Selling on Xstreet just got more expensive

to make a return on a minimum sale on Xstreet you have to charge L$3 to 4 and sell 10 a month, anything less you make a loss on that item.

I have about 50 items presently, but that will reduce to about 10 now, maybe less.

Huh?

Where have they said anything about that?

What? Oh, great. Lol.

I am pretty sure that the 0 L$ price is the key attraction. The items are intended for players who are just starting out. Well, great.

What is the sense in this new rule? Anyone have any ideas?

This was to be expected, and probably a good thing.

Myself, I see XStreet as a free marketing tool: I am allowed to list my stuff, people see it, and only when I sell stuff, I pay for the exposure. For the last few months I payed about 12K per month to get extra exposure (homepage features), but the default is free.

Now they are going to change it, and I have to pay 10 linden per listing. For the freebies I give out, I have to pay 99 linden a month. Resulting for me in about 1500 linden. So the free marketing tool, is now going to be a paid marketing tool. With a side effect of (hopefully) a lot of rubbish disappearing. And I think that can work out just fine.
We were used to a free ride, that is going to change. And of course, me too I'd rather not pay those 1500 linden, but I am not too surprised. In the end it is a simply decision: If the fee is too high to justify, stop using the service.

There are things I would like to see different, so instead of starting to complain, I handed my ideas to the responsible Linden. Which might be more effective then complaining on the forums.

One important thing for those of you listing items in dozens of different colors: They are coming with a new system for that. So you only will have one item listed (and have to pay for only 1), but still can sell all those colors.

Last thing:
Removing your items out of protest is foolish. The only one feeling the effect from that, is you. If XStreet simly does not work for you as a paid marketing tool, then it is good to stop using it. But removing your stuff because you disagree... not the smartest decision.

So this is the lump of coal in the Xmas stocking? Gee thanks..... for nothing.

Since when is 5% comission on sales a 'free ride'?

Did you actually read my whole posting?

Listing your items was free, the exposure was free. You only pay the 5% once you actually sell, don't you? So, as a marketing tool, is has so far been free.

I wonder if XStreet is getting clogged up with lots of items that are very unlikely to sell.
If people have to pay to list, it will filter out some of less saleable stuff. In my case, I'd review what I've got on there and things that don't sell would be withdrawn.

Maybe selling on XStreet is one of those things that should be limited to Premium members. As things are now, for example, someone could design a nice skin, which takes a long time - then they could do lots of varied versions of it, which is simpler, relatively speaking. They could market those on Xstreet. Then they could do some more slightly different versions of the skin and market those on XStreet using free alts. This is sort of using a scatter-gun approach to sales by increasing market exposure.

I've wondered whether some of the suspected ripped-off content on sale in SL is actually being sold by alts of the original creator.

It's just killing me that some of you are all "oh hey I use it as a marketing tool so it's no big deal to pay for listings." Guess what, that's you. That isn't everyone. Lots of people actually use it to, surprise!, distribute and sell stuff. Were it not for SLX I wouldn't have my free salt HUD or any number of other useful freebies I've found while browsing. Trying to locate stuff inworld is usually a nightmare, why do you think SLX was created to begin with? Not to be overloaded with free crap intended as a "marketing tool," that's for damn sure and it's a shame that the "get rich or kill SL trying" mercenaries have managed to corrupt what was once a useful service for the entire community.

My point was that the hobby isn't "selling stuff on slx", and $4 is $4 that could be spent on something actually related to the hobby, rather than parking at a restaurant you didn't like anyway.

But later you say people should not pull their items out in protest. So which is it? Disliking the new rules counts as protesting them, right? "No" = a form of protest. Just not the marching, sign waving kind.



Should they remove it because they agree? ;p

Also, Marcel, not everyone with freebies on there does it because they are running a promotion or as a marketing tool. The ones who are doing this to help others will be the ones hurt by it. Shop keepers (who are in the black) will not be hurt by this. It isn't a "free ride" or "free promotion" if the person is or has not been promoting anything except good will.

I haven't pulled anything from XSSL out of protest, just out of practicality and common sense. I have left several things there, like one color of some things for example. I will just edit the description to say there are more colors available in world. In future, I will probably list new releases for a month and see how they are received, for the exposure. If they sell well, they will stay. But I will be imposing a "prim limit" on the service for myself.

