Advice on Sales!!

thank you all
I am not out completely

I have ideas for something for xmas, but got some RL stuff that needs taking care of first, and xmas is still a little bit away time for me to think it through more so, and go with my ideas completely...

(by the way, the idea is not a hunt... something different than a hunt, just need to figure out a way to make it work hehe) and work smoothly

my problem is I wanted it to be perfect, no mishaps, everyone follow directions, everyone put out the sign as intended, and the hunters to have a smooth trail to follow

I hate disappointing people

450 pumpkins opened

my trans page is now pages lol

wow you are getting a lot of traffic

to give you an idea, if you look at your history and see when Ipurchased that sweater from you, you will have a frame of reference, since that time, I have had a total of 2 pumpkins purchased.... 2 in ....
approx 2 hours....

less actually

times were...
19:56:21 sweater purchased
20:38:25 last pumpkin sold of the 2 since the sweater purchase

Well havent checked my transaction history for a few hours, but given the number who are dropping into the club here the hunt appears to be gettign a few participants.


Rha i know you are pissed with em about not putting up the i give up lm thingy BUT when you suggested it i told you i disagreed with it, when you went against anyone else who was suposed to be running this hunt with you and did it anyway i decided i didnt want it at my store.

My store is only 20m by 20m and my pumpkin isnt even hidden. I didnt want people turning up and taking the lm from the thing before even checking out my store because thy were after the big prizes from the big stores.

And it has worked well. I have had sales and a load of pumpkins gotten (over 200 when i looked about 4 hours ago).



Im sorry the hunt hasnt worked out hwo you wanted, however those of u who made a decision not to put out the i give up things are not the reason fr this. We still have pumpkins out with the lms in them and the chain is not broken.

What happened to this hunt is very simple. those who were supsed to help had every idea shot down and in the end just took a step back bcuse they didnt like feeling like they were putting in work for soemoen who was goign to change it to their own way anyway. Along with that there was a lack of comminucation about times and there was no one who bothered to check that everyone had pumpkins out and for sale before it was advertised.



*sighs* i am saying thsi because i feel like you are putting the blame for the mess up of this hunt on the shoulders of those who made a concious choice not to put out the i give up lm givers for various reasons. That is not the reason it is a mess so please dont place blame for it on that.

I was wondering when this would come up
I never once turned down help, I specifically said if anyone wants to help just say so, no one did
yes I did turn it down initially because that is not how I saw the hunt working, then when I got over 20 emails from folks stuck because the hunt had road blocks I figured the best bet was the list so folks can get through it

no I am not upset about the lm givers not being put out, UNLESS a place is specifically mentioned as not having anything out, be it pumpkins or sign.. nothing

The reason it is a mess is because of me, I know that, I am not stupid
the hunt did not go as I visualized and I now know not to EVER do one like this again

I am sorry I even tried, next time I ever decide to try to do something I will do it without anyone saying they will offer to help then stepping back then getting upset because they were not asked to help (when I DID say if anyone wants to help just step forward)

my impression was that no one wanted to help, so I just moved forward
as for the time, I guess I stupidly assumed that folks would know it was SL time since everything else is run on SL time, how stupid of me...

*shrug* oh well, live and learn and I learned a LOT, and yep, I will live... I was upset near tears, because I wanted it to be fun for folks

but now, I am over that, I have done what I can

and strangely E you are the only one who seems upset about the "offer to help and ideas being shot down"
no one else has said anything... and I have chatted with the others. (either that or they just don't want to say anything...

you already said I stole the idea from you, when... all you had to do when you felt I was stealing your idea (which by the way is not a unique idea by a long shot) is tell me to back off you will take care of it, and I would have backed off and came up with something for myself....

I was under the impression I was going it alone cuz it sure felt that way...



Oh as for checking to see if the pumpkins were out, I guess I was stupid for trusting that the folks who said they wanted to be a part of it, would be willing to follow through and do what was needed

silly of me to trust wasn't it...
done now, water under the bridge, nothing we say or do can change any of it

I am not the only one who feels my ideas were shot down...

I dont feel yu 'stole' my idea. more that i started off with an idea, you jumped in and took everythign over. I was happy to help until i was told no on everything i suggested. And im sorry i dont appreciated the implication that those who did not follow you to the letter ar the reason for this stuff up. Have some responsibility.

