I know that times are hard in this economy and it's beginning to affect business and profits and the like in SL. I get that a lot of people make their living from content creation and that something like this is a serious blow to real incomes, especially with the summer slump. People are looking or someone to blame and instead of blaming the economy, or the practices that helped start us off on the road to recession, in SL they blame two things. Freebie and low priced content.
I am one of these people who loves to create these two things. I started creating in SL because as far as jewellery was concerned I always ended up looking for things that just...didn't exist. So I set out to create them and in time people noticed my creations and asked if I was selling them. Because of them, I started doing just that. But from the start this has always been a hobby and I never intended to make a huge income from it - hell, even if I sold one item a day for the next ten years I probably wouldn't cover the cost of textures, sculpties, tools, scripts, animations and all that associated stuff.
So why do I do it?
Low priced stuff - Everything in my shop is 10L. Furniture, jewellery, accessories and someday, shoes. All 10L. Apparently I am the devil for doing this because I create everything to the best of my ability and put it up for cheap. As I've stated, I do this as a hobby, I don't want or need to make an income from this. But we were all newbs once too and a lot of freebie jewellery (at least when I started) was badly made, badly textured and badly adjusted. But most of all it contained one of my pet peeves - bling. I hate bling with a passion but that's a rant for another day. I set out to create a line of cheap but classy jewellery that a new person or even an alt can just come along and buy without the fear that it's resell/business in a box stuff, blinging or just horrible. And it's something I've always believed that people should not have to pay thousands just to get a necklace that doesn't bling.
Freebies - I'm a generous person by my nature and I love to give people things. That's all that needs to be said really. My free stuff is full versions of things or functional, decorative demos. For example, my Sari inspired table. The full version for 10L is scripted to change textures. The free version is not. It's still functional and works just like a regular table would. It doesn't have a giant flashing texture that says DEMO on it and it's basically just a less shiny and fancy version of the full version. People like that.
I actually find it a little funny that people blame cheap content creators for their declining sales. Mine aren't exactly great either. In fact I am very lucky if I get one sale a week. My one sale gets me 10L. Your one sale gets you 100-10,000, depending on what your business is. It might only be one sale but if money is what you care about then I'm the one losing out here. But I don't care. I will do this and continue to do it because it's fun and for no other reason. Nothing anyone can say will change the reasons why I started, and the reasons I will continue, regardless of the barriers in my way.
Saturday 25 July 2009
Thursday 9 July 2009
Why I love copy/mod - and how I dress!
You know those items you're just never seen without? The
ones that you wear all the time, and people see them and just know it's you? For me, that "must have" item is my nerd glasses from HOC. Ever since I bought them they have not been removed. But I like having my nose attachment free - I wear a lot of hats and that's normally where they attach to. There's also my trademark red hair from Gurlywood. Again, something I'm never seen without.
I love copy/mod permissions. I can see why people shy away from it when creating thanks to copybots and content thieves but those who have left their creations with these permissions, I thank you. Because of these permissions, I'm able to combine my glasses and hair and free up an attachment point for myself. Yay!
It's strange, I'm not a fashionable person in my "real" life. I pretty much wear whatever's clean which does make me wonder sometimes if I was meant to be born a man but that's a story for another day. In SL I am ridiculously obsessed with clothes. I will often spend half an hour each morning trying to figure out what to wear for the rest of the day, and sometimes I won't even stick with it for more than ten minutes. Lots of people in SL are like this, it's hardly a rare thing Zarya? So what's to love about that?
Well, perhaps it's a little bit of shameless egotism but I love the way I dress. It saddens me that with all the choices we have available on SL I still see people wandering around with the same outfits on. And that saddens me, we have an entire world of possibilities and everyone sticks to the same things. Not this girl. Although I DO get a lot of my clothes from well known names (Bare Rose and Pixeldolls come to mind) they always tend to be things that people generally relegate to the "costumes" part of their inventory. Things that shouldn't REALLY be worn in day to day Second Life.
Screw that, I say. Nothing gets you noticed like dropping into a club dressed as a scorpion, or in full ballerina garb, or even as a shiny knight or a gangster! This is our world and our imaginations. So use them! Looking like everyone else is hardly imaginative now, is it?
ones that you wear all the time, and people see them and just know it's you? For me, that "must have" item is my nerd glasses from HOC. Ever since I bought them they have not been removed. But I like having my nose attachment free - I wear a lot of hats and that's normally where they attach to. There's also my trademark red hair from Gurlywood. Again, something I'm never seen without.I love copy/mod permissions. I can see why people shy away from it when creating thanks to copybots and content thieves but those who have left their creations with these permissions, I thank you. Because of these permissions, I'm able to combine my glasses and hair and free up an attachment point for myself. Yay!
It's strange, I'm not a fashionable person in my "real" life. I pretty much wear whatever's clean which does make me wonder sometimes if I was meant to be born a man but that's a story for another day. In SL I am ridiculously obsessed with clothes. I will often spend half an hour each morning trying to figure out what to wear for the rest of the day, and sometimes I won't even stick with it for more than ten minutes. Lots of people in SL are like this, it's hardly a rare thing Zarya? So what's to love about that?
Well, perhaps it's a little bit of shameless egotism but I love the way I dress. It saddens me that with all the choices we have available on SL I still see people wandering around with the same outfits on. And that saddens me, we have an entire world of possibilities and everyone sticks to the same things. Not this girl. Although I DO get a lot of my clothes from well known names (Bare Rose and Pixeldolls come to mind) they always tend to be things that people generally relegate to the "costumes" part of their inventory. Things that shouldn't REALLY be worn in day to day Second Life.
Screw that, I say. Nothing gets you noticed like dropping into a club dressed as a scorpion, or in full ballerina garb, or even as a shiny knight or a gangster! This is our world and our imaginations. So use them! Looking like everyone else is hardly imaginative now, is it?
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