Advice on Sales!!

Nice build... do I recognise some texture work on that building..

Rha- I would like the option of another group, to as I said, pace myself with releases and notes.

Yes many times it is the same people, I see adverts from our own members pop up and yes it will come to the same groups all in the same day within minutes of each other. I wanted to make the point that as Designers we are better served by spreading the notices out so that even if the same peeps see them it is at different times and u have a better chance of encountering different members.
IN relation to different groups - I found this one if any one is interested: http://www.fashion-r-us.com/success.html

That is looking REALLY great Rhia!! Can't wait to see the finished product and be a part of it. Thank you for all your hard work and offering some free space to those of us just starting out.

Is there much call for free space for people just starting out? Since reading your post, I'm toying with the idea, but I'm wondering how many people are "just starting out" as distinct from existing businesses whose model is small spaces in malls.

i have convinced a few regs from this forum to 'start OR expand their SL based business' by offering temporary free mall space. i feel pretty good about that. i'd come plop a few things down at your place if you opened up such a vendor spot, at least until you got it filled up.

I'm not toying with the idea just for the sake of it. I'm wondering if there's an actual need for people who are just getting started.

i understand. PM sent.

I would say there is. What Rhia is offering is slightly different, as it is a satellite store for us to get more exposure for our items, as her store averages like 5000 traffic (and from what i have seen thats without bots or camping.... quite an achievement).

However when I first started out I didnt have a space to sell my stuff and was considering renting (I cannot go premium and buy land) but I was scared cos it was much higher in cost than justa 512 plot, even for just a small space in a mall.

I was lucky my partner said well lets buy a couple of mainland plots instead of renting .... so we did... one for my store and one for home but many people dont have a lovely generous partner who can wanted to see my succeeed and has the money to pay for the land for you.

I have one creator in my mall who I would love to see with a small store they could call home (more than 20 prims) her stuff is AMAZING and i do mean amazing and I think she would do well with a plot that she could call home for a few months until she built up enough stock to be making the sales to pay for it.


What I think would be really nice to see is small plots being offered for free for say 2 months after which time the creator can opt in and pay the linden it would cost to cover teir (and maybe a little more... i dunno) or opt out and the space be offered to someone else. The reason I see it this way is that once they start paying to cover the cost another plot can be opened for a new person to do the same. This also means that the creator doesnt start off with a store which has to be moved once it starts doing well. (although if you wanted to do this cutting out a small plot and allowing them to have a sign with a lm giver to their new location would be a very nice touch.)



Rhia that looks awesome. I want to thank you again for offring us spaces I am very excited

thankyou for all the sweet comments all, and yes Lillybeth, there might just be one or two textures you recognise

Phil, the free space thing was born from this thread to help out the people who have given me some wonderful ideas for my rebuild as a way of saying thankyou and giving them a push just like we received from a now very good friend, without his confidence in our product we would never have got to where we are today. And since we have more than enough prims for our own store and product and easily cover our tier costs each month, we decided why not put the spare prims to a good use. plus when just starting out some of the prices charged by the big malls are IMO ridiculous. For us, it is all about paying it forward and perpetuating the community spirit and support we have found in sl

E - you are right there are no bots or campers at our store at all, our traffic is generated by customers and of course ourselves being on the land, although have to say not sure where you got the 5k traffic figure from, most I have ever seen is 2500, but then have never been that bothered by traffic numbers exactly, our sales consistently hit between 5 and 10k a day, even when the traffic has been as low as 500, so really not sure that traffic has much effect for us personally.

huggssss with love

Rhia xx

5 and 10K a DAY??? OMG I would pass out if I had sales like that!!

lately I am lucky to make 100L in sales per day (and even then it is a struggle.)

my sales lately have been less than 100L per day, which is 400L less than what I need to break even, looks like a bleak month for me

not sure what to do, I tried all the stuff mentioned in the thread, and do releases each week (little late on this one) over the past two weeks, sales have just about died and I dunno what else to do to try to bring it up.

when sales slump like this, it always makes me question my own work, is it good enough? Am I just kidding myself? Do people really think it is crap and don't dare tell me? Am I not making stuff that meets the market? How do I know what people want? ETC ETC ETC

drives me mad, to the point of tears (literally) and then the motivation and inspiration goes out of me, and it is hard to make anything.

yes I do it for the money, I need the money to keep the land, if my land was free, I would not worry as much about how to get my stuff out there and how to generate sales.

would I like to be able to have 5 to 10 K in sales a day (or more?) you betcha!!

do I know how to achieve that? nope....

