Business Owners - Dos And Don'ts - For Better Money Making

My first post for 2010 is about business. Aside from being a business owner, I'm also an active shopper in SL. And believe me, I do spend a lot monthly, cuz I got more than a dozen alts. Now being a shopper, I often see lots of the good, the bad, and the ugly, regarding business owners' store set-ups and management. These are some of the things you, as a business owner isn't suppose to or is suppose to do, so people will become returning customers. Well I hope you all read this. Ok here we go...

Don'ts

• Don't ever use those annoying group join/LM giver or wtf script that automatically pops up, once someone lands on your place. Why?
  Nobody likes it, period.
  
  I mean really... NOBODY. It's just simply ANNOYING and drives customers away. It makes you seem to be too desperate in getting members/customers (not making enough sales? wonder why?).
  People need some time (sometimes lots of it) for a place to rezz. Now if I haven't been to your store yet, and the first thing I receive are random invites/information/crap giver, WHILE I haven't got the chance yet to see your store, cuz things haven't fully rezzed yet. I will definitely leave and never return. If I like your place, I will create my own landmark. If I like your group, I will join it on my own.

• Don't ever add me (or rather anyone) to your subscription list, just because I once went to your store, probably accidentally too. I will definitely abuse report you for spamming me. If I really like your products so much, I will either join your group or your subscription list. But don't ever add me to it without me asking for it, cuz it's simply spam. Who loves spammers anyway? You?

• Don't make it difficult for your customers to find things, that they are looking for in your store. Especially if you have tons of products. Organize them well. Group them. Nobody likes to spend hours trying to find something. And not everybody has got lots of time for it too.

• Don't create your landing spot too far from your store. You might really think you have great landscaping, that everyone should see. But believe me, people come to your store to buy or check out your products, and not your landscaping.

• Don't use any copybot "quit! quit! quit!" scripts. It doesn't prevent copybotters, from doing their evil work at all. It also makes you look stupid, cuz you definitely did not inform yourself well, regarding this matter. If you also happen to have that "camping" type of script, that pops up every certain amount of time, asking for a confirmation, if you really ARE not a bot or copybotter --- stop it! Get rid of it, now! The only thing you are achieving by doing this is --> getting rid of your customers. If that's your goal... stop selling stuff!
  
  
  Here are some examples of what the latest copybotters can do, and your "quit!quit!quit!" can't do anything about it. Really scary and sad but true:

ATTENTION to all cheapskates and wannabe scammers, who are interested to use these copybot viewers or are already using them! Do you seriously feel secure, to log on with your personal or log-in details, using a viewer, which was modified by criminals? Would you do that in real life too? Like trust a criminal with your personal data? I guess not.

Don't be surprised, if you later on find your computer hacked or full of trojans, thus your personal datas (banking, email etc.) later on stolen. Never trust a modified software, especially if it's obviously created by criminals. You get what you pay for. Nuff said.

• Don't treat your customers or potential customers like criminals. Don't even make them feel that way, just because you are obviously paranoid. If someone has been standing around in your shop for a long time, perhaps even AFK, don't immediately asume, that this person is a criminal.
  
  This person might be browsing the net (e.g. XStreet SL) at the same time, or has got a very low end PC, that he/she went to eat breakfast first, while waiting for everything to rezz, thus AFK. The same goes for residents with NPIOF (no payment info on file) with a blank profile. It might be an alt.. my freebie alt perhaps.
  
  
  You never know who you're dealing with in SL, cuz people are anonymous, so it's best to always treat your customers well. Also, don't forget that we all have alts.
  
  I know the copybot matter is serious and scary, but unfortunately, we can't do anything to avoid it, since the viewer is Open Source.
  
  Oh but of course there IS one and only way to avoid copybot and get rid of your paranoia -- stop selling your creations! Or rather, stop creating! That's the only solution right now, unfortunately.

• Don't forget that MOST of your customers are business owners too. They are the ones who got loads of money, and they spend it too by buying your items. This especially applies, if you sell resource kits... logical isn't it?

• Don't just slap a random texture, perhaps with thousand repeats, to your item then sell it. It doesn't work that way. You might just be hoping for some unaware new residents, to fall for that crap.
  
  Let's be honest, anyone who explored SL for quite awhile, would have an idea, what looks good or not. If you yourself consume high quality products, then better offer the same to your customers.
  
