Advice on Sales!!

ah I have done that too on webpages hehe

as for mannequins (sp?)

I had one of the ones you could display your clothing on via putting the texture on it, I gave it away, did not work well for me

hopefully the new owner likes it

if I want to display the stuff being worn, I will bring back my alt/models heh

I am now getting to take my ad pics

stupid storm last night knocked the power out 2 times so I just gave up and sat outside watching the light show

was cooler out there, since the temp dropped from the 90's down to the low 60's in about an hour, nasty storm, but so pretty to watch

don't you hate when you have a really good idea, and you draw something and it looks awesome, then you upload it and it fails miserably?

yea me hates that /cry

been there done that, a LOT, wasted a lot of lindens too, until I started using the beta grid to preview before uploading to the live grid hehe

Worse- u r sure u got it just right... clean and shiny and perfect... so u upload it.... and then... there, just under the right arm - hidden somehow by a shadow u imagine is there... Aha! A spot that the eraser missed! argh!!!!! Crap! Back to the drawing (eraser) board - OK there- got it now... perfect.. let me upload- man this is so gonna rock... Argh!!!!! Me pulls hair and cries

And I've noticed that a texture that looks fine on my AV one day, looks horrid and jaggeddy the next, same shape, same skin, same sim, everything....drove myself crazy smoothing out a bodice the other day, finally gave up...screaming, in all my programs it was FINE...in AVPainter it was FINE....in Gimp, PSP, Paint.net and even a few other photo editor softwares I have, the texture was straight as a bone, but I get it in SL, and it looks like steps.....like monkeys drew the lines with stalks of celery and tempra paint....


but..got my release out. didnt send it to the free groups, cause no new freebies ...but I am offering a rebate and stuff like that...

now I"m going to relax a bit..

got my stuff out too, still not sent to the freebie groups though (I do have the sample shirt freebie, I liked that idea so going with it this time too)

I just got it on my blog and new products here, already sent to group and fashcon

and yes I have done that too, think it is just how I want it, upload all the textures and wham something I missed GRRRR

and yep I too see the jagged things when it looks right everywhere else

I must say though upgrading my video card has helped a LOT

I want to comment on the jagged thing- but have to come back to it.

Well, I gave out free poses to the FabFree group last night and today. The response was just phenomenal. Not only did I make quite a few sales, I met some new friends too.

I think the fact that I let them choose their free poses from my entire collection was what made it such a success.

Thanks go out to this thread for leading me down that path.

/me does a little happy dance.


I think my prices were too high. I lowered the price on one item, and posted up my new dresses at the same lower price....and I'm selling things. I had decent sales in the last 24 hours, I'm very pleased!

It motivates me to do more!

I had a few sales, nothing major though
saturdays have usually been my busiest days, but this weekend it is all but nearly dead in comparison

maybe due to the long weekend here (labour day weekend)

I am not sure how many countries recognize this holiday

what I hate is when someone says.. let me know when you release such and such, and then I can not recall who wanted me to let them know

(I so hate having such a short and bad memory)

Hi folks ; o}

I'm relatively new to SL (in spite of my 04/12/07 birth date, long story). I'm currently trying to create my own line of clothing and have managed to figure out how to get them on SLex site. However, I am running into a couple of oddities in SL in the design phase as well as SLex site, here's what's going on ...

For SL I open Edit, Appearance. Create New Shirt. Make all my changes, u/l my texture, apply to shirt, all that fun stuff. Save As with a unique name. Go on to New Pants and do similar. Each item made I'm saving after creating. They look fine on me, etc. The oddity is that after I close SL and then return, everything comes up as a shirt icon? Does anyone know what is causing that ... is it normal SL behavior or am I doing something wrong or out of step? Very annoying to have a box full of shirt icons when they're all separately saved items (like pants, etc) LOL

I'll post my url below so you can see my very first creations, and no I'm not trying to sell 0.o just showing ... I love jammies so that's what I made first. Oh and another oddity perhaps you can help with for SLex ... I can't seem to find my stuff easily (or without doing directly to my own page) ... is there any way to put in keywords somewhere so they're easier found? I've sorted by price and then searched for PJ and PJs and Pajama and Pajamas ... nothing ... only searching as Jammies did I find them where they should be in the dollar lineup. Where do I put keywords so that they can be found under PJ/PJs/Pajama/Pajamas/Loungeware/Sleepwear/etc?

http://www.slexchange.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&MerchantID=143470

I apologize if this is the wrong place to post, please feel free to move it. Like I said, I'm *new* LOL Thanks in advance!