I think I need to try some different things, I have been mainly making clothing and have run out of ideas. I do not want to try to do more with hair or shoes, as I am not really as inclined to prim build as I am texture (as in clothing)
I did the one tattoo that sold very well and had people asking if I would do more, but I am just lost as to what to do for tattoos....

Edited to add, I have also thought about... um forget what it is called, the one where the east indians use the natural dye to draw the designs on themselves, popular with weddings and such... HENNA that's it!! I used to work with a girl who adopted me as her mom, and wanted to do that to me one night when we were working the overnight shift, it was really cool how she did it, and she gave me some henna to try it at home, I sucked at it LOL but it was fun learning about it. I have thought about specializing in henna designs. wonder if that would be something folks would want.

sorry for the rambling, been playing warhammer, and thinking in the back of my mind about all of this.

I dunno where i got that figure from either I think when i went ther to critique it for you it was very high an the number 5000 stuck with me. No idea why. BUT rightly so, traffic is not always what gets sales. I have found that it is better to get one customer in who buys than a heap who dont. What i relly need to do is get more product. I have loads of ideas just not toomuch time right now. I do find that often if someone buys something from me they do return and buy more. For me this is where the freebie groups come in. Very few want to join my group because it is another space in our already limited groups. And as most of my customers have found me through the freebie groups telling them i have new items and another freebie always gets me sales.

Rha.... do I think your stuff is shit? no!!!! I think you have spoken to me enough to knwo that both my partner and i would have told you if we thought that about your stuff. I have found your newer stuff is WAYYYY better than your older stuff in quality. The pinstriped pants you dropped me are great and so is that sparkly shirt. The comparison in quality for me between that and the pink outfit with the skirt and shoes (sorry no ide what it is called but i know you will know what i mean) is huge.

I think good tattoos sell well, esp the full body ones. Maybe Rhia can tell you if ther types sell better, but for me i love full body ones. I will always buy nice tatts (which reminds me now i have some cash again i need to make a trip to rhia's store).

I suspect the reason your sales are lower is that you make similar items to other places and when we are offered a choice between two places that sell similar items I tend to go to the one i know better.

Ohhhhh one thing you rarely see in SL and I would adore is a pair of overalls with prim cuff pants.... oooh so cute. I would also like to find more shirts with prim collars and sleeves. For me they add dimention to an outfit so the top doesnt feel so painted on. Oh oh and while im going down my wish list. I would love to see a shirt which has one side tucked in and the other hanging out.... maybe with the shirt collar slightly obsuce and the buttons only 1/2 done up?? ooh damn that would be sooo cute and sexy... you know like i hurredly got dressed (ooh please please someone make me that shirt)

one thing I should have made clearer there, those sales figures are total sales in sl, not just main store figures. and they are averaged over a month, some days we have little to no sales others they rocket, it semms to be linked more to sl performance and reliability than traffic in my experience. If it is a bad day on sl where I can barely do anything then I know sales are going to be hit hard.

Rha, your products are gorgeous, I know I have not spent any money there yet, but that is more that I actually hate shopping whether in sl or rl, think the last clothes I had new rl were christmas presents lol but there are a couple of things of yours I am planning to buy when I can face doing some sl shopping. We have a few henna tattoos in our collection, and they are popular, so yes Rha, developing a collection of those could work very well for you, and as E said, full bodies definitely sell more frequently than individual tattoos. on the new product side of things, I am terrible at that and tend to do releases here and there but they will be mega releases of around 30 plus items at a time. I really have to try and get a handle on doing smaller releases more often. But I know that when we do a big new product release the store can be manic for a while. I am also hoping that the collaborative idea for the fae skins I am working on and using items from you guys to complete the look will work well for all of us. How is the outfit you mentioned coming along Rha ? and no, there is no rush, been working on the rebuild so the skin is nowhere near ready yet either lol

The big thing I struggle to find clotheswise in sl, is outfits that reveal enough skin to show off tattoos without being too Ho and without interfering or overshadowing the tattoo design, and a big reason many of my sales boards show nude models or models in fairly plain black clothing styles.
I also agree with E on the half buttoned in a rush to dress shirt, done correctly that can look so sexy whilst still having a sense of innocence, specially if it is an oversized mans shirt

huggsss Rhia xx

mmmmmhmmmmm exactly!!!!!! Ohhh if someone makes this i want one for myself and my partner. Not that we have men to steal shirts from, but damn I love the look of an oversized dress shirt all rumpled and 1/2 unbottoned on a woman *sighs happily*

Rha i agree with everyone, i love your shirts too and those bikini's are sooo sexy *grin* when i have a little spare cash i'm planning to come buy some colours.

