I decided to start doing this once a week, since its something I can do even when in a hotel room, with my laptop, which just doesn't do pictures as well as my desktop. Its to be a collection of thoughts on creating in SL, personal experiences with the whole process, and observations of what other creators seem to also have dealings with. I'm going to try and keep these on theme, so it doesn't wander all over the place, and while sometimes there might be images, they're more likely to be of upload screens, or shots from blender or similar, rather than anything artistic. This first one will be one of trying to work out some things for my own main business, Atomic Faery, but also will include some basic thoughts on the Events vs Main Stores release debate. That's something that will probably be covered in more depth later, but we'll see. So, let's begin.
Last January, myself and one of my oldest and dearest friends decided to use our real world business stuff in SL. His health wasn't all that good, so we hadn't really gotten much done physically, and I was fairly sure that at least computer stuff wasn't beyond him yet. So, we make a shop alt [the things I learned with Faerycat Designs - store alts are your friend], we start doing events and such, and then he died. There was a lot of time last year where between grief and a suddenly very busy physical world schedule that I didn't do much, and didn't even really sit down and explore my options.
Atomic Faery was our thing together. We were going to do steampunk/sci-fi meets faery jewelry originally. In SL we were advised by a very smart lady, to pick a focus point, and since at the time Steampunk was still fairly common, and Faery stuff wasn't, to go with Faery. Besides, faery can be anywhen, and anywhere; in the long run that would have probably suited us best. But its been a year, and I think during this lull I need to puzzle through things.
There are reasons to keep the same name/concept/etc., like keeping the memory going, or because rebranding is a rampaging pain in the arse[ no, seriously - it stinks]. And I've a fair number of tools I want to work with, some of which are no longer available, that are licensed to the shop alt. if I rebrand, that would mean a new shop alt, and no longer using those items. And its a decent name with a nice logo that we chose together.
But there are reasons to start over too. It feels like I'm trying to fill in the shoes of two people, not just myself. And I don't like changing the things we worked on together [like the ad boards] or even to redo the ads he did, even when it needs to be done. And sometimes it feels like, since august, the store has pulled up an SEP field. Even as a sponsor, I don't get noticed at events, and that's with some good advertising from the organizers. I went from making moderate sales, to one really spectacular month to anywhere from a trickle to nothing at all.
I am not complaining, mind you. I am a creative, I make stuff, its what I do. Not making sales might mean that I'm having to spend a bit more of the fun budget, but its not like its a matter of having food on the table or for the cats, either. If it was, I'd shrink the club and put the shop just on MP. Right now I'm trying to analyze -why- I still sell prim and sculpt based items from Faerycat Designs, more than newer mesh and material enabled items.
Some of it seems to be the Ads themselves. Changes in my photography style might be making the original ad template colour choices harder to read for folks. Maybe its the store name, maybe I'm not handling it right? Anyway, whatever it is, I want to puzzle it out sooner rather than later. Enough of this. I'm sure I'm not the only creator who worries over things like this. And I mentioned a discussion on the Events vs Main Stores release debate.
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So, there are a LOT of events in SL these days. You can't swing an undead neko without hitting one. And really, that's how creators tend to make money anymore. It has gotten to the point where there are a vocal few who will loudly complain about events, about the lowered quality of stores in events, and how we need to release in our main stores. Except...
That doesn't work. The first round of A Tattered Page proved that. I don't mean for me, since all of fall was an abysmal failure for me [see above], but for everyone else. It was done main store and marketplace only, no central location. And no one made more than a few sales, at least as far as the event people can tell. And its a real shame. I'd love to do more with my main store. I think others would too. But its just not really feasible for most of us, because events are how money is made.
As for the claims that events are causing quality to go downhill? I suspect that's more burnout that would happen if they were doing store releases. Sometimes, we all need a break. Myself? I haven't noticed this at all because of events. I've seen and gotten some amazing things from them, and I don't think its events causing a decrease in quality at all.
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