Market saturation: What would most likely sell today?

Some already do. I know Xcite has a 'private' switch now that restricts the chat to the people involved in playing via IM, but the choice to switch to this mode is up to the owner of the items.

There needs to be some masculine dances. A lot of dances seem to make guys look like a dork. Or maybe it's just me.

There is also a horrible dearth of hats with hair. You can't make hats fit your hair. They should be supplied together.

Speaking of hair - it would be nice to have some normal male hair once in a while that didn't look you're trying to be in an indie band.

There's still plenty of demand for the well-made item, of whatever sort.

Hair with realistic color and texture and movement (I know lots of vendors that meet one of these...none who do all three.)

Clothes with realistic textures and matched seams, prim flexi parts where needed, in novel styles. Editable, and/or with additional layering options.

Vehicles with realistic detailing and textures.

Novel vehicles/buildings. A friend showed me her new Victorian steampunk sky yacht, and I immediately lusted after one, even though steampunk isn't really my style, and I didn't need a skybox home. The detailing was just SO consistent and beautiful.

Better in-world playable musical instruments.

AO's with random cycling sits and walks and fly animations, as well as the normal cycling stands.

Prim nails that stay on.

Prim eyelashes that blink when you do.

Plants that grow.

Animals and pets with better AI. I want a dog I can interact with, not control like a robot.

I would love to do that. Rez out a bed, that is scripted so when clicked on to buy working like a vendor so that both the creator and the animator and/or scripter get a percentage. So first there needs to be a clear way that the percentages are worked out, who is the most valuable, the content creator, the scripter or animator?

Would the content creator get more because the animation wouldn't have sold without the bed or the animator get more because the bed wouldn't have sold without the animation?

What if the content creator had a quarter SIM for the shop and the animator had no land, because he doesn't need it, would you percentage in costs. How long does a bed take to make against how long does a animation take to make, there's external costs too, assume a animator paid for Poser and as to upload the animations, thereafter, in theory the content creator doesn't need an external program, unless he's making sculpties.

The main thing to remember in all calculations though, is that each item only as to be made once, and if either the animator wanted to improve the animation or the content creator wanted to improve the look of the bed, that would have to be their personal choice and carry the cost themselves.

I have tried numerous time to set up partnerships. Fails every time. I ended up doing my own animations for furniture sets, they aren't as good as stuff done by someone more experienced, but it got the job done and gave me poses that haven't been over-used out in the market.

The accounting part of a percentage would be enough of a pain in the ass that it would keep me from participating. What WOULD interest me is poses that were no-mod (poses, not the ballset) and included a customer number so if the poses were resold the creator would know exactly who to go after. Enforcement is another issue entirely....

The Xpose system works like that, when a bed is rezzed they get a percentage and take it from the account you set up with them. Frankly, I think it is overpriced by about 50% since this is just for the scripting and am looking for other solutions, but may go that route if I don't find anything else that meets my requirements.

In the forum scripting library, there are free scripts for percentage vendor sales, I'm assuming it would be fairly simple to adapt for those purposes, but I haven't gone down that route yet or so I don't know if it would work, scripting is a little beyond my learning curve right now, I can do minimal bastardization that's about it. I guess the main thing is to have a friendship relationship with the 'other' person first and to build up trust before going into business?

Yes, I agree. Some masculine dances that do not look like I'm an '80s street punk break dance artist. Or otherwise desire to go to rap clubs.

There are places that sell hats and hair, but I have yet to see someone sell the hat, the hair and a combined hat and hair. I've only seen the hat and hair combo sold at the same place. I have never seen the hair used in the hat/hair combo sold there, nor the hat by itself. Now it is conceivable that I could unlink the prims and move the hat away from the hair so that I could have a "I've removed my hat" moment, but then I'd have 80 unlinked hair strands on my head, so I'm not going that route.

And yes. I ended up mostly going bald or with painted on hair because of that indie band bias for men's hair. And I would rather not be bald or have hair that short but . . . prefer that to the indie band hair.

I want to see others do what I do in Sl, which is create experiences for others. Not just events, not just scenery, but actual experiences for my close personal friends. Before you scream "it would cost a fortune to do this" just consider what we as residents often invest to "look good" at an event situation where we are often just another face in the crowd. This would be a much more elite, personal interaction, that personally i find much more appealing I'd rather fork over the money for an hours worth of guided RP that promised more than just "look, cool build on your left". Designers never have the time for this sort of thing...So we are usually left to imagining it ourselves. Every great now and then you'll come across some "props" in stores for this type of fantasy.
The best example i will give you of this is a private shopping experience where you're actually "waited on" and offered clothing suited to your style. Doesn't have to be one of a kind, just takes classy service and time. Would be interesting for a designer to auction off an hour's worth of their time benefitting RFL to do something like this. I'm not suggesting them building anything during this, just highly personalize it.
Everything in SL is done quite understandably for the masses, but wouldn't it be so much fun to for once sit in a beautyshop chair for your new hairstyle, or guys- a tattoo parlor?

