Goodbye, Traffic: An Idea for Funding Your Venue in the Future

With the elimination of traffic payments (formerly dwell), there has been an outcry from many concerning how entertainment venues can continue to exist in the economy and break even. Its a simple answer: do what they do in RL and get creative!

Many free entertainment venues in RL rely on sponsorships (in Philadelphia, art museums, the Liberty Bell, and so forth rely on sponsorship dollars and donations). SLBoutique.com has functionality which will allow this to occur in SL, as do some in-world vendors.

When an SLBoutique sale occurs, it typically pays the creator 100% of the amount of the sale, less commission. However, sellers can set it up so percentage payments are made with each sale. What does this mean?

Let's say I have a club, Flip's Club, that relied on traffic payments to pay out contest winners, live musicians, or whatever. I won't be getting those traffic payments any longer. However, my friend Jenn has a clothing line that does quite well, Jenn's Dresses. In return for putting up a "Jenn's Dresses" banner in "Flip's Club", she agrees to pay me 5% of her SLBoutique sales.

This is just one idea (and one I'm familiar with, obviously) of how entertainment venues can sustain themselves. Of course, it wouldn't have to be through SLBoutique for this idea; I know there are vendors in-world which also chop up sales amounts in percentages. These could be used in the same fashion. I know Enabran, for one, has volunteered to sponsor events in the past financially in return for some modest advertising. Would any other sellers be willing to set up an arrangement? The in-world need for marketing is huge, and its something the entertainment sector has ignored for far too long due to the "freebie payments." Its time to address that need now.

Anyone else have some innovative ideas on how to fund entertainment?

Regards,

-Flip

Sponserships from groups or individuals dedicated to keeping creativity flourishing without any form of recompense always help. Some venues may be able to find sponsers who love their areas for their sheer beauty as well.


Find enough people who love your petting zoo and you won't be spending so much on teir..

Pay to play RP events where I sell the costumes and act as a games master. I'm calling it SLARP.

Flipper, once again with the forward-thinking solutions. Your idea has merit, but I want to add something more general: The general rule about rules is that whenever you change them, people will eventually find ways to adapt.

The one trend I saw over the last few months that I did not like was the advent of camping chairs -- groups of AFK folks running their stay-logged-in macros while they slept and keeping the store's dwell up. It was a natural outgrowth of the whole dwell concept and exposed the basic flaw it has had all along. It just took people time to figure out how to abuse it. I'm still not sure what's positive about groups of people leaving their avatars unattended, soaking up CPU cycles and server assets but there you have it.

Other than sponsorship, I think the best capitalist response to the change will probably be advertisement. A free library or museum could have notecard givers which hand out free items, coupons and landmarks to popular stores. The store gets some traffic and sales and the library/museum gets a small fee for placing the advertisements on their premises. Win/win.

Come on, Flip. What're you on about?

We all know that when things don't go exactly our way, we close up our businesses and whine. That's how real business people work, right? They don't come up with new and creative ideas to keep their businesses rolling or anything.

Right?

I had some ideas last night as well - they would involve scripting if what I have in mind is possible.


I was thinking of a venue having a silent auction. Creators donate items, venues place them out for bids in silent auction style. Creators get the Advertising of people seeing their items, bidders get the chance to win an item with their high bid, venue gets the revenue from the bids. The scripting needed would be something to track who bid what on what and what was the highest for each item.

My other idea has been done - it is a money ball that is paid into by participants, pot grows higher, participants chance to win goes higher when they pay in. I have been to events where the pot grew very high a few times, much higher than the venue funded ones that only drop 5 or 10L every 20 mins.

And what about charging dues ? Is the group you are in really worth being a member - would you pay to help keep it going ?

Then there is always charging for admission - I would pay L to go to a good event.

I could babble on - but I must run to a meeting

ttfn

M

I like the idea of sponsorships for advertising or free vendor space etc. It also promotes more interaction between residents who don't often get to interact.

Even if some events were pay to play type things that would be ok so long as people charged fair prices.

I'm working on a complementary scheme for non-RP live events. It's called the Tier Investment Control - Key Live Events.

If we work together we can give Second Life ...

SLARP & TIC-KLE



Seriously : I would consider sponsoring worthy attractions/events. Even to donating spare tier.

I'm building a tropical island sim right now for a customer. One part of it will be a large swimming pool and water slides. Lots of fun to play on. I'm seriously considering placing what amounts to a 'tip jar' at the pool area, so people who use it and enjoy it can readily make voluntary donations. I'd rather do that than require admission.

That same sim will have a small merchant area. We'll be inviting specific merchants who sell items that are useful for playing on a tropical island to set up there. Things like a swimming HUD, water craft, scuba gear, swimwear... I'm going to talk to the sim owner about doing those merchant vendors as something that gives the sim a cut of the sales, rather than charging a monthly rent for sales space.

