Opinions about traffic gaining techniques

Aside from spamming your listing with the same words over and over, I was wondering about peoples' opinions on a few things.

First, camping. I know most people are against it because it takes up resources, however, what if used very sparingly, maybe two or three campers, and thats it, in a relatively unused sim? Would that still be considered bad? I can't see how a couple people would take downt he resources enough to cause problems.

Next, Lucky Chairs and random prizes. They don't really cause more traffic I suppose, but can get people to come back if the prizes are good. If they're done in moderation, not announcing to the whole sim, and only within 'legal' distances, do you have any problems with them? I do like it as it allows you to kinda gain a little publicity, and people like free things.

Next(Again), the method that the FooRoo main store has. Essentially a vendor whose price goes down based on the amount of people in the store. I saw that and thought it was ingenius.. seems it could really really work if the item was worth it.

Finally..advertising! Are you more or less inclined to go to someplace if you see it advertised in well-known places? Or if you see too many advertisements (Not on adfarms mind you), do you feel they're trying too hard, or what?

While I don't have anything helpful to offer, I do have a comment on this one...

I don't like camping because it's a way to artifically inflate your traffic numbers. It's fooling the system into saying that a place is more popular than it really is...

But it is that popular, if only because of the camping

What's wrong with giving away money is my opinion on it.. I generally don't like it because bots tend to get campers first, but I personally think its fine in moderation and if real people are getting it.

The thing where the price goes down when there is more people is called a 'mob vend'. It's by the same person who made the lucky chairs. Very fun to come to one of those when there's 30 people all waiting to buy the item.

Cool, thanks for the info ^_^

Had no idea lol.. never seen it anywhere but FooRoo

I am not opposed to camping, by humans, and used in reasonable amounts. Campers that are humans are eyes that are on your products. When I camped, I frequently shopped by camming around. I would look around at whatever cute outfits, textures, etc. where my money would be going - and the camping money was often just a small offset for what I would put in. Some places got hella more money out of me than I ever took from them.

Camping, when done right, is a legitimate tool to get new customers. It doesn't mean that the items are crap. It's eyes on the product.

Camping is nice to give newbies a bit of starting L$, but the effect on traffic (artificial numbers) and the ambiance can actually kill your buisness.

If I TP into a store and see a group of camping zombies, I TP right back out. I refuse to shop at these places.

Why? Because if they need to game traffic, then thier products must suck.

While there are humanitarians that give away the L$ to help, it should be down outside of a buisness venue, imo.

As for the other means, all viable. Even the ads. I feel a lot of buisness would be well off to "trade" ad space with each other. Put up several ads of other places to have your ads put up at thiers.

The Lucky Chairs and Mob Vendors are simply gimmicks. And can be fun in the process.

~Jessy

However, what if you only see one or two 'camping zombies'? Really wondering

And also, what if those 'humanitarians' don't have any extra space? =P I think the little platforms with chairs look worse than having chairs placed where there might be some in a RL store.

I've seen a few places with 1-2 camping spots, using the ones that look like washing windows, painting walls, planting flowers, etc. These add to the look if done right.

For both instances, any "mob" of campers is tacky. And if a person has enough money to give away enough L$ to need that many spots, then they should have the means to have the land to spread them out.

In any case, the "just sitting there" and the "used to much dance pad" of camping is something that I'll avoid. Even if only one or two.

Working a different animation or such into a buisness shows me drive, determination and creativity. Just a bunch of "pads" shows me the builder has no intrest in SL, nor in how the land looks, nor care of the impact on the sim (if a huge group). As in RL, going the extra mile to make a buisness pleasant to the people shopping there is paramount.

~Jessy

Thankies ^_^ I like your answers

And I was thinking about altering a camper so that it's a comfy armchair that causes you to look like you're reading the newspaper, or maybe in a little patio coffee shop kinda setting. Hope that isn't too tacky ^_^

Anyways, again thankies ^_^

Oki, I currently have a money orb running on the beach, and 3 camping towels that shut themselves off after the person on each particular towel hits $50 - it's a built in safety mechanism for me. It's not bringing large numbers of traffic, but my primary goal is to help those who need it, so I'm not overly concerned either way.

