When starting a business, most expert and not-so-expert advisors will tell you to do a few things:

- advertise
- have events
- set up free stuff for people

And, like most people, I did just that. In this article, I will dig deeper into the pro's and contra's of these three techniques.

Advertising
Advertising is a relative cheap way of getting attention. Many people use the classifieds section when looking for something particular, so you DEFINATELY want to be present there.

Advertising starts at L$50 a week, but the more you pay, the higher you will rank. Make sure you figure out what market you are in, and what keywords people would use when looking for what you have to sell. Then do that search yourself.

You will see a list of classifieds with the price people paid for it. Pick a price you are comfortable with, to get the position in the list you like. (Note: Some people, myself include, like to check at the bottom of the list, to avoid the big money-sucking capitalists ;D ).

Once you have your ad up and running, you can check it regularly to see how many clicks your ad has generated. Use this info to finetune the ad (keywords, text, picture etc).

Advertising is a must-do when running a business.

Have events
Having events is free, but officially require someone present on scene to host it. You can post 5 events a day, which last 3 hours each maximum. Whatever you do, people will always tell you to make sure you have events, one a day or so, to generate traffic. However, when running unhosted events, there may not be very much to pursuade people to actually stay, and it MIGHT backfire if you have nothing to offer. So consider this option carefully.

I often advertise special discounted products, which I have on sale for the eventprice during the event. However, sales are not that great when nobody is around.

Set up free stuff for people

Generally louded as the best thing you can possibly do: put up free stuff to lure people in your store.

Indeed it is true that free stuff is the silver bullet when looking for traffic. I set up a freebie item in the Clean Energy NOW! Headquarters and saw traffic jump. I set up a lucky chair, and I saw traffic boom from 200 to 800 overnight. As such, it was very successfull in the aim of booming traffic.

But... sales remained at the same level.

Why?

Well, think of it: who spend time to look for freebies? Indeed, those who have no money. Who are going to buy your products? Indeed, those who do have money. By luring the freebie-searchers, you are not attracting the audience you are looking for. After all, you are not in business to give out presents, you are in business to sell.

However, in SL -contrary to real live- giving away things in Second Life does not increase your costs. So.. you should do it...?

Not necessarily: say you sell hair. You have a huge store with a lot of different hair-sets, and you offer one "hair" as a freebie. When freebies come in, and see the expensive hair you are selling with a freebie next to it, which will they choose? Indeed, the freebie. Of course, they will keep a fond memory of your shop, but will they come back when they received the freebie and are no longer bold?

So, when giving out freebies, you must always make sure it is not hurting your sales.

Another downside of giving freebies is that it attracts a lot of traffic, meaning that those shoppers who come to spend their money have less space to do their shopping. Think of it, would you rather shop in a crowded store with narrow isles, fighting your way towards a product, or would you prefer a spacious area, where you can easily get at the product you want?

So, indeed, do not use freebies if this may cause crowding, and drive out wealthy costumers.

Summarizing: giving out freebies does indeed raise traffic, but may actually hurt your sales by substituting for paid shopping and by driving away wealthy residents.

Therefore, it would be recommended to use freebies only when you feel you need more traffic, and when actual sales less important to you (during the start-up period, while gaining brand recognition). Also: if you use freebies, make sure to use the opportunity to hand out a notecard and landmark.

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