Another option for fun venues is simply a pass system for site admission. Set the parcel so it requires a land pass for access, and script an admission system so people can purchase passes, which expire after X number of hours/days. Make a good enough attraction, price it reasonably, and it could make money.

I rather like the idea of low-key advertising. Might work well in some venues. Having 'sponsors' for a venue can work too. Place a sign and notecard giver at the telehub, or at some well-used location in the venue, that lists the sponsoring individuals and businesses, and offers landmarks back to them. Sponsors pay a fee per month, in return for being listed on the cards that month.

Sign me up!

If you figure out a way to call it SLURP, I'm in.

Cool ideas! Paying avatars to play characters in a game would be something interesting to do, that's for sure. I mean, shoot 'em ups need zombies, after all!

Count me in for SLURP!

I hope this thread is ruining that latest "Sky is Falling" moment, hehehe.

Regards,

-Flip

Sponsorships have made many of the events that we do hold at the Shelter possible. Payment Podium has been sponsor-funded since Jan '05 - and its turned a game that ordinarily would be quite expensive to produce into one that's rather inexpensive.

I think the key is making it a win/win for both parties involved. The venue gets support, and the advertiser gets new buisness. This ensures that the sponsor actually wants to come back and continue to advertise. All of the sponsors we've had in the past seem to have been satisfied with the results.

For Payment Podium (for example), we charge L$150 per game for a 2x2 ad prominently displayed on the stage set, in front of a captive audience for 1 hour. That's seemed to work out in funding the prize costs, and not too expensive for the sponsor.

For the other games such as Trivial Obsession or Building Shelter, I've left it up to each volunteer host to coordinate their own sponsors. That's also worked well, as it takes some load off me, and ensures that the host for the game is working directly with those sponsoring.

It seems more like everyone has an expectation that is unmaintainable currently in SL, that everything has to be about profit. If anyone actually had to consider paying their tier with their own money would they explode?

Let's face it, most people are going to "entertainment venues" for money and most of the venues only exist on the difference between what they got from dwell/dev incentive and what they gave away.

I know this is about legitimate places that will be hurt by this but I think people need to adjust their world view and realise SL isn't made out of free piles of money.

Personally I think the best idea is not to just have a venue but to also tie it to a product, Luskwood might be the best example of this.

I wanna SLURP as well... I'd like to make stuff for games too. ^^

I propose the Commonwealth of Avians World-Wide. CAWW!

Or perhaps the Plumed Esoteric Enlightenment Professionals - PEEP.

People seems to want to get the most out of Second Life fiscally without putting any or much back into the economy... which has been evident in such cases as camping chairs, rate whoring and other ways of gaming the system for a quick buck. Sure, I'm one of those whacky content creators that regularly cashes out their Lindens and doesn't technically own land under my Jennyfur account, but that doesn't mean that I am just keep on taking and taking from SL without giving back. I buy stuff to help bolster the economy. I pay a premium tier and own land on another account.

Since there are so many content creators out there now, its time we give a little to receive a little. The world has grown so large that self-promotion and marketing are unattainable. I personally would love the idea of sponsoring events or locations for advertising space and/or vendor space. I think this idea is really wonderful and should be fully endorsed.

I also had contemplated in the past the idea of constructing a non-profit foundation within Second Life that would be funded by charitable donations from various residents and would distribute the monies for various projects or "scholarships" and that sort of thing. I think this might be an idea/project worth investigating further.

Regards,
jennyfur

Dude, I'd totally pay to see a swarm of 30 of your huge phoenixes flying across SL... like straight over Ahern!

Will a flock of seagulls from "Finding Nemo" do?

I'll have to dig up the photo when I get home. If youw ant, I'll drop it on you the time we buzzed over Ahern as giant seagulls, constantly playing the sound clip "Mine mine mine mine mine mine mine mine mine........"

It was a hoot.

Don't forget getting teir donations from people who just want to see something cool continue. If the land is paid for, content has many more options. Currently mainland only option

Makes it hard on folks who bought islands based on DI or traffic, but the handwriting has been on the wall for a long time.

Second
Life
Uber
Role
Play

SLURP

The first campaign will begin soon.

"Time Traveling Vikings"

stay tuned.

Second
Life
Urban
Rennaisance
Project

OMG YES! I have Flock of Seagulls hair (tinted purple, of course!) in SL.


You're the sexiest person I've ever met other than Jennyfur. Can I call you mommy and beg for a spanking? Please?!

SecondLife Unified Role Playing. SLURP.

There. Done. That'll be L$250.

Will it be based on Harry Harrisons "Technicolour Time Machine"?

Time Bandits!!