Amiryu

Well, I am strolling the web today because today is the second time LL decided to charge my paypal account to pay for tier. I wanted to know if there would be a way to temporary pause a few of my sims. I own 4 sims that are open to the public and lots and lots of people are using them for free. The regions are Japan Edo time based and host several roleplay groups and a lot of residents. My market Hosoi Ichiba is paying for all 4 sims + advertisements + occasional gifts to new residents. I am also using SL as a toolbox to design and proof my RL Japanese themed designs.

Since the start of the world wide economic crysis we seem to be in I, like many others, noticed a decline in sales. However my Ichiba was still going strong up to the start of this holiday season. Seems people are finally running out of “playmoney”. Maybe after the summer my sales will start growing again but I have the odd feeling it won’t;-(

If my sales doesn’t recover I will need to close down my sims and SL will loose again 4 wonderful free landmarks. I know I am not alone in this. Already a lot of great places closed down to never return and a lot will follow. The idea I have to let down all those people that depend on the scenery that I created over the years will make me so super sad;-( For what I know there is no way I can preserve complete sims to reerect them on the LL grid or elsewhere later.

I think LL needs to rethink their business strategy. Like some people here said, LL has a great tool and nowadays their servers and viewers are very stable. If LL should decide to lower tier and startup fees I am sure new people will start using SL and people that moved away to, for instance Open Sim like environments, will come back to SL. I am afraid though that will never happen.

For example; a few months agoo I contacted LL to talk about pricing and possible discount on 24 private sims because I was in the race for a very big RL contract rebuilding a complete town and zoo in the Netherlands. (my client didn’t want to use Open Sim) The kind of project that could put SL on the map again as a serious tool and virtual environment. The answer however was NO! LL didnt even want to think about it!

I am simply not able to fund the 4 sims (1200 USD a month) from my RL income at the moment. Saying that makes me think about how much I payed to SL in tier and commision, etc. over the last 6 years… it must be in the region of USD 150.000+

So that leaves me with one option only. Praying sales will recover after the summer so my friends, residents and visitors can keep enjoying our little corner in SL.

For all people riding the same boat I would like to say; keep up the faith!

Hugs,

Amiryu Hosoi

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Joshua Nightshade

Isn't this like the eighth or ninth time you've announced that you were closing down because LL did something or didn't do something and so on?

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Johnnytreadlightly Nightfire

I agree completely. LL should discount someone on 24 regions so they can pay me a lot of money to sandbox on them. We should start a petition or something. Game changer.

Johnnytreadlightly Nightfire

I don't mean to be insensitive to your plight. I can even empathize with your frustration at not getting what you want. Hell, who wouldn't want to make more and pay less? I have to tell you though; there's thousands of people that offer fun things for people to do all over Second Life. Many struggle to make tier without any inworld income sources at all. No offense, but the lady that used her first 512M plot of land to make a public garden and never considered selling things or putting up vendors is just slightly different than your situation (not that selling things makes you bad, it's just not in the same sympathy bracket).

You run your regions centered around your business. While you may allow people to wander through them freely, ultimately you're using it as a display for your business. That's how it goes. Sometimes you have to cut back.

Tiffy Vella

Why not have one sim, instead of four?

Chalice Yao

Bai.

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"Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?" - George Carlin

Jack Belvedere

Next thing you know, she'll be wishing she had a longbow and knew how to manage it.

Sid Nagy

Yep.
For Ami:"De tering naar de nering zetten"
In English something like: "Cut your coat according to your cloth".

Beebo Brink

Deja vu all over again.

I can remember wading through pages and pages of another thread in which quite a few people pointed out how to improve sales for this particular content creator because she was (insert OP).

We should just recycle that one.

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Laverne Unit

I think the posters in the previous thread came to the following conclusions (please excuse the directness of my tone, but we had pretty much this exact same thread before):

- you're selling very expensive no-copy items (personally, for that price I would expect copy perms, and I know of others who feel the same way)
- you might do better if they were more up-to-date i.e. mesh (and so with a lower prim count, which is always attractive for a buyer)
- it is not therefore much of a surprise that in these straitened times, people are not buying enough to cover the cost of your four sims
- you might want to reduce the number of your sims to what you can manage

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Jack Belvedere

FIFY

Joshua Nightshade

Your list was good, but not comprehensive. I took the liberty of fleshing it out.