  The same applies for resource kit users. Don't just recolor them, then throw them out in the market for a very cheap price. Just think. EVERYONE who buy those resource kits can do that too! Doing that with the purpose of making a quick buck, in spite of having no skills at all, doesn't make your business successful. Who are you trying to fool? Yourself?

• Please I beg you skin sellers, don't overdo your demos by putting lines, text etc. all over the body especially the face, so that you can hardly recognize it anymore! I know you're trying to protect your product, but you also want to sell them right?

Dos

• Mark your new products or latest releases with "new" and place them when possible, close to the landing spot. I often experience people promoting and advertising their latest releases, but then visiting their store, you have to go find it first, and walk past the other products. This sucks, especially if the store is huge with hundreds of products, you don't have much time AND the place is laggy as hell.

• Take care of your customers by responding ASAP, if your customer has got a problem or questions regarding your business, whatever it is. A happy customer is a returning customer and walking advertisement, don't ever forget that.
  
  
  Don't forget, that there are lots of competition out there, who are willing to get those businesses instead. And your customers PAY your tier or bill or whatever it is you are paying. So don't go acting like a snob, like not responding to your customer, even if you accepted his notecards already and that you are obviously online.
  
  
  I know IMs get capped, so requiring a notecard has been standard in SL to contact the seller. But if you enable IM to email, you also get the message, even if you're not online. So don't give me that crap, that you don't receive IMs.
  
  
  Thank God this bad customer service experience of the seller ignoring me, despite the IMs and notecards, only happened to me once, with Crimson Shadow aka Rezzable, creator Moxie Polano.
  
  
  Oh I even had a chat with her/him/it, regarding my accidental double purchase, shortly after it happened, and she said she will contact the owner for me, cuz she sold him her products full perm, for thousands of dollars (well she said she makes tons of money), bla bla bla...
  
  
  Nothing happened aside from her pitching me, if I were also interested to buy bla bla bla.. I can post the chatlog if needed, but it's not worth my time. I was just pissed off about this kinda crap. So I hope they got rich with my 800,- L$.

• Constantly improve your skills, whatever it is that you do. Never just sit there contented. Contentment is equals to an end to your personal development and this also applies to your real life, e.g. being contented with your salary, won't let you aim for a higher salary doesn't it?
  
  
  Just look at other products that are much better than yours. Those are your competition. Don't settle yourself to be contented with selling only for a few cents, because your product quality is not superior to others or not as good as what top designers are selling.
  
  
  Do think: what they can do, you can too! You just need to learn how to do it! Try to get to the same level, and that should be your goal.

• Stop saying "I only create and sell for fun", cuz that's what every creator is doing ---> creating for fun! Do you seriously think people will still create stuff, if they aren't enjoying it?
  
  
  But we're talking about real money here, so stop having that "just for fun" attitude, unless you give all your creations away for free, then THAT is just for fun.

• Take your business seriously, cuz once you start selling your items, you are asking for money. And when it comes to money, it gets serious. Always view it at a customer's perpective, what is it that you would want as a customer? And what not?

• Observe famous and successful designers in SL. Take them as good examples and inspirations. Observe how they manage their businesses, e.g. creating a great store layout, no auto group invite/subscription crap etc. They have store assistants, who cater to customers, cuz obviously, when your business is that huge, you wouldn't have time for that anymore. Well especially if you are constantly creating new products.

• Try to be unique as possible. I know it's quite difficult in SL, cuz everyone copies everyone else's ideas. But that shouldn't stop you.

• Create your products with lots of love and care for details, especially texturing, cuz texture IS everything in a virtual 3D world. Try to make it as realistic looking as possible. It might take you months if you don't have tons of hours to spend in SL (like me he he), but believe me... its worth the effort!

• Be aware of your misspellings and grammar when it comes to promoting and advertising your product. We live in a modern time, where Google is one of your best friends. Run a spell checker through your advertisement text first, before you throw it out there. Or if you don't speak or write English very well, ask someone (who does it well) to do it for you.
  
  
  Imagine if you are selling T-Shirts with a suppose to be "message" on it, but spelled wrong. Well I just saw someone on XSL selling one, actually giving it away for free. It's a serious protest T-shirt but the spelling on the t-shirt is wrong lol! Oh boy...
  
  
  Your ad or promo is a representation of YOU as a business person. Just observe ads or promos in RL, would you buy from a shop, if it isn't even capable to spell or write their ads correctly? It would look like a scammer wouldn't it? Well that's my impression, if I see that sort of internet shop. I definitely won't buy anything from there.
  
