Officially opened store for business in Second Life

The magic day finally arrived yesterday — after some 90+ days — when I could list my TD Scripts store as being open for business.

Virtual Storefront update
I did some more work on my TD Scripts SL storefront including a clickable sign that leads to the website and some product advertising boards and it’s now listed for the L$30/week and officially open for business.

To find TD Scripts, just do a search in world for “TD scripts” or stop on by using this SLurl.  When you rez in, if the door is closed just click on it and come on in.

Our Script School chalet located elsewhere in the same Sim (see homepage right column for SLurl) has been listed for the L$30/week for some time. Not sure how much this actually helps as I’ve never had one resident tell me that they came to our weekly Script School shows due to this listing, but without it nobody can find if they are looking via the search menu.

Employees?
Some of my next line of thinking is do I want to hire somebody to help mind the store? Or do I create a bot that stands near the desk and answers questions about the scripts (actually just one script at this time) helping with sales in my store? I like the bot idea but I think a human being would be better.  If I did use a human how would I make sure they were actually there?

One way that I thought about doing this would be to have an employee only camping chair. It would pay the employee and I would be able to determine that they were sitting there and pop in when other prospective clients enter the store and./or have my friends stop by and make sure the employee is exiting the chair and actually talking and helping out. I know some folks are very much against camping chairs but this would be one use of a camping chair that would be helpful for a store owner and merchant.

The game I am selling, TD Dice Cube, can be purchased any time 24/7 so there really isn’t an absolute need for me to be there myself or have somebody else there, but I think just as in real world, having a human there to answer questions could help with sales.

So far I’ve been underwhelmed by slexchange and slboutique sales results (only 1 sale from each). I like the stats that slexchange provides merchants but those stats indicate to me only a couple people a day stop by and that’s with a highlighted item ($299 per 30 days). I’m thinking about ponying up the L$1599 for 30 days and seeing if that improves sales results. I haven’t done enough promotion yet, but that’s the next phase.

Marketing and promotion
I heard from a new friend in SL that there is a developer show and tell session on Sunday. I am interested in attending this session to tell people about the TD Dice Cube game. I also made some custom T-Shirts that say TD Scripts on them (in white, blue and tie-die that my wife liked).

Already I created a perimter security camera that alerts me when somebody is in the store via IM so I can stop by and talk with them or give them a demo of the TD Dice Cube.

Will continue to update on this blog as my SL business progresses and I begin to add more products/services.

Wednesday grid and client update
BTW, any other Second Lifers get those Wednesday grid/client update blues? I enjoy the downtime in expectation for what new features are being added. Will this be the update that Phillip Linden hinted at on Secondcast that begins introducing HTML to the client interface?