Sales in SL

I'm attempting to sell a few items on the SL exchange, but not having much success. I was hoping to make enough Ls from those items to rent a store but it's not happening. One of the items is a nice photo real detailed male skin. I looked at what others were selling similar skins for, then set the price low; 250, in hopes of having several sales. But none yet.
Being more of a tech then a salesman I'm at a loss as to how to boost sales. A friend of mine check out the items and told me I needed to write more about them, but again I am no salesman and naturally an honest person; meaning no half truth sales hipe.

So how can an honest man boost sales at a minimum expense?

I just popped over to SLEX to check out your stuff and all I see is a single texture bundle. Is the other stuff there under a different name?

If you are selling a skin, do you offer a demo? Most everyone insists on a demo to try out a skin on their individual shape.

my sales are way down, I am hoping it is just the summer downs and that it picks up soon

all I wanna do is cover tier and upload costs and that ain;t much!

All 3 items are under the same name. That is another thing I find confusion about the SLX, If I have to jump through hoops to find my own stuff, how can anyone else. I know I'm doing something wrong, but not a clue as to what.

Just found them. I forgot that on SLEX you have to check the prefrence to see mature content, which both of those are apprently flagged as.

all skins are auto flagged as adult.

Yeah, I just forgot that. Sorry.

You might think about including more pictures of you skin, esp becasue it takes photoshop skills to make a good skin the quality of thie listing will reflect on the overall quality fo your work.

Also, what are the permissions on your work? I looked at the texture pack and the skin and both say none. Are the textures really no mod/no copy/no transfer?

With all the rabid punters around SL I'm afraid to give too many permissions, don't want to walk into a store and see someone selling my skins for 2x what I'm asking for them.

I'm also quite apprehensive about buying on SL, so far I have bought 3 items only to find them for free else where.

Like I said, I'm not sure what I am doing wrong. I am a texture artist, and have been doing it for a few years, so I have confidence in the quality of my work, as such I know it's not the textures, but something else I am doing wrong that is killing sales. Oh, thanks for reminding me, I was told I needed more pictures, guess I need to make a male model persona for my AV

Note, I have a few thousand seamless textures; natural and man made, as well as skins and clothes for SL, but till I have some sales on the exchange I wont have the Ls to open a store. Oh, lets not forget all the sculpty hats

The DEMO ones I have seen, usually have the word "demo" stamped somewhere across face/arms etc so that people can get a good idea of how they would look on their own shape, yet cannot simply take the demo and not buy the retail version.

As you said, very often people are disappointed to find out the skins they "bought" were actually free elsewhere, and tend to be cautious, so this lets them confirm it is something original and high quality, and that their own AV would look good in, before committing any money.

I think a picture and/or demo version would be excellent ways to help boost sales.

You might even be able to hire out some noobies to wear the skin out and about with a floating text, "touch me for info on how to buy this skin" -- there might well be a few new people on free accounts happy to do this for a 20% commission per sale or something. That might sound high, but if it happens to get you 10 new sales, maybe well worth the cost. And they make better money then camping and have a good excuse to go out to popular spots to showcase it.

As long as it's no transfer, no one else will be able to sell it without doing something devious to get around the permissions ... and if they can do that, they can do it no matter how you set the perms.

Many skins are modifiable so people can vary the shading, alter the eyebrow thickness, etc. Others are copiable so people can make backups, or put them into multiple avatar folders. Neither of these are musts, but I would suggest that if you don't want people to be able to modify it (and I can understand why you wouldn't if you worked hard to get it just so), you might consider making additional versions with different facial hair so people will not feel that they're locked in to only one look if they use your skin.

Also, providing a free demo is just about required. Very few people are going to buy a skin they can't try on first. Just make a copy with a big green DEMO stamped on the forehead and make it available for L$0 or L$1.

One other thing to consider, and it will sound counterintuitive, but it's possible your price is too low. Many people are accustomed to believing that you get the level of quality you pay for, and while that's not always true, it often is. That means that an item that is priced significantly lower than competing items may not sell as well as you'd think because people assume that "if it's that cheap it can't be very good." That's especially possible if there's no demo to try.

Of course all of these are just guesses, but they can't hurt to consider.

What you really need to do is look around at other skin sellers and note what attracts you to feel safe buying from someone and what would put you off.

As others have said, a demo version is really a must. Not many would buy a skin without being able to try it on first.

I hope I don't sound rude here, but your advertising pic really needs some work. I would assume that someone who can't put together a decent ad pic wouldn't be able to photoshop a skin well either. You say you are a RL texture artist, so I am sure you could come up with a nice ad if you spent time on it

Spend more time on getting together a company image, more items and good model pics before worrying about sales. You have pointed out that you have made mistakes buying freebies, so have a lot of others, so when you see items poorly presented and one offs it would tend to make you cautious.

You have to market yourself and offer variety. Your price seems to be the most attractive thing about your product at the moment. So sell that pitch. Send samples to Ryan Darragh or Catero Revolution of www.second-man.com, start a blog about your products and register on Fashion Planet by IMing Tao Takashi. These are ways of low-cost high-effective marketing in SL. -- Don't become hopeless, there are people who offer amazing deals for free vendor spaces or a month or two free. If you have 1-3 items convince a friend who carries similar products to feature your products at their store.

