How to help newbies financially?

Carl,

What about paying new residents to take classes?

For instance, I would be willing to donate some Lindens to new residents who take a photograpy course (many of my customers are photographers.) At the end of the class, they could get a voucher to come to my store where I would give them samples of my poses and a small cash donation.

Just an idea,

Cheree

To help them out finacially

Step1: Inform them that L$1 does not equal US$1 as many seem to believe.

Step 2 Inform them that they are better of working 1 hour overtime in their RL job then putting that money earned into spending in SL via their credit card, than wasting 10 hours camping for cash.

I would be willing to pay a small amount to new residents who take Photography classes, for instance. After all, they would be potential future customers for my poses.

You're making too much sense there.

1. Create second account
2. locate nearest money tree
3. loot the loot
4. send to main account
5. delete second account
6. while ($L < 10 million) { do 1. }

- I've seen it in MMOs.

Its about as sad and pathetic as you can get, but that doesn't mean people won't do it.
- Worse, suddenly the game would be full of players who can't seem to speak the language of wherever they're farming, and all have names like 'hdfuiwehfkjd Bohemian' - and websites will pop up selling $L for low exchange rates...
- L-labs will then get stuck hiring a bunch of lawyers skilled in international business law (not the cheapest variety of lawyer), and will then have to pay for these guys to litigate the heck out of people, which will drive our $L exchange rate into some very harmful directions...
- and the same downward spiral you see in many MMOs will pop up here.
- yeah, I'm exaggerating, but a milder version of the above could result.

Frankly... my account is old (2006), but I never used it until the past week (got it was back when after reading an article, got bored 1 hour later, and forgot about it). I needed some Lindens, I popped out my credit card. It was pretty cheap to get enough to get myself an AV that random people passing me stop and compliment.
- I read some guides, went to some freebie spots, mixed things together, then burned about 1k Lindens fine tuning (and 90% of that went to one quirky item I just -HAD- to have, meaning most people could do this on maybe 100-200 lindens).

When people read my profile and see that I'm new, I get offers to give me lindens. And I don't beg, and frankly, they have no way to know if I'm telling the truth. In fact, to date I've turned down all those offers, but they do come.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, new people -can- find there way here.

If you spot a newbie, send them to Free Dove, NCI, and tell them about xstreet and these forums. Do that, and they'll be fine.

Brainstorming - I still like jobs better than grab and dash or camping.

What about a Secret Shoppers Club?

The Newcomer is given an assignment to check out 10 stores. They are given a box with the LM's to each store on the list (because this way the LM's end up in their inventory).

They are given a questionnaire to fill out at each location - or perhaps it is scripted into a device where they can click on the questions and answer while in the store (keeping them in the store longer - also requiring them to move around to answer the questions.) I know - they're just going to answer quickly and incorrectly, and be done with it....but is there a way around that....perhaps tping them to different corners of the store to answer each question.

Somehow...when the questionnaire is completed....they are given 20L, plus a gift certificate to the store for 50L.

If there is a way to get questions answered legitimately (or is that impossible)....then you have market data as well.

Tweak this...and you've got:
1) useful data on your store products/set up
2) additional traffic
3) a 100L or 200L sale from the 50L gift certificate
4) your LM in their inventory
5) a tour of your store

Or...hire someone to walk around the store for a few hours and give you notes on their observations about what people are doing...which displays they stand next to longer...what areas of the store they totally missed...have them "offer" a gift to a shopper, instead of it being tossed out by a gift giver.....etc....50L an hour....have them jot down names of people they talked to....bonus to them if those people purchased something.

Bring a Newcomer Day!

Send out Group Notice - tell group members to grab a Newcomer - bring them to the store - both get a generous discount. I would do half off - I think it would be worth it.

I love the idea. I have no idea how to make my vendors do it, but I love the concept.

Only give them one boot or half a table, that's cruel!

LOL !!

I went ahead and sent group notice for Newcomer Day on Wednesday - but told them they could start today.

Here's notice:
Wednesday is Newcomer Day!
Bring a Newcomer to SL to the store to shop on Wednesday - and I'll give you both Half Off!
Just send me a notecard with their name on it, so I can refund both of you for half off at end of day) - Be sure to leave your own name on notecard. Go ahead and start Today, if you would like.
I'll also send both of you a Newcomer Gift Bag - you can keep it for yourself or pass on to the next Newcomer you meet.
(I don't like the word Noob)
Thank You and Have Fun!
Mickey

Yes - my half off sales are time consuming, because I have to go through transaction list and compute totals for each person...then send them rebate for half off....but I've always done it that way, and it's not a problem for them. Whenever I've done half off sales....sales for day were either triple or more....so the time to me is worth it.

I can't use a gift card system because I think I probably have over 1000 items that change weekly - the time constraints on using the gift card script in each product are just too much. I don't use a vendor either - everything is set out on the floor.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Phil,

After reading about the cones in this thread I went to main site and just clicked on the cone and I was off and running. Didn't have to join anything. I like the system. I got to see a few new and interesting sites.

Wayne

i see no reason why you can't top up with 500 L
Yes- i can detect all the users via my excel sheet -upload of transaction listings.

I have asked "Jan Maroon" to join this thread so he can answer your more specific questions about the "Cone" particular the anti-cheat device and whether can just join at any point.

More importantly, he might be open to suggestions whereby this existing system could be re-designed slightly to meet Vendors needs (improvements).....whatever they might be.

