SL Designer Notes

Here's another one they will all tell you: if you want to move up the ladder, you need a team of bloggers. This, they say, may make all the difference in breaking through to the next level. Now, my disclaimer: I'm coming only from the perspective of home and garden stuff, NOT stores and promotion in general. And, of course, my experience isn't universal or even typical. (Even despite these two qualifying comments, I predict that there will be people who strongly disagree with my unpopular opinion.) I believe that bloggers are very helpful for promotion of fashion-related items in SL. There's no doubt that people will see a dress, pair of shoes, necklace, etc. in some blogger's photo and think, "Oh wow, I want that." I know fashion designers in SL who have said they can quantitatively demonstrate that their bloggers made a difference in sales levels. I think that's fantastic. I also believe bloggers CAN be helpful in building buzz and interest around sa...

Salacity History Part 9... The occasional tensions and frustrations with our sim neighbors at the original Misfits shopping district continued to be a problem. The solution? Why not buy/lease a whole sim for ourselves? (To be clear: it's not possible in SL to fully own land outright. Even if you buy land directly from Linden Lab, there will always be fees and maintenance costs that essentially amount to Linden Lab still "owning" the rights to the land. Unless they set up some system where people can host their own sims 100% free of charge, real estate in SL will always be, at most, a leasing agreement.) There are many companies in SL that broker real estate; you can "buy" parcels of all sizes, homesteads, and full sims. Buying a sim means that you have total control over everything about the sim: all of the rights and settings are up to you, and whomever you designate as co-owners or property managers.  We managed to find a full sim with 20K prims allowed (not t...

I posted a few days ago about store groups and how hard it is to build them up. Today in my Facebook feed I saw an announcement about another store celebrating their 3000th group member in-world—and as it happens, that store/brand is only a few years old. I remember when they launched, and it was years after I launched Salacity (in fact, years after I'd begun to make earnest progress with Salacity). This is a perfect example of one of the many frustrations that came my way (and probably will come your way as well) in SL: there will be brands that are introduced and seem to have an uncanny amount of success, while you're busting your ass to gain even half of the success that they've had seemingly drop into their laps. In this particular case, the brand is a collaboration of two designers who were well-established already, and when they launched out they brought with them a lot of connections and experience. In addition, they are talented designers who have worked very hard i...

I discussed before some of the truths behind your own store's in-world group. But how about the (many) promotional groups that are available? That, as they say, is another kettle of fish altogether... The reality is that there are some groups that will instantly bring traffic to your store or event booth if you use them well. These groups are set up to be a connection-point between designers/stores and shoppers, and they are active ways to drive sales your way. To be fair, they aren't nearly as effective as they used to be—and some have become diluted or neglected over time, so that they are basically spam-fests now and (I would assume) shoppers ignore them. And not every group is effective for every designer, of course; some will do well for you and not for other stores (even if the others offer similar merchandise), and vice-versa. Some of these groups will require a fee to get notice-posting rights, while others are free. (A closely-related entity is the weekend shopping gro...

Salacity History Part 8... That new store setup and location served Salacity well for over a year, and we slowly grew and added on to our little Misfits shopping district. Eventually we got the parcel next to ours as well, and expanded to include stores for another couple of friends. The only problem was that those who occupied the neighboring sims were not always good neighbors. One operated a club that was consistently annoying customers in our shops with group invitations and spam about their DJs. Another raised breedables and they consumed a ton of resources, often creating lag. Something was going to have to change, and soon. (And it did—details in a future post!) Meanwhile, though, Salacity's inventory continued to grow, and little by little I received invitations to more and better events. But the next major change was that, through events, Salacity got exposure to the vast community of SL bloggers—some of whom contacted me about blogging for Salacity directly! I'd heard...

There are plenty of people who will tell you that you MUST build up your in-world group in order to promote your store and releases. This is so easier said than done. And it's not entirely true. Salacity's in-world group started with 20 or so friends that I personally invited (I invited a lot more than that; only 20 or so accepted my invitations). By the time I closed down operations in-world, I had managed to grow the group to a whopping 103 members. Many of my original 20-ish friends had since left the group, so that 103 was almost all people who legit wanted to be in the group. I tried everything I knew of to grow my group: I put out group inviters in my store and at events; I promoted it with group gifts; I tried using a group membership fee to retain members; I occasionally would go through my friends list and invite others. No matter what I tried, I could never get the critical numbers that it seems to take to have an active following through a group. Some stores managed ...

