How to help newbies financially?

I'm saying that I like the idea as a way of getting people to travel around and see places.
In that, it is the same as the system that I floated in this thread. The only major difference is the mandatory 11 minutes.

Right now, with light use, the major benefit is the moving about, and the traffic resulting is more of a byproduct in the overall.


However, like many other things, it doesn't scale up.
In heavy widespread use, the traffic effect becomes significant, and it's traffic that has been bought.

If intensive camping is shutdown, the camping operators are going to be looking for some other way to buy their way up the rankings. The Cones system would do that.


The system is being discussed here in the context of "How to help newbies financially" in an environment where camping isn't available to them because camping is seen as gaming traffic - buying traffic points per L$x.
Therefore the certainty that the ex-camping operators who would adopt it en masse would recognise that it delivers traffic points per L$x has to be considered.

I just sent you a LM - let me know if you didn't get it. As you are looking at the cone, make sure you don't wander into the next sim to the left - I think that throws it off. There is a sim crossing sign there. I'm going to have to set that cone in another location where the sim crossing is not so close....or put a sign up.

Thank You.

I did a short test run starting at Mickey's place.

I clicked her cone and it sent me to another place straight away. I don't think that's a particularly good idea.

I got to the other place, clicked the cone, waited the 11 minutes (chatting with the owners there), got paid the 2L and it did *not* offer me the next place. It didn't even suggest I click again to get a new destination. I don't think that's good either. Clicking again did give me a new destination.

In chatting with the cone owners, I learned that they'd had 22 visitors from the cone in 3 days of having it, so it doesn't appear to have much of a userbase. The cone provides that information, but it doesn't provide names so, unless something is added, you can't tell how many were unique.

That's it. I love the idea, but the Cone system does have some shortcomings, imo - not the least of which is that 33.3% of everything that's paid out that the creator gets.

Where is SuperQie when you need him???


ETA:
One thing it did do that I thought was good - it emitted a shower of particles when it paid me. That would tell people in the vicinity that the cone might be worth looking at.

Thanks Phil.

I'm thinking you're going to want to set this away from a high traffic area in your store. I don't want REAL Shoppers leaving the store to use this. I don't think a pay off for whoever it brings you who "might" shop is going to replace a Real Shopper leaving your store before they are done shopping or before they've even started.

The way it works now - no reason for me to bust out a group notice, telling them to come check it out. Since my cone would be the starting point - they won't be required to stay in my store for the 11 minutes....but will tp out immediately....not good.

Phil - you get the names when the cone pays them...so on transaction list.

True (transactions). I hadn't thought of that

And I agree completely about not wanting real visitors to TP away because they clicked the cone. I'm not going to use it, but I'd like to use a similar one that doesn't have the shortcomings.

Where *is* SuperQie???

I forgot to mention...

The Cones don't give LMs, so users do not end up with LMs in their inventories, as was thought. They give clickable URLs in Chat instead.

That wasn't me--unless your place has gone undercover and decidedly down-market. The three places I visited were... well, not exactly highbrow. In that vein, and with the idea of appealing to the newbie market, it's probably a good move to put some less expensive goods within easy rezzing distance of the cone.
Very vaguely thinking about it, but I won't do anything unless it's different from what's already available; that is, I don't want to just undercut an existing creator with a "co-op" version of what they worked hard to make. (As I've hinted, I have some ideas, but right now my priorities are on damage control around the Adult Content Charlie Foxtrot.)

That's very understandable.

Higher up this page I wrote what I consider to be some shortcomings of the Cone system. I love the idea of it, but I won't be using that one as it is now, because of its shortcomings. If an alternative comes along that doesn't have them, or doesn't have most of them, I'll definitely use it (and it would be different to the cones ). I *want* to use such a system. My guess is that a fair number of forum people will want to use such a system and, if that happens, one could take off. It would only need a decent number of them up and running for people all over to get to hear about them to replace their camping.

Alternatively, the Cones' creator has been invited into this thread, and he may want to deal with some or all of the shortcomings. He may not come here, of course.

Qie: Given the description of this thing, it doesn't sound like they thought much about it or put a whole lot of effort into it.

Ive been scanning this thread and am wondering if anyone has an opinion on how this is any better than a camping system where the person does not have to stay in one place, but can wander around a store or area for the designated amount of time.

Also, any thoughts on whether the camping ban will include these mobile camping systems? I have known some folks to use them for malls or entire sims, so just curious how they will be seen in the big picture...

What we need is a scripted monster that pops out randomly around your store and after you kill it you can loot it.

I can't stand SPAM earn money Orbs. And I turned off scripts in my club to stop the SPAMMING. [there I feel better! lol ]

I'm with Phil. I like the sound of the cones, but the build quality doesn't look great and if it's meant to help Newbies then why does the creator get a cut (after the initial purchase)?

Forget about the mechanism and think of the principle




The cones system buys traffic points.
I could see people putting a Cone system on a 16m sub-parcel that is not flagged for search.
I really don't see them getting away with it.

