Are freebies hurting SL content creators?

My guess is that the female clothing market/related apparel is more saturated than other markets. This is in no way a scientific conclusion, but personal observation.

Examples:

*In one large freebie group of which I'm a member/designer, there is an almost constant *ding-ding* in the group IM's asking: Where can I get a free short white dress; red updo hair; tanned skin, really sexy pants, etc. etc. Within seconds a plethora of people respond with the answers. I rarely hear requests for free coffee tables, rugs, etc.

*I took a 10-week class to learn Gimp. I retook it so that was a total of 20 weeks. The first day when people said why they were learning Gimp, even if it included other things like making photo copy, often making clothes either to sell or for themselves so they *wouldn't* have to purchase clothes was stated. As the class continued, especially into the clothing module, more people became excited about making clothing and often a new designer was born.

*I take TONS of classes. Clothing classes are generally full, sometimes limiting the number of students and those classes turn many people away.

The conclusion I drew was there are a LOT of clothing and related designers in SL, thus the market is more saturated than other markets.

You know, that's a point. The trend in SL seems to be: begin with a small shop, keep creating to the point more stores or a larger store is needed, then one flagship store, sometimes on the creator's own land or sim...etc.

I definitely need to expand my product line, but will never be one to have (or want) a huge store because I enjoy the small, unique, "Mom & Pop" stores, RL & SL and wish to create a similar type environment. Perhaps creating items that *were* only available say, one season, then they were gone forever and new items offered in their place. This might only work or appeal to a certain type or size of shop, but in following this thread I'm willing to try different ideas for marketing - this is another I'm definitely going to consider.

ETA: I also like Jojo and Ralektra's ideas of offering "parts" of a new release as their group gift or general freebie.

Over 2.5 yrs my sales have always held up....although Apr 09 was my worst month during that period. (down 20%)
Only once did i try the "freebie thing" at one of my Mainshops via Fashcon "Freebies day" notice. I had 384 people pick up the freebies over a few hours...i only got 1 additional sale during that period. The amount of people that flocked in nearly crashed the sim...people were hanging in the air stacked up on top of each other. I said after that day, i'll never do this again.....and I never have...and most likely never will. So what i'm trying to say, you don't necessarily have to rely on "Freebies" to be reasonably successful. I guess it also depends what sector you're in.

I'm a member of the "Fabulously Free Group" which has 3500 members...I'm in there to monitor consumer behaviour patterns more than anything else. This is group that searches out freebies over the entire Grid 24/7.....and it's not the only such group. What it tells me is that a recognizable % of regular SL users are just freebie hunters.....i'd love to know what the actual percentage of users in these "Freebie" Groups that actually put their hands in their pockets! Then if you lump in all the Hunts that go on.....and they seem to be almost continious.....you can see how the whole situation is compounding at the rate of knots!

I look at that entirely differently.

I don't want to snag a freebie from Ralektra. She does awesome work - she deserves double or more what she asks for it. I also don't want to encourage a bunch of women to go snag one of her freebies....I want to encourage them to go see her awesome work which has great prices at regular price and encourage them to buy a few things that will keep her in business and keep her creating. No mention of a freebie. Most of the women I know....don't need a freebie, and will pay regular price, particularly out of respect for a great designer.

I take a freebie here and there, but it has to be pretty nice... if it's good quality, I'll buy there.

One thing I'd like to see is not having to buy fat packs but be able to buy individual items, even if it is ultimatly more expensive it is better for a lot of people, like me who just like to try things or build a little thing for myself, to buy one sculptie for 70 to 100 L than 15 or 20 of the same style in a fat pack for 400.

It's been awhile so honestly I can't recall...something like 5-7 hairs I think. BUT...Que only does the Analog Dolls group invitations occasionally. I have no idea if it's 4x a year or what. I just happened to be online one day when I saw in the Analog Dogs group chat Que saying if anyone wanted to join the Dolls group, she would be in the store on a certain day during certain times and to come meet her there. Then we actually put on each hair we had to show her and then got the invitation.

That info was most likely posted in the Analog Dog posts section but I'm really bad at reading past posts that occur when I'm not online. I had no idea the Doll group even existed...lol. I LOVE the Doll group and am soooo glad to be in it.

Ralektra, I'd recommend sending a notecard to Que...it's in her profile how to reach her best. IM me if you want more info.

Thanks, Rene! I'm a scripting dummy so is your Group Invite box you copy/paste the names into the same type people use to automatically join groups by an in-store sign?

I'm not sure if it will effect sales or not. The problem with running these tests on what is effective....is that I use quite a few different marketing tools. The only way to really isolate one and test it....is to pull out all the others...and stop. Don't really want to lose that income just for the sake of testing.

