Selling on Xstreet just got more expensive

My only freebie on Xstreet. Grab it as long as listings are free - https://xstreetsl.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=1940359

basically if any of the other shopping sites gets too big and cuts into their XStreet sales they will find a way to shut em down.

Hey, is it possible to make a "delivery bot"? An avatar that when you talk to it in chat or IM sends you an item from their inventory or a HUD? That would be a prim-less (ie free) way to deliver stuff.

Meanwhile the status of shopping sites as of Noon my time:

http://www.sluniverse.com/php/vb/virtual-business/37026-second-life-shopping-sites-tracking.html
http://www.sluniverse.com/php/vb/virtual-business/37026-second-life-shopping-sites-tracking.html

Xstreet down 12,722 items (-1.1%)
Other sites up 549 items (0.38%)

Well, that kills the chances I'll ever list anything on XStreetSL. I'll probably stop shopping there as well; I want creators to get as much of my money as I can.

In that case, may I recommend my super-duper store to you?

I'd consolidate my stuff into fatpacks. But honestly, why on earth would I want to deal with LL and their laughable idea of XStreet customer service, when there is a perfectly good competitor, who isn't raising fees in order to "fix" something that a bit of coding could solve?

See, that's just it. Unlike SL itself, there are other sites that allow us the same functionality as Xstreet, except with better customer service.

What gets me is that they didn't try other solutions before bringing out the fees. Like giving us the tools to combine listings for color variations into one listing. Maybe if they had tried something else, anything else, first, then I would have more sympathy for LL. No, they went right for the fees, which for me, is a big breaker.

For the record, my freebies are in world only. XStreet was only a way for people to order or shop while elsewhere other than SL.

Yes, this is how Adored delivers their monthly gift. They send a notice that tells members the 'magic word'. Members go to the store and say the word in IM to the bot there and they get the gift.

Okay well look, again, I have half a sim flat land that is empty at the moment. I had various ideas for it, but if this is a pressing need for people in SL, then someone interested in helping me make it viable can send me note cards.

I'm picturing at the very least, people hosting freebies from there, or perhaps for sale items, too. On the other hand, I don't want to be 'just another freebie place,' and at some point I might still want to tier down. So, there it is...I'm actively considering making it a one stop shopping place for ex Xstreet items, kind of like the Island of Misfit Toys.

Anyone has further ideas on this - note cards are welcome.

If I did do this, and at some point I left SL, I would either keep paying tier and let someone else run things, or I would donate/sell cheaply that land to someone who planned to continue using it to help people.

Right now though, I'm feeling like what I've paid into SL so far makes me a chump. I've had fun, but that's not the point. All signs point south at the moment, and I'm having trouble justifying staying, just to be the honored part of a corporate work force, at best. And sheep chowder at worst.

That conjours up all sorts of "magic words" for a responsive bot

I wasn't referring to hosting costs....I'm not qualified to calculate those. I was referring to people with good products priced at fair market value or less, and what it ends up costing them, which also ends up costing the provider. Mainly, the small merchants.



I just don't see my customers dropping out like flies. A good portion have been with me for over a year. They are still talking about fun stuff...decorating...getting a new home....getting married....having babies....still talking about the same fun stuff that they talked about a year ago. New ones are having fun, too....a lot of new people in the store the last few weeks...join dates less than 60 days....they're having fun, too.

Really need to chat with the people inworld. People in this forum have been whining since I started participating a year ago....about one thing or another....everything is an obstacle....every move is the death of SL....if I had listened to whatever the topic for the day was, a year ago....never would have built the business....and that's what I hate seeing happen to people who have some really cool stuff to sell, and who actually want to sell it for profit.

I can't really lend a helping hand to philanthropists and what you call "hobbyists".....never had that luxury, myself....but can lend a hand to someone who wants to make a profit. (and that involves philanthropy as well).... But I guarantee you....not one person is going take that hand....I offer it up all the time, and no one wants it....because the forum arena just got them all twisted and bent....just like it did last month about something....and just like it will next month about something....and the next month, and the next month.

I just watch the regular small merchants in this forum....same ones I started business with about a year ago....continually get upset about things that they can totally use to their advantage, because a mob of disgruntled people that are not thinking with a business head, or don't even have a business head, are calling the shots for them, and influencing them. I advanced...by ignoring that crap.....they did not....and it makes me sad. I'm only assuming they did not advance, because they seem to continually have problems, and continually mention that they are not making profits. Sorry, if I assumed wrong....it just sounds that way.

I'll go back to the workshop....and tweak some more....and benefit from a curve....and make it work for me....and the forum consensus will encourage those others to throw up their hands, and pitch a fit, and not even try. Over and over again.....I watch it happen every month.