As with animations, it can be challenging sometimes to find good full-perm mesh models for building furniture and decor. Some of what's available is poorly modeled, and that's an issue. Even among those vendors who sell good-quality mesh, for many they are not very easy to work with when texturing because the UV maps haven't been given much care and attention. Basically, if you're buying full-perm mesh, you're paying for these two aspects (modeling quality and UV mapping). Here is a list of sources that I've used in the past with good results (with notes where appropriate). This list is by NO MEANS an exhaustive compendium of mesh makers for SL; if you see one that's missing, let me know and I'll consider adding it. Full-Perm Mesh for Builders: CCDesign:  not a huge selection here, but what they have is very good quality stuff. A lot of furniture pieces, some decor. I really like the way they model mesh, actually, and their UV/AO maps are set up to be ea...

Salacity History Part 7... Even though I adored my little shop in the Mode St. Andres shopping district, I outgrew it quickly—not hard to do when furniture is the main thing you're making. So I made arrangements with the two owners of the district to take over a larger shop just up the street. As delightful as Mode St. Andres was—and frankly, it was a more photogenic setting than almost any other shopping district I've seen—the only traffic my store got was generated from events or groups. There just wasn't much foot traffic in the shopping district. Slowly I figured out that the days of gaining shoppers and sales via "foot traffic" in a shopping district were largely behind us. And so, some months later when we were informed that Mode St. Andres would be closing, two friends and I decided that we didn't need an established shopping district at all. Why not set up in our own space, create a "shopping district" of our own? Which is exactly what we did...

It's fitting to bring up this discussion now, because it was while I was in my first store at Mode St. Andres that I invested in the full CasperVend system—the big pack that comes with everything. It was a significant investment for me, the biggest one since I purchased AvSitter. I want to offer some reflections on vendor systems here, and I apologize in advance that this will be a longer post than usual. First, some general reflections: For starters, no one NEEDS a vendor system. It's certainly possible to set things up for sale without them, and plenty of stores sell goods this way. Second, you don't NEED to buy into one of the big two systems (CasperVend and MD Labs). There are other scripts and script-sets in the Marketplace that will help you sell your wares—and some of them may be better at certain types of sales than the big ones. The main reasons I can see for using a vendor system are: sales tracking/records, statistical data, redelivery, gift cards, and the abilit...

Salacity History Part 6... Somehow, an event organizer (/me waves to Yuna) found my little store and thought highly enough of my builds to invite Salacity to her event. The Virtual Secrets Sales Room (no relation at all to the website which commandeered that name a couple of years later) was my first sales event! For reasons that pass understanding at this point, I opted to focus on static poses and photo props at that event, rather than furniture. Probably because these were fairly new for me—I'd only been making my own static poses for a month or so at that point. And because most of the event focused on fashion, so I presumed that the shoppers wouldn't be so interested in home and garden (but maybe they would be photographers and/or bloggers).  I had been to FaMESHed and Shiny Shabby, but otherwise I was very unfamiliar with the events scene in SL at that point. I know now that my reasons above make little sense in the reality of it all, and I may have done even better with ...

Salacity History Part 5... In that quaint little shopping district called Mode St. Andres, I not only had my first-ever in-world store—I also made my first professional acquaintances. I'd had friends who were designers already, but these were the first friends I made through  my store and designing. (A big shout-out to Phedre and Alex is called for here.) One major piece of advice that these two ladies gave me, regarding growing my store and brand: joining groups that allowed you to promote through them. It seemed like both of them were in over a dozen active groups that generated a good bit of traffic to their stores, and they urged me to seek out groups appropriate for home and garden wares and do what it took to get into them. I found a few, and some allowed me to join right away. Others had requirements, some of which I could meet and others I couldn't. Some were simply inactive, or at least the people that managed the group were (making it impossible to get into). What the...

There are thousands of animations in the Marketplace for sale (even many of them free), and a beginning designer—or even a seasoned one—may have difficulty knowing which sources to trust. So many of the cheap ones are worth exactly what you pay for them.  For the sake of helping out my fellow furniture makers in SL, I offer the following list as my personal recommendations (with notes for further clarification). All of these offer full-perm animations for builders to use and re-sell; please note that each has its own TOS and you will need to follow these closely. I included the MP store link wherever possible, for two reasons: (1) so you can browse them quickly before going shopping in-world, and (2) for permanence, in the event that their in-world store should move. In-world Top Picks: Anja's Animations : I really like Anja's work, and used many of her animations in various builds over the years. She only does PG animations, but she has good ones for a variety of scenarios and...

When I was getting started with furniture, fellow designers insisted that I needed  to set up a store in-world. I believe this is a common "myth"—or, if not a myth, then at least advice that sounds wiser than it actually is. At one point in SL, shopping depended heavily on having a store—and not only that, but having one in an active shopping district. Foot traffic accounted for a good number of sales on any given day or week, so setting up a store properly and strategically was vital to building and growing your brand. The advent of shopping events seems to be the point where that was no longer nearly as relevant. That, combined with a growing sense of brand loyalty as more stores became a stable presence in SL, and then the rise of websites such as Seraphim to help build those events and provide advertising opportunities, pretty much did the "shopping district" model in. So here's my take on the "need" for in-world stores. They CAN be a great asset, ...