For the SLX questions, I'd say post on the SLX forums....they can help you with those things better than this forum can. They have advice on what keywords and how to list your items for the best sales.


For the saving everything as a "shirt" texture, that is just a bug...it's still pants, even though it has a "shirt" next to it. when right click on it and choose wear, it should appear on the part of the body you originally created it upon.


I looked at your pj's, and they are very cute. Are you just using the "sliders" in appearance on a square texture such as a jpg, and if so, you might want to go to the "texturing" section of this forum, and look at the tutorials. I know Natalie has a an awesome set of tutorials for using graphics editing programs to make clothing, hair, etc. there are classes in world on how to make them also. I'm finding that in SL, people want wrinkles, texturing, and shading on clothing. We're all learning every day. congrats on listing on SLX.

I just learned to use bump mapping

Good luck.

Well the jammies are very cute

The 'everything as shirts' issue is one that has popped up before, I read about it somewhere and apologize but can't remember where. But I remember reading that one possible workaround is to save the items in 'make outfit'. So put on one set, choose make outfit from edit appearance menu, click the appropriate boxes and your items should come up in a folder with the outfit name and the correct little icons.

Sorry I can't link you to the thread about it, I can't remember where it was and it was a while back.

Welcome to SL and welcome to this thread, there are a huge amount of tips in this thread for anyone who has the patience to read thru and find them ! I totally think this thread needs a clearout and just the pertinent stuff left but I doubt a mod will appear to save us lol

Welcome Samarra- I'm sorry i have not run into this at all.. are you hitting Create New Pants, New Shirt, New Undershirt, etc? Then Save As?


~~~~

On the jagged edge thing...

I have seen people wearing things and it makes me wonder how - a) the designer ever released this crap and b) why did the buyer not realize it? Now it is not rampant- the majority of us are making good stuff - but hell - I go down to one pixel at a time to make sure i don't get that bleeding over... I bounce between erase, brush and blur to get as smooth a line as i possibly can - utilizing soft and hard- god it annoys me to see those picket fence lines!!! OK - end of rant - carry on.

~~~~

Saturday is sucking for me sales wise.. I had a Dollarbie of the Month release and my Hidden Sale... yay not so much in sales! argh

got to remember too, what might look crappy on one monitor and system might look good on another

all I do is the best I can do with my system and settings, and hope that others see it the way I do

Ralektra I think a lot of the info was pulled out and put on that google doc page that I think it was skell was working on (along with the info from each person's store and reviews as well

Welcome Samarra
not sure what causes the same icon thing, have not had it happen to me (yet) but rest assured, as long as they go where they are supposed to all should be ok

I second the suggestion to check with the slex forums to see if anyone can help you wish slex

My goodness, replies already, and so kind ones too! Thank you ... I will do as you suggest! Thanks also for the kudos, I know these are *primitive* yet but one has to start somewhere LOL. And yes these are textures I uploaded myself and then Create Shirt, Pants, etc. I have done one other item from a shirt template, it looks good but not as I had hoped, for instance the boob area is *stretched* to twice the amount on the rest of the top and that somewhat defeats the effect. I can post a pix of that shirt if you're interested ... I know I have alot more work to do and to learn 0.o but at least I'm trying LOL Hugzzz ; o}

Thank you for the warm welcome also!

Hi Samarra (and everyone else ),


Regarding the Slex listing, yeah I would post on their forums and see if you can get some help.

I am no expert, but I think the issue is your product name and keywords in the listing.

You showed up on the first page for "jammies" because that is in the product name field. I looked for you under PJs, and you do show up, but not until page 35. I suspect that PJs is a more common keyword, so you have more competition. Also I *think* anyone that has that phrase in their product name will rank ahead of you when searching based on relevance.

You might consider more stratigic product names. It's a matter of personal taste, but putting your name in the product name may not help much, because if someone searches for your name, they get that as a seller result. Therefore, having it in your product name is redundant, taking up space you can use for other keywords. Now, that said, having some kind of brand identity in the product name can be a good thing. You might consider something like ~*SS*~ as an abbreviation and then change the name to "~*SS*~ LtPk puppy jammies (PJs, pajamas)"

I admit, that isn't as pretty, but it will probably rank better. Totally a matter of personal taste.

The other option is working more keywords into your product description. Remember, PJs, PJS, and PJ's will all be different keywords there so you probably want to include all of them in the product description, even if it is just a keyword list at the bottom.

