Evening all! : )
Sorry this is long-winded, but please have a read, and bear with me.
For the last few weeks, I've been investigating the potential for another, and somewhat novel method of helping to promote both eBid in general, and also our own sales. (Hence my lower-than-usual presence on the Forums ).
Many of us, myself included, have now set-up MySpace and Facebook accounts to help promote our sales, and after giving these sites some serious thought, I was reminded of my first 'journey' to 'Second Life' towards the beginning of this year.
For those who haven't come across 'Second Life', it is a massive online 'virtual world' that has around 1,500,000 members worldwide, and approximately 45,000 members online at any given time. Anything that can be done in the real world, can be carried out within 'Second Life'. There are virtual concerts (by real-life musicians), and Land, Properties, Businesses and Commodities are bought and sold using ‘virtual money’ (the Linden Dollar) which can be exchanged for real money. Before anyone gets too excited, a single Linden Dollar, is virtually worthless, - the exchange rate is around $1 USD, for approximately $285 Linden Dollars (L$). Second Life is free to join, (you just download the SL Client Programme from http://secondlife.com/, create an account and log on), and L$ can be earned in various ways, though it is not essential to have much money in SL (but it helps! LOL!)
Bearing in mind that Gazza is looking for ‘alternative’ ways to advertise eBid, I am convinced there is a lot of great potential for reasonably inexpensive (and if you are crafty, free!) advertising on Second Life. Many large, real-life Corporations, have realized this potential and have set up ‘virtual’ offices in which they hold ‘virtual meetings’, and ‘chat’ and ‘interact’ in real time, as it has proven to be more cost effective than organizing real-life meetings. For example, ‘Dell’ have an island in SL, and are selling their real-life computers from their ‘virtual’ shops. IBM and other large Companies have ‘Billboard-style’ adverts. Although I’m sure FeePay must have some adverts on there somewhere, I honestly have yet to see any in all my SL travels, so if they do have some SL exposure, it seems to be limited. (‘Virtual’ land is for sale on FeePay though). One of my favourite SL haunts, is a Bar, which is sponsored by real-life ‘N*****/Coffee’, who have large adverts there. It is run/owned by two, real-life Business people. One runs a ‘Real-life to SL’ marketing Company, and by all accounts has helped many Businesses have a SL presence. There are virtual shopping malls, and a small virtual shop, can be rented for around L$150 per week in some places, (about 50p per week), with potential for 1000’s of people seeing any adverts you put in your shop. I haven’t done this so far, but it’s something I’m looking to do in the near future.
I mentioned ‘free’ advertising in SL. SL enables you to quickly and easily customise your avatar (your ‘virtual-self’). One of the very first things I did upon my return to SL, was to create an eBid T-Shirt with the phrase ‘Zero-Fee Auctions’ on the front and back, and just walk around SL wearing it. I’m guessing that I’m the first one with a ‘virtual’ eBid T-Shirt, and think it must be one of the most unusual ways to advertise eBid. It’s been quite an eye-opener, and I’ve been asked what eBid is, a number of times now. There has been interest in the site from SL'ers, especially when I’ve told them it doesn’t have listing fees!
One of the easiest ways to promote your eBid listings on SL, is to use your Avatar’s ‘Profile’, which is easily set-up, so that anyone can call it up and see whatever information you wish to share (interests etc.). What I’ve done, is put that I’m addicted to eBid.net Fee-Free Listings etc. etc., stated the sort of things I sell, and then put a link to my listings, and another one to join eBid. I’m also considering putting something like “Deduct 10% from any of my items, by quoting my SL User Name” (which can be virtually anything you choose). Another possibility, is offering a prize for anyone ‘Spotting the eBid T-Shirt’, but I’m not sure how this would work, as it’s quite easy to ‘search’ for anyone on SL.
‘Notecards’ can also be ‘given’ out with any information you want someone to have. For example, those that show an interest in eBid, could be given a ‘Notecard’ with info about eBid and your listings link on. All of this is very easy to do, and very inexpensive, it just takes a little time to set up, and with worldwide exposure, I think it’s worth the effort. You can also organise ‘virtual newsletters’ too, - though I haven’t got to grips with how you do this yet.
There are many other ways that SL could be utilised to promote eBid, and is only limited by imagination. You can take ‘virtual’ photos, (in fact one of the ways I earn L$ in SL, is as a Photographer), and these can be emailed to friends as ‘Postcards’, or with requests to join SL. The ones I’ve mailed out, all show my avatar in the eBid Shirt, so again, more promotion.
There are also ‘Groups’ on SL, in order to promote various interests. If there's enough interest, I’m intending to start an eBid group very soon, which will enable my avatar, (and anyone else who joins), to have ‘eBid Zero-Fee Auction Member’ (or similar) above the avatar, again free promotion for anyone on SL, who joins the group. The Group will be open to non-eBidders on SL too, in order to promote awareness of eBid, and hopefully pick up a few Buyers along the way. The only criteria to get the Group up and running, is that it needs a minimum of four members to be kept running, otherwise it gets closed down. There are no obligations other than simply joining the SL eBid Group at sometime. Groups enable messages to be sent quickly to all members, so it would be great for announcing new lines, discounts etc.
Second Life can be great fun in it’s own right, and I’ve met lots of interesting people over there, from all over the world. A couple of weeks ago, I even earned L$1000 in 45mins, being a Model for a Photoshoot, to promote a ‘virtual’ version of a real-life Hotel and Beach Party.
Update (15th December) re. proposed eBid Group Meeting for tomorrow. Due to the logistics involved in getting everyone online at the same time and in the same virtual location, and also 'concerns' from a Manager of the 'Bar' earlier this evening, that a few of us meeting there, and discussing eBid, could 'undermine the Bar and their own advertising', I feel that the best way to handle the eBid SL Group is to Invite members to join individually. (If you'd like to join, just let me know your SL User Name and I'll add it to the Group like that). While I fully appreciate that the 'Bar' is paid for by N*****, I simply cannot see how a few of us informally discussing an eBid Group, can be a threat to their advertising, (in fact it would be promoting 'Coffee' at some level, because we'd see the advert during the meeting). eBid and N***** are not in the same business either, so the whole thing just doesn't add up. Residents talk about many aspects of Business there, (and wear t-shirts, Group titles etc.). I suspect it has more to do with the fact that '*******************' (who handled the N*****/Coffee contract), want to deal with any eBid advertising themselves, rather than let it's users do it, inexpensively and legitimately. (Interestingly, I was also informed that the 'Bar' cost about the equivalent of £160 per month in advertising, which is split eight ways. This is comparatively small, when compared to eBid's budget.).
If anyone needs any help, with the SL Client Programme, or any aspect of this project, please let me know and I’ll be happy to help.
I’d really appreciate any feedback regarding this idea for the promotion and advertising of eBid and our listings, and welcome any ideas for fine tuning.
All the best, Simon.