Salacity History Part 4... Many friends urged me to set up an in-world store. "You NEED a store," they said, "So that people can demo your furniture and see whether they want to buy it." This made a lot of sense—but also looked like it would cost me a lot of money. Fortunately, I had a secret weapon that very few in SL have the benefit of: a benefactor who, in support of me and my creative efforts, offered to underwrite the cost of rent for my store. Scotty was the first (but, gratefully, not the last) person to see potential in what I was trying to do and make. A friend of mine had recently featured a quaint, lovely shopping district on her blog, and on her recommendation I inquired about their rates. We made arrangements and Greg fronted me the rent—an investment he would go on to make for more than a year, which frankly made possible what otherwise would have been out of reach, cost-wise. Here's a picture of Scotty and me in front of that first store!

Salacity History Part 3... Over the coming months after learning how to use AvSitter, texture mesh objects, and configure scripts and animations, I dabbled in just about everything. I think most designers go through this phase, and I certainly jumped in with both feet. I had a line of sassy t-shirts I called "Salaci-Tees." I put together a line of jewelry called "Bijoux by Salacity." I made gag gifts and jokes under the label "Salacity Silly Stuff." And I tried making static poses and photo props. These, actually, became a major side-focus for me over the years, not least because so many of my friends in SL at the time were photographers and bloggers, and they seemed to be constantly hungry for some new poses and props to use. Maybe in a future post I will expand a bit on how static poses are created—it can be pretty fun. Eventually, however, I settled into making furniture and decor almost exclusively. These became my passion and absorbed 95% of my attent...

If you're a Second Life citizen and haven't heard the news yet that Linden Lab has been sold , I envy your capacity for staying out of the fray for gossip, rumor, and news.  This tidbit, which came to light a few days ago, has already been the subject of plenty of discussion online ( see New World Notes' coverage here ) and, understandably, has created a lot of questions that the Linden Lab staffers are scrambling to answer . It has generated a good bit of discussion on social media, too, in groups devoted to SL designers and creators, and I won't recap all of the chatter here—seek that out for yourself if you are so inclined. From my point of view, Linden Lab has been posturing for this sale for a long time now: increasing fees of all sorts, expanding on features in what seemed like a sudden burst of attention, selling off the albatross that was Sansar, and other steps that now suddenly all make sense. Someone said they even made a statement at one point suggesting the...

Salacity History Part 2... While making tattoos and thinking that might be the extent of my creative endeavors in SL, I bought some animations that I wanted to add into a bed that I owned. Little did I know this would be a major shift in creativity for me. Looking back, I'm sure there was a misunderstanding along the way: the maker of the poses I bought sold them with full-permissions as well as "copy only" (the latter is really only useful for the purpose I intended, to add to something existing). Yet, when I asked for help in knowing how to do this, she told me I needed to be in their designer's group to do what I wanted, which required that I create a simple example of furniture that I was able to build. I found an inexpensive full-perm chair and a few free sitting animations, and then I bit the bullet and bought AvSitter (back when you still had to pay full price for it). Borrowing on my limited texturing ability from making tattoos, I cobbled it together and got ...

Salacity History Part 1... Like so many designers, my beginnings as a creator of content for Second Life were humble and somewhat accidental: my first creations were a few gestures (probably the easiest thing to make in SL) that some friends thought were cute enough to list in the Marketplace. Believe it or not, I actually had the nerve to charge L$5 for these gestures at first. (Now they are freebies, and yes, people actually get them sometimes.) Also, spurred on by a couple of crazy designer friends who regaled me with tales of big earnings, I soon began to dabble with making tattoo appliers. I had a few ideas initially, and quickly was offered more ideas from friends for more. All of the tattoos were a little bawdy and adult-themed, and priced at the tongue-in-cheek pricepoint of L$69. Salacity, my store and brand, was launched with these. Why "Salacity"? I wanted a word that suggested the more adult-natured themes of the work I was doing, but I also wanted something that ...

Everyone has a story to tell, and I'm no different. My goal for this blog will be two-fold: to tell my  story, specifically the one about my years of working to build a brand of creations in the virtual world Second Life; AND, to offer reflections, thoughts, and (possibly) insights about what it's like to be a creator of content for SL. Maybe only five of you will ever read this! But some of my friends have asked that I do it, so I offer this in honor to their request. Thanks in advance for reading!