtly different from CamCasting, which provides a view of another avatar's cam under their control. The other, "teleoperated cam" approach is certainly possible, and wouldn't really be more difficult than the CamCaster script... but I'm not sure if there are many applications for such remote viewing that actually require an agent to be at that other cam location.

On the other hand a (much) simpler script could put one's own cam temporarily at some fixed location (the store) from which one could just pan and zoom normally, without another avatar on site. Still limited to somewhere that your avatar can rez prims, of course, but that might be a quite useful addition to the Receiver, for some future update. (Single-handed "four cam shoot" machinima, perhaps.) Extremely cool--thanks!

I like the idea of it being used to monitor the store via an alt, however the limit of it being within the same sim kinda makes that a little less useful for me.

is it possible to have it not be limited via the sim, and be able to view the sender no matter where the receiver is?

that would be one use I could find for it (sort of like a security camera type deal)

just a suggestion, if the package you sent all of us, is the same package that folks purchasing it gets, put the help card in the package as well as in the device.

took me a couple minutes to figure out where to click to get the help card