How to be #1 in SL

OK, I'm really new here and tried to figure out the search ratings. Looking for some nice furniture. Well, didnt seem like the ratings made any sense at all. Went to the top rated places. Didnt seem like they were top rated because of quality in any way shape or form. So I did a bit of investigating. Guess this picture shows how you get to the top of the heap. 30 avatars standing around earning money who all joined the store's group. wow, is this legal in sl? seems pretty deceptive to me.

It's very deceptive, and so far, not illegal. It's bot-farming. The majority of them are not even real people or distinct computers. They're running a few at a time on a text-only client set to make sure they don't get kicked off by normal network timeouts. They're gaming the old search and popular places to artificially show that more people visit than is actually true. (=_=)

It is not illegal. The popularity thing will get dropped most likely and product search will maybe take a better seat. But if you think about it, people with lots of friends have popular stores becuase they hang out there or a store with a night club on the same property may get more ratings. In RL the same thing happens, if you see a cafe with a few tables and people all sitting at them you think it is popular for the good food. maybe it is the family of the owner getting free lunch! A person who is a rich person in RL could spend lots of advertising on RL TV for ihis RL business and seem successfull when in reality he is drawing money forma lucrative job or win fall. You can say it is wrong, but RL is no different and you in RL you waste time and money going to stores where as here you can hop to 20+ stores and search through them and log off before you have even arrived at the other stores. So in one respect I see nothing wrong with enhancing search results whith alts, it evens it out with the people paying and giving aways free stuff to friends to get them to chat at the store. Plus some people build at thier store, that racks up traffic. All I know is you better have decent products and a good selection of them or be known well for one or two only because people will not buy and just lag the sim for other customers and I found I sold more if my traffic fluctuated so I actually avoid my store some days so I don't keep it constant. I figure some people skip the fornt page due to irrleevent BS from people using keywords that have nothing to do with thier product line. Skin companies seem to do this and sex places or other entertianment places.They figure anyone will like their product. NOthing wrogn with that and I have stumbled on some good stuff like that, but some people seem to skip...weird. I can not connect daily traffic to sales really and I think maybe only hasty n00bs will buy from the top list stuff anyway with out shopping around. My stuff is cheap and I do notice popularity sales but guess what, popularity sales lead to LESS time at the store! Their friends send them and they go directly to what they want and buy without stopping to browse much. So populrity of product leads to LESS traffic ratings and using profile picks is not as good for traffic and classifieds only bring in several visitors.

I have never tested the top traffic method and I could use my alts to try and rack up some that would get me almost to the top of search for the most popular words...but what would happen? I am not sure, I may try in the name of science but I do know that getting a bit better will not help at all and fluctuation seems to help. So go and man the store now and then and say Hi to visitors and boost it a bit, then take a day off. Saying Hi and being helpful does not help with regular products., I have test drives available for my cars and only oe person has taken me up on the offer! I make sales by not interfeering with thier shopping, not buildign traffic and no test drive. Much different than in RL. People don't want to talk to you, they want to look at cars and IM thier friends I guess? But I sell vehicles and I do know that offering a rez'r helps, they want to test it but don't want to look like fools crashing into stuff? They are worried of stupid sales pitchs and pressure selling? I only know that it makes little difference and you are better off jsut saying Hi and leaving it at that and not worrying about traffic.

I wonder why merchants pay so many campers their sims lag to a standstill. I have enough trouble keeping lag down with all the boats at my marina.

What surprises me the most is why these bots are all dressed up in prim hair and nice clothes. Why on earth is anyone spending money or time on them? I'd expect them to be just default Ruths.

Not all of them are bots. A vast majority of them are campers just trying to earn a linden.

I would bet those are not bots at all but indeed real people camping there own accounts to get some extra $Ls
Most real bots that I’ve seen are ruths with no textures loaded and nothing but a name tag

Some of the bots that I have seen are very suffisticated. Prim Hair and flexi dresses and some will even talk with you (if you ask them the right questions). The idea is to make the bot seem like a person that is there and doesn't understand your language.

Why do the bot owners go to so much trouble? The answer is easy, the bot game is not just about money but also about how long you can continue to camp at a SIM without being detected. Most bot owner will even add picks and groups. The easiest bot to hide in BTW, is a furry. Most people dont know what a bot Noob furry looks like and does not require a lot additional editing.

JulieAnne