If you’re going to sell virtual products, you’ve got to market virtual products. I get a LOT of emails from various marketing groups (I have IMs set to go to emails). Most of those messages are about new products, and they get deleted immediately, because the SUBJECT LINE tells me nothing about the new product. Most inworld marketers waste the title or subject line by using it to say “New! At Mystore!” Or they say “Brand Name at Big Shopping Event” or even goofy messages like “Check notecard for the new stuff! Kiss-kiss!” What??? I have to go inworld to…
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This time. THIS TIME, I will make this stick. It’s a question of repetition, practice, and going through the available online training systematically. When I was much younger, I learned some complicated software for work from scratch by just being dogged, using it as much as possible, and repeating lessons until I had the moves memorized. As I gained skill, it became less “work” and more “play.” To this day, when I’m trying to get something done that doesn’t look possible, I tell my caller “let me play with it a little,” and I almost always succeed in getting something…
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In addition to the product update, I’ve also become aware that Spring has Sprung at last. Thanks to a truly generous promotional offer called “the Blue Bunny Hunt” 21strom, I was able to bring on the spring at the Steelhead Nature Preserve. It’s been a long, hard winter for many, so it’s a pleasure to make this parkland available for all. Later on, there will be new green and autumnal trees as well. The black-and-white Zen-looking poseballs are for tai chi. The poses are very high quality and smooth. There are chiming trees scattered around that give autumn and summer…
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The STEAM hunt is over, maybe I should pick up the gift gear, eh? In the meantime the gifts will get reboxed for sale, and so forth. Got a few new outfits, did a lot of pruning, may attend an inventory sorting party tomorrow…
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There’s treasure out there in the Steamlands waiting for you to discover it – at midnight SL time March 1, STEAM IX begins. If you start at my shop in Steelhead St Helens, the sign to the left of the doorway has the link to the beginning of the hunt and helpful information. I’m participating, although Dhughan is sitting this one out. The theme this time is “Romancing the STEAM IX” so many treasure hunters will be looking for a big heart-shaped emerald of some kind, but with a steampunk twist to the narrative. It seems like most would need…
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Here I am sitting on my first (actually second) mesh object ever, which is more than a year old. Yes, it’s that damn Kipling Rock, which I now plan to fix up and put out as a fishing seat in the pond between my store and Dhughan’s Nature Reserve. Now, finally, I can move on and make mesh stuffs, because at least I got this far in… ugh, almost TWO YEARS. I’m wearing the test-texture version of my dumb party hat, which debuts tonight at Toot Toot’s. Also wearing: my beautiful cinnamon sari by Luminous Designs. You can find it…
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This tutorial looks promising, and I like how the presenter uses a really big keystroke display: I’ve bought 2 Blender books, watched many tutorials, and still can’t retain the basics, I have to start nearly from scratch every time I try it, and then get frustrated too quickly. I’ve got a project for a friend, and I’m hoping not to have to buy full-perm templates for $L400 for sculpt or mesh. This tutorial is for mesh, but I’d prefer a squashable sculpt once we get to that point. It seems like a good starting point just to try to get…
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The last time I visited Ferd’s invaluable Phaze Demesnes website to check on a script, I noticed that he had a workflow for working with Blender for Second Life or OpenSim, but it was leading to a 404 error. It’s been updated with a checklist in several parts, which I need to read carefully to see what his process is. Mine probably has more screaming and frustrated ragequits… There are differences in standard Blender models and Second Life/OpenSim that must be taken care of. There are also several plugins and add-ons, some free, some not, that make Blender work really…
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I haven’t had very much to do with marketing groups; I belong to a Victorian shopkeepers one that’s kind of invitation only, but haven’t quite gotten my role updated to “can send notices of new products to the group” yet. But I might make myself a big fat TO-DO list on that, because last night I experienced the power of marketing to the right group of potential customers. I have set up a vendor with the (currently just two) Dinkies-sized hats at the Dinkies Village at SOMA Design School – it’s a nice little hangout with play areas, dance ball,…
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It’s been a satisfying weekend getting back into the swing of things. I’ve worked on several variations of hats, getting them loaded with textures. These 2 batches are texture change, one based on “acid burnt chiffon velvet” textures, and one based on some jewel-tone wools and crushed velvets from a different texture purchase. Both hats will have texture change hatbands, and slightly different cockade decorations. Some of the hatband textures are Art Nouveau fragments that I was playing with last spring, and some are some basic suede or exotic leather-like ones. What had partly bogged me down was how to…