How to boost traffic the legitimate way?

I've recently spent a lot of time remodelling a lot of my items, and have built a new showroom to showcase it all. I now have demos of all my furniture out on display for people to be able to try and I also have a platform to demo my prefabs. This is done by request at the moment, I don't have the space or prims available to display them all.

Anyway my questions is... How do you boost your traffic doing it the legitimate way? By this I mean no camping or bots etc. I would like any traffic generated to be real!

I would like to try an get my business really moving now and am open to new ideas to try and point people in the direction of my store. I only want to attract people who are actually interested in my products, so don't want to add keywords to my land or classified that will give a false impression.

Please feel free to check out my picks, land and classified and tell me where I might be going wrong. If anyone has any tips or tricks they'd like to share then that'd be great too.

I'd suggest targeted marketing.

Get your name out there: Metaverse Messenger, Prim Perfect magazine, Avastar, SLExchange, maybe some banner ads on the blogs.

This is the million dollar question for many - how do you become popular?

I don't think any of us will be able to "Ipod" a market, but without exposure, exposure, exposure it will be pretty hard.

Some of us got lucky and have been around for a long time; or were around when the grid was smaller and there weren't a lot of choices - and everybody knew everybody.

That said, it still takes maintenance - I was making 700 USD/mo from my West Trade Imports once upon a time, but it has fallen waaaaay off since I got into other things (land). So staying fresh is a big part of it too.

Good luck!

Thanks Desmond, I have a few ideas to look into now.
I don't expect to make millions, but enough to be able to expand a little eventually would be nice

The most important thing is to get your stuff out there where people can see it. Make sure your products are listed at SL Exchange and OnRez. List them in SL Shopper over at SL Universe.

Use a banner ad on the forums that shows your products -- a logo is no substitute for product pictures. Ever.

Make sure your store picture where you are listed in Search shows pictures of items, not just your logo. People don't shop for logo's, they shop for products.

Offer to donate some items to people who rent furnished houses or properties. The more eyeballs you get in front of, the more people who will be looking up the creator on that item to find the store.

Hold some events at your property - like a book club or philosophical discussion group.

Ask yourself the following questions:

When I'm searching for something - what makes me choose one result over another to teleport to?

When I'm at a store, what makes me linger there as opposed to teleporting out when my business in concluded?

What would make me hang around someone's store even if I didn't buy from them?

What you want is both to get bodies in your store and induce them to hang out a while (preferrably also buying.)

Think of all the things that have pissed you off when shopping at other stores and resolve to not do any of those things in your store.

I too would love to know how to get the traffic

I pretty much stopped using ads, as they did not seem to help
I put the arcade as freeplay
and am working on opening an interactive fishing area

still dunno what to do to bring folks in

(and I too would like real traffic, not campers, if I wanted campers I would just log in a few alts LOL)

Join all the active SL forums like SLUniverse etc. Make forum signatures with ads in them. Find a question you can answer in each forum every day and post the answer. If you don't want to answer a question ask a question or make a joke. This gets your ad out in view and helps make your name known. Advertise in all the targeted free ad places you can, even though some of them might not give many results. One good customer with a big mouth and lot of friends might make a difference.

Join some groups that chat a bit and partake in the chat. Hang out in public places and respond when people mention the need for your product.

Post in a blog. Read some other people's blogs and post some comments.

Sign up with all the SL social networking sites like SLBuzz and Rezzed.net. Join the Second Life groups in facebook and post in the discussion groups, and friend people there.

My internal list of SL shopping sites is OnRez and SLExchange. Are there others?

Wear T-Shirts that say, in essence, this is what I sell, buy some. Not in those words.

I was walking around on the second floor of your store. I couldn't tell anything was for sale. I wasn't able to tell I was in a store. Some price signs would be useful.

Downstair, the T-Shirts - there's no visible prices. It might just be me but when I shop I don't want to hunt for the price tag. If something is too expensive I want to know it from the beginning and move on to something else.

When I took the teleport to your store I couldn't tell when I landed that I was at your store. It was so unstorelooking that I took the teleport again just to make sure I went to the right place.

I'd consider changing the name of the business. "PP" has an inelegant connotation to the sound. Reversing the second P to make a symmetrical logo make the letters hard to read, especially if English is not your native tongue.

I put your place in the picks of my SuezanneC Blackflag account since that's what was running at the moment.

Oh yeah, ask your friends to put your place in their picks.

wow suezanne wanna walk around my store and give me your take on it?
I would love to hear the way other people see it

(I do not put prices on my ads, cuz sometimes I have sales, or change prices)

would love to know what anyone thinks of my place, including the arcade and fishing area (fishing area is work in progress, still waiting for the system to put in place so I can have tournaments and such)

You've already gotten some good advice here. Any new business person in SL must actively market their stuff, and once you've gotten things off the ground you must maintain some kind of presence to stay on the map. Definitely learn and use all the in-game tools available to you (place listings, classifieds, how to optimize for new search, etc.), but look outside the game (forums, blogs, slx/slb, etc.) to see how you can connect with the community and get your name and brand noticed.

