tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2034111319181664677.post3214636845532138562..comments2023-10-06T08:06:02.527-07:00Comments on Socially|Mundane: Making Money Golden RuleAri Blackthorne™http://www.blogger.com/profile/02558174810554904434noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2034111319181664677.post-446140134370506352010-01-17T18:27:28.285-08:002010-01-17T18:27:28.285-08:00@WolfgangIt's okay to sell the product directl...@Wolfgang<br><br>It's okay to sell the product directly in a campaign - but it's a hard sell; especially if it is a prim object.<br><br>Why a hard sell? Because like most solicitors that come to your door selling something, it's an interruption. Even if I am interested in the product, I'l not really willing to buy until I can learn more about it - on my terms at my convenience. I have to be in the "buying mood".<br><br>A campaign that sells the visit will work better because it attempts to get me into the buying mood as opposed to attempting to get me to just spend my money.<br><br>Generate curiosity that's the key. I cannot count how many times someone's advert in world or even on Xstreet SL had generated enough curiosity to visit their in-world location - even though I wasn't entirely sold on the product they were pitching. However, perusing their creations as a whole - I've found myself purchasing *other* items - and big ticket ones, too.<br><br>How does this work? The curiosity put me into the buying mood. I visited, saw all their stuff - got a feel for their creativity and over-all quality. Even though I was on the fence about the one product, something else caught my eye.<br><br>I am for selling the visit, not the product. When you are visiting, you are more likely to purchase something - even if you mean to do it later. You are in a buying mood. When you are in my retail space, now is the time to show you my product and try to convince you to buy.<br><br>It means you already are curious or even interested in the *genre* of product I am selling. Thus, you are a *qualified* customer. It makes no sense for me to attempt boosting my traffic if 90% of them have no interest in buying thrones (in my case) - so traffic means nothing to me.<br><br>What means a lot to me is to be sure those who are looking for a throne, see me and know I exist. So: marketing is "Thrones! Come see more at my shop!" - Rather than "Throne, Chair, Seat, Ruler, Roleplay, Role Play, Castle, Medieval".<br><br>See my point?<br><br>I strongly recommend pushing the visit - even for clothing and "attire" items like hair and skin, etcetera.<br><br>:)Ⓟ Ari Blackthorne™http://AriBlackthorne.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2034111319181664677.post-16273767597528346532009-08-17T04:04:28.000-07:002009-08-17T04:04:28.000-07:00"Traffic means nothing."Doesn't the ..."Traffic means nothing."<br><br>Doesn't the search engine sort by traffic? Higher traffic would lead to higher listing in search and thus more likely to be visited? Sure, a dedicated shopper may ignore the numbers. However, if your traffic is single digits it's unlikely a customer is going to reach page thirty or so on search before they find something they want somewhere else.<br><br>I dunno, though. Has Linden Lab removed that?<br><br>Once upon a time, I did use traffic as a metric when shopping, based on the 'million ants' theory. Then I realized: bots. Either that, or they would have freebies on site (attracting all the new guys on the block). Or it would simply be frequented due to the fact of being among the top in search in a bizarre network effect. I make it a point nowadays to go through search down to page ten or so, bookmark the places close to what I want, and teleport between them until I settle on it. Or not. Whichever.Anna Tsiolkovskynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2034111319181664677.post-53254151524258259652009-08-17T05:05:57.000-07:002009-08-17T05:05:57.000-07:00A good comment, Anna...Yes, the search results are...A good comment, Anna...<br><br>Yes, the search results are sorted by traffic - except in the "All" category. There it is sorted by relevance. Since the Google appliance is used to handle the Second Life indexing and search result-generation, it becomes important to understand a bit how Google returns it's results.<br><br>By placing an actual description of your parcel or product or whatever, you gain far more "points" for "relativity" than you do with a comma-delimited list of fragmented keywords.<br><br>The issue is with those people who feel they must appear at the *top* of the results list, when in reality you only need appear in the first page. Experienced shoppers who have to do a lot of grid-hopping to find what they seek know to start at the bottom of the first page and work their way up (fewer bots, and thus less laggy rezzing that way.)