Xstreet is making up for it easily, the last few days. Although they don't buy on Xstreet...I can tell by watching where they land...and what they snag....they came from Xstreet.

All regular priced purchases. I know exactly what sets they like. (not just taking sets because I'm giving them away).....so no guessing games on what to make next. Immediate purchases...not waiting around a week or two...ad had immediate impact, so you're able to gauge the effect of your ad.

And best result of all....is a boost for your ego....people are rewarding you as you would like to be rewarded....so knock out some more things....make them even better.....you have the incentive to do so, now.

wow thanks Mickey, I'm glad you like my stuff, it's a learning process for sure, I keep pluggin away hehe

And Czari, of course...a group lol

My groups are jammed full, I actually had to disband on of my own groups (private not public) to rent at a mall recently. Someday LL will give us more....

From a recent notice I got from Que, it *sounds* like she has a subscribe type group now. Not totally sure as I didn't check it out, but worth a look if interested.

I know, I'm totally maxed on groups and there a few more I would like to join.

if that is the way i have to conduct business in order to survive...by handing out Freebies periodically.....I might as well close up shop and DIE!

Yep, thats what i tend to do....i never mention freebies...i'd just say "she's a quality designer, go look at her stuff....here's a landmark"

No Czari....i'm a primative ape! lol

I just use the traditional way of opening up Groups and send invites that way.....no fancy gadget or in-store sign. It's become 2nd nature to me, so i don't mind. I'm sure there are gadgets around that perform this job much more efficiently.

Maybe a script needs to be dropped into every BUY prim...once the product is purchased and delivered to customer....the recipent ought to recieve an invitation to join group. If there is such a gadget....I ought to buy it.

I agree with the folk who think that the freebie frenzy is probably more of a fashion-related thing (i.e. more of an issue for products like clothing, hair etc). I don't make clothing or hair - I make prim-based avatars and avatar accessories (e.g. typers etc.) My business bubbles along steadily and predictably, making approximately the same amount of profit each month, and has done for well over a year. I don't do freebies. (well, maybe I did once or twice, just for the store group, but I don't do free-for-all freebies.) My business seems to continue on quite happily despite that lack.

My one exception to the "no freebies for the general public" thing was that I did once do a treasure hunt. It got a fair bit of publicity in a couple of high-profile blogs, and I was *drowning* in treasure hunters for the couple of weeks that I was running it. I kept records of the folk who successfully completed the hunt and got the prize - there were hundreds, most of whom were completely new to my store and who had never bought anything of mine before. And the prize was nice, *really* nice. If any freebie promotional thing were going to make a difference to my sales, I'd have thought this would. Guess how much extra I made in sales that month?

Zero. My sales were exactly the same that month as they had been before and were afterward.

My business stands or falls by the quality of my work and my customer service. Freebies just don't really seem to have an impact on it, one way or the other.

Just to clarify my example with Raletra's freebie....When the women asked me for the lm i did not even remember that the dress i had on was a free one. i gave them the landmark, encouraging them to go and purchase. ral very wisely gives out freebies in a color that is not available for sale, so i like to pick them up when i like the color....but as i said before, those trips generally involved purchasing several other things while i am there.

it was funny because it took a bit for me to realize that the dress i was wearing had been a freebie and that was why my friend could not find it for sale when she went to the store. ral also very wisely offers her freebies for a short time and then they are gone. i encouraged her to put it out for sale since i knew that at least 3 women wanted to buy it and not to put it out again as a freebie.

there was no discussion with the other women that i was wearing a freebie since i didnt even remember...but...my point was that it got at least 3 people into ral's store who DID spend money because they saw a freebie i was wearing...it also caused me to spend money in her store as i picked it up...so it was a total win for ral all due to her offer of a lovely limited edition freebie.

My reason behind the freebies is so that new residents can experience their Second Life a lot better.

I voted no because back when I started a few months ago I didn't know what to do, like making my first L$ or finding objects.

Today, it doesn't matter what I go after, but new residents would experience Second Life better. I disagree with the first poster.

I'm not a content creator, so I can't comment on that end, but I am a champion shopper, so I can give a little perspective from that side of it.

I'm not much of a freebie hunter. It's not my style, really--I don't derive a lot of pleasure from zooming around trying to get free stuff--and I can afford to buy things for myself if I like and want them. Also, as many have mentioned, a lot of freebie items are poorly made or uninteresting to me. Also, because I'm a landless plebe, I feel both able and, to be honest, kind of morally obliged, to pony up some cash to support people who do pay tier. I don't spend enough time in SL to really warrant having space of my own, just enough to want to look nice while I'm in world and to get bored of seeing myself in the same hair and clothes all the time.

