Private island ideas

I've been considering joining the private island owner club. I currently have 2 business plans knocking around my head.

1. Parcel and sell/rent the sim. I have questions about how to go about doing this. Mainly about setting up scripts to handle rental fees and such. My feeling about land on other private sims is that it is hugely expensive. Is this because of greed or the costs of owning the sim? My hope would be to undercut to competitors, obviously.

2. Outdoor recreation resort.

I have been a avid skier for a long time (15+ years). I have toured Linden hills and others in world. I found the variety of runs to be underwhelming and I could not get the chair lift to work.

The plan/features:

Winter snow sports from mid November to march. Downhill mountain biking the rest of the year. This will require scripted weather. BTW i'd like to have some rain too. Real world weather.

I would I would need designs for the actual gear (skis/boards/bikes/clothing). and shops to sell or rent it. The other in world resorts i have been to did not have ski shops afik.

I'd use a telaporter(sp) system in place of ski lifts.

I'm considering offering ski in ski out lots (parcels) on the hill. Warming huts would also be located throughout.

Yes I know this has 'been done' but seeing those facilities offers a chance to do better.

Feedback please

yay? nay?

am I nuts?

There are a lot of rental box options available to you everywhere. Self write one if you dont like em. I'm not promoting this business, but the Lestat Rental system is very flexible, and never had a serious issue with it ever. I use it on both my islands. There are many that are just as good. Heck, the idea is to let the users pay . The rest is flash and glitz.

The cost of owning a sim has risen now. as of Nov 15th it went up. Unfortunately, the rush to buy sims lately seems to have brought new mainland sim growth to a destructive halt. So 'some' island owners are now taking advantage of that fact, and the prices go up. The other thing is that the initial cost of islands has to be recooped somehow so a lot of owners are charging the higher fees to recover that cost.

Ok so how do you fix that ?

Stop buying land. Stop feeding the greedy and watch the prices start to come down rapidly. The longer the tier sits on their wallet, the lighter the price goes to offload it. I bought my islands with the idea of doing exactly what you plan, cheaper rates. I dont make as much as some people, but I still make enough to justify the cost of still owning them. I havent had an open plot on either island since I got them.

People will pay outrageous prices for land because the need for instant gratification and ownership is a strong driving force. If people were more patient, we wouldnt see 512 plots priced 7500 to god knows what.

I am not slamming free enterprise in any way. If people are willing to pay 15-20-30 L per meter, then thats on them. If people were more patient and waited, that same plot a week, two weeks from now, would be half that price. Or Less.

Good luck with whatever you decide is right for you

I did a search for 'rental box' and did not come up with anything. I'm not looking to 'make millions' right out of the gate but enough to justify the cost would be a good place to start.

as to the cost of the sim: yes I truly wish I had made my purchase 1.5 months ago when I was originally considering this.
THX!

Some systems that are readily available (again not an endorsement of any, but just info for you.... ) Memnoch's Madness (LeStat's Rental thingies) , Rental Bot, Hippo Technologies. Those are a few of the ones I see most often.

Good luck!

Might I just point out that you are suggesting buying an island to rent out. Have you had a look at the land sales lately? There are loads and loads of such islands.

If you want to do this you are going to have to be offering something really special.

If you are new to SL you also have the disadvantage of not having aquired a 'reputation', someone who has been in SL for a year or more, runs an established business of some sort etc is more likely to be trusted as going to be a reputable landlord - they have more to loose.

Do check out the competition carefully. Why is someone going to want to live on your island as oppossed to anyone else's. Then start worrying about rental boxes

Good luck

One successful way to deal with that hurdle is to find an appealing "theme" for your island. Target a specific community of RL people and offer them residences in a similar group.

One example is a language group, such as French or German speakers. Being able to communicate with your neighbors and shop in stores with your language has great appeal.

I just finished touring a SL gay community island in search of rental land. I'm getting very tired of the mainland's lack of zoning, but if I'm goiing to move to an island, it has to be a culture that I find familar and welcoming.

So, find some group that mirrors your own interests, or that you're sufficiently familiar with to understand the culture, and advertise to them.

Hey, I'd rent land in an island of opera lovers if I could find one!

Great advice. Always look at the competition. Thats how I decided on my business model for mine. There are so many variables that need to be considered as Elgyfu said. Since you didnt buy before the price increase, things will be a little different in those markets. A $100US jump in tier prices has to be absorbed somewhere. So yes. Do something that sets your islands apart, and watch those with the same or similar interests flock there. (Yes, I did mean FLOCK) .. That's the beauty of things in SL. There is no one correct way

Well, I have not seen a sim based on seattle so that is one possibility. Another is something from Starwars (I see that ST has been done a hundred times). Yavin 4 or Bespin come to mind.

All this would require a huge amount of texture and prim work...

Competition analysis suggests that other island owners are chareing a lot which could deter people from buying or renting land, and thus opening new bushinesses. Thus the economy is affected. How much is any1's guess.

Any1 care to look @ the second option?

Well, I'd sure love to be able to go skiing. I've discovered ice-skating recently, and haven't taken my skates off since. Unfortunately there are not many ice rings around, and I'm afraid the nice, big ones (Winterland, Desmeral, Lyonnesse... and also the fun wee one by Robin Sojourner's place) are only temporary.

I'd be very careful about making a themed Island based on Starwars. Lucas owns the rights to the Starwars franchise, and would be perfectly within his rights to shut you down for copyright infringement, and/or to sue you over it. Not that he necessarily would, but he certainly could.

The same goes for any theme based on a movie, or book, or TV show.

Starwars has been done many times:
- Korriban (now Gorean)
- Dantooine (now Rakata Prime, or something else, I forget)
- Coruscant (now rentals)
- New Holstice (now my own Pi Island for developers)
- Byss (Sith Empire homeworld)
- Nautilus (Mandalorian homeworld)

And there are numerous other private island and mainland parcels dedicated to Star Wars. Just do a Search Places for "Jedi", "Sith", or "Starwars". If you wanted to do a Starwars sim, I'd check these out and get with the owners to see if there is something you can provide that others don't have.

The problem with many of the game/fantasy related genres is that there are a lot of kids who just want to fight and incite drahma. It just makes managing such groups and land a headache, and I don't envy anyone who wishes to attempt this.

Good luck on what you do. Just thought I'd let you know that Starwars has been done much more than Star Trek.

MM

Well... when I did a search for SW I found a bunch of crap about free lightsabers.. I believe you. frankly I don't want to deal with copyright crap anyway.

Besides I came up with more features for the 'park' while riding the ski lift in RL today...