Advice on Sales!!

amar I like that, a lot!

i like your background a lot. the way it's laid out looks great to me. the text sizes are perfect. and the dress is fab!

i just don't like the logo on that now... let me send you the logo without the background. maybe it will look better?....

she should have the logo in all layers as when I sent it to her I sent it as a psd

not sure why you would have to send it to her

personally I like it like that (and not because I made it) but because it makes the logo stand out, as a logo and not just more text on the ad

ultimately it depends on amar as to how she likes it

Great idea, Rhaorth. I've edited the Merchants Page to add a line about some store owners may prefer private reviews. To that end:

If you have requested a store review, could you please let me know (either PM on the forum, IM inworld, or a reply in a thread comment here) whether you are happy with a public review on this thread, or would prefer a private review dropped on you via notecard.

ETA: Please note, my holiday is now over (back to work today - boo!) so it might take a little longer for me to update the Merchants Page.

/me grins. The combination of 'cleavage not working on me' and the long-haired/pretty-faced profile pics could be confusing, I agree. I'll let you off just this once

heh well it was a post that mentioned "he" in reference to you that clued me in
no clue why I thought you were female

(happens to me a lot too, well, not that folks think I am female, but the opposite, ppl think I am male LOL)

oh and for the record, I am happy with public reviews be they good or bad

Great Thread, I have a business I recently opened up, I have a main store and about 6 small outlets, I have put into action a few things you have mentioned in this thread so if anyone wants to take a look at my store and tell me any things I could add or do different it would be greatly appreciated


Forever Charmed

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Jinsil/200/14/61/

Skell Im happy for public reviews because I think we can all learn from each others reviews. Whats someone does or doesnt like about your store might be somethign you can consider you know?? The more discussion leads to a greater gennertaion of ideas.

But that is a merchants page??

Rha my partner and I just spent an hour or so chatting aboutwhat does or doesnt work for us. One of the biggest things was freebie groups. If you are not a member i urge you to join them an send out a notice everytiem you put out a freebie. I kindly took up Rha's offer of a space in her mini mall as did my partner. We put out a freebie and sent out the notices. As a result all three of us had sales, LMs taken and people joined Rha's group.

Rha?? When you have a few more spaces too a hunt throughout the whole area might be fun and a good wayto generate traffic and potential sales??

Also I would suggest taking up space in Rha's mini mall, so is offering th space for free and I think if we can all band together a bit we can create an area which truely is a way for all of our products to be seen more.

Ohhh if you have a decent amount of things for sale a 'hidden' sale can be a load of fun. Setting one or two items for L1 then others for L50 (or a lot cheaper than they normally would be... for me i wouldset them to L25 as my highest single item is L50). Send out those freebie groups notices and get people in.

Sales come from two things ..... Traffic and a good product.

Traffic is hard to generate. So finding ways for people to find out about you is important. Any way you can do this is good. I tend to give away a new item every few weeks. This may seem a lot but it gets people in and does generate sales. Plus I like giving things away. esp things people really like


The other thing for me is assess your pricing. This is a general statement and obviously you dont have to take on board my ideas. This was somethign a group of women I was spending time with earlier today was discussing. There are so may designers in SL. Some good, some not so good. Some have great stuff which looks wayy better on than in the pictures (for me i think house of heart hair... i generally hate how the model looks... but love the hair on me). So unless I have seen an item on someone else I have to LOVE an item to buy something above say L200.

Some might say im frugal?? Well yes I am. However as we know probably around 1/2 the people in SL only use the money they make in SL to buy thingsin world. This means that many of us dont have huge amounts to spend. So how to get tht money spent in your store?

WEll for me and most girls I know.... for an item like L120 and under?? Even if I am unsure about it I will buy it. And usually wont bother tryign it on before I pick up another item or two I think oooh thats not bad about. If your items are set above like 200L?? WEl I have to REALLY liek the item. I need to know it is the perms I like. And over like L300?? I have to be in a damn good mood unless i knkow your stuff.

Tis is just one girl view who spends a lot of time shoppingand spend a lot of time with girls who shop

ok well I TPed into your store when it was on the Midnight setting. Thefirst thing i noticed what I didnt notice anytignyouwere selling. Setting all our boards to full bright or putting in lights will help things to stand out at all times of the day.

I likethe use of your logo on your ads..... but i would consider just using the pixie?? rather than the words too? The pixie creates branding without clutterig the ads. Plusthe words were not able to be red on mst of the diplay boards

My next question which came to mind ws is that photography yours or shots youhve the rights to? I am a huge supporter of the arts and many of them were lovely shots. But there is so much photography and art in SL which has just been taken from someones website that Iwont buyanythign without reassurace that itis the sellers work or they ahve the rights to use it.

I had my photography in SL until I had many comments saying it was stolen work (my photography is semi professional and several shots have been used and sold for publications etc...). Afterthat I gve up having it displayed in world. So if it is your work you have a keen eye and be careful for comments along that line.

If these are not your shots and you dont have the rights to them... well BLEEP you dont wanna hear my comments.

