Question about getting renters

We have a shopping sim with 20+ stores-not an openspace. We've got some good well-known renters but can't seem to rent out the majority of them. Anyone know the best way to advertise? We've placed ads here and in classified but get nothing. I'm at a loss.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Wickford%20Village/61/139/22

Do you have camping etc set up there? tell us more about the place.. Send pics..

Getting renters is something I have found to be difficult, even if you advertise. The best way is to have competitive costs, I run the AICR (www.aicr.org.uk) charity sim where there are villas to rent and since opening 2 years ago we have never had all villas rented.

I'd like to see the notecard with rules regarding rental and rates etc on this.. But I am at work and not in world. When renting vendor space there are a great deal of things we must weigh out in our minds first..

1. Do you have campers thus resulting in fake traffic numbers
2. Does your build fit my products
3. Lag, Am I going to have to deal with laggy vendors
4. Stall Size
5. Prim Limits
6. Weekly Cost Min/Max limits
7. Customer service
8. Etc Etc Etc..

Malls are hard to fill after the new Search All. It became easier for a shop owner to get people to their main store, without the need for the traffic of a mall to get noticed in Places Search.

So how could you fill up a mall anyway?
First of all, stand out. Just a handful of shops in a row will not do it. Work from a theme, either in content (specialized in furniture stores for example, so people looking for that, will find a wide choice of merchants), or in theme (Gorean Mall, kids mall, and so on).

Make sure your make parcels for your merchants so they can be found in search all. It costs 30 linden per parcel that you can add to their rent, but it is very important.

Plan ahead how you will get your shoppers. Events, treasure hunts, whatever you can think of. People are not paying for a shop if you do not make sure they get (potential) customers.

When I look at my ow business, I did rent in the past but never with much success. So I focused on getting people to my main store, by putting energy in my search results. So I am pretty hard to convince into a mall. But if a mall owner would drop me a notecard with a good business plan, and a free period to try it out, I might do it. Let's say this notecard:

=========================================
Hi, Marcel,
Please let me introduce myself: John Doe of the Furniture Mall. We know your stuff and want you as a renter. To prove that we offer you 2 weeks free of rent to try us out. And why would you?
- We only do furniture, so all shoppers we attract are interested in products our merchants sell. No guarantee they buy with you, but they at least are looking for furniture!
- We have 5 events per week that we advertise on the events page of Second Life. Treasure hunts, contests (we would love to have some prizes from your store for them) and live events.
- You get your own parcel in search for 30 linden per week so you can be found in search all.

Come and take a look, and tell us how you like it.
=========================================

This notecard would definitely make me take a look. First of all it is personal, second of all I see the people behind the mall put effort in doing it right. Mabe I would not try it out after all, but at least they got my attention

Hope this helps you a bit!

We have no camping. The stores are free standing shops in a village type setting. We’ve gotten a lot of compliments on it but that’s not turning into rentals. I’ll post the covenant below.

The rents are: $400L / 50 prims, $500L / 75 prims & $600L / 100 prims and are based on the size of the shop. One renter wanted a bigger store but didn’t need the prims and we made that happen for her. We’re not set in stone and it wasn’t a problem for us. All IMs go to my email which I check often. Customer service I don’t think is a problem. I rent on other sims and expect sim owners to fix something for me ASAP so I do the same for our renters.

Walls and floors are easily changed by sending us a notecard or IM. I realize my taste may not be everyone’s so it’s no problem; which I tell renters when they move in. We’ll use their texture or make a change based on what they think they might want.

You’re asked to participate in a few hunts by providing a freebie. We had one so far for the grand opening in October. Maybe half of the shop owners participated after we sent some reminders and it was a great success but we thought because so few participated maybe it was a bother. We hope to do one in December with the rest of SL – lol.

Shops are divided and set to advertise. Renters tell us what they want posted and its done for them. We’ve had a special going on for new renters for a while: get 2 weeks free with 2 weeks rental. We have sent out notecards with limited success. We also got a few people quoting SL codes to us; saying its against SL policy to send notecards unsolicited so we aren’t doing that now.

Please visit the sim to get a better idea of the look and the quality of design. If anyone visits and has a recommendation we’re more than willing to listen. Thanks for the help!! : )
________________________________________________

