Confused - Is promoting RL business considered spamming ?

Hi all,

I am quite new to community. I rented a store space in a mall today and I was thinking of setting up some pictured panels telling about my RL business (computer games solely sold via internet) but after reading the help of llLoadURL I made a little search in the forums. I came across a post from 2003 saying that we are not allowed to promote RL business. Is this still true ?
I was thinking of using llLoadURL(), which asks the user anyway, in these panels to go to the site.

TIA for your input.

It would be kinda rediculous since we have RL companies like Adidas and American Apparel promoting their RL products, so i'd say it's completely allowed.

My opinion is, sure go for it. See what happens. As long as it doesn't go out of it's way to spam notecards to passers-by, I can ignore it if I chose.

Another small suggestion is this, depending on the kind of company, why not make a replica of what you sale RL for SL and sell it too? Recoup some of the costs of using SL.

If the bigger companies can do it, why not you too?

Thanks Shiryu and Raudf...
I also thought of selling the games for Linden dollars but since normally I am using a third party company for credit card processing I have no idea about how to do it here for L$. However, I will be learning more about scripting in the following days and since I am a programmer anyway maybe I can think of something. It would be an interesting experiment for me.

Thanks again...

BO, I don't believe this is true. If you look in the popular places (non-mature) they are advertising a RL business. NETg I think it is.

It must be fine to promote because I see it all the time. People have links to their RL websites that you can click on. One company even has their clothing line in RL duplicated for SL.

I wanted to do the same but didn't think there would be a big call for event favors, gifts and accessories so I just use it for advertising.

Currently working with Jnana to take advantage of their software that will let SL people by stuff from RL websites. Another reason why this is perfectly fine to do. SL residents have to visit your place so it is not spamming unless you are sending out unwanted messages with bots or something. I don't particularly care for those.

I beleive that it is a goal of the Lindens to encourage business participation in SL. EBAY and Amazon are huge backers of the site from what I have read

I think as long as you don't send notecards advertising to people who didn't request, them, it can't be called spam.

'spamming' is basically the sending of unwanted unsolicited messanges... it doesn't sound like you are thinking anything like that, with setting up an actual store-front display and letting people who are interested click to find more, etc... you should be fine.

As to the L$ payment, you can script pretty much any kind of outbound email logging etc you would like, and taking L$ back to cash is simply having a paypal acct and visiting secondlife.com/currency/sell.php

and if you don mind us prying, what game(s)?

Spam would be Unsolicited messages that intrude on another's space via a message delivery system, such as e-mail or forum posts. In SL, that's extended to chat, IM's, notecards, and any other unsolicited inventory item.

Putting a sign on your wall, even it it rotates, blinks, and makes noise (as long as the noise doesn't carry over to neighboring parcels) is fair game, as Lazarus Divine rather pointedly illustrated with the "Impeach Bush" signs earlier this year.

As long as your signs don't flood the chat window, IM users, or give them inventory without the user's request (clicking or saying a command), then you are not spamming.

First life business activity is okay, and you can use Pay Pal as a commercial link to enable payment, although I have to say the way the Linden dollar is going I would be okay about accepting them. Nice to be able to say that too. -

I think the main point I would make is identity issues. Some here are moderately content to allow their real life name and location to be available, others are not. So if I were looking at a first life business here in Second Life I would make it very clear I would respect confidentiality of my first life customers gained from Second Life.

Finally you might be interested to know that some pure Second Life business ventures have spread across into first life, Slingo the computer game is one example, another is Ginko the Second Life merchant bank

Best of luck in what you do.

i'm... not sure i'd call what ginko financial does in rl a 'business' so much...

Slingo was made in RL, and ripped off and made in SL.
Tringo was made in SL, and sold the rights to it for a company in RL.

Ah well cannot get it right all the time, my avatar has a terrible memory for names....

And on that point I am awaiting the first game version of Second Life Monopoly, for real cash -

I'll play, but you be the bank.

Hmm.

*looks at sims*

Erm... you mean I'm NOT playing it now?



But back to the original point. I don't see much difference between 'SL' and 'real' advertising. If there is a customer who appreciates hearing about it of course.