Advice on Sales!!

Surreal- I am going to post the ino from the meeting today- be sure and join the group Jojo references above- good luck

It's the rest of us trying to catch up with you Aussies, Surreal.

(I had a holiday in Australia a few years ago and I can't wait to go back.)

Talon Faire added! Thank you Amaranthim. I have so much work to do on my blog to prepare for my eventual grand opening. Today I think I'll hole up in my room behind a locked door. *snicker* Who the heck are all these people who want me to participate in RL?

This morning however I think I'll go shop jumping and stealz all of your wonderful ideas!
And of course give you any that might come to mind.

Morning- and thanks MoxZ. Well One of the recurrent things suggested to me was the size of my advert boards- so last night I made them all bigger and I must say - they do jump out at one now-Another suggestion was to simplify the boards themselves to two poses- well poop! I have a lot of work ahead if I do that one- so I may try out one or two and see how that goes- damn upload fees!

OK- I need some coffee and a plate of Carpe diem...

I'll be making a trip to check out your store, Miles! IMO there is a dearth of good card shops in SL, especially with the rezzing envelopes. (Not sure I've seen one of those...they sound like a lovely touch!)

Although I'm not much for clothes shopping, I LOVE giving cards and the card shop I used to patronize exclusively...went out of business So thank you for opening one!!!

Wow thanks Miles, I'm glad you liked what you saw And thank you for the suggestion regarding the keywords for search on 'about land'. I've been renaming the prims but never thought about that land description area at all, it's now loaded hehe

and the sign is fixed

as far as the open and closed versions of jackets, my partner actually mentioned that he would like an open version of a jacket I made him and it made me think that maybe everyone would, and it has been a popular product.

The formal wear upstairs, well we don't ride motorcycles 100% of the time! Actually that was what I made first and didn't have much luck selling it...so I decided maybe I should just make the clothes I like to wear then if they don't sell, I still have clothes lol...and actually the biker clothes have done much better than the other things so I guess I have found my niche

Thanks, Amar...going to check it out. Will it allow making textures? The only things I really want an image editor to do is make my own textures and signs.

That's the experience I've had too

Sidenote true story: I took the class Mystikal Cookie offered for her Mystitool awhile back. There is a feature in the Mysti that allows one to place an object someplace (say a store) and then it will remotely tell the owner of that Mysti if anyone is in the store.

Mystikal says she uses it before she comes to her store to put up signs, etc. to make sure the store is empty because she said anytime she appears and people are there they immediately poof!

Dang...missed it! Thank you for starting the group though...will be joining that

No Czari- not at all- it is a very - very- basic image editor with accent on photos like red eye and cloning and such- would you like to talk and or meet re what limited knowledge I have on textures? If you look at my dresses, you will see I do a lot of photo source stuff- I shoot my own textures and get the weirdest looks from people out and about when i take out my trusty cam to shoot a little of this and that M Alchemy dress- the color comes from the boot of an antique deep water diving suit- honest to god! I have the source anyone doubts me

Czari- I love AvPainter I learned a lot of how to handle the Gimp from the easy interface of AvPainter. For under $12.00 US It is money well spent. Mind you too - if your business does take off where it is worth calling it a business and not a hobby - all these things are tax deductible
Anyway, Avaiter gave me insight in better use of Gimp and back. Holler f I can be of any help though I assure you - I am not expert!

Not sure if you were speaking of my store in particular or stores in general.

As for my store - it's not in existence...yet...other than my few items on SLex. I got all excited about going premium, and purchasing my 512 bit of land. I was beginning construction on my shop (117 prims vs the 25 I had in the small place I was renting...woot!), then with the land prices down I got carried away and purchased two more adjoining plots.

Then, since I now owned more land than we were currently renting for our home....we moved our home to the new land. For some reason I hated leaving the rented land. For one thing it bordered two protected oceans and I had a sentimental attachment to it. I IM'd the landlord in months past to let us know if he ever wanted to sell.

So we gave our notice, moved to my land...and then the landlord put the land up for sale.

Ok, /whine off

Love the new sign, Nissa - especially the leg dangling in air. (See THAT'S the kind of thing I want to learn how to do!! Very cool!)

