Advice on Sales!!

Dear Skell,

We are sorry to inform you that you are required to move your posting to the new continent of Zindra. Using the words cock and up so close to eachother makes the posting quite inappropriate for reading in our PG forum, so please apply for a spot on our Zindra continent as soon as possible.
We have a team dedicated to these moves, so we can promise you that even this year you will be able to claim your new spot and post as much as you like.

Kind regards,

Linden Labs

I like that idea, Ralektra, and think I'll adopt that as well...next time I create something. *grins*

Awww, thank you so much for the good luck wishes on my finals.

Sending *Hugs*, prayers, and good wishes for whatever is happening in your RL. And going to Scotland!! Ooooo....ENJOY!!!!!!!! You deserve some R&R!!!!

Will look forward to seeing you return revived and refreshed!

What is the difference between freebie and sample? Or am I being a bit thick? Lol

(Freebies = good, entitlement attitude in anything = bad, IMO. I can understand why some only give freebies to group members now. And no one should ever act like Veruca Salt about it.)

My partner and I parted ways after two years in SL and being together about 98% of the time. I'm now learning a new "way of being" in SL but I can testify that it definitely is different.

That is one of the reasons I am moving more slowly (than usual) on my shoppe...my heart just isn't as much in it, or a lot of things in SL, anymore.

For now, I'm moving on, immersing myself in learning and trying to motivate myself to create...but definitely spending a LOT less time in SL.

(Errr, I said all that to say I can relate on the lazy/grumpy part.)

About 9 months ago I sent a survey out to everyone who had bought a prefab at my store in the prior year plus everyone in the group. It was a reasonably long survey and included questions on every aspect of my business from packaging to after sales support.

I sent out over a thousand of these surveys via a hippo group and offered to pay L$100 for every completed survey (with serious answers). I got about 200 replies which was cool and I felt that spending L$20K on a market research project was reasonable.

In hindsight it was an excellent investment. I have spent the last nine months gradually implementing changes based on customer feedback, I am on the last phase now.

As a result of these changes I have seen my revenue double!. I've released 1 new prefab in the last 9 months, so basically i'm selling the same stuff I was at the begining of the process, yet I am now selling twice as many prefabs. This is far beyond the growth I have experienced in the previous 4 years.

Add to that the fact that I have now opened an addtional section to the store selling prefab accesories, furniture, trees etc based on customer demand and thats turning over a good profit too.

Im sure it sounds like I am gloating but I'm trying to demonstrate how effective this market research project was.

Do it.

Now!

Thanks! I will get my butt in gear tooo!


E- send me a note with your eye numbers- I will fit a pair for you. It odes take a bit of practice and a bit of luck- in all the ones i have sold so far i have had to actually fit two pairs for customers - eyelashes are a wee bit tricky but over all it must go rather smoothly after awhile judging from the retun folks.

So Glad things are going so well for u that u have expansion in mind and I hope RL cooperates soon!

@ Porky- Congrats on that- It was a lot of hardworkd that paid off- great investment in time and money.

Since this is the advice on sales thread, some information about my current actions.

At the moment I have 9 animation sets up for sale on XStreet. Two of them I immediately put up as Homepage Featured, today I added a third one. So at the moment, 2 adult and 1 non-adult set are up as Homepage Featured. After the initial week is over, I will put all 3 up for a month, because it is hard to tell in a week if ad advertising campaign works. Total costs of this experiment will be 3x899 + 3x2899 = 11394 linden. Calculated back to real money that is about US$ 42, not that much for some brand recognition I suppose. Will keep you all posted on the results of this action!

Greetings, Marcel

*Waves at everyone*

I've been doing "2 day only" gifts when I release a new collection. They usually consist of a few small accessories from a furniture set and act as a sample of my work. I use a script that allows people to take only one of the gifts as opposed to many copies. It seems to work fairly well for getting people into the store and many do take a look around and end up purchasing. I do totally agree though that ongoing freebies can be hazardous.

~ Desi

Help Oh Geniuses of the Sales Thread ----
Decided to get a banner advert at SLU, the have a sentence that says "and a short sentence to appear under the banner as a text link if choosing the top ad." I want to use my blog as the destination - http://talonfaire.blogspot.com/ - but I haven't a clue how to create a 'text link'. Is that the same as html clickable link? I do know how to do that- though I am unsure in their site what works because the html links i use in block did not appear the same when done in theirs...

TIA- I want to give this a shot so please any advice will be greatly apreciated.

You dont need to create the link hun they do it for you, you just need to tell them what that link should say, for example

"click here to see Talon Faire's blog"

I have been meanign to do another banner advert on SLU but have been lazy about doing up some ads.

