SL Business Wiki

So, I think Strife is out of town for a few days and Santa already knows I've been naughty...thus, let's eat, drink, be merry...and play with the idea of a wiki that would be a resource we can point people to for information on starting/running a business in SL.

Wikispaces offers free hosted Wiki's, so that part is easy.

I wrote up a starting outline with the idea of breaking SL business up into 6 - 8 major segments. The idea would be for people working in various sectors to fill in details about what it takes to create in those sectors and run a successful business.

Format open for discussion:

1) The basics of commerce in SL:

- overview of commerce in SL
- types of businesses
- average timeline from starting to learn to selling
- IP rights & theft
- Permissions system


2) Advanced topics:

-Location
-Store layout
-Listing services
-Promotion/Marketing/Advertising
-Customer Service



Fashion & Appearance Sector

-Clothing

--Subtopics:
------Tools
------Resources
------Templates
------Tips
------Packaging & permissions

-Skins
--Subtopics:
------resources
------templates
------tips
------Packaging & permissions



-Fashion Accessories
--Subtopics:
------Jewelry
------Hair
------Shoes


Gadgets/Vehicles/Weapons Sector

-Vehicles
--Subtopics:
------Tools
------Resources
------Tips
------Packaging & permissions

-Gadgets
--Subtopics:
------Tools
------Tips
------Packaging & permissions


Land Business

-Reselling
--Subtopics
------Tools
------Resources
------Tips
------Financial considerations

-Rentals
--Subtopics
------Tools
------Resources
------Tips
-------Financial Considerations



Animations Segment

--Tools
--Resources
--Tips
--Packaging & permissions


Building Segment

-Subtopics:
----Textures
--------Tools
--------Resources
--------Tips
--------Packaging & permissions

----Prefabs
---------Tools
--------Resources
--------Tips
--------Packaging & permissions


----Building Tools
---------Tools
--------Resources
--------Tips
--------Packaging & permissions

hehe. This is why I've never done anything in SL. What I sell doesn't fit under any of the headings. On the other hand, I see a lot missing there Maybe they all go under building. Or gadgets.

Plants (landscaping or just single trees etc.), and furniture, and paintings/art/scultpures go under building I guess.

Having one place where people can find the information they need to run/start a business ...brilliant.

~Ari

I think this is a fabulous idea. *applauds*

However, rather than covering everything that can be made, why not make it a little more general? i.e. aspects of selling goods:

- building with prims and sculpties
- textures
- animations
- scripts

And then resources for the above. Surely by that time they'll be able to source out more specific resources for clothing versus vehicles.

I'm a big fan of keeping things short and as simple as possible. On the other hand, maybe the project can be split into two:

1) An FAQ quick guide, and
2) Wiki with all the info you listed.

Just thinking out loud here.

Love the idea!!!

Feel free to use the SL Wiki I started a year ago at http://second-life-user-guide.wikispaces.com/ if you want. It not overly filled with content at the moment.

Zoho.com also has wikis, and a number of other collaboration programs as well, as does wikia.com.

Of the two choices zoho or wikispaces, I'd pick zoho, if only because the toolbar stays at the top.

Necropost Ahoy!

As long as we are all fired up, let's do this business wiki thing.

http://slbusinesswiki.wikispaces.com/

Open to all to edit..until someone acts like a jerk and I have to close it to members only.

I started a basic framework, add as you see fit.

Bumping now that everyone is awake.

Good Morning!

Sorry for waking up late to this thread, Isa, but just wondering why this isn't fair game for putting in the "official" wiki.secondlife.com? (Not intending to make more work, nor to divert attention from the new wiki, just asking on the off-chance it would be better to move it, before that gets too difficult to contemplate.)

Also a category for SERVICES. I offer vocational services. Some of the school sin SL also offer that and job placement services.

.

Qie, that was a great idea and I just spent some time puttering around on the wiki. There doesn't seem to be any way of creating a new portal except going through LL - and (insert higher power here) knows how long that will take. They also have a note to discourage creation of new pages so as to avoid "wiki sprawl." Not encouraging. I'll send in a request to have a portal added, but I don't have a lot of hope that anyone will actually do it and, frankly, I'm not keen on having LL control the process.

Oh, gee, I hadn't even thought of making it a portal, although that might be a good thing going forward. I just meant adding your own user page and stuffing the content into a separate page in your user space. I'm embarrassed that I never quite figured out how to complete this example, but I started one of these (for the parcel search sticky) at https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/User:Qie_Niangao/Optimizing_Parcels_for_Search -- which I mention here just as a kind of "existence proof."

(I assume that anybody can edit that page, even though it's in my User space... at least that's how I understand it should work, as a wiki.)

Yeah, I was thinking portal ...not "Isablan's thing" since it will be a community effort of business owners helping other business owners. I'm just giving it a small push off the starting line with the hope that others will add and share their learned wisdom.

Right, I understand, and having the page appear under you User space *looks* wrong... but it would still work the same. I just turned my alt loose on the page I cited, and he can edit it, so it functions as a normal wiki even under the User category.