Real Business Solutions for Second Life

I'm hopeful that there is a financial benefit to advertising RL products and services in SL. Amazon.com, American Apparel and Nike? For advertising or cutting costs for conferencing? Do you think that business can move the OTHER way with products and services rendered in SL being models sold to RL companies as prototypes for their designs? Whether it be clothing, buildings, or landscapes for games?

I've been looking at the type of user for SL, and while it's hard to see what types of audience, customers I may have, I can see that there may be many who simply do not wish spam, advertising or a presence of reality-based anything. Of the almost one million customers of Linden Lab, how many do you think are potential customers of businesses in SL that have their origins in an offline world/real life? Do you think it matters WHAT is sold or promoted by the RL company? As in, website services, software and other tech-based products being a more appropriate type of product to promote rather than selling the latest RL Honda.

Once a decision has been made to make the move or add a real life business presence in SL, outside of purchasing the bandwidth/sims, how do you find the best team to set it up? I can tell you it's been a challenge to find out how to do all of these things, and I've been a casual/non-business resident for a while!

I'm not out to change SL, but to cooperate and explore all ideas regarding RL business in SL. Drop me a line inworld or here! Would love to chat! Any and all comments and opinions welcome! NO discrediting of user posts pls!



A great post by Lewis Nerd to get started!

<ESC's only real advantage is that their website is full of marketing hype, buzzwords and distilled achieveables that mean nothing in the real world, but glaze over the eyes of executives and that's what they are impressed by. They provide a service that people are looking for, in the most visible way, and due to their close ties with LL, business gets pushed their way instead of the companies looking to see what else is available. I'd be more than happy to take on a large building job for someone, but I don't advertise because I can't necessarily work to someone else's deadline - and rush jobs are usually bad ones. If someone wants me to build something and I have a month to do it, no problem. Need it by 4pm tomorrow? Forget it.

Is the Stratics HQ I built in Rosieri the best and most impressive building in SL? Of course not. Is it neat, practical, and suitable for the purpose? Exactly. Therefore it has achieved exactly what I set out to do. I'm learning all the time, improving my techniques, and SL is all the better for it.

Several people have been surprised by what I've squeezed in on about 8000 sq m of land, and that's a talent that not everyone has. Low prim building is also a talent that not everyone has.

I'll tell you another thing. How many of these real world companies coming to SL actually bring a benefit to our world? Sure, you might want your avatar to be walking round in overpriced branded clothing or shoes - but what does the company bring, apart from a bit of money which is an absolute bargain in the normal corporate advertising budget. I have yet to see one positive thing bought to SL by any real life corporation.>

I do not feel qualified enough to answer quite a bit of that, however I wanted to address this section directly. The 1 million customers is inclusive of ALL accounts every created. That includes already banned, alts, testers, trials, people who have clicked create an account without ever logging in.

A really interesting comprehensive look is here:

/327/be/142280/1.html

Scroll down to Ricky Zamboni's message.

A wild guess of the people left, I'd say only 1% or less have brought an RL business to SL and been successful at it.

But some of those people who have are making very serious money.

A similar situation applies to some people who have started a business based on sl alone and have moved it into rl

It is a bit like buying a so-called penny share in the real life stock markets. They are penny shares for a very good reason, and that is most of them will fail.

But.....a very small number will succeed beyond all normal business parameters. One real life example in the UK was Lastminute.com...anyone remember Martha Lane Fox. At one time I could have purchased those shares at around 20p each, they peaked a year or so later at £3 before being took over.

The same rule applies in sl. A small number of people will come across or develop something that will make them rich

The podcast with Electric Sheep pointed out something important. For a RL business entering SL, it's not just (or even at all) about immediate benefits. A large factor is just getting on the ground floor of this future vision of a virtual world.

Yes, that statement seems to say that the grass is not all that immediately green. That, if you wish to try this new arena for your business, you may be in for a long haul til you 'get it right'. Or get it right at all.

But sometimes telling people that there is 'no immediate benefit' is the ploy of the snake oil salesman. It gives you time to take the money or reap your immediate benefit from the customer, and run away before they figure out that they bought (or bought into) a worthless product.

I hope that businesses DO have some sort of use for SL. And that the results pan out in some small ways, immediately.


TY, btw, excellent posts!

Wow... that seems like an odd interpretation.

When I think of a 'snake oil salesman,' the pitch that comes to mind is: Buy this elixer, and you will immediately be healthy, wealthy and wise (as he takes my money and skips out of town).

My take on those comments indicates an up-front and honest proposal: "Here's this new potential marketing environment... It's a risk, and it may take time before you see any return on your investment (if ever), but it's something you might want to think about getting into."

yeah, I pretty much agree with Don, here. It's honest, at least. I frankly have serious reservations about whether your average company would get any more out of it than a little publicity, if that, but for many companies, that is more than enough, they have entire departments dedicated to getting "a little publicity" and a budget to fund it. It's worth it to them. Their money. *shrug* And ESC is selling a service, what do you want them to say "this is a waste of time, don't bother" lol? Of course they are going to sell SL and virtual "platforms" as the next big thing, that is their business, heh. You are free to disagree. I very much doubt the people they do business with are innocent rubes being taken advantage of with a lot of slick marketing talk....

Right now, whether this move by these companies into SL will ever mean more than a blurb on their website and a mention in an article remains to be seen. And until SL is a more, far more, stable platform, I ain't holding my breath waiting for the "3d web". However, I am told by those who know that half of these "corporate" or "educational" sims are in fact private and we wouldn't even know they exist. So they are serving other functions, unrelated to "our" SL.

Whenever I tried to corner a few people who do work for real life companies they always seem to say that the sims are private and that I can't see them at this time, that the sims only come up when they're on. One woman who said she'd done work for 2 companies said I could only view pictures of her work, but not visit the actual sites. So, I think you may have something here.

These may be the companies that use the game for a meeting place or conferencing place. How this benefits outside the usual conference calls etc, I don't know. But I'm guessing that must be one very successful use here if this is the case. Great one, too.

On the same topic, I just spotted an article on the Guardian website this morning about Reuters setting up a permament in-world business reporter, 'Adam Reuters'. So if you've got any hot poop in the SL business world, be sure to put him in the know.

Fourth estate signs up for a second life by Richard Wray

also on the BBC website:

Online world to get news bureau

I loved this bit in the article: "Second Life is one of those curious internet phenomena. Anyone with a fast enough computer, broadband connection, and more time on their hands than they know what to do with can join in..."