Update on sales slump.

My sales were quiet for a little while but have picked up in the last week or two, so I'm perfectly happy =)

What about places like Freebie Planet and all the other Business in a Box giveaway items out there? They all showed up in late summer and I think they have played a part in the sales slump. Who needs to buy stuff when you can get just about any type of content for free? Yes, there is the issue of quality, but it does not make a difference to ppl on low end computers who cant see the difference.

Hey Kornscope!

I know it's maybe a little late since you've decided to pack it up already, but have you considered that although your products and prices are great, the presentation is maybe a little lacking? I went to your store, and your houses appear to be potentially perfect -- very low price, very nice designs, and most importantly great prim usage! HOWEVER: with those vendor displays, I could hardly tell what the hell I was looking at. And there was no way I could look at the joints, textures, and quality of your work.

On an 8192 plot, couldn't you make a small village that people could walk through, at least showcasing your best work? Then people would have a better idea of what to expect instead of buying blind out of those vendors. If you already tried that, then disregard.

Also, the market for buying houses sort of boggles my mind. The typical customer first has to own or rent land, then, they make ONE choice possibly for their entire existence in SL. Then, the more satisfied they are, the LESS likely they are ever to go shopping for a house again. Unless SL is adding boatloads of paying members, it seems to me that the competition in that business would be hopelessly fierce. This isn't to wreck your enthusiasm, but just to point out that your difficulties don't necessarily reflect on your talent.

On to the broader topic. Do you merchants know that, in my case at least, I can't really buy anything from SLexchange? It has errored out every time I've tried, for weeks. It refunds my money, but I never go back to try to find the item again. I wrote to SLX, and they wrote back and said it's SL's fault. I do prefer to just go to the store, but there are many times that I just want to get the item from the site. So, it this just a problem with me, or are you actually selling anything from SLX?

-Avion

SLX purchases are working fine for me, Avion.

I have been in business since January and since April, my sales have decreased every month. I started off doing very well..... Decent first month that ramped up quickly. By April, I was doing 10 to 12 sales a day. It has dropped steadily despite advertising and opening mall locations in popular spots. I was covering a $75 tier in the first 3 months but now I am down to maybe 20 sales a month.

I was on orientation island last night watching newbies poof into existance (which I find very restful).

So one of them stops to ask the mentors how to get money here. The response being you can work or camp. I chimed in and suggested that he could put in $10 from his credit card which would keep him going for ages without being tied to camping in some evil shopping mall.

He replied to say he didn't want to spend any money (although apparently burning his leisure time/electricity making a few cents an hour camping is ok...).

If that kind of attitude is dominant right now, it is unsurprising that sales are weak.

What I find really odd about this viewpoint is that relative to other online entertainment like WoW or SWG, SL is really a bargain.

*frantically waves hand in agreement*

I had to abandon my rental business due to the VAT issue, so I sold almost all of my land and tiered down. In terms of clothes, animations, etc. I have all I need. So now I'm sitting on a pile of money I'm using up gradually to pay my and my alt's tier & premium fees.

Maybe they should... (maybe I should get some heat shielding) ...bring back stipends for free accounts? lol

Well... one can hope that the physics update and that Windlight thing will improve the financial mood a bit. But in the meantime... perhaps we should all throw USD$5 - USD$10 into the Lindex and go shopping tonight.

lol

Any manipulation of the existing SL economy which does not result in more overall USD being spent on SL will do NOTHING to help the economy.

Increasing stipends will just reduce the value of the L$ meaning that creators who sell L$ will make less USD$.







------------------------------

The SL economy is like a big jug of water. X amount of water gets replenished every month. X has been fairly constant for 6 months.

Meanwhile the number of thirsty people has increased.

Increasing stipends just takes some water away from those who sell their water and redistributes it amoung everyone.

It does nothing to increase the total amount of water available.

How big is that pile?...... And what are you doing later tonight? *bats eyelashes*

That attitude has been dominant for many months though, ever since the flood of unverified accounts (not that everyone happily spent US$ before).

In its extreme form you actually get mocked for spending "real" money on SL, which is part of my dislike of unverifieds.

I also noticed that even when they're several months old they're still clueless of how much/little L$ are actually worth in RL terms.

When LL advertises "Free accounts" they will attract people with that attitude.