Pet rocks?

Re the furniture-animation discussion.
Could a furniture store and animation store merge or be next door to one another? And sell furniture and animations that complimented each other so that customers could buy them separately along with instructions for putting the two together?

mods

I look for a lot of different things that I can't find.

Party supplies that aren't birthday, or themed for baby showers or a holiday.
boxes of berries, berry bushes, sacks or baskets of fruit.
hedges, not the type of manicured green hedge you see everywhere but wild rose hedges, bramble hedges
a building tool and classes that taught me to use it.
Tours...I would love to go on a tour. Maybe different themed tours.

Original, seamless textures that don't suck.

I endorse this product and/or service.

I have worked happily with a team of builder, scriptor and animator taking equal one third shares in sales. Using a Hippovend system (or similar) which can be set to pay each person as well as allow a percentage to a franchise seller, so the working out of percentages has not been a chore. Sales on SLEx and OnRez can also be divided. Yes there is an element of trust - but if you don't trust someone to start with, then you will never get going. It is better to trust until someone proves to be untrustworthy. If someone can show me a well thought out and viable proposal - then I will work with them.

From my point of view this works out better all round, because it takes a long time to do the animations, and this leaves the animator with little time in world to market and sell them. You can never tell how well sales will go - so the builder/scriptor cannot be sure of getting much return if he has to pay for full perm animations. Sharing profits means that no one loses out.

The question of no mod is an interesting one because setting a pose or animation file to mod doesn't do anything except allow a change of name and description. Generally, it is not helpful to sell an animation as 'no mod' because people often need to change the name to use in an ao, for example - but I don't see why your idea wouldn't work for animations specifically for use in furniture or vehicles.

If they used the option to keep it quiet! Great! But I have yet to see one do. I just don't want to know. At least keep such thing about personal functions to the owner! We the general public do not need to know!

Well you have to start trusting someone somewhen - it's best to assume people are trustworthy until proven otherwise. It works both ways - the furniture maker will need to supply the animator with a mod/copy item of furniture, so they can test with it. So you have to trust that they won't copy your build. (Not that there is much danger of that in my case as I can just about manage to make a pose ball and if I put 3 prims together it's an achievement!)

If you used vendors like Hippovend system (or similar), the percentages can be agreed and set - and if the animator has a shop they can set up a vendor too thus giving an additional retail outlet. IMO the advantages are such that it is worth the slight risk - you will soon find out if someone is untrustworthy.

Very good. To expand on this a bit, if a piece of scripted furniture were sold with a notecard-configurable script that allows changing animation names and default offsets/rotations, then the furniture seller could advertise "animations sold separately" but provide the notecard parameters for easy drop-in setup. OR an affiliated animator could provide animation packs with the same setup notecard.

Might work.

I read 'pants that grow'


Loose Blouses/shirts. (Puffing up your Tee's only makes you look disproportioned)
A store dedicated to no-heel shoes and boots.
Higher waisted jeans and casual pants.

Some would argue that people wouldn't pay for an event/show/game, but I would.
Imagine a place like Carnival of Doom where one could find more interaction with actors and such. Many complain about great places being deserted. Instead of depending on tips, ask for an amount upfront and entertain people.

Isn't that what escorts do?

.d

Very true. A good quality, original product always has a chance of selling. Even if there are several heavy hitters in your niche, you can still make and sell a quality product - especially if you are creating things that you are passionate about.

When I was deciding whether or not to start an SL business, I very nearly gave up before I started. There were several very well know businesses selling similar products and I thought maybe I would never have a chance. I'm glad that I forged ahead. Now I am making some profit creating things that I really love to make.

Had I switched over to something I thought would be easier to sell, I would have never had the energy or interest to keep working. It took well over a year before I attracted much business or made any sort of profit. It would have been very easy to give up if I was not enjoying myself.

Osprey's suggestion of marketing services is also a great idea. It is SO hard to get noticed in SL. Advertising and marketing options are almost non-existent, and many that do exist are not effective.

I think commissioned and custom made items are a great idea as well. People get something unique, you get to stretch your skills by taking on a wider variety of jobs, and you have to worry less about content theft/re-sale.

A slave collar that sticks no matter what unless you have the keys for it. Remote controlled would be nice as well.

Maggie

Ever hear of RestrainedLife?
https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Alternate_viewers#Marine_Edition

#1 isn't possible within the current permissions system. LL would need to do something. Sounds like a good idea to put on the JIRA.

#2 can't be done directly, in that there is no way to have chat heard by only certain people. I can think of two possible ways to get some of the same effect; having the genitals communicate in IM instead of chat, or having the genitals speak on another channel and requiring your partner or partners to wear chat receivers that would receive messages from the genitals and repeat them with llOwnerSay(). It's likely that your partner is wearing compatible genitals which could act as the chat repeater, so the inconvenience to the users would be minimal.