Basically, instead of waiting for sales and waiting for customers to pull the hook you have to go up to them somehow and present your product to the masses. -- If they are *NOT* pulling the hook and buying your merchandise after theyve SEEN your product then thats a different story. It means you need a new product.

As with another earlier poster on this thread, may sales have slowed to a stop. I sell from my home and from several small stalls dotted around the grid. I used to sell a few items a week but for the last month or more.....nothing! Since the products are of similar nature to what theu were before I can only assume that something has happened in the the SL retail sector.

The pic is just a snapshot from SL. If I didn't believe it would be false advertising I could render it in Carrara Photoshop, don't have it. I use Photofilter studio.
How would I set up a demo? as a separate item?
And I'm resetting the options on the skins.

Yes. Just make the demo and list it separately for either free or L$1.

You've gotten some spot on advice already so I'll just add that you might also consider putting a note card in with your items talking about why your product(s) are better/different/cooler (if you haven't already).

I was only able to find the textures under your name on SLX.

Best,
~Ari

I could only find your "20 earth textures", I was interested to see what the skin looked like...

Like Nimue already mentioned ...

You need to enable "SLX Uncensored" (via the button at the bottom of the page) to see adult content, as which skins are automatically classified.

Ah...missed that. Thanks.

Oops, doh =)

Sure, I know how to read...




I did see other skins there though, hmm, without checking any "adult/mature" checkbox. Are you able to "unflag" ones that don't have mature themes? Or, do yours qualify for a mature label?

There might be other newbies like me who don't know to check for that =) Also, had I not known your name in advance, PLUS known to check "adult," I'd never ever see yours. Can't sell things that people don't know are there...

You also have to remember that pricing something low doesn't mean the sales are going to come rolling in. The price itself means a lot more then "bargin." Something that is so much lower in price then the average for the same type of product says to me it's either: 1. a freebie being resold. 2. ripped off. or 3. low quality. If these are untrue then take a harder look at where the quality of your work falls in with the competition and price accordingly.

Repeat customers and word of mouth is your best adverstising. Buying anything in SL is a gamble. Many things look good on an ad but terrible IW. If I buy a dress that is overpriced and put it on to find out that the seems don't even match, I guarentee that I will not go back or talk positivly about it no matter how nice the picture looked. With that in mind, very few are going to gamble on something that the ad doesn't even look good.

The packaging of the item (picture ad) says a lot about the quality. A nice photoshopped ad especially for products that are made in photoshop - clothes and skins - helps your skills stand out. If it looks professional that will go a lot further then saying the product is "pro made."

Branding is another important factor. While anyone can make up their own store name, not having one looks like you aren't even close to serious about having a store. If you don't have a brand then how can people separate you from the other 889,913 residents who've logged in in the past 30 days? How will people find you once you do get a store up and running?

Buy some L$ and get yourself a static main store. Not something in a mall, but a place where your store always is until you can afford and/or need something bigger. SLEX is all fine and good but most people (including myself) use it to find items and then go to the store IW to purchase. It is a very small investment and well worth it as you'll have 2 more advertising avenues. Not to mention that customers will be able to have a direct tp to use and to give to friends.

"A nice photoshopped ad" having dealt with Poser content for a while I try to avoid this. Nothing like buying something based on a picture in the add, to find out there was more photo shop to the add then to the content I would like to use only SL snap shots, that way people know what it looks like in SL not in PSP. But there is no reason I can't set up a photo studio with complementary lighting to make the adds.

Having stuff on SLX for me is just a means to an end. the store being the end. I have a long list of items to sell. mostly textured stuff; skins, clothes, and textures. I'm still learning the limits of SL modeling; about 6 steps back from what I am used to


Got too much going on right now to wip out a skin demo, but once that is done...

I like your suggestions Luth Brodie, and will be working on them.

If you are serious about your business, why not give it a cash infusion to get it started? All you are doing is frustrating yourself by being cheap. The saying "it takes money to make money" is pretty much a truism. Put some money in and get yourself the exposure you need. If your stuff is any good, it should take off.

Cristalle is right. If you want an inworld shop anyway, open one and advertise it. If your product is good, you'll get back everything you invest. Premium account, a plot of first land, some vendors, classified ad.

I have heard/read people say they won't buy anything with no copy because of the inventory issues in second life.

Your earth textures are good but that level of skill is not coming across with your photo of the skin. The chest looks good but the face is difficult to see at that angle. Also, lighting is very important when photographing a skin. Forcing sun to sunrise or sunset usually gives the best results.

"If you are serious about your business, why not give it a cash infusion to get it started?" Would if I could, but summer is lean times for me. I have a budget set in stone, that I have to live by till fall. And Carrara 6 will be out shortly so I have to hang on to the money for the upgrade. I work agribusiness, so I'm off more then I'm on.

Suggestions that I can implement I am working on.