ATTN: Second Life "Millionaires" ... Share Your Secrets!

I opened a shop in SL about two months ago, and I'm really amazed at how well it's doing ... on the order of a couple hundred US dollars a month. But we've all heard of Second Life "millionaires" -- or at least people who make a significiant amount of their yearly income from SL -- and I'm nowhere near that yet.

So I'm wondering if any REALLY successful SL shopkeepers -- people who make their money from product sales, not land speculation or strip clubs or whatnot -- would mind sharing some of their secrets. What things did you do that really increased your sales? Was it marketing? Multiple shops? One really good shop location? What?

Thanks for any advice you can share!

-Michelle Morphett

1--Stable 'main-store' location. Don't move it around.

2--Make quality product.

3--Word of Mouth is the best advertising, but it travels slowly at first. Be patient.

4--DO NOT do anything morally ambiguous. Be upfront, honest, and don't scam or engage in questionable marketing schemes.

5--Be patient with your customers and give them the best support you can, but not at the expense of being able to continue building your business.

Love what you do, respect the people you deal with and don't ever, ever, ever do it for the money.

grins

Resist...............

Fights............

<can't hold back>



THE


URGE TO






SHOP!

(for myself)!

Buy low, sell high.

Thanks for the good advice, Kenn!

Here's a specific question ... how effective have you found high-priced Search classified ads to be? Do they really improve sales?

-Michelle Morphett

Very good advice Kenn. Couldn't have said it better myself.

I'm also about in the same situation as you Michelle, and as we say here in Portugal:
"O segredo é a alma do negócio"
"Secret is the business soul", so the my answer to your question... well.. hmmmm...

time, patience, dedication... and take some risks.

I also have a motto.. dunno if somebody already said it before, "Accomplishment is not about what you can do with money, but what you feel while spending your life-time to earn it."

SERVICE SERVICE SERVICE!!!

Everything Kenn said (I got to meet you inword sometime, we think alike)

If you ever have the thught "Should I do this refund/exchange/service because I don't know if I shoud", just do it. Swear at your screen if you have to, but a pissed off customer is way more dangerous than a somewhat satisfied one. Don't let this get in the way of standing up for not getting ripped off though. It is a fine line.

Rule of thumb: Give the best possible service, that of which you would expect of any business in real life.

Publicity is one thing. As for what you actually do, to be successful you need to either:

Offer something completely new and different, obviously that people need.
Offer something others are already offering, but do it better or cheaper, or both!

I echo what Kenn, Desmond & D'Nel said.

I will also add:
Answer every IM or note card you receive from a customer or prospective customer. Even if it means stopping in the middle of an important project to acknowledge them. Every customer is important.

It just boggles my mind when a customer (either via IM or in the shop) apologize for "bothering" me with questions or concerns. Without customers I do not have a business.

And treat your SL business just as you would an RL business.

*waves at D'Nel*

Best,
~Ari

If 1000 people send me a L$1000, I will share my secret on how to make L$1,000,000.

Find a niche and occupy it brilliantly. Know *who* your customer base is and build for them, don't try to be everything to everyone.

I'm a big believer in targeted marketing. If you make Celtic Jewelry, then do a well marketed store just for the jewelry. If you branch out into another style, make a companion store right next to it. Until you have a big enough name, don't try and combine 6 different item categories into one store. Look at your own shopping habits and use those to refine your marketing. "Judy's Celtic Jewelry" is much more intriguing than "Judy's Odds & Ends" and will stand out on a search results list much easier.

Use quality pictures of either your store or of your items - do not under any circumstances use a logo in place of a picture of your goods, you may THINK you have a well known name, but new people are joining SL all the time and they don't know you from Adam.... Using the jewelry example above, use either a wide-shot picture showing that you have lots of different items to choose from or a single close up shot of what you consider your finest item.

Lastly, as others have said, love what you make. Craftsmanship shows. The ultimate compliment is when you can say that if YOU saw that exact item somewhere else, you'd buy it in a heartbeat. Build for yourself first, then let those who have similar tastes find you.

I agree 100% with all that mentioned good customer service. I recently had a odd problem with an item I purchased in SL. Contacted the seller and he spent a great deal of effort correcting the problem. When something like this happens I'll go out of my way to tell all my friends that this is a good person deal with.

About the same time I had the opposite experience with a RL company. I went to a cellphone provider and purchased 3 phones for my family, signed up for a 2 year family plan, bought car chargers, etc. Spent a good bit of money. My fault for not asking first, but once the deal was done they wanted $10 each to transfer our saved phone numbers to the new phones. When I complained, the response I got was along the lines of "Too bad, sucks doesn't it." This is my only complaint against this company, but I'll seriously consider going elsewhere in the future. I won't mention the company's name but it starts with V and rhymes with the word for where the earth meets the sky.

Sorry for rambling on. So in short, treat your customers well. Good news travels fast, bad news even faster.

