Is there a market for magazines in SL?

Great, Martin. Jump down her throat and then add a little sexual harassment to the mix. So much for championing the woman's cause.

Anyway, SinnedForYou, all you have to do is find a means to grab eyeballs. Once you've done that, selling the ads is pretty easy. To that end, you need to make it as easy as possible to read this magazine. I guess I'd recommend against charging per copy, as I think selling content to read inside SL isn't a very winning proposition. Metaverse Messenger does a pretty good job at making the paper easily accessible as a PDF file and I definitely endorse that means of distribution for easy consumption.

As for the design, I understand you're taking some inspiration from Cosmopolitan and other magazines, but I don't read those and my comment is much, much more technical. The red you're using is highly saturated -- I'd guess from eyeballing it's a 100%, fully luminous red. That's kind of a bad idea for the background for something that's going to be displayed digitally. You see, on my LCD, the red quite literally hurts my eyes. The overlaid blue text, especially "Sex and the Second Lifer" is very, very difficult to read as the combination of blue and red makes my eyes feel like they're tracing over a moire pattern. I emphasize that there is literally discomfort in my eyes until I look away.

I'm not sure what the science is behind that particular phenomenon, but I imagine for people viewing the image on a CRT, the issue is vastly worse (I often got painful moire from certain images back when I used a CRT)

Finally, from eyeballing it, it looks like you're using something from the Arial family for the text. This is nitpicky, but Arial is a wildly ugly font, without even getting into the purism associated with Arial vs. Helvetica (basically, the former is a ripoff of the latter). For a cover like that, assuming you can tone down the background, Helvetica Neue Light might look very nice. Also try Futura, or even Myriad, if the Apple look is your thing. In general, though, avoid Microsoft's typographic abominations like the plague. There is much nicer stuff available out there.

(And sorry if this is much more than you want to hear. I know I'm a whore for criticism, but not everyone else is. )

I guess I'm out of my league. I'll just pack up my bags and go home. Thanks for the help everyone.

Notes on my redesign: The entire type is one font family - Myraid Pro from Adobe. It comes free with the Adode CS series.

I just did this for fun, to see how challenging it would be to design such a cover in Second Life. It's harder than it looks, people! There's a lot of information to put there!

Sometimes people overlook the role of design in society. Sometimes just changing a font makes something feel more classy or upscale. I'd recommend you work with a designer and a SL photographer with some Photoshop skills, SinnedForYou. That will leave you with more time to concentrate on writing for the magazine anyway. (I don't have enough time for such a project, but I'm sure there's many other SL designers who would.)

Notes on my redesign: The entire type is one font family - Myraid Pro from Adobe. It comes free with the Adode CS series. The model is Webgoddess Mars, it's just a shot I had for one of my vendors on my hard drive so I used it. I don't have permission to post her, hope she doesn't get mad! I did this for fun (I can't stay connected to Second Life tonight anyway) and I don't give permission for this to show up anywhere else than in this forum thread.

Great, Martin. Jump down her throat and then add a little sexual harassment to the mix. So much for championing the woman's cause.

Anyway, SinnedForYou, all you have to do is find a means to grab eyeballs. Once you've done that, selling the ads is pretty easy. To that end, you need to make it as easy as possible to read this magazine. I guess I'd recommend against charging per copy, as I think selling content to read inside SL isn't a very winning proposition. Metaverse Messenger does a pretty good job at making the paper easily accessible as a PDF file and I definitely endorse that means of distribution for easy consumption.

As for the design, I understand you're taking some inspiration from Cosmopolitan and other magazines, but I don't read those and my comment is much, much more technical. The red you're using is highly saturated -- I'd guess from eyeballing it's a 100%, fully luminous red. That's kind of a bad idea for the background for something that's going to be displayed digitally. You see, on my LCD, the red quite literally hurts my eyes. The overlaid blue text, especially "Sex and the Second Lifer" is very, very difficult to read as the combination of blue and red makes my eyes feel like they're tracing over a moire pattern. I emphasize that there is literally discomfort in my eyes until I look away.

I'm not sure what the science is behind that particular phenomenon, but I imagine for people viewing the image on a CRT, the issue is vastly worse (I often got painful moire from certain images back when I used a CRT)

Finally, from eyeballing it, it looks like you're using something from the Arial family for the text. This is nitpicky, but Arial is a wildly ugly font, without even getting into the purism associated with Arial vs. Helvetica (basically, the former is a ripoff of the latter). For a cover like that, assuming you can tone down the background, Helvetica Neue Light might look very nice. Also try Futura, or even Myriad, if the Apple look is your thing. In general, though, avoid Microsoft's typographic abominations like the plague. There is much nicer stuff available out there.

(And sorry if this is much more than you want to hear. I know I'm a whore for criticism, but not everyone else is. )

I've actually decided that it doesn't matter what people think. I have photoshop skills. I designed it to look almost exactly like an issue of Cosmopolitan. I will make what I want (alone) and at least one person will buy it. Many stars were turned away because they "didn't have what it took." Let's see your drive and dedication come into play. Thank you.

Also - Note that I never said it was a classy or upscale magazine. Would you call Cosmopolitan either of those things? I think not.

I guess I'm out of my league. I'll just pack up my bags and go home. Thanks for the help everyone.

I've actually decided that it doesn't matter what people think. I have photoshop skills. I designed it to look almost exactly like an issue of Cosmopolitan. I will make what I want (alone) and at least one person will buy it. Many stars were turned away because they "didn't have what it took." Let's see your drive and dedication come into play. Thank you.

Also - Note that I never said it was a classy or upscale magazine. Would you call Cosmopolitan either of those things? I think not.

You did ask for comments and criticism, and I think Enabran's remarks were very constructive. (Red on blue is never a good idea.) Alaska's cover was much easier to read.

oh you mean this thread wasn't a discussion, it was an infomercial?

The diff is that I need to make the decision on my own instead of seeking the advice of the masses, who will each have their own unique opinion that is not my own!

Meh. Like I said, I'm a whore for constructive criticism, but not everyone is comfortable receiving it or acting on it. I agree that Alaska's cover was more readable. It also seemed more magazine-y.

As for the red-blue business, I'm glad to discover I don't have some weird eye disorder or something (I was genuinely worried about that briefly, last night )

The science of the red and blue:

http://ccrs.nrcan.gc.ca/resource/tutor/stereo/chap3/chapter3_5_e.php

Some fun eye blasters:

http://www.psy.ritsumei.ac.jp/~akitaoka/scolor2e.html

Well, that's fair, but it's a little different than making choices about the appearance of your house or car. Given that "the masses" are your target audience, I think it's more than important that you understand their expectations, their likes and their dislikes. We do this all the time where I work, via surveys and focus groups. The results of these very instructive. You really need to understand your customer and it sounds like you've got more than a few potential readers in this thread.

I am a little confused, though, if that's your stance, since you opened the thread welcoming comments and criticism. Which is it?

The part that irritates me is that I stated it was designed to look like a very specific magazine.

I really don't know how to respond to that.

I think the content inside the cover is the most important thing.

I can make whatever I want, however I want and someone will pay for it no matter what.

I asked for a little advice on the market, not a professional photoshop lesson on something the magazine was NOT intended to look like. The part that irritates me is that I stated it was designed to look like a very specific magazine. I can make whatever I want, however I want and someone will pay for it no matter what. I may have messed up with the blue on red, but the bold colors is how Cosmo designs it to be.