Pardon me for spending too much time in this thread.

And you've been right here with them, complaining and whining about their complaining and whining, and turning their low key practical minded posts, at times, into catastrophic language that was never there.



Isn't this negative, catastrophic thinking also? And who asked you personally to help people who want to help other people? No one said you didn't give or contribute to SL either so I'm not sure what that's about. I'm answering part of a prior post btw.



Sounds a bit grandiose to me. There are a lot of successful SL business owners in the forums, and a lot of good advice given out in RA, too. I don't see "mobs of disgruntled people." And to use your earlier logic - if someone's discouraged that easily whose fault is that?

Melita...I am wasting my time with you. You want to be negative. You want to make my comments negative. I'm sorry if you took them that way. They were not intended that way. I'm going back to the workshop.

LOL. I finally figured out that you just do not see your posts as some others see them.

"mobs of disgruntled"

"complaining and whining"

etc.

How are those things positive? How are they helpful? You were venting, Mickey. Which is fine, but don't put a big bow on it and call it a gift.

what LindenShame is doing in xstreet somehow makes me think about nazis

so what next? rezzing a prim will cost 10L?

*Shhhhhh!*

Fantastic ! I absolutely love it - may I distribute it to my group and make it available to my guests - for free of course

There were several hundred emails in my box this morning....posts to the other forum thread....and I think I've deleted another 200 since then. Most were disgruntled. I'm sorry, but I see complaining and whining. I'm not offering some kind of gift with a bow on it. I just wish that I could help some people I like.

Mickey,

I've read this entire thread and saw you doing the same thing.. You are Whining and Complaining about people doing them same.. let them have their voice.. letting them speak their mind cause they are upset doesn't make them right and you wrong or visa versa..


You Support it.. I think by now everyone gets that.. Others don't they should get that too.. Beating your point like a dead horse is kinda pointless don't you think?

Ok...I understand. I'm done. Thank you for letting me know.

I felt like taking that personally until I remembered that I haven't mentioned that I am not making a profit...if I had it would have been a lie. My profits have grown steadily since those days a year ago, almost to the point where growth from month to month is predictable (except for a few months where I could not be available as much due to RL issues...for that I did not complain, realizing fully that the reason was my absence).

I believe that I DO have a business head, having worked in business all of my adult life, and even owning and operating a small business for several years. While my SL business does pay my tier and leave a little bit over for spending (and by diligent saving over a long period I managed to purchase a new tower), I pay a lot of attention to my monthly report.

Bottom line is, if it's not making a profit, it has to go. I haven't taken everything off XSSL yet, just a large majority of things that tend to only sell one every month or two. I will be watching my monthly spreadsheets VERY carefully, however. If it costs me more than it makes me, it will go.

I thought at one point people were complaining that the proliferation of freebies and dollarbies were killing the SL economy and reducing incentive to create.

Now that LL has a plan in place to manage the glut of freebies, people are complaining that the ability to charitably distribute freebies "for the community" will be significantly curtailed.

So which is it? Can't have it both ways.

Net top seller on XStreetSL: Delivery bot so you dont have to list your stuff on Xstreet

Different people, perhaps?

Xstreet did never bring me much sales, but mostly exposure.
53 Items and I am pulling them all. I do not need more fees from LL.

I already pay LL more than enough, I am not making tier yet, and keeping my things active on Xstreet, if they want to charge me that, is not good business.

I am trying to grow, trying to cut even. LL wants to put the bar higher, fine, go ahead, I am out of there and on my way to independent merchant sites.

I knew when LL bought Xstreet, it was bad news.

You're mixing entirely different topics just because all the things in said topics are free.

There is a lot more going on here, which many people have taken pains to detail.

Also this does nothing toward the things people were talking about in those threads which were, as I recall, the hundreds of hunts, group gifts, etc. The point in those threads, as I recall, was that those who are not inclined to buy would not be encouraged since they could easily outfit their avatar, home, land, etc. for free.

I am somewhere shy of that, since I think that people who shop will shop anyway, and those who won't, won't. But I agree a few middlers will not be encouraged to spend when they clearly don't have to.

None of that has anything to do with what some have been saying in the current XStreet freebie ads threads, about offering freebies to help people whether or not there is a business to promote along with it. THe reason some distinguished on that point was because someone else mentioned LL's reasoning being 'these are promotions and should be charged as a form of advertising.'

Which began the discussion of altruistic donations to the community and how that differs from someone handing samples of their wares to promote their shop. By the way no one was making a value judgment on either of those things, just saying that they are not the same. And that it's the non profit folks this will hurt, and the shops struggling to make ends meet.

Kind of like raising taxes during a Depression.