<br><br>So consider this: your classified/parcel description contains an actual description - the shopper starts top or bottom on the list and for each result they click they see a pile of fragmented keywords (no actual descriptions) - then they see your listing which *does* actually have a description.<br><br>This is a refreshing change. Likelihood they will visit your place is exponentially higher - just on this refreshing change alone. We all hate the rezzing process, especially if we know a sim is infested with bots, campers or some club event. When we shop by grid-hopping, we hate landing in a place that takes forever to rez and then not finding what we are looking for.<br><br>Thus the key is psychological: give people an actual *reason* to visit you. A keyword list is just "spam" no matter how you look at it, and whether we actually think on it or not, we all subconsciously know that a "description" full of nothing but keywords is only designed to appear in search results. So why bother actually going there when all they are trying to do is appear in our search and they likely don;t have what we look for? It becomes a "should I or shouldn't I" actually TP there and endure the rezzing process.<br><br>Personally, I want *quality* customers, not "quantity" customers. The quality customers are the ones who actually spend. And so, I will work hard to cater to them and make it easy as possible for them to visit me and buy from me. And I begin with clear description of what I sell - in my classified advert and parcel description so there is no doubt' If you seek a throne, I know very well you *will* come visit me.Ⓟ Ari Blackthorne™http://AriBlackthorne.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2034111319181664677.post-67411383491581084862009-08-21T20:26:50.000-07:002009-08-21T20:26:50.000-07:00Hello Ari,Excellent article. We are having an SL s...Hello Ari,<br><br>Excellent article. We are having an SL shop with Virtual World Analytics products, and are actually low on traffic, but with a relatively high sell/traffic rate. We were thinking of boosting traffic by better keywords, and the rest would follow, but confirmed in your article, that might not have the desired effect.<br>We started working on a campaigning tool instead, meaning capturing data on the avatars that visit our shop, and how long they stay and so on, and then later do a more focused outbound campaign.<br>Do you have any thoughts on that? Meaning, should a campaign also sell the visit vs the product?<br><br>kind regards, Wolfgang SzondiWolfgang Szondihttp://www.metaverse-business.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2034111319181664677.post-85258788478398327712009-08-22T02:51:32.000-07:002009-08-22T02:51:32.000-07:00@WolfgangIt's okay to sell the product directl...@Wolfgang<br><br>It's okay to sell the product directly in a campaign - but it's a hard sell; especially if it is a prim object.<br><br>Why a hard sell? Because like most solicitors that come to your door selling something, it's an interruption. Even if I am interested in the product, I'l not really willing to buy until I can learn more about it - on my terms at my convenience. I have to be in the "buying mood".<br><br>A campaign that sells the visit will work better because it attempts to get me into the buying mood as opposed to attempting to get me to just spend my money.<br><br>Generate curiosity that's the key. I cannot count how many times someone's advert in world or even on Xstreet SL had generated enough curiosity to visit their in-world location - even though I wasn't entirely sold on the product they were pitching. However, perusing their creations as a whole - I've found myself purchasing *other* items - and big ticket ones, too.<br><br>How does this work? The curiosity put me into the buying mood. I visited, saw all their stuff - got a feel for their creativity and over-all quality. Even though I was on the fence about the one product, something else caught my eye.<br><br>I am for selling the visit, not the product. When you are visiting, you are more likely to purchase something - even if you mean to do it later. You are in a buying mood. When you are in my retail space, now is the time to show you my product and try to convince you to buy.<br><br>It means you already are curious or even interested in the *genre* of product I am selling. Thus, you are a *qualified* customer. It makes no sense for me to attempt boosting my traffic if 90% of them have no interest in buying thrones (in my case) - so traffic means nothing to me.<br><br>What means a lot to me is to be sure those who are looking for a throne, see me and know I exist. So: marketing is "Thrones! Come see more at my shop!" - Rather than "Throne, Chair, Seat, Ruler, Roleplay, Role Play, Castle, Medieval".<br><br>See my point?<br><br>I strongly recommend pushing the visit - even for clothing and "attire" items like hair and skin, etcetera.<br><br>:)Ⓟ Ari Blackthorne™http://AriBlackthorne.com/noreply@blogger.com