Rha, you are soemone who is so insitant onhaving control that you leave anyone else who tris to help feeling worthless. I actually stepped back because every time i mentioned soemthing or offered to do soemthgn you said yu would do it so it was done right.

I am goiing to step out of this thread now becuase i dont like confrontations like this. however i felt i should stand up for the fact that simplybecause someone doesnt o things your way doesnt mean we are the reason for this dismal stuff up

I am not placing the blame on anyone but myself
but in all honesty no matter who puts together a hunt, if the participants do not put the stuff out, the hunt will stall and stop in some cases

case in point

if the recent ghost hunt had of had folks drop out, or not put out the ghosts, it would have stalled and stopped as ti was the same kind of hunt

as for the ideas being shot down, the way you brought yours to me, made me feel as though you were saying I was stupid and you were the one who knew how to do it.

So it looks like there were hurt feelings all around

the only thing now is, you are not the one who looks stupid, and screwed up...

so thanks for shoving me further into the mud, it is not like I do not already feel bad for both those who followed through with the hunt, and the hunters who ended up stuck in a lot of places

and for the record I DID send out notecards and notices via the mailing list for folks to feel free to set things out early, hell a lot of folks did not even put the sign out....

*sigh*

how is that my damn fault???

sure go ahead blame it all on me, not like I already blame myself enough...

I am done too, I do not want to mess up this thread as it has been mighty helpful to a lot of folks, and just because my RL is unsure at this time, doesn't mean I have to take it out on others...

And now back to our normal supportive, encouraging and positive thread discussion....

Just a question for this group...when i was teaching my last marketing class, I had a participant who firmly believes that having a web site or blog associated with your SL store will actually bring non SL users into SL in order to use your items. I do not feel this is the case since I think SL has such a steep learning curve for new folks. But, I do think that a blog or web site is valuable for announcements, as a catalog, etc.

For those of you who have web sites and blogs for your SL biz....can you tell me your thoughts on how it helps you? Do you find that you get alot of visitors to the sites? Much feedback about it etc?

I have a blog that i barely use and would just like to learn more about how people use theirs and if it is effective.

Jojo- I have a blog and I advertise it in my sig here, it's in my web tab in my profile (though last night I found out my bf did not even know I had blog- men!). I doubt very much that any one that stumbles upon it is suddenly going to decide to join SL JUST because m blog- but as you know I am a great believer in throwing it at the wall to see what sticks. I have my blog, I put out notices in SLProfiles (Cheap Peeps group, look it up - working on transporting group to SL too), I have the vid in YouTube (Note to self: Do another one!), the cross-pollinating we do here amongst ourselves with each others' blogs, the adverts in the New Products forums, here and in SLUniverse. All of it - helps. My blog has had about 760 views, my vid has had a bunch of hits as well. In real numbers it is not HUGE, but it all takes time.

I know I am a lot farther along than before this thread came along so again I thank each and every one of you. And the hunt last night was a great success regardless of the hiccups- poop happens people- don't dwell on the negative- we cooperate on all sides and we get better results - good though there was the level of success there was.

So moving on- get read for Turkey Day- if not hunts then some other marketing thing--- Thinking Caps on peeps! RL has been rough this week for me, but how about a think tank thing sometime next week with a little free association see what we come up with?

I will be back full force come Monday - let's arrange a few in-world meets please.

Rha, it was NOT your fault! You did an excellent job with this...85 stores participating? You have to expect some problems with that many people involved.

Jo Jo...having been in that class, I feel I can be objective.

The person in question, according to his profile, is part of a RL Marketing team which is attempting to bring thier marketing strategy into SL. Why was he there? At first I thought that perhaps he wanted to gain some insight as to how SL marketing works. But, if that were the case, I would think that he would sit quietly, listen, and maybe take some notes. But he didn't do that. Almost every time you made a point, he basically interjected his opinon of a better way. Because of that, I think he had his own agenda. Not only was he approaching things from a RL perspective (and yes, IRL I believe that an internet presence is important) but his constant interruptions and second guesses probably caused more confusion among the people trying to gain from the class than anything.

At one point, you did politely disagree with an opinion of his, at which point, he left.

