How to get more users

I work for marketing in a large corp, and can say for sure that the Marketing group at LL is NOT doing its best. Huge surges in new users only occur when news stories pop up about SL, and with all the novel stuff on SL, there HAS to be a story today, right?

The other problem is that most SL areas are empty most of the time due to lack of interest by users. If it was easier for users to find interesting places on SL rather than searches delivering up bulk camping spots, more people would find something to do on there. The average new user has no idea there are Star Trek, Cowboy, Corporate, and just about any other kind of areas, or how to find them. LL should index the world with unbiased ratings that ignore the camping/store areas and the people will be back and stay. It would sure help me find things by subject a lot easier.
Its a simple fix but somehow I doubt it will happen. If it wasn't for a few good friends I have on there I would have been bored right off the grid myself.

If land owners have to make an area interesting just to get visitors, areas may just have to get more interesting, right?

Alegent Kidd

Honestly I don't think LL cares how good its marketing is at this point. They have a helluva lot of users whether you think so or not, and the interesting places DO get traffic. If people aren't there, its probably not that great, or the sim owner isnt doing their own marketing. LL is never going to say

'Ok guys...we need more people.. stop putting up adfarms, and Rico? Decorate your sim better!!!'

Yea, but most new users that get on the grid, can't find anything interesting and after a few visits they are gone.

Having good sims doesn't mean it can be found. There are some seriously great sims that don't get any traffic, and some real c**p that just gets visitors because of campers.

Sure SOME people know where the good stuff is, but you just TRY to get the honest info!
I hate seeing great sims that are empty.

A.K.

Those great sims arent doing their marketing, you should be able to glean that much from your marketing experience

Which outfit did the research on this one? It would be really interesting to see the details of their surveys.

All of my RL friends would agree. They all tried Second Life, found it looked like nothing but a lot of people selling stuff they didnt need, and they didnt come back. Of course a lot of the people I know are happiest shooting guns on live games, and SL is more of a social thing.
You are right about the Star Trek comment LOL, i wouldn't be on sl without the galaxy/aeon sims to go to.
I would be an interesting study to see who leaves and who stays and why.

Tink


STAR TREK RULES!!!!!!!

Unfortunately, marketing on sl seems to be just setting up volumes of camping pads these days and there goes the neighborhood.

Without getting those visit numbers up, its real hard to get the word out. Of course you could do something really wild and send the story to CNN on a slow new day. hee hee

A.K.

Not necessarily. I know plenty of people ask here on the forums about cool places, and use various other resources. I've followed adds here on the forums and in-world to find some wonderful places.

Marketing a sim should consist of getting the word out by 'mouth', by forums, by advertisements, and by groups, in my opinion

It isnt the sim or the things you can buy on them. It is the people you meet that make the whole thing interesting and make you want to stay.

I don't think its the number of signups that are of any issue to SL.

the issue is customer retention.

Second Life will never have the customer retention of other online activities.

Stability, for one.

And the majority of online gamers will find SL quite boring since there's no shooting, leveling, etc.

If LL were to market more towards the "Like The Sims, only with Real People!", it might be better, rather than "Make $$$ here!!!"

For the record: I've never played Warcraft. Can't see the point in spending $15/month on a game whereas in SL I make back more than what it costs me, AND I've played MMO's better looking than WoW for FREE. Much more fun too!!

You said it all. (^_^)y I completely agree.

I've been on daily since I started and I'm having a lot of fun. SL is the best thing to happen to my social life (or lack of) ever.

For people who can't find what they like in SL, they're not trying hard enough. SL takes effort. People have to really want to find what you like to be able to find it. If they're not willing to contribute, even a little, they will not have fun and probably move on.

I am just saying that LL needs to keep in mind that customer retention depends on the experience that a customer has online, and the current "popularity" search is about as worthless as it can be in that regard.

Given that the relationships are the biggie, how do you get a relationship going when you visit 10 areas in a row that only have one or two people in them that only speak languages that you don't know? I'm not talking about whats "possible" but rather what a new user will generally see when they first get on sl.

Often, I don't think new users give it the time they should to get to know it, because sl can be pretty boring if you don't know your way around, or get lucky at the outset.

You gotta admit that if there was a good directory, you would probably use it, right? Or would you? Opinions?

AK

We consistently get between 10,000 and 20,000 signups per day



But the peak concurrency has been hovering around 50,000 like this all year



And you think something's wrong? {:

It was actually around 40,000 concurency in July, but whatever.

I haven't logged in for any significant span since September. I have no reason to log on.

And a 20000 peak for 2006, so there has been a swelling there. (That concurrency graph only spans two weeks, that's probably where the confusion crept in.)

Phillip Rosedale's podcast thing that is in the SL blog today does have some revealing bits, particularly in acknowledging that the high growth rate from early 2007 is "not sustainable". He also acknowledges that a lot of people (not just consumers) have abandoned or put on hold their SL plans, and that growth pushes will need to take a back seat to getting the system more reliable for now.

Tell me, what are they gonna do? Start a personals service? Try classifieds, use a group, go to someplace nice (Believe it or not search is useful even for newbs. And if they do orientation and such they know how to search buddy.

There is essentially nothing they CAN do. Good sims change daily on who goes where, new ones pop up, old ones die out, its constantly changing. Popular places is gamed but at the same time, quite a few DO go to them, if only to camp.
'
Seems you've had a mediocre visit to SL so far... just take some time. If you're not willing to take time, then too bad for you. LL has lots of steady people, businesses, exposure, there is no problem with getting new people to join up.

Big problem with this is that unless you spend money in SL AND have been here for 30 days, you can't even read the forums so have no helpline.

How about the various other SL forums? And search. And the millions of people in SL who you can just happen across (My first day I met 10 people before I asked them anything like 'whats there to do?'

Popular places can be ok even for newbies, they do lead to people, not just campers (THough lots of those too)

So what actually ties you to SL still if you have no reason to login?

I'm waiting for the various upheavals to calm down. Grid stability, the 'economy', client stability, etc.
I also have a product line that still occationally sees sales and I (less occationally) get requests for customized items, so I do log in to do those. In fact, that's why I was logged in last.

Newbies wounldn't know about the other forums, and People can be scarce too in some places, especially helpful knowledgeable ones and so many empty dead sims about too

newbies likely wouldn't know about this one. I sure as hell didnt.

And yes there are a lot of empty sims. However if you do the tutorial islandthingies you end up around quite a few people no matter what. Tada, help is found.

sad but one thing that seems to retain users thru all the instability..is addiction.
Gambling
Shopping.
Sex.
Etc.
Money.
LL just recently killed their gambling client base.I lost tons of friends who fed into and invested in SL and stayed because of the gambling.
This camping bot situation might be threatening their shopping market and recently they've tried depserately to appease the moral minority by adding age verification so they can keep their sex addict base.

With quantity does not always come quality. Most any organization has to deal with that fact..Church..religion..schools..restaurant chains. etc.

I guess LL is trying to figure out where is the safest spot to prune this "tree".

~Lana Tomba

I am a little lost here has someone forgotten the freeaccounts are what holds the game together? In favor of free accounts? Not me! These news reports and companies buying island ads on sl is nothing more then nightmare. Bad PR and bad human resources spells problems on a daily bases.

HAHAHA SEX? Yes right with al the under 18 running around. Can you assume how many users would leave due to ths? Thats why well see a big dropping of population. Gambling? Well ahahah most that did it here well i leave the comment alone Good riddens.