EDIT: Dang, I still have the wrong account logged in!

sometimes though, doing all that will not make you one of the big guys

I have been in SL nearly 2 years, and close to all that time I have been building my business

I am not in it for the big bucks I do not have a new item out there everyday, nor do I post on other forums just to get noticed, or take out ads I can not afford.
I do list on SL and onrez

I do get some sales, some days more than others

the main thing is I have tons of fun doing it all and yes little by little I have noticed that I do tend to get more new people

one thing I think recently that has helped, is the non SL group thing called subscribe o matic, there is a vendor at my store for a free trial if you want to try it. It takes the place of having to use an SL group to send out notices, samples etc.

I totally love it and ppl seem to like joining it.

I have an SL group for my store, with a very small amount of ppl that joined it, the subscribe o matic on the other hand, has far exceeded what I was getting with my SL group.

And not only that, but your members do not have to worry about any chat spam from a group, or other folks being in the same group being able to see if they are online or when they were last online via group info, and you do not have to worry about someone being sneaky and underhanded and using your group to spam for their own store because only you (and those you specify, for example a manager or alt) can send out announcements.

Feel free to drop by my store and grab a trial package to see for yourself what it is all about .

oh and another neat thing is ppl who just joined your list, can click your kiosk to get past announcements and/or gifts (and you have the option via a website to remove things that you no longer wish to be in your group history of announcements and/or product samples/gifts.

Disclaimer: I am not an owner or employee of Subscribe o matic, I am just simply a very very happy customer!

so subscribe o matic might also be an option to help boost your traffic too...

Well guys. Thanks for all the ideas. You've certainly all given me something to think about.



Rhaorth, I think you and I are in a fairly similar place. I'm not here for the big bucks either. It'd be just nice to start seeing things pick up a little more.



I did think that my sales displays were fairly self explanatory. Although I do have a couple of items for sale without sales signs. There is a notecard available by clicking the information sign when you arrive inside the store that explains how my store works more fully.

Placing prices on items isn't something that I felt the need for really. When I go shopping I tend to use hover tips. I guess I assumed that most folk did this. I guess though that everyone is different. Plus as Rhaorth mentioned it makes price changing much easier if the need arises.

I'm just wondering what made you think that my place wasn't a store? I know I haven't got my logo all over the place, but sometime I think that can be overkill.

I am really glad of all the constructive criticism, it's good to see things from another perspective. Everyone here in SL has a different view and it helps to know how other people see your stuff.

Btw SuezanneC, thanks for adding me to your picks. At least I know you didn't completely hate it

Well me to I have been at your store and I can relate to Suzannes comments. A bit more information would be handy. As far as I saw you have 2 buildings, but they are not very filled. Wouldn't it be better to just have one shop so you can display more? At my place I just adapt the shop to the amount of stuff I have for sale, so my shop gets bigger once in a while but is never looking empty.

Furthermore I would advise a parcel with a bit more available prims, so you can put up a rezzer for your buildings. Feel free to come and look at my parcel, I set up a rezzing system for the buildings I made and make sure I have enough spare prims to rezz them.

With the traffic topic I am quite busy myself as well. It is hard to get a good place in search. So I give out affiliate vendors with a very good profit for the seller, to spread my name around as much as possible. Rent a booth at a very active club, so the visitors see my name all the time as well.

Don't have a clue about events myself, but I am thinking about a way to have people holding events at my parcel. Room enough for that. My SL time is merely used for building, so organizing can better be done by others Maybe a thought for you as well.

We might even exchange a landmark with a logo picture or so, so that people can hop from your store to mine and the other way around. It is all about getting to be known.

Greetings, Marcel

Just popped in now to put out a couple of extra signs for the stuff I didn't have sales signs for. It's a start anyway.



Looks like I confused you there. The smaller place with just a few items in is actually my home. I leave it open for people to look around as I have one for sale in my prefab section.
Think I'd better add a greater there or something to explain this.

I'll definitely pop over and have a look at your place next time I'm in-world. It's always good to see how the competition does

I am a friend and neighbour of Prawnyloks so please don't think that what I say here is completely biased!

I have seen Prawnyloks' efforts at various stages as she has been building her showroom and feel that it is actually very smart looking, does look like a store, is very neatly laid out and presentable. The thing I really like about it is the fact that it is not like so many other really huge stores that take forever to rez and forever to get around especially when SL is playing up!

