Comments on CronoCloud Creeggan, Virtual Fashionista: SL Fashion Business/Economy/Glut/Marketing/Freebie...

hmmm... and I just made a wish list for SL designe...

2009-01-09T14:56:00.000-06:00

hmmm... and I just made a wish list for SL designers

- Ana Lutetia -

Good points, everyone. If someone designs for fun...

2008-12-29T08:23:00.000-06:00

Good points, everyone. If someone designs for fun and not money they SHOULD design.

Though I think Designers should do more field testing of stuffage and ads amongst their friends before release, that includes the big names too.

Well, if you want to make a beelion of any currenc...

2008-12-22T23:33:00.000-06:00

Well, if you want to make a beelion of any currency, you had better go to ninja school because you'll need that cutthroat training.

On the other hand, if you are having fun creating content, why not go for it? You can run a good scale SL business for less per month than it takes to buy a major concert ticket.

I wouldn't recommend that anyone try to make a living off SL - just as I wouldn't recommend that anyone make a living off a beloved hobby. But I certainly wouldn't discourage talented newcomers. You can open up a booth for about $5/month. So there's certainly no reason to throw in the towel to the Armidis of the SL world just yet.

And I think you're forgetting how many businesses that close are because the creators - talented people that they are - just got bored with it - or RL got in the way. For some, this is a living, but for most, this is a game.

Good post.. as a non creator, blogger who has a sm...

2008-12-22T10:41:00.000-06:00

Good post.. as a non creator, blogger who has a small piece of land that I rent I also try to keep my spending down....I find myself doing my best to support those creators that I really like and know. You didn't mention hunts but it seems as though, since I joined SL this aspect has really taken off to the point where I just cannot do them any more. There are too many. I rarely do freebies and lucky chairs also consume too much time!

I almost never care for freebies. I've never seen ...

2008-12-22T10:18:00.000-06:00

I almost never care for freebies. I've never seen any that I would really love to wear, and I prefer to spend my time with roleplay instead of camping for lucky chairs.

But I read fashion blogs, and if I see something adorable, I buy it. And I don't think that SL has a saturation problem, since saturation does not result from "not enough buyers", saturation results from "not enough choice / already have all I want".

Just a few week ago I was in Prague, and while I looked at all the gorgeous amber jewelry there, I wondered why no SL designer is doing anything like that. That's just one example for the plenty of opportunities a new designer (or any of the existing ones) could take advantage of.

And many designers simply fail at marketing. I can't count the number of times I've left a shop without buying anything because the ads sucked, or because the vendors did not tell the permissions and layers for a dress.

Layering options (more precisely, lack thereof) are also a severe case of "fail at marketing". That is, even if the vendor is graceful enough to tell them, they're quite often the wrong ones. Seriously, who wants to wear the corsage on the jacket layer? And contrary, if the underwear is only on the underwear layer, where do I put a tattoo?