Socially|Mundane

Okay, this one's for all you avatar attachment-makers out there. Besides avoiding product art clutter, you also really need to pay attention to how your prim attachments fit your customers. Among the most frustrating thing I run across in an attachment is no-modify and worse, modifiable but still cannot be made to fit.

Business tip to maximize sales: if it's "worn" it should be "modify=yes" and "copy=yes". The massive mistake many attachment-creators make is that they design and build their prim attachments to their own shape. Unfortunately most in Second Life are 8-foot-tall Amazonian freaks. Certainly most creators create things for themselves, then choose to sell those creations. However, even for yourself it would be best to allow the most flexibility in your products.

The main issue here is with prim attachments that will not shrink small enough to fit properly - for example: a belt. The problem is in the detail, literally. The eye-hoops for example, might be made of tiny torus prims. The problem here is that the belt is created for a larger than default-sized avatar (see "freak" comment above) - and so the torus is shrunk to fit the rest of the belt - while the belt is built to fit the freak.

Because the belt is created for a larger avatar shape, and the torus prims are already shrunk to minimum size to match the scale of the belt and all are linked together, when a smaller-shaped customer tries to resize this belt built-for-freaks by shrinking it to fit their petite waist - the belt will not scale (stretch) downward because those torus prims already are at minimum size! And it's worse if the attachment is "no-modify". This can be infuriating. Trust me, I know.

And a side-note: all you creators who set your attachments to "no-modify" then place "resize" scripts into it... stop it! You are creating massive amounts of lag. Your scripts are cumbersome and slow. They suck. If you think setting your creations to "no-modify" is protecting you from "theft" - think again. Anyone with the right viewer can easily and reliably copy your stuff. So stop being part of the problem: stop using those horrendous "customize" scripts and set your "worn" attachments to "modify=yes".

As for the unshrinkable prim attachments, the best thing to do when creating them is to create them at the smallest size possible - too small for even the smallest avatar shapes. All prims can easily be scaled larger - even to ridiculous sizes as far as attachments are concerned - but there is a limit to how small they can go before you have to start implementing tricks.



Thus, by originally creating the attachment too-small to begin with, then scaling it larger to fit you, it can always be scaled back to the smaller size, allowing you and your customer the maximum flexibility and satisfaction. Agreed: many customers really don't care about that kind of detail and "how well prim attachments "fit". But there are many who do - and with a passion. It is the word-of-mouth of these "anal" experienced shoppers you want and you want it to be positive.

It is simple attention to this kind of detail and a little planning ahead that says you care about your product, you care about your customer, you care about quality.

This, dear merchant, translates into repeat business, which fosters good word-of-mouth advertising for you.

**********

Want the whole kaboodle? There is far more detail in the 'how' and 'why' in my book: Successful Business in Second Life (SBSL - Second Edition for 2009/10; 270-pages) is available at XStreet SL. The book includes both, an in-world and eReader version. There also is an  Amazon Kindle version, (you receive both: ereader and in-world versions no matter where you purchase it.)


art: SL FUG Flickr Group; Lette Ponnier