Lanie's Double Life

My first attempt to make clothing in Second Life

Here is my first attempt at making clothing!   Well, I didn't really make this - I found it for free inworld but the sleeves were messed up.  I fixed the sleeves - the straps are still a little funky but it's a pretty cute top.  I offered it for free on OnRez and SLEX yesterday and "sold" about a dozen of them already.  At least I know that people are seeing my stuff, and maybe my name will start sticking in the minds of those who "buy" my freebies. 

As soon as I complete the course at the Ivory Tower of Prims (http://ivorytowerlibrary.com/) I am planning to take Natalia Zelmanov's clothing tutorials ( http://www.mermaiddiaries.com/ ).  Clothing seems to sell pretty well in SL although there is a LOT of competition from very talented people.   

For example, here is the Nicky Ree dress that I'm lusting over and trying to resist:  Is this not the most beautiful gown you've ever seen?  It comes in other colors, too. 
I'm still working on my little tutorial on "how to create your own art in Second Life" at the risk of giving away my secrets and derailing my own tiny little business :)  I hope to have it posted tomorrow.  I'm also planning to add an "about me" and a "links" section the blog - as soon as I figure out how!

In the meantime, if you are reading this please leave me a comment.  Any kind of comment.  Just let me know you're there! 

Love, Lanie

DISCLAIMER: All opinions expressed by me are mine and may not agree with my employer or any person, company, or thing, living or dead, real or virtual, on or near this or any other planet, moon, asteroid, or other spatial or virtual location, natural or manufactured, since the beginning of time. I'm not a financial or legal expert and nothing in this blog should be construed to be financial or legal advice.

Business in a Box Update

Well, so far my business in a box venture has been a dismal failure.  I have sold ONE dress.  I need to sell at least 5 to break even.   

A few days before Valentines Day I'm going to reduce the price and try to recoup my losses.  I am not sure how to make it show up as a new item on SLEX and OnRez - I guess I'll have to delete it, rename it, and post it again. 

The good news is that my art pieces are selling fairly steadily.   Let's see, I've spent about $L300 to create the paintings and posters, and I've earned $L210 - still a loss, but steadily improving.  I try to add one new art piece every day so my name always shows up in the new item listings.

DISCLAIMER: All opinions expressed by me are mine and may not agree with my employer or any person, company, or thing, living or dead, real or virtual, on or near this or any other planet, moon, asteroid, or other spatial or virtual location, natural or manufactured, since the beginning of time. I'm not a financial or legal expert and nothing in this blog should be construed to be financial or legal advice.

Love,
Lanie

OnRez

Good morning all!  Didn't have a chance to check my SLEX Second Life Exchange sales last night, but I hope there were some. 

I did make a discovery that I'll share with you:  There's a new marketing site for Second Life, at least it's new to me!  It's called OnRez www.onrez.com/. 

I will list my items on this site as soon as I have a chance, and let you know if my sales are better on SLEX or Onrez.  I did find a few nice freebies on OnRez.  Most things that are listed on OnRez are also listed on SLEX, but I found several nice items for $L0 that were not on SLEX last time I checked. 

A few things I like better about OnRez as opposed to SLEX:

• the ability to link multiple avatars to one account
• organization/search is a bit easier to use

Things I like about SLEX as opposed to OnRez:

• MUCH faster to load.  MUCH. FASTER.
• Search is more flexible, once you learn how to use it

That's all for today folks.  I'm pretty busy with First Life today. 

If you're reading this, please leave me a comment - just so I know you're out there. 

Love,
Lanie

DISCLAIMER: All opinions expressed by me are mine and may not agree with my employer or any person, company, or thing, living or dead, real or virtual, on or near this or any other planet, moon, asteroid, or other spatial or virtual location, natural or manufactured, since the beginning of time. I'm not a financial or legal expert and nothing in this blog should be construed to be financial or legal advice. 

Business in a Box

I promised to talk about my first attempt to earn money in Second Life by camping (yuck) but FIRST I want to tell you about my LATEST attempt.  There are a lot of "business in a box" offers on Second Life Exchange.  Second Life Exchange, or SLEX, is a third-party exchange site for linden money, and goods and services that can be used in Second Life. 

A "business in a box" provides already created merchandise that the buyer can then resell.  Many of the offers look kinda sleazy and I'm wary of them.  But this one looked like a legitimate deal, so I'm going to give it a try.  The dress in the picture was the item I purchased.  It was a one-of-a-kind, so I'm now trying to sell copies of it.  The dress cost me $L800.  I first listed it at a price of $L299, but got no bites, so I reduced the price to $L195.  I need to sell 5 dresses at this price to make a profit.  I'll let you know how it goes.  I have sold one so far :)

I chose the price of $L195 because that's a price I don't mind paying for a nice outfit.  I have paid as much as $L500 for a really, really nice outfit but that's very unusual for me.  There are many clothing items that cost much more!   For instance, there's a Nicky Ree dress I am lusting after that costs $L1500.  http://designingnickyree.blogspot.com/.   But, since I'm trying to make a little money rather than spend money, I'm trying to avoid shopping for anything but freebies these days.  It's difficult to resist though! Here are some blogs about SL freebie shopping. http://fabfree.wordpress.com/ and http://secondlifefreebies.blogspot.com/

So far, I have invested $L1150 in my business, and made $L260.  I'm down $L890.  My objective is to earn $L6000 per month so that I can pay the exorbitant rent on my luxury sky home. 

My investment includes:

• the business in a box dress
• uploading 25 images
• shop rental for two weeks at $L50/week

My shop is at Miles Island owned by Balder Miles. It's a new, but really nice, shopping area and music venue with a great dance floor.  I wonder if shop rental will go up once the place gets more popular, which it surely will. 

Other topics I'd like to address:

• camping
• dancing and escorting
• art
• the ivory tower of prims
• groups
• online tutorials
• second life exchange
• finding a cheap (but nice) home
• do landlords make any money?

If you'd like to see other topics addressed here, drop me a comment.  I'm just learning, but I'll gladly try to find out about any business opportunities you are interested in.  I might be interested also!

Love,
Lanie

(still looking for a picture of Lanie to upload!)

DISCLAIMER: All opinions expressed by me are mine and may not agree with my employer or any person, company, or thing, living or dead, real or virtual, on or near this or any other planet, moon, asteroid, or other spatial or virtual location, natural or manufactured, since the beginning of time. I'm not a financial or legal expert and nothing in this blog should be construed to be financial or legal advice.