How do you keep from getting discouraged by low sales?

I was recently rereading a couple of threads about how sales seem to have really dropped off lately for a lot of people... I've noticed the same thing myself. I'm really having mixed feelings about keeping my shop open, and I'm wondering how others are coping (mentally, not in terms of advertising, etc.) with the same situation.

I've been concentrating on making jewelry lately, since it's what I enjoy most. I used to get a few sales a week, not a huge amount of money but enough to help support my shopping habit. Now, when I look at my records, I have to go back 5 days to see any substantial sale at all. (That is, more than about L$10 a day.) The last couple of items I released barely sold at all. I know I'm not an expert builder, but I think I've been improving, so I don't think the quality is the problem...

It's gotten to the point where I really don't feel inclined to release anything new. I'll make stuff for my own use, but I don't see any point in putting up new vendors if nothing is selling.

I'm just curious, how are others dealing with this same situation? Are low sales making you feel that same apathy? Have you stopped producing as much, or do you have ways of staying positive and not getting discouraged by it all?

I am pretty much in the same boat you are.

I've never sold much at all, since I build almost purely for the pleasure of it... so the way I deal with my lack of sales is by enjoying what I do immensely

What I DON'T do is tell me RL wife that my sales aren't enough to pay my tier at the moment!

Sold the land, took down the work. Took me 4 months to get into my mind that it wasn't going to improve (for me). Results vary.

I do not do anything
I continue to be discouraged

sadly it is the way it is

hoping other ventures pan out and help bring some income to myself, and others

Instead of just making "stuff" and hoping someone will want to buy it, think about what you would like to have in SL, what is missing that no one else is providing, and then you figure out how to make it. Chances are that if you want one, thousands of other people will also.

Everything I sell was originally made for myself or a friend first, because it was something we wanted. Then I also put it out for sale.

P.S. My sales have dropped too, they are only 20% or so of what they were in January, but the sales I do have continue to make it worthwhile.

There is lots more competition out there these days, and lots of people coming into SL who don't want to spend any money, and don't need to when there are so many freebies around. So come up with something that isn't readily available in freebie boxes, something unique that people will want to buy.

I deal with the low sales by trying to make something even better then what I have made before, and better then what anyone else is making.

Well, VAT killed my business for good. So now I just sit on my tropical island, create what I want just for the fun of it and roam around exploring the wonders of SL.

No need to be frustrated ... it's really very relieving to enjoy free time without any pressure.

I second ArchTx, build things that you want to own first, then sell them. Always ask yourself "would I buy this? and what would I pay for it?"

I made a barrel of freebies and quite a few of those have been snapped up. I bet if I started charging L$1 for them very few would sell.

Almost nothing of mine sells these days - they are all items that sold OK a few months ago. As for VAT, well - it's, like, only 17.5%, not 100% 0r 200%! So I would only imagine that VAT could have, overall throughout SL, a maximum of 17.5% downward influence on purchasing and only among European members. But then we Europeeps now get our SL relatively cheap compared to Americans anyway because of the current low value of the US dollar.

sales have been in spurts for us, but steady...i guess we are one of the lucky ones.

This may be slightly off topic but do you advertise? If so, do you put a picture of your best items in the ad?

I'm surprised how many creators only put the name of their business in their classifed. I don't need a business card, I want to see an example of the work before I bother to tp and consider buying.

That being said, I think the population of SL is much more spread out these days. However, I've also noticed the number of concurrent users is on the rise again after dropping off a bit in the summer.

I've been in SL for five months, i'm running 5 stores at the moment. I don't know if the sales dropped down because I'm not newbie...but i'm new. And what I earn with my sales are more than enough to pay the 72 us$ anual payment.

Sale rates depends on too many factors:

* Quality of product - if people like what they bought from you, they'll buy more and will recommend your products to other people.

* Good presentation - no one will buy a black box with a floating text on it. Instead if you make good posters, some photoshop work, everything changes.

* Good Locations - Ok, you have nice products, a nice presentation, but a bad location, then you wont have high sale rates.

What's does "Good Location" means?

High traffic is good, but the places with the highest traffic are commonly filled with ghost avatars and/or camping newbies, and they don't buy too much, but is always good to have a shop in a crowded place, so you can get good promotion of your products (next point is about promotion).
Also a good location depends on what you sell, for example i make japanese goods, so i put shops in japanese themed places.

* Promotion: Promote yourself, or let someone do it for you.

Make a presentation notecard with your main store's LM on it, make a logo, take a snapshot of your mainstore and put it all in the notecard.

Make a freebie and put inside that notecard.

Make a group and make a group joiner. (A group joiner works in crowded places for me)

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This is not a math equation but it can be useful to raise your sales. And maybe next year europe people will start to buy again...like RL economy it goes Up and Down.

Well don't do that. Halting new releases should only make sales worse. Hard times are when you need to start doing more, not less. There are many shops that I love, and go back to occasionally, but never buy anything because I already bought everything I wanted the first time.

Ideally, a person running a business in SL should only buy enough land that they can afford to make zero income from. Consider it an entertainment expense. Then, if you do make any money, you're only pleasantly surprised. I know that not everyone has that luxury, but it's the only way to work on your creations free from stress.

Very good advice. I liked having my huge plot of land with my items out, and could afford it for a certain period of time. I considered it an entertainment expense, and when it stopped being entertaining, I folded up shop.

I know exactly how you're feeling hon. Yesterday I made the decision to close my store which has been open almost a year. Sales for the majority of this year were great and covering the shop rental plus giving me some healthy spending money. But of late they've dropped to the point where I can't even pay to keep the store open.

I did start working on a major re-marketing campaign. But I realised after a couple of days that what I was working on was going to cost me RL cash (buying L$'s for the classified ad and to cover the rent until things pick up) and I just can't afford it.

