The Corporate Librarian is holding back some, because he wants to get an article out of the whole experience, but some initial thoughts:
- Second Life seems to be tied to the model of “You have an office/store/some physical location you do business out of.” When posting a classified ad in-world, you have to associate it with an in-world location. Which seems curious, given a virtual world which allows for teleporting to people’s locations.
- The Corporate Librarian really needs to find a better way to advertise – after posting his classified ad he’s had 3 people teleport to his office when he wasn’t there and 1 look at his profile. No IMs (instant messages) inquiring about services or rates. The Corporate Librarian has bought a notecard giver, which gives notecards to avatars who touch the giver, and is trying it out as a business card dispenser in his office. He’ll see if this gets results.
- Starting a business would seem to be significantly cheaper in-world. The cost of an annual Factiva subscription? $69. The cost of starting a business so far in Second Life? $9.95 for a premium account (the Corporate Librarian wanted the option of buying land), plus $2 or so for the second week’s rent. All the other in-world costs (office space rental for the first week, office furniture, a notecard giver, posting a classified ad) were covered by the initial $1000 Linden stipend premium account members get for signing up.
The Corporate Librarian is going to poke around and see if there are any guides to marketing one’s business in Second Life.
Questions or comments?
Posted by Steven Kaye 