Same here, although I did not have anything on SLX.

When I create/script I set things to be free, copyable, and transferrable. I figure the good karma back is well worth it, plus I occasionally get helpful comments/advice back.

This sounds like the perfect opportunity for someone who wants to market their own marketplace in competition with Xstreet, to establish a freebie-specific community service section.

Pep (I am sure that the goodwill it would generate would make it a good business move.)

It's right up there with the "Millions of unheard voices" (tm) that wanted the creation of Zindra.

That's the feeling I get also. And besides, when was the last time a boycott worked against LL? No, this is the, "Let 'em complain and get it out of their system so they'll go along with it," phase. This time, however, I don't plan on going along with it. It doesn't make sense from a business standpoint for me. Plus, I got slapt one too many times to want to "wait and see" on this change.

Well this grew over night beyond the i want to boil my blood stage again this early in the morning so will just say this:

Dont delist anything YET - u have two weeks- Use it to your advantage. If u r abandoning XStreet which of course is what LL wants - the fewer there are of us the better and easier iti is for them to control whats there. Remember this is no longer about US - it's about making a cushy safe world for all those business that LL is in contact with that will soon be rushing into SL ...

Use this time to get your stuff properly moved to the alternate sites. Contact the folks running those sites and get terminals in your stores and signage explaining what the things are. You may not be there to market the alternatives but right now - those of us that agree we are just being made to bend over - are all in this together. But don't be stupid in your anger, get every last sale you can out of XStreet .

Folks when it comes down to it, SL is the only 'game' in town - You have to work within the scope of the rules while trying your hardest to make the rules work for you.

Good luck to us all in this Ship of Fools.

I used that one last night on the nameless Linden - i am still waiting for her answer...

Was that prior to yesterday's announcement? There was a vigorous chat with Pink yesterday in the Second Life Commerce Merchants group, and Pink stated that they accepted feedback via meetings during office hours and notecards. The trouble was, none of us in yesterday's chat (other than Pink) knew about the meetings or proposals. I certainly got the impression from Pink that LL isn't in a "feedback taking" mood at this point, so there's no need for suggestions now.
That problem was brought up during that chat, and Pink didn't say anything about a new system in the future. I hope you're correct, Marcel. (Actually, the problems these new policies are supposed to solve could all be solved better by making improvements to Xstreet, rather than by raising fees.) I also hope it will not only accommodate different variations at the same price, but also allow us to put a few different versions of an item at different prices on one Xstreet page.

Had a similar thought, here:

/327/e7/351193/1.html#post2622228

More than willing to try it - who's with me?

(Tempted to say, "This sounds like a job for the Forum Cartel!" but if so, we all have to race to phone booths and emerge in our superhero costumes. ;p )

Those two things simply are not the same.
Pulling your items because you think the price is not worth the value, is a good business decision. Pulling your items on emotional grounds (protest) is a bad business decision.



I had a chat with Colossus, among other things I brought up the freebies that are simply there to help the communuty. Guess what? For those Community items they are quite willing to find a solution. So, in order to help that process, I started a thread to gather links to those items. Guess how much I got so far? People are busier whining, then thinking about solutions. Once more I have to agree with Mickey in that... getting scary

Two for the price of one!

I'm probably gonna get slapped here........

But to be honest, if I'm browsing XStreet and I see something I want, if it's free or L$10 it really makes no difference to me.

Hey, I pay L$10 to upload a texture.

Whilst anything free is great. Personally free or L$10 makes no difference. if someone spends time making anything I think they deserve L$10 for their work.

Since when is protest emotional? If someone tries to lift a fiver off me without good cause, I protest. That's how I read people's "protest" - disagreement.

Also, it isn't necessarily a bad decision for everyone's shop.



Give them a chance to react to this. Also perhaps they are still considering your offer. Or waiting to create one of their own. Perhaps they did not like the idea of someone else choosing whether their item is 'helping' or is worthy of making the new grade.

Ah, ok. Well, LL, you won't have any problems with items cluttering up XStreet or people trying to find anything...because it will be a ghost town!