  
  This is important, if you want people to take your business seriously. Remember ---> we can not represent ourselves online in person, like how we look like, act, or speak. Our written text IS the only way to represent ourselves. Be it in forums, boards, ads, blogs etc.

• For your best product presentation, make clear and recognizable pictures, cuz this is the ONLY thing we can see when browsing products, unless you rezzed the item for display, which is only possible in world. Many shoppers, do use online sites, so be aware of this.

• Be aware of your image size. Too huge pictures on XStreet SL for example, are not fun to look at. Imagine scrolling down AND sideways, just to see a set of animations. Not worth looking at.

• If you edit your pictures in Photoshop or any similar program, stick to how the product really looks like when worn. Don't over edit it by eliminating product errors, that actually exist, or you will have mad customers.

• Show pictures of your product from the front and back view. Even side views if you will (good to show that seams are really lined up well on clothing). This is the only way a customer can see, what he is purchasing.

• Dark backgrounds don't work well with dark item colors, same with fonts. This also applies to light backgrounds e.g. light colors and text. Make browsing your products a pleasant experience for your customers or potential customers. Also use an easy to read font and try to stick to not more than three types, as much as possible. Don't overuse bold, italic or underline features. Less is more.
  
  Here's an example of dark background to dark product:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  This designer is one of my favorite designers at the moment, cuz their clothes texturing is just amazing! Pretty bad they do pictures too dark like this example, cuz you can't really see much of the jacket details. Look at my blog review for example, on one of their jackets here. Though it still doesn't do the jacket justice, cuz it looks even better in world, you can clearly see the details.
• Present your ad pictures so, that everyone can easily recognize what you are selling. Unnecessary props or accessories, could distract from the product itself. Remember, the product is the star of the show! So emphasize, not distract!

• I have never understood this, but if you are selling body shapes or skins, show a naked shot of the model from the front and back view. Why show a shape fully clothed? Shapes look different when wearing clothes.
  
  
  I understand you might be selling your style card also, but I guess if you have a store saying "body shapes", that's basically what people will look for and want to see, when they visit your store. You might want to change it to "body shapes and styling" if you mainly concentrate on style cards. Which isn't bad. I'm sure it's also got a market niche.
  
  
  And why cover up a skin in bikini? If I'm looking for skins, I want to see the coochie, the nipple, and ass shading, before I even try the demo. This goes especially to skin sellers on online sites.
  
  
  Skins and shapes are already categorized under "mature" so wtf? Same to skin resource kit sellers. If you don't have demos available, don't cover up those crucial parts. I wouldn't spend 8k or more on a surprise kit.

• Regarding ads and promos, write as much information about your product as necessary. This is also to avoid, unnecessary IMs, simply wanting to know how many prims, which clothing layer, or how to activate the product etc. Especially if you don't have much time for customer service. What exactly does your product do? What is included in the pack? And so on..

These are some advice I can give you mostly, from a customer's perspective, which are my own observations as a customer. One last thing that I want to add is also... be professional! Don't wash your dirty laundry in public!

Don't forget that blogs, forums, boards ARE public, which means, everybody can read them. Now if you are an asshole or anything similar as a person, keep it for yourself and don't expose it publicly, cuz it's totally unprofessional and a big turn off! Do you ever see big companies in RL doin' that? They would be stupid and vulnerable if they did, just think about it.

Now constant whining, complaining, ranting publicly won't do you any good. Especially if you let out your "true" character e.g. being an asshole or a stupid idiot. I don't think anyone would want to buy any of your products anymore... well not me for sure. Better keep that shit for yourself. People only read those posts for past time entertainment means, and they laugh at you! Yes they do! Cuz you're a clown! Don't make a fool out of yourself.There is always a solution to every problem and there are ways to solve them. Do you really want your customers to read all about your issues? Your business issues are normally "nobody's business"! Keep it that way, cuz you're just embarrassing yourself in front of the world.

If you really hate Second Life or LL so much, nobody is forcing you to stay. It is your own choice. So why not quit and get another hobby instead, like folding napkins, knitting curtains or similar exciting hobbies.

Remember, RL principles apply to SL as well, so think twice before you do or say anything. That's all for now. I'll add more by chance.

Yours
Can'Tell
C-Stylez by CanTell Mizser