Nephilaine Protagonist

As you've been told before, the problem isn't LL or the economy or people walking off the trails in your sim. Its with the *actual product you are selling*. Its overpriced, unmodifyable, and outdated. You can listen to the dozens of people that have been trying to tell you that and adjust your offerings to suit the demands of the market and what it wants, or you can go under- business is survival of the fittest, and those who won't adapt don't survive long.

Sorry.

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Siggy

Also:

http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u...enis-dance.gif

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And as it was in the beginning, so too shall it be in the end. That bullshit is bullshit, it just goes by different names.

eku Zhong

nobody forced you not to update your prices and/or your builds..

its been years that you have been whining here but actually you have done absolutely nothing to keep up with the times.

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eku Zhong

Joshua Nightshade

Ajax, I know you're a whiny crybaby who makes shit up because one time you got a negative reaction on SLU and now you have a vendetta the likes of which no one here has ever seen before but are you actually capable of contributing anything to the site other than groaning and disagreeing with posts? It seems like someone who has nothing better to do but slam emoticon buttons and then run back to GV to talk shit about the forum and claim Cristiano sent you PMs begging you to stay would save himself the trouble and not read someplace he hates so much.

Siggy

Now now folks.. it's not nice laugh at the prospect of someone having to shut down 4 sims.

Show some decorum.. show a little restraint people.


Wait till they HAVE closed down.....

Sredni Eel

You know, you don't need four sims to have a store. My own plot of land is something like forty bucks a month.

On the other hand, I don't sell overpriced non-copiable things.

So yeah, good luck on gaining sympathy and all.

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Adeon Writer

If you aren't making as much money, try raising your prices. That way you can make up for missed sales with more income from the sales you are still getting.

Also don't sell anything mod. That's how Copybotters get ya. Copybot respects object permissions, so they won't be able to copy it.

Just in case some people don't see your content, make it full-bright. That will give you better product visibility. If all else fails, use particles.

Sea Warcliffe

I think business models are changing as well. People are contracting a bit, making smaller shops, doing more with less. My own main shop is a coop, with friends of mine who sell the same kind of thing. We've noticed that having "competitors" in the same shop is actually a good thing all around. And we all help each other learn new things, share ideas.

Its kind of crazy to keep doing the same thing and expect different results, no?

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Rosemaery Lorefield

I work on less than 1/4 sim and I have houses, furniture, garden, etc.

And it is not all just sitting in panel vendors.

Cut down on sims. Learn about using space wisely. Listen to what your customers want.

Aki Shichiroji

Many land owners also fail to recognize they have the option of using more vertical space if they find their available primmage exceeds available space, so i suppose that's an option if your builds are efficient enough. With a simple teleporter, some mesh terrain & landscaping on a few platforms perhaps 256-512m apart, it would be fairly easy to showcase your other products while cutting down on costs.

Jack Abraham

Amiryu, I'm a big fan of Japan Edo. It's too bad your products aren't selling well enough to pay for it. I'll miss it. Let us know when you re-open with updated products.

Isablan Neva

I just let go of one of my sims because sales aren't enough to cover tier on both. You do what you have to do. I've just spent 3 grueling weeks updating products and vendorizing them, and I also have a ton of older content that needs refreshing (most of us who've been around for a long time do.)

So, get in there and get it done. Figure out what your sales are currently supporting and cut back to that.

Rent out the other sims until you've rebuilt your content enough to support bringing them back. SL searches (both marketplace an in-world) favor fresh content. It's the way it is. Get that stuff cleaned up, update pictures and listings. Make yourself relevant again.

I'm not sitting around whining about giving up my lovely Lothlorien build so I can rent that sim out, I'm out learning Blender and prepping to become a Mesh creator. Like Neph said, adapt or die.

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