She has some very nice clear signs next to the products for sale and I would think most of us usually read such signs and/or touch them to get further information, so would also get the option to buy.

Prawnyloks has another building next to her showroom, which is one of her prefabs and is there as an example open to all to wander about in. I think when seeing both buildings it is obvious which is the store!

I think she deserves credit for wanting to generate genuine traffic that would result in proper sales. I have been to many places lately that are huge stores, the map shows there are loads there, so that makes me think twice about going because I know the lag will be so bad. But when I do go, I am the only one there and because the store is so huge, it takes me ages to get around and still I am the only one there! But, many people are resorting to piling bots into boxes and planting that box way up in the sky. How many sales do they actually get when so few "real" avatars are actually TPing to their store??

Thanks Winch. I know you're not completely biased

Well.....I just did it by accident be making all my shapes full permissions in my shop. LOL I decided to make some changes because I'll be relocating IRL and I wont have a lot of time to deal with my SL biz.......and I'll probably make some changes when I do get re-settled...so I figured I'd just come out with a whole new line later on and retire the current ones.
I made a classified....and created a new group...told a few folks....and presto...I looked at my sales this morning and I made more last night than I've made in the last few months. LOL
So I'd say....offer a couple full prmission items as a way to get folks at least checking things out....I know it seems nuts and everyone worries about their creations being stolen and what not....but if the goal is to make L's and boost over all sales.... I think it behooves any creator to find one thing they can sacrifice to the full perm gods. *shrug* I make shapes in my sleep...so I couldn't care less if someone else wants to mess with em and sell em. LOL

Oh, Winchendon - trust me - most of us here on the forums think anyone who tries to get their traffic in a legitimate way deserves an award.

Marketing is an art form all in itself - it requires a lot of thought and planning. At no point is it a "build it and they will come" thing. Any business needs not only good products but a good marketing plan. Not every technique works for everyone, you have to think about who your customers are and cater to that. I'm a huge believer in "clumping" in SL - which is combining efforts of similar stores that are all looking for the same types of customers. Each store then gets to take advantage of the traffic from the other stores.

Look at the way RL auto malls have developed on the knowledge that people will drive over to look at the Toyota offerings and then also decide to go check out Nissan as long as they are right there. When you clump similar businesses - everybody wins.

A lot of figuring out a successful marketing strategy is to keep throwing things at the wall and see what sticks. Try something for a month and log your results. Try something else for a month and log your results. Keep in mind that you don't normally see instantaneous changes, you've got to give things some time to "percolate." A few days isn't long enough to see if something is working.

1.) I couldn't tell from your logo exactly what the name of your shop was, so I didn't Search it, I just put the coordinates in my map to find your store; Your logo is snazzy, but I wasn't sure if it was two P's interlinked or two P's transformed into an A. I think you should keep your logo but put the actual name of your store in the top part of the circle, and keep your motto on the bottom. The home of low prim design is good.

2)so, I tp'ed to the coordinates.I landed in front of a very open building that i wasn't even sure was a store. no sign? My dear, you need a sign! I waddled over to the sign post, thinking i had to tp to your store. When it finally rezzed for me, i clicked it and it threw me back to the open building. Until I crossed the threshold and got the greeting, i did not know if i was in the right place. (the greeting is very effective, keep that.)

3) I had to walk to the back of the store before i saw what it is you actually sell: low prim houses. All right. That is your main product and it should be up front. Other than that I saw some basic, low prim furniture, which is very useful, but I can find that in other stores that tell me that is what they sell. Its important not to make a shopper have to draw their own conclusions, you have to tell them what you sell and why they need it: you sell low prim furniture and houses and people need to save prims on seating so they can afford that prim monster fountain in the backyard. I liked the design of the bench you have and the canvas slingback chairs had good poses, but I had to do too much thinking when i saw them, as in is this chair/bench really that great? You should do the thinking for me, in the way you position them, as in "look what a great find! These will make your house a palace AND save you money and prims. Your friends will never know how little they cost!" My advice: You should take a pic of your furniture in a wonderful setting, like by the ocean, so I picture how your furniture will just TRANSFORM my 521 sq's into House Beautiful.

4) so I TP'ed to the model home in the sky. First I tried to enter through what I thought was an open entrance of the house, only to be stymied until I realized there was an actual door to the side. Don't stymie customers. Put a sign saying enter here. Once I realized the front is all window, I liked that feature, as my boyfriend once had a spot on a beach and we needed just such a house to take advantage of the view. Walking around inside, I appreciated the construction of the house and I can well imagine buying it.