But perhaps you could try the money orb routine...which I recommend

Oh yeah I remember the towels! Those look nice ^_^

And thankies ^_^

I really only would use camping to help people.. I have the money to help so why not, right?

OH! Also, kinda offtopic but not quite... where can I get a L$ tree? Or can I? lol..those are cool for newbies

There's a free linden tree on slexchange

yay! Thankies again ^_^

These I would find less of an annoyance than the camper farms. Window washers, etc. I feel the same way about. As Jessica says above, if I get somewhere and it's full of simple chair campers I just leave.

The downside of your comfy chair (not the Comfy Chair!) idea would be the AFK camper who comes off as rude if they don't respond when shoppers try to strike up a chat. That's probably only a minor problem, though. You're essentially paying them to model the product, assuming it's chairs with animations. What would really be cool would be the ability for campers to stand on the pad and automatically be dressed in the garments a shop is selling. "Living" mannequins. It wouldn't surprise me if someone were offering that, assuming it's even technically possible.

That is being offered, I've seen it in a couple places ^_^ The camper just has prim clothes invisible until sat upon, then they become visible.. it's cool. Doubt it works with non-prim clothes though..

And thankies ^_^

Mob vendors are horrible evil things. Imagine trying to shop when a gajillion people are standing around bringing in their friends just so they can buy hair at L$150 instead of L$200. It's worse than having a camper or two washing windows or gardening, in my opinion.

I actually enjoy lucky chairs but still, when I see them, and see 10 people standing around for their letter to come up, I get sort of annoyed because they take up resources.

I'm honestly hoping that traffic goes away altogether with this new search. If you're keen on giving money away to newbies, go for the money trees. Much more fun.

I don't mean gaining traffic for search..at least for me, I mean gaining traffic for people, to get it more well known. I don't care about my search stats, I'll never be the top, I guarantee it.

And eep I guess that could be bad with the mob vend.. never seen it,same with lucky chairs, never seen people standing around for em =/

I can only try though, and see what happens ^_^

I think if you want to pay ppl to be on your land, then hire them as customer service, or as mentions manniquens

something that will help potential customers and help your business and good for the person getting paid

as for the rest, tried them (except campers) and in my opinion not worth it


I dislike campers, too much false traffic
and they cause lag in high numbers

Wholeheartedly agree with that one. Those mob vendors are a nuisance. Have for me also in the past led to unsolicited TP offers (and deletion of said person from my friendslist).
Lots of campers are a sure way to get me never to come back. The occasional gardener can look fun, but I also find them a bit creepy for some reason.
The lucky chair thing annoys me mostly because of the spam.
And yes, if this is only about giving money away, why not simply do the money tree thing, fun and in no way an eyesore either.

You can also set up a open enrollment product update and exclusive freebie group. Give away cool stuff and gift cards in this group. Have a in-store-only weekly or monthly freebie and advertise it in these forums under the NEW PRODUCTS thread. Get a monthly live performance for your store or run a fashion show there or a fashion photography contest of people wearing your products.

Yer good at this =P


Thankies, woulda been like months before I even thought of the idea of giving things away in a group like that.

What a pain in the butt to manage, though. Invariably, you will have to regulate because of group spam. It's annoying as all hell.

Not if you disable group chat while you're offline and can't handle support calls


Only allow group chat if you or someone else who can do support is online, otherwise turn it off...and bam, spamming is handled! (Aside from the occasional outbreak which is easily quelled)

If you have a product that can be distributed at Free Dove that would be my recommendation. Even though I am far past the newbie stage I shop there frenquently, looking for new designers and always leave a generous donation. I take all newbies there . Then when I am interested in buying something new I look up the LM of the clothes I wear most and that is where I shop. I have done this since my first few days and think this is a great advertising idea.