Myths & Truths #2: Your store's in-world group

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 to build up groups with thousands of members. I don't really know how they did this—though I suspect they started during a time when group memberships weren't required for damned near everything in SL, and more people had room in their limited number of groups to sign on for a store group. If you can figure out how to grow your group to huge numbers—or even to substantial numbers of several hundred or more—then by all means, go for it.

In my estimation, the in-world store group largely went the way of the shopping district: it was once a valuable tool for expanding your store's reach, but the patterns of SL life have moved past that. That doesn't mean that having a group for your store or brand is a waste of time, but it's not something I would rank up there in the "must do" category.

The bottom line: if you can grow your group to a certain significant size, it can be a valuable tool for promotion—but most stores will struggle to achieve that milestone.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Myths vs. Truths: "Original" Mesh

Aha, so you sell "original mesh" creations? What, exactly, does that mean—"original mesh"? (This one is going to be a little longer than usual. Please bear with me!) I'm not sure I've ever encountered such an undefined mess as the so-called original mesh phenomenon in Second Life. It's something that means the world to some and nothing at all to many others.  On the face of it, it seems (at least to me) to be a pretty straightforward concept: if you claim that something is "original mesh" then you mean that you created it from scratch. You may have followed a tutorial to make some or all of it, and/or you may have based your idea on something else that you saw somewhere else. But when it came to making the mesh for the object you've made—be it clothing, furniture, decor, a fashion accessory, or even a whole avatar—you did the hard work of modeling the object using 3D software like Blender or Maya.  Some designers have a much broader definit...
Read more

Recommended sources for textures

Just as with mesh and animations, it can sometimes be overwhelming to try to find good textures for use in your creations in SL. There are a LOT of sources in-world, and sometimes you can find great textures for a bargain. On the other hand, some of these will look great on display but not work out well when tiled or used on UVs.  Finding good textures for manual texturing approaches can be very difficult at times. Some of the sources in-world and on the Marketplace are better than others. Ditto with websites and off-world sources. Below is my list of recommended sources for textures, both in-world and across the interwebs, for those who work directly with AO maps and aren't using a tool like Substance Painter. Naturally, this is not an exhaustive list of every texture source; these are the ones I've used and can recommend personally. In-World Sources Aethis Creations : GullyRivers is a very talented creator, and he offers a nice (if small-ish) selection of textures with full p...
Read more

Setting up shop

Image
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!
Read more