I have two experiences with freebies that stand out for me: a while ago I found a store that was full of clothing in the style I prefer. The store owner had a very generous welcome gift, including a sweater and a pair of glasses that I wear all the time. I thought the gesture of the gift was really charming, but more importantly, the items were really beautifully done. And, given that they were my taste, I have returned to the store many, many times since that first visit, and have spent, oh, many many Lindens. I go back whenever I'm looking for a little something to punch up my wardrobe.

More I recently went to a different store on the advice of someone who said there was a lovely free dress there for a limited time. The dress was indeed lovely, and I can tell from the freebie that it's well-made. Given that it's not really something I'd wear often, though, and it's not really in line with my everyday style, I don't find myself going back to buy up the store. I will, however, keep the dress as a kind of visual landmark in case I need something similar in future. And since I already have a dress from this designer, and I know the quality is good, I am both more likely to buy from them again and more willing to *pay more* because there's no risk of getting a bad product that just had good pics.

well you could look at it another way...with the banning of traffic & camping Bots.....its quite likely many shops will revert to good old traditional camping with Real Avatars to pad up their Traffic numbers. This will be good for new players who can once again earn some playing money inorder to buy half decent products.

I'd be much more in favour of this...and would rather pay a few campers then throw freebies at them. The bigger companies who can afford to pay more, will in a round about way have that recycled camping money supply filter down to the smaller shops too. That to me seems a far healthier mechanism than bombarding the grid with ever more freebies.

No, freebies are not hurting the market and content creators

I see no way how a freebie could hurt the market of content creator , unless it is a illegal freebie or a pirated item , in that case yes , the other way could be if someone for example starts to make extremely good skins and sells free , then this also could ruin the market.

Whew! So many things are automated by scripts, but having taught PC's during the DOS/640K Ram is enough for ANYTHING days...color me primitive too.

Thanks

Hi, Looli! Your input as a consumer is greatly appreciated and I especially like your "visual landmark" reference. Aside from the freebie discussion, as one who insists on keeping a lean inventory, the visual landmark idea is wonderful!

I like the 'visual landmark' thing too, kind of puts it into words for me (smile)

I only am in a few hunts maybe 3 so far. I give away a nice thing and this last one I designed something specificly for it...

My theory is this...

I do the hunts and I see what people make, how it is constructed how much time effort etc. was put into it , or if they just shover something they just cant sell...

If I am pleased with an item I WILL go to that store... During my last hunt, I did rather well in sales actually... And had several people thank me and a few actualloy gave me some L$.. Which I thought was cool....


When you release a crapppy item in a hunt, you are yes hurting yourself....

What I did for the sldiscovery was place an item in the contents and I sell the rest of the thing in my store, sure they can have a great item but its non functional and if they really like it they can return for a functional thing and a costume to go with it.....


I will say I got an item of furniture in one of the other hunts and I WAS AMAZED!!! I HAD to go back and get the rest of the set!

But, I agree there are some that live on freebies alone and frankly, these are usually alts I think... maybe.. But then again there are so many freebie shops out there I doubt hunts really make an impact..... And I dont think the new people really know to much about them....


I have found some great designers this way, and respect so many from seeing what they can do........

Well, its interesting to see that when you strip out the "I don't know" and "i don't cares" and combine the 3 parts that say "it might" "it is" and "it could" replies...the Poll is more or less 50/50.....thats an improvement! Had this Poll been done last year, i would guess the % would be far far lower than 50%.

Here is a blog i found to be very interesting and was written by the Business Manager of a rather prominent Fashion designer. Her views and outlook are similar to mine.

http://harperberesford.blogspot.com/2008/11/business-blunders-in-sl-or-treatise-on.html

The part i found interesting and one a lot of creators shoudl take note of

"Additionally, our philosophy is that time spent producing content of the level that RFyre provides is worth some compensation. We are RL people spending substantial RL time on this content. Second Life has given us the opportunity to be compensated for our time and skills. Offering freebies devalues those skills and time for us and other creators. It sets into the economy a belief that this work should be free. In other words, it's devalued if we devalue it by offering it freely."

When we enter SL we all LOOK like a newbie, and we can keep that look if we wish.

Freebie clothes and stuff can be limited to a newbie brandname or style. the clothes and the car we drive will LOOK Newbie, and smell like newbie.

If we must consider this issue, lets stick with a brand, a look, a style that is newbie and if we choose to advance we will go shopping.

got a car the other day and it was free...awesome, enjoying the thrills of this new thing Called SL. I got some neat stuff too.

but then I see this avatar drive up in this even awesomer vehicle and well I wanted that one and I went and serached it out and bought it.

Let's not STOP all freebie stuff. some join SL and have fun at newbie level for years, others will WANT to take the next step and the stores and merchants will be there to provide the wants, desires and needs of the advancing avatars.

thanks for being here, merchants and resellers.