Now On DesigningSL Blogger List!!!

As the old TV show said 'Well, we're movin' on up!!!' The Always Eclectic Blog will be on the DesigningSL blog feed!!! Read that 'Riendra has more incentive to blog more often!' Today, it's not a problem - I have a topic to vent a bit on. Don't worry - vent is a long way from a rant!

The other day, I found myself at the SL-Hunt headquarter's housed with the Cookie Jar store and shopping area. I thought I'd go take a look for December hunts related to the holidays, since I KNOW I want to do the Renaissance Hunt again and the attached Faire!

I was astounded to see that 3 (okay, 2 3/4) of the walls were covered with October hunts!! I realize people like their hunts, but I was reminded about something Kat Alderson said at a seminar. With so many hunts, it's no wonder that people don't want to pay for anything in SL. If they wait long enough, something they like just as well will come out as a freebie in a hunt.

I have no idea how this situation can get turned around, but Kat had one piece of advice for merchants: stop being in so many hunts! Some stores are in 10 or more hunts a month. Does that really increase your sales? Or is it just bringing people that stop by, grab a freebie and leave?

When I moved to my new store location, I put visitor counters at three different locations: landing point, front entrance to the shop, and rear of the shop. Nearly everyday there are some people at the landing point. Once in a while there is traffic at the entrance although a much smaller number. There is rarely any traffic that reaches the back of the store.

That tells me that people are landing and scanning for the freebie, then leaving for the most part. Obviously not everyone does that, but there is a significant number that do.

I realize I don't have the huge inventories that other stores do, so there is less to look at so far. Still, it's rather discouraging. I would be very curious to know what other people, merchants and non-merchants, or even merchants when they aren't being merchants and are just shoppers or hunters, think about this. SL seems to be mimicing RL in that mega-retailers are the only ones that survive long. Or perhaps independently wealthy people in RL that can afford to subsidize their SL businesses forever. It just seems that smaller retailers go out and in frequently, but the big hitters, perhaps those that got big near the beginning of SL, have the advantage at the moment.

I love having my store. I really do. I can't subsidize things forever though. Sooner or later having to spend real money to subsidize my fun will get old. Darn.

Riendra

Happy Rez Day to Me - and 23% off Store Wide for You!!!

It's my second rez day in SL!! I'm in such a great mood that I'm putting everything in the store at both locations 23% off for the day! (exluding very nearly free and group discount items)

Stop by and get that set you've had your eye on!

Thank you for your patronage! It is appreciated more than you know.

Riendra

The hunts begin December 1st - and I'm ready!

The store is all decorated and updated - new merchandise out - hunt items are ready to go - whew!

And I'm still in creation mode....making more Renaissance things, and throwing in some Victorian to go with it, some holiday....wow.

Time to update the product catalog again, although most of it is there.

I've been helping a bit with the RenFaire making signage on demand - you'd never believe how many signs one faire needs!!!

In all this, I have decided I am a better jewelry maker than just about anything else.....which is a shame as I have fun making other stuff. I guess we'll see what sells and see what works. With my booth at the RenFaire start and my store, I'm crossing my fingers! In the meantime....

Land or mall....store or storage....now or later....

I'm trying very hard to do this whole business thing the right way. Now the question is what is the right way?

My thought is to develop inventory first, then worry about a store front. Small hitch in that plan; I currently have a Linden home. That means limited prims - 40 to be exact. I can't do a durn thing with my shiny, new Beadrez in that space. So I end up taking my stuff over to a sandbox and working on it. It's so easy to leave things behind that way. It would be really nice to be able to leave things out.

Should I get some auction land now, just a 512 plot, and use it for storage without spending a lot of money? Should I wait and buy a bigger plot for store and storage? Or use space for storage and get a mall location and possible mall traffic? And what about all the rip offs with renting mall space and land I hear about? How do I know who to trust?

On paper things look simple; in reality it seems to be anything but. It really is the same as opening a real life store with less investment. Hopefully I figure something out - or I keep delaying which seems to be my tactic at the moment. Delay a decision and keep learning about Beadrez and Blender and whatever else.

My brain hurts.....

A New Day....A New Crisis

I seem to have a way with losing things in my inventory. I started, with serious partnership with Wat Denzil, building contests at Happy Hippo. We were closing out a weeklong contest and I was retrieving something for it and realized my entire contest folder was gone.....*&(*&((!!!! I still haven't found it and support doesn't give me much hope.

So today, I spent time backing up my most important things. Sadly SL doesn't have a good way of creating backups, or at least none that I am aware of. I'm just duplicating my important stuff in other folders. My inventory is quickly doubling.

I suppose on one of my sleepy nights, I must have accidentally deleted it. I just have trouble believing that. Regardless, time to recreate everything. Sigh....