It's sad to see the store go. I got a real kick finding out that people had bought my stuff and were really happy with it in their homes. I'll treasure all the kind comments people made about the store and the furniture I sold. I was really proud of it and I did get really down when I realised it had to go.

The way I cope with that? I've decided to go back to living for fun! I shall mostly be sailing, partying, and sky diving from here on out

I find there is a sort of magic to it.

Of course, one gets discouraged when sales are down, but that's when you MOST need to keep on creating. Then sales go back up!

It's magic.

You may not be creating as happily, but if you stop, then sales will stay down. Keep on, and they will be back up in a day or two, and then you will be happy and inspired again.

Magic!

coco

Know what your needs and wants are, then satisfy them. *wink* I make my lindens primarily by vending things I make. Socializing and exploring are free, but land and a lot of toys aren't.

My list of "needs" is pretty simple.

- to cover my tier and other costs

So I make sure my linden inflow is greater than the outflow. Outflow's pretty simple for me - membership, tier, rental of some vendor spaces, and advertising. Inflow for me is mostly sales and stipend. I keep a spreadsheet so I know how my lindens are coming and going.

- to make things that please me
- to learn new things

Most of the things I make are because I want them. Sometimes they're because a friend wants one (neko skins, anthro deer avatar) or because something makes me laugh and I want to share the joke (Houseplants of Gor, freebie pink elephant avatar.) Some are to make SL a better place (the Sound Prims, the landmark HUD.) Some of my projects started because I wanted to learn how to do something - I've learned a lot about 2D and 3D graphics, quarternions, advertising, architecture, fashion, and a bunch of other subjects.

- to know that other people enjoy and use things I've made

Seeing the sound prims on the shelf at NCI. The first time I saw someone wearing an avatar I made in their profile pic. Emails and IMs talking about stuff in Avatar Toolbox. This also has the side effect of helping me meet people interested in similar things!

My advice other than do it for love not money is to give it one more month. It feels like things are picking up. But instead of creating new items, brainstorm ways to promote what you have already created.

I suppose in a way SL business is no different to RL. The large majority of small businesses in RL fail in the first two years. A lot of the ones that make it are the ones that have a vision and some capital to make it through the tough times.
I think a lot of people enter SL and get really excited thinking they are going to make money doing something they enjoy and who can blame them, its what every one wants. Then after a while they realise the reality of it. It takes a lot of precious time, constant work, a great product, networking, great customer service, advertising, yata yata yata. And even then the dollars wont necessarily roll in.
A good tip is to try and maintain "beginners mind". Remember when it was all new and fresh and you were so keen to learn because you were amazed and bedazzled by what you could create with your new found skills. I used to build stuff in sandboxes and some jaded avatar whod obviously been around way too long would wander over and say "oh thatll never sell, too many prims " or something to that effect. And Id say
"um like who gives a shit" because I wasnt doing it to sell i was just enthralled that i was able to create whatever it was i was creating.
I find its much better to look at SL first as fun and last as a money making venture. As soon as you start to yearn for the money the fun seems to die. You do have to be real about the amount youre spending though so i find keeping a book with all incoming and outgoing including uploads etc is good to look over once a month and see how things are balancing. If my books balanced in the red for too long I would definitely downsize.
Over Commercialism sux and if anything ever causes SL to die thats what it will be.
Just keep creating for the fun of it, thats what this is really all about.

Wow, lots of replies already, and so fast! A few replies:


I agree, that's important... fortunately I do enjoy making things. I just make them and keep them for myself at the moment.


Actually that's why I started making jewelry... I needed certain styles and didn't see them, so I worked out how to make them for my own use. I'm still working on improving my skills.


Well, yeah, there is that... and it doesn't take up *all* my time, to be honest. Most of the time I'm exploring, or enjoying the company of my friends. I don't feel any compulsion to make X number of new things per week, or anything like that.


I advertise my main store, it's listed in search. Plus I have all my locations in my profile picks. I don't bother with classifieds anymore; the few times I tried it before, for specific items, it didn't improve sales or traffic to any noticeable degree.

I have one main store, and smaller satellite stores in a couple of places, and I do take the time to produce interesting pictures for ads and vendors; anytime I make something new, I put an ad in the New Products forum.


True, I know... but honestly, when I make something cool, put an announcement in the forum, write up a good description, make an interesting picture, and the response is just tumbleweeds and crickets, it doesn't exactly inspire me to do it again soon. I'm just an old grump, I know


Yeah, I agree totally with that. And really, I don't look at it as a money-making venture at all; it's a way to indulge my bizarre and whimsical side, have some fun, and meet cool people. If I was trying to actually support myself or something, I'd *really* be discouraged.

I just wait for a coupla days until sales pick up again. They always do. In the two months and change since I opened my store, sales have (when averaged over a week or so) been steady - if anything, they've climbed a bit since the first month. I do have stretches of a few days in a row where nothing much sells, but they tend to be balanced out by the days when someone presumably drags in their mates and they all buy a couple of different colours of some of my products! It all averages out, for me.

I agree with the person upthread who said that the key is to find something that isn't really being done much in SL that you'd really like to see, and make that. It's certainly been that process that has initiated my most successful product lines. I make 'em because I want to use 'em and can't find them already for sale in SL in a form I like, and oddy enough, it turns out that other folk will buy them too! *laugh*

It's hard to be sure where my sales are coming from without asking folk directly where they heard about my store. I know that quite a few come from the forums because I recognise the names. And I occasionally get folk in my store who'll say things like "A friend of mine was wearing your cat av/typer/whatever and I just had to have one!". But I suspect that probably at least half of them are coming from my classified ad since the ad stats show quite a large number of teleports from the ad itself.