Custom Building Help

I'm thinking of setting up an ad for custom building but I need help with how much I should charge.

I was thinking something like the cost is based on difficulty and time allottment for me to do it.


Sample Price Chart:

Difficulty:

Easy: 50L
Medium: 100L
Hard: 150L

Time:
2 weeks +: 0L
1week - 1 week 6 days: 50 L
4-5 Days: 100L
2-3 Days: 150L
1 Day: 200L

does this seem reasonable?

$L50 is the equivilent of about 15 cents, US. Is that really worth you time, even for an "easy" build?

My advice is don't get involved in the custom build business. It's very time-consuming, and it yields little reward in return for your effort. It's much more worthwhile to make products that can be shelved and mass-marketed.

I got out of the custom business over 2 years ago because there's just no way to charge anything reasonably close to what my time is worth on a consistant basis. Occasionally though, people still do approach me and ask me to make this or that for them. I only consider it if they're paying serious money (hundreds or thousands of US dollars, or the $L equivilent of that), and if I think it's an interesting project. People willing to pay that much are fairly scarce in SL though.

If you don't think your time is worth much, or if you do but you're not concerned about earning what you deserve, do custom builds for people until your heart's content. Otherwise, I'd highly recommend you make things you can put on a store shelf, so lots of people can buy them.

15 cents times 1000 people is $150. If that L$50 item took a few hours to make, then $150 might be worthwhile for that. 15 cents times one person is 15 cents, and that's never worthwhile.

Okay, thanks for the tip.

I would agree with Chosen Few. Doing tons of one-off designs isn't at all cost effective.

Most of my 'custom work' is larger scale proects, stuff that certain people would pay L$3000 to L$20,000 and up for. Such jobs are not that frequently available, but when you find them, it's worth the time and effort.

Look at doing simple pre-fab buildings, furniture and the like, and practice with making and texturing those until you get really good at it. Find some niche market, something that you can make that sells well, and make a lot of stuff like that, selling it through vendors. It's the repeat sales that make it cost-effective.