Also, remember that uniqueness is a good thing and having "puppy jammies" makes you far more unique than jsut jammies. You are off to a good start there, and it is easy for someone looking for jammies with little puppies on them to find you. Sometimes competing for the broadest keywords is a waste of effort anyway. Specializing is a good thing.

Just like inworld search, it is worth spending some time experimenting with your listings and then searching for them to see how easy it is to find your products, or if they can be found at all. Their search doesn't seem to index instantly, so you might have to give it some time between tests.

OK, I've babbled enough. I'd be interested to hear the feedback you get over there too.

I am working on building up the stuff I have. I have realised when i get bodies into my shop I get sales. Usually for every 8 people that come into my store there is someone who buys something. Now that isnt bad, but that means that those other 8 people arent finding something that suits them. For some it might be they just dont like my stuff, but for others they might like my style but not find that they are looking for.

So I want to better this statistic in the next month or two. To do that I need to focus and get sme more building done. The marketing is great and I now have at least one sale every day and more on days when I offer a freebie or dollarbie. So I think my stuff is good, people seem to like it. Itis just a matter of getting people, and getting new people to find my stuff. I need to think through some more ideas for focusing on finding new people to buy my stuff.

I still havent got a single sale from the store at Jojo's place... but im keepng my fingers crossed, but either way it is exposure and I had to take the time to pick out the best stuffin my store for the mini store, this was a good learning opportunity cos there will get a time i will run out of prims and I will have to choose to retire stuff to SLX only. So knowingwhat I think is not as good is important i think.

I also put out the shirts that I made with the help of Rha they are really cute and I will put one out os a dollarbie in the next few dyas once I get the other new stuff I have made out

ohhh that boob stretching is soooo annoying hehe

and as for it being primitive you should have seen some of my first attempts hehe

I still have the first bikini I made, I really do want to redo it, but just never get around to it

most of my first attempts never made it to the light of day

I did use photosourcing when I first started, it helped me understand placement and wrinkles
now I do all my stuff completely hand drawn in photoshop, and I love watching the stuff take form under the "brush"

I still do use real life images for reference sometimes, for knowing where to put a wrinkle, or where a specific stretch should go that kind of stuff

there are a LOT of very good tutorials out there, that I love to look at and find new ways to do things

everyone develops ways that work for them

for instance, for wrinkles and details I tend to use the 50% grey overlay layer, and burn and dodge all the effects onto it

These pants.. consist of a lot of different layers for the highlights, shadows, little details, lines, etc, and the very base layer, is the color of the pants. I find that it gives me much much more control
and never be afraid to use layers, layers and more layers
The nice thing about layers, especially when using them in conjunction with overlays, and such, is it doesn't harm the base layers or other layers

sorry for rambling

oh! here is a pic of the pants (they also have a little wrinkling behind the knee as well heh)

Is that the item you sent me? I ended up crashing and then went for dinner before I had a chance to look at them. NOW I wanna go see them. It did not dawn on me that you used the name that you are familar with for them LOL

I was clueless what you sent (sometimes I am clueless about a lot of things LOL)

were you able to figure out how to add a bottom part for a long shirt on jacket layer?

I have been fiddling with some T-shirts as a jacket layer for the long look (and underwear layer for tucked in) just need to come up with stuff to put on them LOL

OH! before I forget, I got that visitor counter thing that shows you where folks come in from (was mentioned on this thread, forget who mentioned it though, but to them... a big thank you)

It was easy to set up, and I love how it lets me know where folks TP in from, very very handy to be able to know which method of advertising works best

naw wasnt able to work out tht bit yet... but im still working on it... i will get there!!! Jut need some more time... but they look good even without it, but i prefer the long loook

I can put one together for you if you want, and send you the psd again, same as before, just give me a few days, as I need to catch up on some other stuff

if you figure it out in the meantime, just let me know

Hey Rha- thanks for the outlook of the monitors thing- I had not thought of that Gives me hope that my stuff is looking decent across the board since I have a middle of the road interface.

...OTOH I've had the best single sales in one day since this thread began from my location at Jojo's. I swear I'm going to research the psychology of sales as it is interesting to me what causes people to purchase what from where, etc. - especially in SL.

I added this location in my picks as well as a separate pick listing for Etopia and for my new ceiling fan listing in SLex, I included that they could be seen (and purchased) at the satellite location in Etopia and Mickey's store in the Casablanca room - so trying to do "cross-promoting" of several venues.