Overal your items are cute quaint and definately a niche market. I would suggest joining the freebie groups in world andsending out notices boutyour freebies to generate some traffic though. You had a few freebies out for people

Guys- for the record- I totally love Rha's logo but since I am taking license with it and playing with the backgrounds and stuff- I do not want my poor efforts at coordinating it to in any way reflect badly on Rha's expertise s I am going to stop using her logo and make up my own.

I thank Rhaorth for her hard work as well as 3-Ring for her efforts in trying to help me with a good display template. You ladies both totally kick butt with your photoshop skillz- and although I realize my own efforts will pale by comparison I am hopeful with time I will come somewhat close.

Again ladies, thank you.

Ah, ok...is that why I don't see the image now in the previous posts?

I dont mind public reviews, unless its something really bad and then i would prefer private. Im pretty okay though, if i can fix it , or i think its correct i will do something about it. So yep thats me

Schools in SL generally operate financially via sponsorships and/or donations. Any of you who have taken classes probably notice the verbal thanks given to the sponsor of that class and/or the lm's and sometimes signage displayed in class.

The school I teach for - Academy of Second Learning - ^ASL^ is actively seeking more sponsors. For our sponsors we keep their sign rezzed during class and the sponsor may put something in that sign for students to receive (lm, note about the products, some have put in a certificate for a free item, etc.) The instructor also verbally thanks the sponsor in class, directs attention to the rezzed sign, and includes a lm in the class materials.

Many of the classes taught in SL are about building so texture, building aid supplies, etc. are the most-often seen sponsors. However, I teach a series of classes on Personalizing Your Avatar and would love sponsors in the areas of skin/shape/hair/eyes/clothing/anything avatar related. (We would love any new sponsors but those areas would be especially great for my classes.)

NOTE: I do not get any kick-back or anything from sponsors - it's all to enable the schools to continue paying tier, etc. I had a "D'uh" moment while reading this thread and wanted to offer this idea as another marketing tip. Also, there are a lot of great schools in SL - TUi, NCI, College of Second Knowledge (CSK), SLLC & SLIP (I forget what those two acronyms stand for, but can be found in SEARCH) and those are only the ones I actively attend - there are others as well.

I don't know the exact details of how the ^ASL^ sponsorship works, but it's something like the sponsor pays X amount of $L for a certain number of classes. I'm sure there are a variety of packages available.

If anyone is interested, please send an IM to me and I will forward it to the person who handles this, or you can IM her directly: Gaia Rossini. (She is on vacation currently but I can get hold of her if needed during this time.)

All the schools generally have info readily available at their sites on how to sponsor their classes.

Yup - figured before my poor attempts makes their hard work look bad I better make it clear I am on my own

Check out this neat site I found: http://cooltext.com/

Eclectic, I've added to the page that you're happy to receive public reviews.

I'm a little confused by what you mean here. The merchants page is simply a list for everyone in the Biz Owner Network: a quick reference guide for us alone, to help us teleport to each others' locations and for us to see who has reviewed us and where. It is in no way intended to be a professional and public page for the group. If it was supposed to be a professional and public page, then believe me I have good web design skills and could throw up something a lot prettier than that document. I just used Google Docs because it's quick and easy, and very simple and fast to update.

Thanks, Surreal. I've updated the page with that info.

Skell- I am fine with public since it may benefit more than just me

okie dokie... but ummm how do i acess this ?? (oha nd i am verrryy technically challenged.)

Added

Just copy & paste the following link into your browser:

http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dfz3dk33_0d2dvsbgx

Thank you so much for your review it was greatly appreciated and I will do those things they are great ideas, I never really thought of just putting the pixie on the ad board without the lettering, but I will work on that for future products.

As far as the photo's they are mine and is there anyway a person can prove that to anyone if they should ask. I could put a sign up saying they are originals, do you think that would help at all?

Well you are bound to get someone who will say it isnt your work. But yes a signage sayign it is your original photography is a good idea

it will be FAB, cuz you are! i can't wait to see it!

Awwe... shucks ma'am... hehe- we'll see- don't hold your breath!

Here is another thing: in forum classifieds (here, SLX, SLU, wherever) - USE PICTURES. I hate going into an ad and not beign able to see what the heck people are hawking. Upload a pic and stick it in an img tag. Having the slurl to see it inworld is nice, but if I'm browsing a forum, I am probably not inworld!

This is a big duh to me. Even when advertising my rental properties, I show pictures of my communities. If you sell clothes, hair, anything worn on the av, you have an even bigger incentive to show your stuff. Hell, put the phrase "pictures inside!)" in the subject to draw eyes to your stuff. And if it's good, it should convert to more sales.

QFT!

I would add that if you mention a product is listed on Slex (or when announcing a new product on their forum) include the link directly to the product.

Please everyone, feel free to review me. I really don't mind if it's good, bad or ugly. Please don't hold off for fear of offending me. I'm open to a little criticism, I just may not agree with you

Seriously though if it helps anyone else in the process then all the better. So you can put me down for public reviews too Skell.

Just wish I could keep up with this thread, fit in some more reviews myself and still find a little time to create something new.

WOOT!!!!! THANKS, Amar!!!!!