Who knows...he might be a marketing genius, but the fact is that in order to understand marketing in SL, you need to have a little more of a handle on SL itself. RL strategies don't always work here. A web presence might be important in 1st life, but it does nothing to help optimize your land/business in search, for example. And while in 1st life, a company made of several individuals might have a whole department dedicated to developing and optimizing a web presence, in SL designers are usually one person who needs to be able to manage all the aspects of their work...from creation, to advertising, to packaging, distribution and customer service. It is not realistic to think that an SL designer has the time and ability to stretch themselves as much as a RL company might. Even a sole proprietership in RL would be hiring other people to handle things that most SL designers must handle themselves, due to the need to privatize and protect their work.

Just an opinon from someone who was there, you handled it professionally and if anything he was unprofessional in his assumption that he knew more and that his attempts to redirect the class were appreciated.

Jojo -- I have no idea if it has brought anyone into SL, but I do get messages from people every so often that have stumbled across it just searching Google. A few that didn't quite understand what the business was and wanted to know how to buy my things in RL! My main reason for having a blog though is because it shows up on the Fashion Planet feed, and I think that and Fashcon are the best advertising I've done so far in SL.

Rha I have no idea...I went to bed, and sometime between then and midnite sl time, I hit 500 transactions (which is the max for view). So I know I had at least 50 more transactions (I was at about 450 then), I had some sales as well. And remember...I had 5 pumpkins out. So each person who came in was doing 5 transactions. 10 people picking up pumpkins would be another 50 right there.

I think it helped that I popped out a group notice in Fabfree and Freestyle...well I know it did, since I had 300 pumpkins picked up before I went exploring and realized that the store ahead of me (which would have given my landmark) had no pumpkins, no sign, etc. I got the person with that store's landmark to change it to mine. I will feel bad if that person came in today and wonders where their pumpkin people are, but um yea.

I have one and have intended to use it for product information (especially to explain the procedure for custom orders) and to show new items. I have spent far more time than I estimated on creating and on other marketing, and that has left very little time for my blog.

Now that my shop has been open for a few months, my feeling is that my time is better spent on things other than the blog. I haven't given it a fair shot yet, but I'd be very surprised if time spent on it turns out to be as good an investment as improving my presence in Xstreet SL & OnRez, tweaking the items and their presentation in the store, etc.

I have a blog and I use it to announce and showcase new items in the store. I find it especially useful as a "for a closer look and more screenshots, see the blog entry for this item" tool. Although I do have "click for info" buttons under some of my more detailed/larger skyboxes, containing not only extra pictures but also linksets for the item's footprint inworld, it can get expensive uploading 10 extra screenshots of the inside of the building, and many people don't want their inventory cluttered up with tons of textures they can't use. With the blog I can just upload those screenshots to Flickr, post them on the blog and use the info notecard to direct people there instead.

Finally, I did set up the new store. One day after moving to my own Open Space, LL came with the new pricing, so that meant the end of my adventure. No way am I going to pay the new price.

My Estate Management found a solution almost immediately, so I do have a new parcel again, just have to start from scratch regarding my search ranking. Also have a brand new store building

So my question to you all: If you can find the time, visit my store and tell me how you like it. Most certainly there are things to improve so I would value your opinions. The outside of the storefront still needs some work, probably the duck ponds will come there, as well as some extra pavement. But the store setup itself is the most important of course!

One more question to those of you who had a pick of my store: please renew that, old picks are completely useless

I have a blog but it gets very few visits, I do not think it has helped my in world business at all

however it has helped me, as it gives me a place that I can ramble if I feel the need.

(I get maybe 1 or 2 visits a day to my blog, if I were to have to pay for it, I would not keep it)
*just looked at my blog stats*

however my blog hits did go up as of recent, and I know it was due to the bad comments I received elsewhere, and thus I made a post on my blog, which I have since set to hidden (not deleted) as it did not pertain to what I originally intended my blog to be.

so in other words, folks love to read gossip, or watch a train wreck, but the honest to goodness updates on what is new, they tend to shrug at and do not even give a second thought to.

more info about the blog

first post was may 9/08
never used it again until june 23/08 and then from that point on I made it a point to use the blog

in that time frame up until today I have had


* 214 Visits

* 152 Unique Visitors

* 305 Pageviews

(an average of 6.9 visits per day)

so... not a hell of a lot of interest, but I see it as at least someone is looking
AND some are coming back

Yes the Hunt was great, I had pages of pumpkins found on my transaction sheet, so for me to have all that traffic and all those people having products that I made and a landmark to my store in their inventory to me is a great success and thanks for having the hunt

I have been getting a lot of comments just like this one

I am happy that it is working out for folks
It is a little disappointing that it did not go as I visualized, and I can only blame myself for that, because I put my trust into others completely, thus setting myself up for something like this...

the good news is though, that it is working out, and ppl are getting exposure for their businesses!