I definitely could see them going all cartooney-lawerly on it, but it would be blindingly obvious what is going on.

It differs in 2 important ways that I can see...

1. It's only good for one 2L payment, so a person can't just hang around for a few hours and get more money.

2. The idea of it is to bring many more different visitors to the place (with a view to them seeing your stuff and possibly becoming customers sometime) than the wander around type of camping does.

It's a bit of a cross between camping and hunts. Hunts are to get different visitors to the place and they have to stay at a place until they find the treasure, which is the reward. While they are there, they add up the traffic points, but the objective is to get new visitors to see the stuff in the place. The cones are for he same purpose but instead of a treasure item, the visitors get 2L and they don't have to look for it, which gives them some time to fill in - looking at the stuff.

Everything that a place-owner does to get people into the place causes the traffic number to go up. There's no way to prevent that. But just because that happens doesn't mean that taking steps to get more and more people into the place, where they can see what you've got and possibly become customers, should be avoided - it shouldn't.

When I first joined SL I got all the stuff I needed at the Freebie Warehouse (clothes, skins, hair, vehicles, gadgets, AOs, Huds, etc).

When I wanted to experiment with my look I went to an island, and changed under the sea, making sure my minimap did not have anyone on it but me.

I did not need any money in SL for the first couple of months, I was too busy exploring, and it was not until I had my first SL girlfriend, and I needed to get a place for us, that I really needed money, and I just bought some L$ on my CC.

A couple of years back I became a SL Mentor, and did my stints at Ahern, handing out a notecard (one for males, one for females) I had made explaining to newbies how they could acquire money in SL, but also pointing out how most of what they wanted could be got free anyway.

Things have changed since then (no more camping, or jobs in casinos, for example), but I am still curious as to what newbies actually need funds for.

Rock

Remember Sling is an "Idealist"......whatever that's suppose to mean in terms of SL!

If you operate 1 Cone on your land.....and lets say it's mega hugely popular scheme, by only allowing 1 visitor at the time for 11 mins (and remember they can wander around to your other Depts/Lands) ......you would need 131 visitors x 11 mins = 1441 mins..or 24hrs and 1 min......which represents 1440 traffic units for the day.

Whoopy do....a great big fat 1440 traffic units.....I'm sure to be no.1 in search for the keyword "Skins".....not!
Actually 1440 traffic units gets you to 648th position today for the keyword "Skins", if you add natural traffic on top of that.....might be lucky to break into top 500....*sniggers*
My bad, i stole "Places" from those sitting between 500 to 800 positions.....depriving the communtiy of all those sales that would have gone to those other locations instead!!

See how ridiculous it can be when you get all twisted up trying to be an "idealist"

Well thats the kind of improvement "Jan Maroon" could easily configure into the system....being a non user of the cone, i prsumed a LM was being sent and not in chat. Sending the LM is the key and something it should do.

Jan sent me an IM....he tried to log into this thread...but couldn't. It came up with error messages. I told him to use another Browser.

I know

Damn! The quickest way to get something like it working satisfactorily is for Jan to come and see what's being said here - and make changes.

One thing I'm sure of - I won't use a system where a third of everything I put into it goes to the creator. I'd be happy to have a choice of get it free and pay the creator an ongoing percentage, or buy it and the creator doesn't get a percentage. I'm not going to go for a system where the creator gets it both ways.

I'm sure he could re-design the existing model from valuable input by users on here (except Sling ....not a shop owner anyway! ) to a workable product.

I don't actually like the "Cone" itself....maybe some sort of other prim work would be nicer....or various diffferent options of the same product. The "Cone" makes my land look messy, doesn't really fit in with the surroundings.

Well he has to get a cut...it's business! Your fee is for being part of his "network" which sends an Avatar from location to location.

Andy Enfield gets a % of each sale made via his Hippo Vendors. He must be a millionaire by now with such at popular system, admittedly its only a couple percent. That percentage is for the customer support i would guess.

When you're dealing with small amounts like 2 L......you don't have to many options to slice it less than a Linden. Maybe he could do it another way....whatever you PAY into the Cone.....he gets 5% or 10% or whatever automatically, leaving a residue to visitors

Oddly enough, I *do* like the cone because, once you know what it is, it is obvious what it is when you see one somewhere. I think that idea of various shapes isn't good. Imo, it's better if a person sees one while wandering around somewhere, and knows exactly what it is.

ok......but not a "Traffic Cone" design, something else maybe -lol

Can you imagine sticking a traffic cone in a place like "Lost Gardens of Apollo" ?
(not that they need unique visitors)

Alright (I did say something similar earlier in the thread). But a third is waaaay above and beyond to my way of thinking. Perhaps it's a third because it pays 2L at a time and 1L is the smallest amount that he could get at the time of the payout. But it could be written in such a way that it isn't necessary to pay him at the time that each 2L is payed out.