Make Freebies Make Money

Here's a simple strategy for making money out of freebies: partnering.

Partnering programs are used quite often in real world businesses to generate cross-promotional interest in consumers. Join ABC Gym, get a free tub of XYZ Yoghurt. Use your 123 credit card in our store, get a further 5% discount off your final tally. Seems simple enough.

But can partnering programs also work in Second Life? Absolutely!

And I don't just mean the sort of partnerships where two content creators team up to give away a combined freebie set.

The sort of partnering I'm talking about was illustrated recently by pose-maker Exposeur and apparel-producer Tiny Bird.

The Tiny Bird store put out a new sculptie dress called St Augustine: a sweet little piece with actual sculptie pockets. Exposeur then gave away a custom pose set for the St Augustine dress as one of its VIP Group Gifts.

Now, while your avatar can wear the Tiny Bird dress quite prettily without the need for any special poses, you can't really have the poses without the dress. For these poses to look as intended, you therefore need to pair them with the Tiny Bird dress, and unlike the poses, the dress is not a freebie. So if you want to use the poses, you have to actually go elsewhere and buy a dress! How does this make sense?

It makes great business sense. By giving away a set of custom poses designed for a specific dress from a partnering store, Exposeur has not only generated interest in the Tiny Bird store but also sales.

It's not all one-way, however, because Exposeur is also demonstrating how well they can craft poses to order, thereby creating potential future business for themselves. And they also have your subscription to their VIP Group, without which you wouldn't have the St Augustine pose set to begin with. And let's not forget that in a professional relationship, Exposeur would even have received a commission from Tiny Bird to create free poses to go with the dress.

By the way, I am not claiming that Exposeur and Tiny Bird have a professional partnering program in place, only that this example demonstrates how a partnering program can work successfully for Second Life businesses.

So if you are an SL entrepreneur, why not look around and see what sort of creative partnerships you can come up with, and together, make freebies that end up making you money?
To join Exposeur VIP Group: L$250

St Augustine dress by Tiny Bird: L$120 (usual price) or L$50 Friday Special (one colour only)

Blue Mars: SingTel City

I no longer have the time I used to for virtual world exploring, so when I do get a chance to hop onto Blue Mars, there's always a new city or two to download and check out. Welcome to SingTel City, the biggest shopping mall in Blue Mars!

It's been a month or so since SingTel City opened, but it would appear not much has been done with it since. The SingTel City build is based on the concept of a huge shopping mall, clearly with the idea of generating income through leasing out shopspace.

Australian telco Telstra BigPond did something similar with its build in Second Life, the difference being that their build was also set up as a portal into Second Life. Second Life was used as an example of what Telstra's broadband services could offer the average user, and when they arrived in Telstra Bigpond's Second Life islands, they were greeted with a build that resembled a holiday resort, with shops, mini-cinemas, pubs, clubs, beaches, and holiday and sightseeing opportunities galore.

What does the Blue Mars SingTel City have to offer the average user? Despite being Singapore's largest telco, with aggressive expansion outside Singapore, there's no mention of its Blue Mars experiment within SingTel itself.

Did they open too early? Have they plans for events to be held within Blue Mars? What exactly do they hope to achieve with their presence in Blue Mars? Time, I suppose, will have to tell.

Honey Soul Noir

And speaking of (freebie) Little Black Dresses, here's one from Honey Soul. Not as sophisticated as the piece from Azul, but some nice texturing.

Unfortunately, it's non-modifiable so you can't tweak the colour on the prims to better match the shirt texture.

• Noir Dress by Honey Soul
• Leah Hair (Claret) by DrLife
• Stella DiRoccia Skin (Tone E) by PixelDolls
• Shoes from Laqroki Freebie Dress Set
• Black Bead Necklace by Yummy
• Bracelet No. 37 Black by Edge Grafica

May Azul

Azul is not only holding a 50% sale on old stock, they're also giving away this little black number. Doesn't that skirt just look like it's made from giant velvety black rose petals?

• Dress is Azul Group Gift #1005
• Arianna Hair by Calico Ingmann Creations Group Gift (Mocha Midnight)
• Stella Di Roccia Skin by PixelDolls Group Gift (Tone E)
• Shoes from Laqroki Freebie Dress Set
• Black Bead Necklace Freebie by Yummy
• No.37 Bracelets Freebie by Edge Grafica (Black)

April In Azul

Azul makes gorgeous gowns and gives away some tasty little cocktail dresses every few weeks as Group Gifts. Well worth joining up for.

#1002	#1003	#1004

Here, my avie sports a stunning free hair from Hairy Situation to show off the Azul dresses. Those shoes are borrowed from the Laqroki set highlighted in my previous post. Also shown here are a couple of freebie poses found at Exposeur, and one by Hanana Design. Freebie fashion isn't just about clothes, you know! :)

Of the three Group Gifts I've picked up at the Azul store, #1003 is easily my favourite. I really like the subtle patterning on the dress, the frothy little skirt, and that it comes with both a white and a black top.

Nice work, Azul, and Thank You!

Freebie Fashion Laqroki Style

Laqroki has a wall of freebies, mainly hair (and mainly for girls). But there's a guy hair and clothes set, so let's try them out and see what we think of the Laqroki freebie look.

For guys, there's a free hair: Everyday in Black (in Large and Medium). The shirt and pants are decent enough, but you'll have to provide your own shoes. Freebie menswear tends towards street and gangsta so it's a nice change to have some smart casual that my guy avie can wear just about anywhere and anytime.

Hmm, and I need to find some poses where I don't perforate myself :)

For girls, the clothes set include shoes and stockings. As a party dress, it's somewhat better made than the guy's shirt, but not as versatile in use.

Worth noting, however, is that when combined with the very nice freebie avatar located elsewhere in the store, you end up with a complete package: skin, shape, eyes, hair, clothes + shoes. All free!

And unlike the guys' freebies, the girls's freebies include different colours for the hairs, and different tones for the skin.

So Thank You, Laqroki!

Nothing For Something, and Something For Nothing

It goes without saying, or should, that nothing is completely free. Everything has a price, even freebies.

But that price may not be what you think.

Content creators give away freebies for many reasons: to promote themselves, to encourage and reward customer loyalty, to share. It costs time, effort, and money to create and upload items just to give them away. Content creators are under no obligation to provide freebies; but some do, and they produce great quality freebies, too.

And, unfortunately, they get abused for it.

So if, for whatever reason, you don't like the freebie, then delete it from your inventory. Easy fix. It was a freebie, remember? Sometimes, freebies are freebies because they're unsellable, or last season's leftovers, or just plain useless. No need to make a scene or bitch about it to the creator. Certainly don't complain because you don't like the colour or can't copy, mod or transfer. You got it for free. If you don't like it, dump it, and don't shop there again. Simple.

But if you happen to pick up a great freebie, why not DM the creator or drop them a note to say how much you love it? After all, it cost you nothing to buy, and it'll cost you nothing to say Thanks. But it will help the creator to know their efforts are appreciated. Goodwill generates goodwill. Better yet, shop at their store again, and spend big. That's the best thanks a creator can get.