I will also suggest that he gets clearance from Jack, that its not a traffic abuser, should Jack still be sticking to his policy of no camping for real avatars.

Potentially....if this exploded in terms of users & locations, it's going to be far more useful than camping ever was.
For my business its more important that i get unique users look at my products....traffic is neither here or there for me, as i've never figured very high in Places Search to begin with.

Simple - then you should. Nothing stopping you. Good promotion, too.

I don't know that I would bring in a newbie so I could get 50% off on something, though. About a fourth of them already wonder if there are strings attached to all the help I'm giving them. Part of the reason I help newbies is to show them SL can be a good unselfish place.

I like the idea of the Cone.
It sounds simple to get into, which would be important for a system that might become very widely used.
It's great feature is that it gets people moving around and seeing different parts of SL.
It can get them to small places as well as the bigger places that used to run many camping devices or bots.


There have been some good suggestions for jobs in which newbies could do something useful.
The concern there is that they depend on the parcel owner taking the extra trouble to recruit and manage. They also depend on being able to get the message to new people arriving.

A simple turn-key system that is ubiquitous would stand a better chance of being picked up by the large numbers of new residents.



My reservation on the Cone is the mandatory 11 minutes stay.
This turns it into a traffic-buying system.

The effect might not be significant right now, but if the use of the thing exploded to cover the numbers who are currently camping, then it becomes the new camping.
We end up with the same numbers of avatars being on the parcel solely for payment and inflating traffic. The only real change is that the 'campers' are moving between parcels in order to camp for 11 minutes at each one.

Awesome!

I just set one up in a new showroom that I haven't advertised yet, and has very little traffic - so I'll be able to see a result. I plugged in 500 - I think it looks better - not sure what it means, though - lol. Looking forward to Jan showing up to ask some questions - thank you.

I really don't care anymore. More than half of what I do to get traffic or sales....I have to "buy." Advertising - Promotion. 100% of that is up for a morality debate now.

I pretty much quit caring about judgments on any of it during the last few threads on that topic.

If LL cares....I assume it will be on the To-Do List for 2012.

And right now...someone is standing next to my new cone that I put out a few minutes ago.

Just tried traveling 3 stops on the cone circuit. Reminds me of the ancient "web rings"--remember those?

The very first one I tried simply refused to pay me or do anything after the time was up--it wouldn't give me a next destination, either, so I had to go back to the Conehead Quarters. The second one worked fine. The third one... well... I got distracted and didn't touch the damned cone during the 3 minute payout interval. (God. I can't even do newbie tasks properly! )

The first and third required me to answer a little anti-bot question: read the 4-character hovertext off one of the prims in the cone assembly and press the corresponding dialog button. It seems as if it would be pretty easy for a bot to circumvent this, if these get really popular.

There are a few things I think I might do a little differently, but maybe there are reasons for why they are the way they are. Will be interesting to get some info from the creator.

(It occurs to me that this is not likely to work well for Adult regions, unless there were a separate Adult "ring".)

Thank you for that, Wayne. It's very good to know.

Sounds like the freebie ring: I got a link in it, but I have no idea who's using it if anyone. Check it out at the Coonspiracy store (up on the platform overlooking the swamp).

I do understand that a cone-like system would be used by many place-owners for traffic purposes. But I disagree that it is "solely for payment and inflating traffic." It's only being discussed here as a means of getting visitors into places - nothing to with traffic - which is what the system does. So I don't agree with that statement and I don't think the fact that it can be used by place-owners solely for traffic should be considered.

You're going back a bit there

Is that an indication that you might be thinking about the possibility of creating a similar system? - I hope

Here's another question about the Cone system...

Does it come with something (a sign for instance) that makes it obvious what it is to people who have never come across it before and don't know what it, or does the place-owner need to make one?

I didn't get a sign...so you don't really know what it is, unless you started at the beginning where they sell them - I would guess.

Another question would be...what about the location you start at....do you get paid there....or do you get paid first at the the next location? Like if I wanted to tell my group members to come check it out....will they get paid by me to start....or they have to go to the first location it gives them?

I set this at a lower traffic location....because I didn't want people coming in the front door...then using it to tp off before they had a chance to go through the store.

Also thinking I need to go down there and set up a rack of very inexpensive items for while they are waiting....might be tempted to spend their loot. Shout at me all you want - but I'm going to plug a LM tosser down there. They are getting links in chat...not LM's for inventory.

I noticed several people land there....(I have no other landing points set up to land there)....then they went around the store quite a bit....didn't pay off to them...so they must have been distracted or did not wait long enough.....was that you Qie???

It is encouraging to watch most of them walk around the store, instead of sit in one spot.

Question about sims...the store is laid out stretching across 3 sims....does it only pay off in time spent in one sim? If they walk from one sim to another....does their time start all over? (this might be why a few didn't get paid). Yep - I just watched two - they walked into another sim for a while....left, and no payment.

If I set another one in another sim....does that just double the effect?

And how many of these are in action now? Do you have a way to tell?

i'm telling you..snow cones don't hold a candle to lemonade stands..

everyone knows how to work a lemonade stand.
when is the last time you saw a snow cone stand on a street corner?

hehehehehe

There's a quick way of finding out. If you want to do it, tell me to log in and then send me the LM when I'm in. I'll click the cone and see what happens.