Advice on Sales!!

Thanks, all, for the quick replies. #2 was the one I was leaning toward, but I wanted to check with a few other people first.

Nimue, I love your idea of selling the items separately, but I'm not sure I have the store space to do that *g* I have possibly two single items (banker's lamp, and spinning globe) that could be sold separately, and then I would bundle the furniture togther (couch, two armchairs, desk, side table, and the sideboard/credenza that I have planned). The desk accessories and pictures could, I suppose, go into another pack with the tray that has the whisky decanter and tumbler on it...

/me sighs and laughs. Too much to think about! I'll just keep building for now.

Ooh, no matter how you bundle it, that all sounds cool! Can't wait to see it.

/me grins. Sneak previews are on my Flickr. Most recent 3 photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/skelldagger/

I think I'm all done in for the night, though. One last thing (quoth he, sounding like Colombo) - Amara, what did you think of those sample kiosks that I did for the Biz Network group? They were pretty basic (to say the least!) and the logo was from the best royalty-free image I could find under 'group' on stock.xchng.

hi again
not sure why ppl would say remove you from the ads

I personally like to see the item being in use (be it clothing, shoes, hair etc)
I would just remove the background, photograph on a white or solid color background that you can remove in the ad creation, then have a simple (not too loud or strong) complimentary background, that all the pics will be on, and do less pics per ad, say back, side and front

I am no expert by any means, but speaking as a consumer, if I see ads that have a lot of backgrounds I tend to pass them by

Ama, the problem is that too many poses means that we can't see the details of the actual item unless it's on a huge prim. I personally have no desire to do extensive camera work just to get close to view an item. 2-3 poses (front and back or back view at an angle to show off the side) is usually enough, especially with high quality photos. A good example: Archange.

Skell - I will be good and work on store stuff tonight! I did unpack the kiosks so I would not forget, but they are sitting in my living room along side Mickey's gift box and Jojo's small business kit! Lately I took upon the arduous task of redoing certain parts of the castle I live in since the architect was in love with using over and beyond the amount of prims necessary. So last night with the of help of a friend, was spent in rearranging walls and ceilings and steps.

Cristalle and Rha- yes the ad for the last one did have way too much on it. I will re do it today- it looked cluttered even to me. No excuses - bad judgment. But take a look at the new stockings and bustier one - definitely went minimalist on that one- both the items and the advert.

the nylons one much better

but I have to ask
why do you do them on colored backgrounds then paste that onto a white background

why not just do the photo on a white background then paste on a white background

much cleaner look (in my opinion)

look at awesome designs' ad for what I mean, her ads inspired me to do mine the way I do

I just like the uncluttered look and crisp clean background

(others may prefer it another way)

just suggesting options

for instance if you look at my latest releases the boots and shoes, (on my blog for easy viewing) you will see what I mean

Nice Ballet Boots Rha Uhm... that's a colored background though - a lovely pink tone.

I like the colored back grounds- I can see that my last one was way over the top in too much- like i said it didn't really floor me when i was done and I intend to clean it up, but plain white is just too sterile for me.

via name tracking and cross-referncing, i have found that ppl who visit my satellite spots then TP in to my main and shop there. so i don't mind paying for a few high-traffic locations... they bring me business. my sales are up this week, for the first time in weeks. it's been a quiet summer.

3Ring, do you have any tips on finding locations that will be effective? Are there any specific locations you would suggest?

I've only tried one location so far. It was at a club with very high traffic. After two weeks, I only made a couple of sales and the LM giver distributed a mere three LMs to my main store. Owners of other shops in the area had the same disappointing results.

believe it or not, lumping yourself up with others who sell things similar to yours seems most effective.... or, get into a themed area... it almost doesn't matter the theme, as long as the retailers already there are in your genre.

also, stalk a popular designer in your genre, by taking spots where they do.

edit: P.S. i never take a spot near clubs. people don't go to clubs to shop... no one is going to buy a ball gown right next door and chance that someone else will show up wearing it... also, all those avatars cause lag at YOUR store. i think it's an odd combination to mix the two.

I don't know how to do that... Is it difficult? I have signs in my small shops that give LM to my main shop but people don't click on the very often.

Has everyone signed up with SL Topsites? This is a great way as well to get your product blog noticed. All you have to do is put the linky on your blog back to SL Topsites and your blog is rated by the number of people who link back to SL Topsites via your blog. Hence it appears closer and closer to the top page.

Also, I have found myself digging the blog list myself just for looking. There's good stuff out there folks!

http://www.sltopsites.com/

http://www.sltopsites.com/classifieds <-----FREE

OK MoxZ - just signed up to those - let's see how long it takes for them to get back to me- apparently they need to approve you.

Was checking out SLProfiles again- you can add links to you products on sale at SLExchange and OnRez to- check out my profile page: http://www.slprofiles.com/slprofiles.asp?id=26619

And traipsing thru there gave me this:

http://www.apez.biz/modules.php?name=Your_Account&op=new_user

Anyone know this outfit?

While continuing to peruse SLProfiles I found one can add favorite places.... so:

http://www.slprofiles.com/secondlifeplaces.asp

I have never heard of them before, I had a quick look but where do you put your products??? Mmm could be interesting

Another point on the satellite store discussion...I almost never take a lm from a giver when im shopping. If i see something interesting, most often i right click and go to the creator's profile, then tp to the main store via picks. There i most often make my own landmark rather than take one. So don't discount the effect of small stores spread out that feed into your main store. While you may not get concrete numbers to back it up, if you overall sales are higher and that is the only thing you have changed, you can bet the increase is due to more exposure for your items.