I know what you mean about slump though and i'm kinda that way myself, i personally know my stuff is maybe not as great as others out there but i am trying very hard to learn things. At the moment i'm having a go at making a polkadot dress, i have one in RL and i love it lol but yes i often do the same, is it good enough, are people not telling me it's crap, i'd personally love it if people could tell me, i am trying very hard aswell to promote my things but i'm slowly running out of ideas.

I've even taken on a side job in SL to make enough money to cover everything.

Wow Rhia, god would i ever love to make 5k a day lol, my eyes sorta popped when i read that lol.

Oh and the new build looks great, i love the big sign it's got some great textures. Very roman lol.

You know Eclectic your the second person to mention overalls, Czari mentioned them when i met her a couple of weeks back lol. I'm planning on making some shirts, just learning more about creases and where to add buttons etc. I'd love to upto Rha's standards one day

What sort of stuff does she make?

Rha I am having success with tattoos in general and am working on some henna right now- I think it can be very popular especially if the prices for that are set low enough- I know when i got into sl and wanted tats they were horribly expensive. Mine sell from between 50L to 175 depending on the complexity. Try it- it will sell Mine have!

Edited to add that my full boy tats- the Vines in different themes are also dong nicely- there is plenty of room for us all in this- so don't let a few of us already doing tats stop you

I will let you know how the henna does- I intend to release it tonight- had some seams to clean up

Edited typo

exactly.....5 people doing henna tattoos will all come up with different design ideas, and whilst you cannot please everyone all the time, each of those 5 different designs will please some of the people. As long as you have the quality, there is always room for diversity

VG Republic has the overalls with prim cuff pants and Mischief has prim collars.

BTW_ it was up to $175 - don't have any tats for 1575- I just typoed

This may be one of or a big reason some people who would like to see if their builds/ideas would sell are initially dissuaded. I routinely check prices on stalls or small shops (whatever the theme...I tend to stay away from malls in general) and am amazed at some of the asking prices for small areas with very few prims in nowhereland.

Either more reasonable rates or your wonderful idea of paying it forward, Rhia, would encourage more people to try their hand with a SL business perhaps.

I LOVE that painting of the hands and feet done in traditional Indian (and some other cultures as well) weddings! It's called "mehndi." I was first introduced to it by a friend who married an Indian man, then had several Indian female friends at work who showed me their wedding photos with the mehndi and I fell in love with it. Soooo....when I saw it was offered at the Moroccan Pavilion at Epcot, I had it done.



So I would love to see that offered

Now here's where expanding marketing might come in. I'm not a tattoo person and wouldn't wear especially a full-body one...BUT...from my previous post you can see I LOVE mehndi. I think the intricate patterns I've seen on the hands look so delicate and lovely. Those I would definitely buy! So if one already makes tattoos...adding that to the line "could" bring in someone who wouldn't come otherwise.




YES!! I saw a girl in a class once wearing the cutest pink overalls with a girly-looking tool belt and thought it was the cutest thing and PERFECT to wear in building classes and building in general. (I'm into immersion and all *grins*) Anyway...I've looked and looked for overalls, especially something other than denim, and haven't found any. I'm with ya here too, E!

And no one can traverse the entire SL merchandising world so definitely room for the same ideas scattered around SL. (And different types of designs pleasing different types of people.)

~ ~ ~

Sorry for so many posts in a row...first time I've had today to get on the forums to get my "hit." LOL

Phil she sells clothes, and I have asked her to message you. Thank you for being so generous.




Awwwwww no one got all excited about my idea or the messy guys shirt thrown on .... damn i was really hoping someone would make it!!


I have some short short overalls which i think are cute, but I want some long ones like i used to have as a little kid

did not mean to imply you all think my stuff sucks or that you are lying to me

I was just saying sometimes that is the feeling I get, that the stuff is not as good as I think it is or good enough to sell

stuff I expect to sell, ends up sitting and not selling at all which is sad because I spend so much time making it striving for perfection


yes that is the henna stuff I was refering to

I will give it a try, after some practice, as I will do all the designs free hand so they will not be perfect

got to go, good luck everyone
(I just feel blah lately, maybe that is why my mood is the way it is)