5) Then, my attention was drawn to the interesting turrets and tree floating nearby, which distracted me from your simple low prim house. So I ended up flying over to the turrets, to inspect that build, but I didn't have my flight feather on and i ended up plunging to the ground. Not a good end to my shopping experience. You need to keep the shopper in your store and keep them looking at your other homes.


In conclusion, I am wondering if you are holding back on putting up a sign and fixing up your store out of fear that you will do all that work and won't get traffic anyway. I think you have it backward, work on your store, then worry about pulling people to it. Your low prim houses and furniture are worthwhile products, you just have to display them better, and then the people will buy when they come.

/me waves to Prawny

I think the points raised by Isablan in her posts are very good and so I want to get you to come and live in one of my parcels Isablan, so that you are there to show me where I go wrong with my marketing, such as it is!!

Hello Winchendon,
From your posting I get the feeling you are defending Prawnyloks, which seems not at all necesarry. The comments we are giving are not ment bad, but in the contrary. They are ment to get her sales up many good points have been made even. That is the weird but good thing about Second Life, even people who in fact sometimes compete with eachother, help eachother as well.

As a matter of fact I can learn a lot from threads like this, as my sales are not at all what they can be. But without traffic bots or camping it is quite hard to get noticed

Greetings Marcel

Hallo Marcel,

I am just trying to support a good friend! But even if Prawny was someone I didn't know, I would like it that her store is not huge like many others. When they are so huge and with bots for traffic, (or making it look like there are many there on the map) it makes me think twice about visiting that store and many times I just don't bother, therefore someone loses a sale!

I agree with you how many of us here help support each other, even if some are in competition with each other. It's ok, I don't do low prim things I sell (or try to) my paintings (and rental homes)!

And now you see why I want Isablan to come and live on one of my parcels!!

I agree, I hate cluttered crazy mall stores...I like the calm of PP's store. she just needs a sign at the entrance, already, and a little tweaking of the displays. i especially like the fact the entrance is unobstructed as that is my biggest pet peeve in stores - the ones where you have to climb over walls to get inside.

I have not been to the store yet, but will check it out when I am in world again.
Been reading the comments here and it seems ppl have a hard time with the PP (with reversed P) and seeing it in the sig, does throw one off...

I love your name, prawnyloks...
and from reading it seems you make low prim homes....

why not call yourself
Prawnyloks Blocks
Home of low prim design

I kinda like the sound of it, and the play on words... blocks = building blocks=prims...

(call me weird if you like LOL)
I will not be insulted if you do not use it, just popped into my head is all

I make low prim homes and furniture.

I don't really plan on renaming or redoing my logo anytime, but I've taken peoples points on-board. I have had a lot of positive feedback in the past about my logo.
I will definitely be working on a banner though showing what I actually sell.
I do have some experience in this field as I have worked in the graphics industry for 20 years, artworking, design and repro.

I had a pop over to your place today Rhaorth and had a good wander around. I like what you've done there, plenty to keep people occupied. I saw the freebie t-shirt sign you have in your store. The girl in the pic looks just like me, lol. And you have the same flooring as me upstairs too. Seems we have similar tastes in some things it seems.

Hello Prawnyloks,
Just tp'ed to your store, Nice place ! Although some may think it is a bit empty looking I loved the openess of it and the fact that I was able to look at everything, not have to pick and choose because there was an overload of stuff. I did stall for just a moment when I went to check prices, I hovered over a piece of furniture itself before I realized price was not there and to find it I would have to hover over sign behind it. I understand this tactic, since you have furniture in multiple color choices you don't want ppl assuming that the one on the floor is the only option and thus it is not set to buy and hover will only bring up description. Maybe a simple solution is in the description that shows up on furniture hover you could put a few words directing ppl to wall and other color options, in case ppl try to hover like I did to find price. Yes it seems obvious but perhaps not all of your potential customers realize this before just moving on.
Another very minor thing and it may be just me idk. but I find it annoying when I sit on a piece of furniture and the pose puts my camera behind a wall. I want to see my avie as soon as I sit .. not have to move my view with mouse. Perhaps this doesn't happen to others thou, never really complained about it so I am not sure. I have always moved my furniture a bit out from the walls so this doesn't happen. All in all thou a great place and great work, keep it up !
Shayla

thanks for visiting, once SL is nice to me again, I will pop in and see yours

heh the tshirt sign both avatars on it are me LOL
(just obviously different skins and shapes) but both me

ah, I know how it feels to be fond of one's choices when it comes to names and logos...
mine used to be RRD ... that was for RhaRha Deisgns... cuz so many folks called me RhaRha...

Then I decided it was time to oomph it up and came up with Rha! and the logo... heh I am pleased with the result.

yeah I like to visit places that have a lot to explore and keep me occupied... so instead of spending my time on other's people land, I decided to make mine a place I would like to hang out at, and it is hehe