THAT is a good thing, and makes the frustration of it not going as I visualized, well, it makes it worth the whole effort (and I did have fun planning it out, and met some very wonderful people I probably would not have met)



on a side note, any neko's in here?
Is it just me or is the market for neko tails not huge. I always thought it was, then got the idea why not try to make tails, might be fun, so started researching to see what was common and such... and lo and behold.. I am not finding a huge amount of neko tail outlets

I am seeing some... but not a lot.

Weird...
Still gonna put them out when I am done... maybe...
I dunno, all I know is I am having fun making them LOL

I am not neko, yet since I made one of them, I have not taken it off LOL

now I want to find the script that allows people to interact with the tail (not xcite but similar)

I want it full perm though so I can change the things it is...
maybe there is a menu thing in the scripts forums, will have to check there

I just want to say a huge thank you to all who helped in the planning and brainstorming on putting together the Pumpkin Hunt and to all of those participating in it!

- My traffic has jumped up considerably.

- I have had some sales that I believe have come as a result of people finding my store due to the Hunt.

- Some Hunters have IMed me about this being the first time to my store and being glad to have found it.

- And...as some have said previously, many people now have products and LMs that they did not have before....yay!

What a fabulous marketing opportunity this has been and I am so thankful! I have not participated in a hunt before and I would eagerly participate in one again.

Cheers!

~ Desi

Sounds like the hunt is a resounding success...congrats to all of you!!!!!

spoke with you earlier and sent out a notecard on Biz Owner grp, you had talked once before about a trunk show and I think it would be a good time for it I will have an empty 1784 sq soon that I'm not really interested in selling yet, I'm thinking (hopefully) that would be plenty big.

Any feedback? would anyone be interested in doing this? Basically what a trunk show is, you come and bring a "trunk" of your things, clothing designers would be available to model, other designers available to talk about their product. Anyone think that people would actually come to something like this?

I'm out for tonite, will check back tomorrow. Post here or IM me or drop me a note with any feedback/ideas

I ran a site with a blog that was constantly updated for about 2 years and only ever got a minimal amount of hits. I took it down at the beginning of this year with no negative effect. The time invested in building and updating the site was not worth the effort in the end and I think the time would have been better spent doing something else.

As for bringing in new players to SL, I guess this is possible, I have shown RL friends my site before it was removed and my work listed on SL exchange and a few have joined SL and one of them has stuck it out and done quite well. Admittedly I helped to sell SL to them as well and mentored them when they started but their initial interest came from an external site

It - the hunt -has been great for me too as far as traffic and sales were helped along too I second the success thing! But let me share a Murphy moment... I have a a visitor counter of course and i use it to carefully invite peeps to m group. I don't spam the peeps - one invite per peep and I keep careful track so as not to bother anyone. Well- u can imagine i ahd peeps coming out of the wood work for the hunt... so fantastic opportunity for inviting yes? Well... my inviter crapped out!!! It did not take note of who was there for two days!!! argh!!!

Ralektra- I did see the notice- I think if we give door prizes and other incentives it could be successful- hmm.. DJ! Need music for the show- and since there are time zones maybe we can get things happening at different times too. If no one knows a DJ I have one in mind.

BTW- I helped a seller start a group today- and sent us a notice in world-. You know how we had talked about a group that could possibly benefit us as sellers?
Well that is what this is - and will help buyers cause the idea is for sellers to show-case less expensive stuff. How does this help us? The group Cheap Peeps, originated in SLProfiles and there are already a largeish number of peeps there- so we have them to canvas with our notices and they benefit by getting quality at low prices- so - win/win..

I told Cham to come introduce herself here so I am sure she will be along presently.

Please guys, this can be good for us all since it won't be a theme sort of thing- but furniture, clothes, etc. and if anyone knows some men's wear and hair and shoe peeps that woudl be awesome -
The new group is called ~Cheap Peeps~ it is open invite - let's get this off the ground - I am sure we can all benefit. No- I have no dog in the fight other than what we would benefit from another announcement group similar to freestyle etc if we can get enough steam behind it.