Amaretto Breedables Customer Connection

The Importance of being in the Market.

Lately there has been lots of chat in the groups about markets and so today we are going to spend a bit of time talking about them.

One of the greatest pleasures of the breedable sector is wandering around the markets looking for our next greatest find for our horse herds and now K9 packs. They come in all shapes and sizes, from the small 4096sqm to 2, 3 and 4 sims large. If you click on search right now and type in “Amaretto” in the find field you will quickly discover there are lots to visit. The various markets all offer some kind of feature that will appeal to nearly every method of buying/selling our breedables: Auctions, Bid/Offer Boards, Showcase/Spotlight stands, Raffles, Stores, Pens and more! There is something out there for everyone!

Its worth a moment to recognize the amount of time, money and effort that goes into owning a market. For example the start up of a full sim market (if bought direct from linden labs) can easily run a startup bill of over 385,000 L (1500.00USD – SIM+Rental Systems+Bid Boards+ Raffle Systems+Other start up costs). This can also easily cost the owner roughly 125,000L (500USD – Tier+Staff+Other Montly Costs) monthly. Now these are just roughly the costs associated with a 1 sim market. Let us not forget the amount of time the owners/staff have to put in trying to be the best market and to keep it that way. So you can now see that its not so much to do with making millions but rather a love of running a breedable market for people like you and me to sell our breedables.

“Markets are what you make them!”

Sure we all want the markets we visit to have friendly, knowledgable and helpful owners/staff. But lets be honest … that only helps us so much! Let me explain… You show up at “Un-named Market”, you’re armed with some of your awesome breedables that you’ve worked so hard on, you rent a store, you rezz your breedables/food and you walk away expecting they are going to sell… 5 days later your awesome breedables are still sitting there and now your considering to reduce the price in efforts to try and push them. However you notice 5 doors over the person there has taken the time to really make their store “POP” and there are people there looking around and perhaps buying.. The key here is that when you rent your space in a market – This is your store front! Come up with creative ways to make your space “POP”. Its a like an awesome photo… ….Its not always so much about the subject as whats happening in the background to make the subject stand out. In this case the subject is your breedable and the background is what will make them stand out from the rest. GET CREATIVE! Afterall this is why Philip Linden (founder of Linden Labs) created Second Life. So that we could create to no end.

If you asked the owners of markets and top breeders “What makes you successful?” I can assure you they will all say something along the lines of “Word of Mouth”. There is LOADS to be said for passing information along. You are now armed with a store that really “POPS” at “Un-named Market”. The friendly owners/staff are doing their bit to push the market and bring in traffic. BUT… ….Every single market that you can find in search is reliant on “word of mouth”. I promise you that every successful seller is looking for any way they can to bring in their own traffic to their stores. They are telling their friends, passing out landmarks, they have their store easy to find in profile picks and advertising in the groups. Look at this formula …

Owner/Staff boosting the market + renters boosting their stores = Increased traffic
Increased traffic + Your eye “Popping” store + Your awesome breedables = increased sales

So you see… Markets are amazing places to sell your breedables but its equally important that you really be just as active as the owners/staff that run them…

I’m left thinking of the old saying

“Don’t wait for your ship to come in; swim out to it.” — Unknown

and

“Markets are like department stores… Each vendor in a department store spends millions and countless hours to sell you their product” — Ford Carver

Watch next week and I’ll share more stories of my experiences as a breeder.