Affordable Second Life Marketing Tips

photo by Archie McPhee

Marketing does not have to break your wallet. There are several low-cost to no-cost ways to promote your products. Not all of the tips I’m listing below have the same punch, but they are all quite affordable.
 

The Easy Stuff
 
1. Your profile’s picks tab – There’s absolutely no excuse for not having your shop in your profile’s picks tab. It’s the first place people look when they are looking for your shop. It also helps to make sure your shop is the first on the list.
2. Show place in search (L$30/week) – This is a must when you have control of the land your shop resides. This is the cheapest way for people to find you when using the search button. Well worth the money.
3. Classified Ads (L$50/week) – Obviously you can spend waaaaay more than L$50 on this one. The minimal L$50 classified is a must as it at least puts you in the search results.
4. Xstreetsl.com – If you are not familiar with this website, please go create an account and setup shop. It is an extra way to sell your items online. Warning: this may create quite a bit of extra work if you have a lot of items for sale.
5. Targeted forum posts – There are places that makes sense to post about your products without spamming. If your product is a tool that solves certain problems, you can also search for keywords that may match your product. As in the case of Puppeteer, I’ll search for the terms “prim animation”.
    

   Example Forums: » New Products Forum on Xstreetsl.com » Second Life Forum under Classified

 

The Harder Stuff
 
1. Have valuable products – Sorry for beating a dead horse, but this is so important that I have to mention it again. Without a solid product, even if a lot of people know about it, they simply won’t be interested in buying it. Focus on this first before channeling too much energy on marketing.
2. Reaching out to relevant blogs – Most Second Life residences get their news from blogs. Look for relevant blogs that has a decent amount of comments per post then contact the writers. Send them your best product as a freebie. Write to them politely and honestly explaining your attempt to grab their attention in order to highlight your items. Do not spam or be rude even if they respond harshly or do not respond at all.

“For expensive products that are not easily understood, such as scripts, a demo is a must.”

3. Freebies & demos – For expensive products that are not easily understood, such as scripts, a demo is a must. The purpose of freebies is to help people know your shop exists. With that in mind, I would recommend making the freebies copyable and transferable. You’ll have much greater exposure than making it non-transferable and hoping people will come and grab it from your shop. The ones that are genuinely interested will look up the creator profile and find your shop in your picks tab anyways. (You did add it to your picks tab right?)
4. Groups/Groupless notification – It safe to say that people who’ve already bought your stuff once, are more likely to buy your stuff again. Unless you’re in the business of cheating people (such as freebie resellers), in that case, shame on you. It’s pretty important to have either a in-world group (L$100) or a groupless notification system for your customers to join. Without it, the people who’ve already liked your items may never hear about your new releases.
    

   Example of Groupless Systems (Warning: some are not cheap): » Newsletter Sender – L$500 one time purchase (full disclosure, this is my product) » hippoGROUPS – Variable monthly fee » Subscribe-o-matic – Variable monthly fee

5. Reseller kits – This is a tough one to get right. A good reseller program can be more than just good marketing but also a significant source of income. I will try to write more about this in the future. For now, I will recommend removing your store logos when making reseller kits for others to use. Help your resellers blend your products with their own. No one will use a reseller kit long if all it does is send people to your shops instead of buying it from them.

 

The stuff I haven’t tried
 
These are marketing tactics that are probably worth checking out but I cannot speak about their effectiveness from personal experience.
 
1. Submit to second life showcase – It’s a great way to get free traffic if you can get on the list. Just a normal shop probably won’t qualify. You will need an interesting hook.
2. Create events – Some friends have claimed great success running events to promote their shop. Not all events need to be hosted, i.e. scavenger hunts.
3. Snapzilla, blogHUD, Flickr – Photo sharing sites like these might also be a good way to showcase your products. The difficult part is usually getting to come to your shop after seeing the pictures.

 
Closing
 
Be mindful of your advertising methods, everything you do builds, or chips away, at your reputation. If you are the kind that spams, not only are you not being very effective you can also piss people off. I’m the kind of person that sincerely believes that there is such as thing as bad publicity. Stay away from it as it is bad for your long term growth. Good luck with your marketing endeavors.

-Todd