If anyone needs store space, besides renting you some myself, im happy to share where ive done well when i rented. When i chose i went to the sites several times a day at diff times to see if there were any real people there. I did not choose places with campers. I also tried to talk to the renting mgr to see what they were like and ask some questions...how long had the place been there, do they have events, do the renters work together on promotions and why was that store empty - did the person just leave, do well and move onto their own land, etc. I went more for places where there were real people around or traffic that indicated folks had been around with no camping or bots. That in itself is worth something.

I would really appreciate some help with satellite stores, i havent had much luck with the ones i have had in the past. Im really unsure of what is the best area / place to put them and what to put in there. I really want my products out there for everyone to see. I do a line of Love beds with animations that are not your generic freebies, but quality animations from an animator who has been in sl since 2004. They are great animations and purely couples, no positions you would never use, lol. Of course I am also branching out to the more pg stuff as well .

*looks at the pic again*

AWWW crap that is not supposed to be there, that was how I was doing it for awhile, and just used an old ad template and forgot to remove that dang layer GRRR

I am gonna redo them to the white, it is not supposed to be anything but white

thanks for letting me know

2 days without sleep can really mess up the brain

(there we go, fixed it and updated the ad pics) I so need to not do ads when half asleep)

Now.. here is my pet peeve/rant
I show folks something I am working on, or they see me wearing it (I tend to do that, to get a feel for how it will look while being used) and they are like... oh that is nice, where can I get it, I explain I am the creator and not released yet, they are like oh let me know when you do release it

so I do....

and you guessed it, not a word, no purchase, nada...

don't tell me to let you know, if you have no plan to come by and get it.

For anyone who is just starting out and having problems and willing to write about their experience after a couple of months I have extra land I'd be willing to sub-divide and create a group for you to place a store so you have control over TP locations and such to see how that works relative to the other issues raised in this thread. I already have one person helping me with writing an article about rezzing vendors and would love to have an article about a start-up and their experience. Like the creator of this tjread you should have no land of your own and only recently getting involved with selling in Second Life.

Just IM me in-world to talk about what to do. All I'm interested in is putting together an article about the experience and will be happy to help in any way possible.

OH before I forget

here is another suggestion that someone gave me in world for marketing...
and one that I am gonna go with...

anywho...

contact busy clubs, and offer to sponsor events for them. In return they advertise your business, stating on air and in chat that it was sponsored by so and so

What I am offering to clubs, is (depending on the size, age and how busy they are) on average

500L plus 5x100L giftcards to my store
the 500L is the prize money for their event, the giftcards are additional prizes they can hand out, which will hopefully bring ppl to the store (to use the cards)
I thought about giving product as prizes for them to use, but would 1 rather get the ppl to my store, and 2 let them pick out what they want. (the cards are transfer no copy, so they can pass it to a friend if my stuff is not their style)
(I am also going to do some of my own ads for on air, and send them to the club owners that use me as a sponsor, saves the DJ the hassle of remembering to plug the sponsor, and it will be how I want it) (If you are not comfortable with doing your own voice ad you can prolly hire folks (like me) who are not uncomfortable with doing it) hehe


anywho... just an idea for anyone else to use as well... I will let you know how it goes once I do it LOL (am talking to one club owner already)
the way I see it I was spending about 2K a week on ads, (then I stopped because they were not working for me) so at that rate I can sponsor 4 events (4 different clubs, 4 different groups of ppl hopefully LOL) which will mean my business and such will be presented to live ppl and not lost in the 1000's of 1000's of other classified ads

no harm in trying

so if you are a club owner and you are reading this and you are interested in having someone sponsor an event, give me a shout

(helps you, cuz that is one less event you have to pay for, and helps me as it gets out some advertising, and helps the patrons of the club as they get some giftcards)

hehe

(I would love to see events start to work out like that, I have a feeling it would be just the thing to get clubs interesting again, knowing that not only can you win some lindens, but some prizes too, be it items, or giftcards, etc)

heck I would prolly start going to clubs again LOL

Rha- one of my stores is in a club mall- It lags so bad i can't tell u- aside from that i haven't had a single sale there and do not intend to renew. I have sponsored an event, I have give out big denomination gift cards as well as lower discount cards. For me it has been an absolute waste of lindens. The owner is a friend and I did it mostly to help him and to break in to sales - but it hasn't worked at all.

/me giggles and waves my hand.

My partner and I run a small (in land size) women's club. Yes sponsership for events seems to result in increased sales by quite a bit for those that sponser us. As for store in a mall at a club?? I think having the mall in a space that needs to be tped to is better, the lag is not so bad and people are more inclinded to shop in a shopping space.

The vendors in our mall have been with us since we opened the mall section over a month ago except for a couple, and all have continued renewing. I think you should also spend time in the space you want a mall space at. Interact with the people who spend time there. See what they like. and also chat and see if the mall is promoted. My staff actively promote our mall and the stores in it. This does help (disclaimer : this isnt advertising or solisiting... we have a full mall and a waiting list).

(ooook so this kinda is though ) If any of you would like to chat to me about sponsering FABGlitter letme know We have a few regular sponsers but are always looking for others who may like to. Although we have never had any of our sponsers offer lindens. They give us gift certificates, my partner and i put up the lindens. This seems to work well as the sponsers lose nothing

I agree with the sponsorship input...it works best when the store owner is involved and has a store on the sim where the club or event is. The real key is making a connection. If i meet you at the club and you are sponsoring the event i am many times more likely to visit your store.

We also do this on the Etopia sims for our shop keepers on different levels. Some offer classes inside their stores that we promote through our larger groups, monthly calendar etc. We do that for free because we want to help their biz grow. They also can sponsor a one time event like a concert, a weekly event or concert or even pay for naming rights to large spaces etc. Again, this seems to work best when the store owner is actually involved. We do all the promotion for them but the their presence is a huge plus.