Wickford Village Shops - Rental Instructions and Terms
Contacts: FLH McMillan and Maeve Mortlock
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RENTAL PROCESS and GROUP MEMBERSHIP REQUIREMENTS
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1. The shop rental price and prim limitation is displayed above the rental box.
2. Pay the rental box to take custody of the shop.
NOTE: DO NOT set up your shop until you have joined the Wickford Village Shops Vendors Group. To join group, contact FLH McMillan or Maeve Mortlock for a group invitation. If you place objects in your shop before you become a member of the Wickford Village Shops Vendors Group, your items will return to your inventory.
3. It is your responsibility to keep track of rent obligations. You "should" receive "Rent Due" messages. However due to message caps, etc., it is possible you may not receive a reminder.
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SETTING UP YOUR SHOP
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1. Once your Wickford Village Shops Vendor Group membership established, ACTIVATE the Wickford Village Shops Group before placing objects in your shop.
2. Do not exceed your prim limit.
3. Do not place prims outside the shop. Exceptions may be authorized by FLH McMillan or Maeve Mortlock upon request.
4. Alterations (floor and wall textures, etc.) to your shop may be made by FLH McMillan or Maeve Mortlock upon request.
5. Only signs placed by the management is allowed. Please provide a copy of your sign texture to management for placement.
6. If you want a "Description" about your shop listed in the "About Land" dialog box, provide the description to management.
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SCRIPTS
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Scripts are a major source of simulator performance degradation (Lag). Some types of scripts having the most severe negative impact on simulator performance include the following and are restricted:
• Timers
Any scripted item which uses a timer to calculate the passage of time is prohibited. An example of this might be a vendor system which automatically advances to the next item to display every few minutes. Instead, configure your vendor to disable the auto-cycle feature, or use vendors that cycle between products only when clicked.
• Sensors/Scanners
Any scripted item which is designed to detect nearby avatars is prohibited. Sensors/scanners use a great deal of resources in order to function. Do not use a visitor counter that relies on avatar sensor scripting. Instead, use a guest book that records avatar information when clicked, or a visitor counter that relies on collision (like a welcome mat that activates only when an avatar steps on it).
• Rotations
Rotating or continuously animated items create a lot of lag. Their use is prohibited.
• Listens
Items which are scripted to listen continuously to various chat channels use a lot of the region’s resources are prohibited. Instead, use items whose listen mode can be shut off when not needed. Many vendor systems, including JEVN/JENC, offer this functionality.
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Float Text
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Floating text can easily bleed through walls from neighboring stores and confuse your shoppers. For this reason, its use is prohibited except on back walls of the shops flanking North and West.
--------------------------------
PROHIBITED DISPLAYS AND PRODUCTS
--------------------------------

Gambling Machines
Escort Products or Services
Money Machines
Sex Beds
Human Apendages
Pornographic Displays or Products - as determinined by management.
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RULES
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1. No drawn weapons or combat.
2. No Clubs
3. Shops may not be used for residential purposes.
4. No talking vendor systems
5. No tip jars (except if for sale)
6. No subletting
7. No nudity

The rents are: $400L / 50 prims, $500L / 75 prims & $600L / 100 prims

If this is per-week. I'd pass as it's too high IMO. Typically what I see in the market and this includes a few major areas that are themed to fit my products are 200 for 50 Prim.

I posted some picks on Flicker: http://www.flickr.com/photos/32750616@N03/

I can't possibly rent out a shop for 200L a week. We have a total of 28 shops. $200L for 28 shops would be 22400L a month. That's like $90US - a long long way from $295US. Maybe its time to rethink.

I'd say it is.. You still need to make your profit to cover your tier. But you don't want to over change to get there. Perhaps change the size of the shops to accomodate more and lower the rates.

Again this is IMHO... You still need to do what you feel is right as a business person.

20 shops on a whole sim? You need to be more prim conscious so that you can give more prims to your renters. If you aren't using megaprims...you should.

yep same here

average of about 4L per prim is what I would pay

Thanks Rha.. I didn't feel like doin the math. lol Yea Yea I know.. Taylor you lazy B*T*H

we deliberately only made 28 shops to give a more cozy feel. they are placed close to each other to resemble a village type atmosphere. too many ppl told us they won't rent in a mall. prims aren't a problem. we could double the prims but the renters aren't using anywhere near their allotment now. Perhaps malls are the only way to make it feasible. but that's not an option for us.

Well if "too many" people have told you they won't rent from Malls why are they not renting from you?

As you can see from posts here your current set up won't net you the profit you are looking for.

Maybe if you are not able to rent space you should try to adjust your pricing down a little bit. I have a stall in a mall that almost never has free space, I pay $125L a week for 20 prims.

Thanks a lot. This is what I was looking for. I'm going to bring the price down to $4L per prim. We'll try that for a while and see if it works out.

Best of luck. Hope it works well for you. I'd come by but my products don't fit your build.. You don't want a bunch of Crazy Neko's hangin out..

ROFL nahh not lazy

just I tend to stick with the 4L per prim and the 50 prims for 200L was 4L per prim...

hehe, Made ya laugh though.. That's all that matters.. ;P How ya feelin hun?

OH and I noticed.. ya commented on just the Lazy Portion of that statement.. lol Uh huh

just looked at the pics

looks like any other "mall" to me

I have been wracking my brain for over a year, for an idea for something different for a mall or shopping area

(If I had my own sim I mean)

and sadly nothing I came up with seemed to be different, everything seems to look the same, either a big building with lots of small rental rooms, or something like you have set out.

I wish you luck and will drop by when I have a chance to see if it is something I might be interested in renting out from... but no promises

heh yeah I needed a laugh

I feel like crap, not as bad as yesterday, but still sucky
mainly it is the side effects of the meds

jittery shaky feeling, nervousness, anxiety, scared, mood swings from hell, agressive, tired, aches, pains, etc

the worst though is the nasty bitchy feeling, like I am angry all the time, for no reason

I see the dr again tomorrow, hoping they can drop the steroids level again

and of course I have gained even more weight because of the fluid retention, and stupid steroids, and I SO do not need more weight, so of course add depression in with that



On a side note, I joined weight watches last night, hopefully that will help
(totally different system than I remember 20+ years ago)

don;t know you well enough to know if you are a bitch

Sendin ya all my best hun... Let us know how the doctor goes k?

LOL you have read most of my posts on here.. Haven't figured it out yet?