Tex

I have never in my 2 years in SecondLife even considered purchasing a classified ad. Therefore, I have no idea of they actually increase sales. I do know, however, that I have also never shopped via the classified section as I know that all I'm going to see is paid ads from people potentially more interested in marketing than producing.

Classified ads MAY be the best thing since sliced bread -- but they're not my thing.

I have to extend my comment and acknowledge Isablan's. The publicity and customer service are great, but come on, this really should go without saying.

I really think that getting into a niche, now, while SL is still growing, is your best bet. I was looking to decorate my garden for a club and I searched garden centres galore, and looked at other clubs to see what they had, and all I could find was the same old trees and bushes. This demonstrates how saturated SL is with non original stuff, and how much individual stuff sticks out.

Which is why, when I was just wandering, I saw some alien plants made by Fallingwater Cellardoor. These were beautiful and totally different to anything I'd ever seen. They showed creativity and originality. I bought a load and made a note of the shop.

I only ever buy original stuff now, and if I can't find what I want, I build it myself (I learnt to build as a direct result of never being able to find decent, original stuff.)

There's a big gold rush going on at the moment with people trying to make money in the quickest and easiest ways. In this arena, quality and creativity absolutely shine.

How do people find your shop, then, Kenn? Seriously ... I'm looking for alternate marketing strategies, and it sounds like you must be doing something unique to get traffic!

Different people find things in different ways. You not only want to grab people who are shopping RIGHT NOW for what you make, you want to keep your name and products out there so that two months from now they remember seeing your name or product and come back looking for you. Most people shop using the Search Places feature, but plenty of people cruise the classifieds just to see what is out there. You want the impulse buyers as much as you want those who are going to TP to 8 different stores comparing products and prices.

Also, to riff further on what Cemiess said, style is a huge component in creating a successful SL business. Anyone can make trees. But only Fallingwater makes her particular STYLE. Only Khamon makes scripted trees that do all sorts of cool things. If you want to stand out in what has become a crowded marketplace, you need to be doing original work and designs. Lots of people make skyboxes, but my designs and style are completely my own. There are thousands of island communities in SL, but there is only one Caledon.

Kenn is a very frequent poster in the forums, and it's hard to miss his sig... (j/k)

Dont spend tons of L$ on classified ads. Most I spend is $L150. It's all about keywords.

And the whole Niche market thing- yea, it works. Just be REALLY good at it & don't just do another "silks" or "Gor" store. Make your product Unique, even if there are others.

And have FUN first. The L$ will follow if you enjoy what you're doing.

and dont espect to earn your million in first few days.....dont be disapointed if u start slow with ...

it will come ....u must work think and THINK !!

Here is my take on advertising:

Search Places - people who are in-world and actively on a mission to purchase tend to use this mechanism.

Classifieds - can be searched in a browser, so I think more people cruise those just to see what is out there, rather than on a serious shopping mission. You can at least see how many teleports you get off the ad, which helps. I fully think the basic $50L ad is worth it, maybe even a $100L ad. Maybe I'll try and see for a few weeks.

SLX - can be searched in a browser, a very popular choice for those bored at work. Also used a lot by people on a shopping mission, but who want to narrow their choices down before jumping in-world. I have good success with the the home page ad, not as much for sales through SLX, but to drive traffic to the store.

Forum advertising - I obviously use a signature banner as advertising and think this is an excellent idea.


Ideally, your marketing brings in the people who are shopping right now for what you make, the people who just happend to see something you made and purchase on impulse, and the people who might be shopping for something you make in the future (maybe they end up buying land and suddently now they need a house, funishings, landscaping - or they decide they want a new skin.)

Heh ... taking your advice ...

Wow ... talk about ironic. I just logged in for a sec and found an IM from my landlord waiting for me, telling me that our island is being upgraded to a 5 server, and we all have to move one sim over. So much for "stable central shop!" It'll be "interesting" to see how this will impact my sales ... I was just starting to do well, too!

Well, all the more reason to do some more marketing! Some ideas I've had, some that I'm not sure are viable or not ...

Do "freebie exhchanges" with other shops who sell complimentary products. For example, I'd put one of my free mist makers out in their shop, which would also include my LM in it, and they'd put something out at my shop. Not sure if anybody would be interested in this, though, and there's also the clutter factor to consider.

Setting up a group to announce new products as I make them available. I did this, and have about 20 people on it now after one round of invites. Trouble is the time it takes to go through all of my sales every month and send invites to everybody.

Host an event of some kind, to justify sending out press releases to the SL media. I used to manage an Irish pub, and did this whenever the art show in our upper gallery changed ... it actually brought in quite a few people.

Any other creative ideas out there?

Freebie exchanges are great. It's a good idea.

Product group is awesome...just make sure it doesn't get spammed.

And yes...SLEx and Forums and Search is where I get my traffic from.