Ohh in case you didnt notie Ama hun ou can now have several ads rotating for the same price. So do up several ads showing all sides of your store. One for landscaping, another for your eyelashes maybe and a third for your clothing


Ooooh and dont worry about fitting them to me they were just a gift from the DSN i dont want to make you go to all that work just for me O.o They were beautifully made though

Oh Thank You!!!

For the explanation and the multiple focus idea- I had seen i coudl have more thatn one refernce but didnt even consider doing for the different product lines Wonderful idea thanks so much!

Re the lashes- I am getting ready to send a note around asking folks that are willing to share to supply their eye numbers- I am thinking if i get enuf of a cross section i might be able to come up witha more "standard" form and make lashes that are easier to fit.

That reminds me, I got the Talon Faire lashes from DSN a few days ago and need to try them. I'm probably one of the very few male avatars subscribed to the female fashion channel, and I've picked up some great pieces (mainly pants) from there that I can wear. I just throw away anything obviously girly, but there's stuff *any* guy could wear, if he dared to subscribe to that channel and sort through what it sent him

I checked my DSN stats yesterday and the Futurehome has now gone out to over 2000 people. Even though sales are good and some are trickling in thanks to that (plus I've been blogged a couple of times, including once after sending the blogger something) I'll admit to thinking, "Man, that Futurehome is L$75 in the store. If only 2000 people had *bought* it at that price!" And then I think, "Well, 2000 people would *not* suddenly turn up to buy it at that price, BUT the quality of my work is sitting in 2000 inventories, and rezzed out inworld in a few places, and I'm happy with the fact that people can see what I'm capable of".

The 'samples' thing is my little poke at the people who decry freebies all the time. They may challenge my right to give a freebie, but a sample is mine to give anytime!

Power to the samples!

Skell- I had thought of doing subtle lashes for guys cause after all guys have eyes too! But by now you all must have run into my irrational phobia to morph into a male av even briefly- Anyway, if I could beg you to comlete one of those cards- I will send in world- listing your eye numbers- I could get a clue of at least one male's eye shape- i will happily fit a pair to you specifically - of your choice if you want to try a different one from the DSN ones - I don't recall which i sent out- have some neat new emo ones out now

Sorry, not a seller, just a consumer with a question...

Is the DSN meant for everyone? Sorcha had seen it at Eclectic's shop and I thought about one of us signing up for it, but I don't blog and I'm not a merchant and I don't want to take advantage of the offers if they are meant specifically for that kind of promotions.

Nic, anyone can sign up to receive items from it, not just bloggers. It's a good way for us designers to get a sample of our items out there to potential customers. I just checked my main DSN stats page and there are currently 6328 avatars signed up to the network, with a rather boggling 589,826 total items sent out from all the designers taking part.

OK- I sent my four advert options to SLU and i hope I got all the other info right.. we shall see -

Nic, I haven't signed up as a designer for DSN yet but I'm signed up as a "consumer" and I ADORE it. What a GREAT idea...for both merchants and consumers. It's like Christmas or my birthday every morning when the items arrive.

I've been telling everyone about it and I know at least 3 people have signed up (as consumers) and I'm encouraging 2 to sign up as designers.

Thanks, Skell and Czari - I'll go ahead and sign on, then.

Been quietly reading this particular thread since it started

I am needing to redo my Xstreet listings and products and reading this thread sure helps. But I have a question or two

Can I repackage - New texture on the box and rename the product, also need to take out the old landmark with out getting into trouble ? I am making a new logo that I will be wanting to use.

I have a few more builds that I will be placing on Xstreet when I have the old cleaned up.

Also if I rename the products I do have I worry that some may not find them, sure they dont bring much money in but it does some at least for my XStreet shopping.

Any advice will be helpful. And keep up the great work everyone.

Bec

I was told once never to relist the same item - that the Xstreet folks didn't take kindly to that. What I am sure you can do is edit your item on the site and change out the pictures. As far as the LMs you wd just need to pull the old item out of the in-world box and replace it with the new one- then go back to the site and re-associate it. That wd update your item with out re-listing it.

OK great!

THanks I didnt want to get in trouble lol.

Bec

Who is still working on a logo for her boxes.

Yes it is for everyone There are some great samples in thereand it is meant for everyone to join and get a single sample of what you can do. you will only every get one item from each designer too so it doesnt get annoying with stuff from people you arent interested in

Thanks, Eclectic! Although I started late and have not gone back and read the entire thing, I've learned a lot from this thread in the past few months! And every now and again I'm tempted to pull out my magic box and list a couple of things on XStreet...

Sorcha's now signed up with DSN - it will be interesting to see how it goes.