Thanks Amar Sent an forum IM to ya!

thanks Czari, it was a ctually pretty simple once I knew how to use the select same pixels tool and cut .. but I am not good in photoshop, so I had to use a mixture of PS6 and Microsoft Digital Starter (which came with the PC and is now discontinued) as I do not know how to use layers really! Even though it took me about 3 hours to do, and now have made a slightly different one, I was very proud of myself for achieving that much!!

/nods

It's that layers deal that's tricky :/

The Distilled Results of the Meeting

Size of the advert boxes- they may look adequate, but get other opinions- in this case, bigger is better

Keep in mind the skin and hair of the model avie- light hair and and light skin work best against a dar background

Minimalism – less is more. Simplify to keep attention on the merchandise not the model

Marketing for what sells as opposed to just what appeals to you in order to increase sales

Have the destination TP close to our door or storefront

Look at Freestyle, FabFree and Free Dove as possible outlets that might garner attention.

Briefly talked of Youtube videos – Microsoft’s Windows Movie Maker- a free program- was mentioned as an easy tool for producing a vid from stills.

PrimPerfect was mentioned as an advertising option for furniture and décor oriented people: [slurl]http://www.primperfect.net/[/slurl]

Goodwill advertising- Jojo that mentioned how she does free custom work to encourage future sales for hopefully repeat customers.

Freebies to friends and good customers – hoping that when they wear it or show it- they will get the, “Oh where did you get that?” comment.

Free stuff to yyour group- make them come to your store to get it rather than deliver as an attachment- makes them look at what u offer.

Free to group members only- script to generate group only access

Offer a Teach Me option- generates good will and name recognition- if tied into big group like Etopia benefit of already created group

Set your Freebies for sale- at Zero- this ensures you have a list of peeps who took the item- then u can approach them again for group membership or other. Thank ous very big on this- send them a thank ou note with your LM and a group invite.

Other options- Cart Rentals- Free Yard Sale Adverts

can anyone give me more info about the 'free to group members only' script?

Thank you for taking the time to post this, Amaranthim! I would have been in attendance had it been possible.Do any of you have recommendations on a script like this that you've used? I could really get some good use from this.

Edit: Ralektra obviously types faster than I do.

I added it to my blog as well- in case we loose sight of it in the thread -

just speaking of stores in general

I have put some reviews up on my blog, from those who requested specifically for feedback, will do more when I can.

my blog is http://rhadesigns.blogspot.com/

If you want to swap blogs let me know

Thank you
As for the description I am still at a loss what to put in there, so I tried to well... describe my store LOL

Hey Rha- I read your review- thank you for taking the time. I am already working on the clean up of the ad boards- there were others that commented on that

Thanks everyone- we are doing a great bit of work here - it can only be a benefit for us - see the meeting notes above -

I proly won't get back to further store critiquing until next week - RL beckons- be well all

I did see Ralektra's store briefly- easy to get around- the boards were great- and yes- I noticed- the y were uniform with just the main stuff showing and the highlight of the open jackets!

I liked the formal things upstairs and that is more my speed- to be honest I would never have looked up there if Rha had not mentioned it in her review or if I had not been reviewing the store- biker clothes not being my interest I would never have gone in- so I would punch u some adverts about the formal clothes - ma be split the store in such a way that both are visible at first glance- i have an idea about a sign like- different as night and day- something - hmm Great stuff though the jacket I bought is being handsomely modeled even now
I loved the Hipno vendor for gifts! I am definitely going to toss one into my store - Thanks for the LM Ralektra-

OK- being pulled away by RL- back when I can- Wishing all well.

yep[ same here I almost missed the stuff upstairs but figured since I am reviewing got to peek everywhere hehe
(sadly not in the market to buy anything, otherwise I would have nabbed a few of those pretty dresses)
seeing stuff like that makes me wish I was that good!!

amar yeah my review was already done when you and I started chatting and I just did not have it in me to fix it, but hey, it will be nice for those visiting to see the changes hehe

I review them as I see them and if I do not like something I will say so, I won't sugar coat it, and expect nothing less from anyone reviewing mine

how else will be benefit, other than people be truthful

I do not expect people to make changes based on just what I say or see, same as I may not make changes based on one review, however if I see folks saying the same thing, consistently, THEN I would consider a change