Thank you very much for your comments and considerations Avion.
You don't mention the two sky decks I have to rez all buildings. Maybe you didn't see them. Thanks anyway. And yep. It''s too late.

As for analized? Im no academic, it's good enough for me. Hey?

The real person population has declined but bot population has climbed rapidly to cover it, if you need more sales just add a 100 or so traffic bots to your store, maybe some of the thousands of other bots will be attracted to your land to spend money.
And the "play for free, everything should be free" attitude seems to be rampant.
People say you nuts to spend RL money to buy stuff they like then beg you for $20L.

I'm starting to get sales. Although my store has been open since December, I have not had many items available as I have been doing a lot of custom work and developing my skills. In the past few weeks I have been developing and releasing some appealing items in a good niche. I think the combination of hitting a good niche, my current skill level, critical mass of number of items I sell and general increase of shopping has come together for me. I am getting pageviews and sales on SLEX. I'm getting in-world shoppers that buy 4-5 items in a single visit. I am excited and encouraged. Woohooo!

I noticed this just now:

US$ Spent Last 24h: $985,697


Whenever I saw that before, it was in the million.

Is it typical for it to be in the 900 USD at this time?

I never considered that number all that valuable, since that measures L$ traded back and forth and the value is just translated to USD.

Some have said that number is just an estimate and isn't even updated daily !!

I don't know about that, but -

I always felt the LindenX activity in the last 24 hours meant much more since thats the actual Business owners being compensated.

This might be true. Many of us that have been around for awhile can tell you.Things are not improving at all, infact we are going backwards. grant you support is getting much better. But over all playablity, griefters, newbies wanting everything for nothing. Just leaves many of us blank minded. Those that have been on sl for a long and saying all is wonderful on sl are eitehr rich or have inside connections to LLABS and are making ahell of alot of real monies. But for us avage users its a whole differewnt book. There is two stories on sl the ones that got left behind and those that are making a hell of alot of money ( real Monies ).

I noticed today my "total money made for the day"..which is the "credit" section in the transaction history page, was actually DECLINING..and by the thousands...

I only noticed because the figure at the end of the day, was significantly lower than the figure i took note of mid-day.

Im hoping someone can shed some light on whats going on, I posted in a new thread, you can see it here

/327/bb/219019/1.html#post1730957

As I state on the bottom of the thread- could it be some of you are thinking your sales low due to what the "credit" history is reporting.....? If this has been going on for awhile, its very inaccurate...

The credit number should never decline, its not supposed to. You have a "debit" side for that....

I only go by total Lindens in my account I don't even bother reading the balance sheet.

I would think most people can tell if their business is succeeding or not by simply looking at the bottom line - How much money do they have at the end of the day.

It shouldn't take transaction history to know whether your sales are good or bad. Just to provide detail of how good or bad.

i must be atypical. i've had practically every house style, and every piece of furniture to match it (as prims permit). i must own 30 houses, some free, most purchased. the only thing i haven't done is a castle. 99L is an attractive price. too bad i don't have prim space to rez a new house.

ah, i get bored easy. i'll be revamping again before you know it.

i'm the biggest impulse shopper in all of SL. my inventory is packed with things i've never even rezzed. quite the opposite in RL, where i HATE shopping and spending money.

Well I have a lot of money coming in and going out (cashing out) on a constant basis. I depend on the "credit total" to see my daily profits, I wasnt referring to the detailed info there, though I do need that to help customers out. I also always save this data. Now, i cant trust it and am going to have to check everything manually.

the vast majority of businesses probably wouldn't be in the "lot of money coming in" category.

I used to make over $100 US a month for well over a year. Now I don't even make enough to bother selling any Lindens on LindenX any more.

Since you sell mostly clothing, it would seem to me to be more adventagous to sell it as mod/copy or copy only. Everytime someone transfers an item of clothing that you created to an alt or friend, its a potential lost sale that you could have had. You have nothing to loose by an avatar being able to have more then one copy of your clothing in thier inventory, they can only wear one at a time, its just more convenient for them when mixing/matching clothing. Also selling items as mod/copy or copy makes business easier for you, you have nothing to loose replacing a customers lost items if you can confirm they made a purchase. The customer goes away happy and you don't have to worry about being scammed with transferable items.