Second Life - Success Secrets

Second Life Teen Grid - The Dirty Secret Nobody Acknowledges...

Over at Second Life Insider there is a post by Moo Money that is talking about the economy in Teen Second Life that begins by saying

"I've previously mentioned how depressed the economy is on the Teen Grid. They create content for essentially peanuts. Their lindens cost the same as ours, but they can purchase three times the amount of items. Some innovative teens are working to change that, though.

Digital Refinery, the brainchild of Reallife Orca, is a teen-run content company with some of the finest content creators on the grid. They realized that Main Grid content companies had clients that weren't able to target their main market. Designers such as Ryan Dayton, Nikolai Althouse, and Brooke Barmy will be working with clients to show off their work.

Now that it's summer, concurrency will more than double, to a whopping 500 residents on at a time. Hopefully this will call attention to the Teen Grid and bring in more residents....."

READ MORE HERE >>>> but basically, nobody seems to know that it's impossible to sign up for a new Teen account at the moment, and believe me, I've been trying since about March 2007, on behalf of my two teens.

Countless fruitless emails and now calls to the support number given to me by a Linden in an email, but still no joy.  The UK based support team acknowledge there is a problem with ALL NEW ACCOUNT SIGNUPS for Teen Second Life, but there is no notice to this effect on the signup page.  Would be bad PR I suppose.

My daughter in frustration signed up for an adult account, but I didn't feel happy about this, and we contacted the support team, who froze her Premium account (which I'm still paying for) and said to email her scanned birth certificate to Blue (Blu?) at Linden Labs and it would be transferred to the teen grid (existing accounts can be moved apparently).

More phone calls and emails, but still no transfer.

No wonder the Teen Grid economy is depressed and they want more residents.   If nobody can join, then they wont' get any either!

Talking of Second Life Insider, there appear to be comments on posts, but I can't, for the life of me, see a "comment" link so I can make one!

Hermione's Week: Diary of a Virtual Wealth Coach

The blurring of the lines between RL and SL is getting fuzzier….Vodaphone have come up with a genius way to create brand loyalty for Vodaphone for SL even if you use a different network in RL….

“Vodafone has launched a service in beta for users of the virtual world Second Life. Vodafone InsideOut allows Second Life users to purchase in the virtual world a HUD identity, which is linked to both their Second Life avatar and their real-life mobile number. The HUD comes with a virtual handset, which is free with registration for the service. They can then make and receive calls with other Second Life users, both within the virtual world and when offline…..”

Read more here:
http://www.telecom.paper.nl/news/article.aspx?id=186622&nr=

Last weekend was the SL weekend for “Burning Life” the virtual equivalent of the “Burning Man” weekend so loved by Silicone Valley aficionados particularly the Google boys.  I’ve been fascinated by the “Burning Man” event ever since reading about it in the Google Story book.

Google and Burning Man have teamed up to bring to live a three-dimensional model of Black Rock City as it actually exists from year to year. You can find an early beta version of the project here that captures Burning Man 2006 in Google Earth format. The grand idea is to bring to life and make accessible to everyone, anywhere, any time, some of the Black Rock City experience. Digitally, people will be able to access and seem to travel down the streets (and presumably even into the portapotties) of Black Rock City…..

They might also be able to make contact with every person who settles into the virtual Burning Man world. It sounds like Second Life, Burning Man style…..The plan is, yet again, to make the Burning Man ethos, rituals, and even simulated digital experience open to all people everywhere, from a groups of 30 thousand or so in the desert, to something that millions and hundreds of millions of people worldwide can experience and learn from.

And the idea within that is to allow direct contact, immediate contact between interested people to happen. And where contact and communication happen, community forms and culture is forged and shared. And then borne anew, like spores.  Read more about this at kozinets.net/archives/56

Check out the background to the whole “Burning Man” thing at http://www.slnn.com/article/burningman-notebook/ and read the always excellent Wagner James Au’s blog at nwn.blogs.com/nwn/surreal/index.html

Hermione had a few wanders about, danced at some raves and attended the ceremony of burning the man (and several concerts scoped out by Venga) – great fun, without the burning heat and freezing nights of the Arizona desert.  She also met a guy who is organising a 1000 avatar strong New Year’s eve weekend party – amazing guy.  She put him in touch with Sands (run by the Hed Kandi boys) and the DoggLounge, two in-world clubs that play her kind of music.  We listen to the Dogglounge radio station online, in RL, as the music rocks! Except it doesn’t coz it’s dance music not rock music.  Check it out at http://www.dogglounge.com/

Hermione has now seen Venga’s real life picture (being a resourceful type he tracked her down online weeks ago!) and while it is a bit of a shock (he’s really hot!), it hasn’t put her off.  This is one SL relationship that can’t go anywhere in RL due to geographic and age constraints but it’s damn good fun in the meantime.

And it’s all offering a salutary lesson that someone’s energy can attract like minded souls, even when in a virtual world, clothed in an avatar, itself clothed in a purchased shape, skin and clothes.  Speaking only by chat boxes.  Amazing.

He’s now watched “The Secret”, joined up for “Tut’s Message From The Universe” and is working his way diligently through The Money Gym ebook.  All the while, playing her new tunes like the Foo Fighters new single (eeek! Rock music) and showing her some amazing places in Second Life.

Have fun, we ALWAYS are!

Hermione

p.s. Talking of tunes, check out H’s “Tune of the Week” by Natasha Bedingfield at http://wealthcoach.typepad.com/nicola_cairncross_wealth_/2007/10/songs-that-make.html

Real Estate Economics In SL

An interesting economic phenomena occurred in SL this week.  The builder of the apartments that the Money Gym rents out to cover our SL costs, had disappeared, before signing over ownership.  Some of the apartments are not quite perfect and so we decided to drop the rents till we could figure out what to do about that.

We have had a steady flow of tenants, in and out, over the last few months, but all 14 apartments have never been full at once, and in SL, an empty area is not attractive to avatars who crave company. 

So we dropped the rents to either L$50 or L$100 week, depending on the outlook, and the apartments filled up in two days flat.

So that shows me that our current marketing activities are fine (as is word of mouth via sister Larimar Watanabe) but that the apartments were overpriced according to what the virtual rental market will bear.

Now, as an avi departs, we are going to edge the rents up, L$50 by L$50 until we reach the emotional resistance level for these type of apartments.

And we have a waiting list which is cool.

Second Life, real life, lessons to be learned everywhere.

I “acquired” quite a lot of Linden dollars recently and have treated myself to another new skin from Insolence this time.  Much finer and prettier but a bit catlike and scary looking, we think.  We might be able to to tweak the mouth to smile a bit but see what you think.  Votes on a virtual notecard to Hermione Watanabe or give us feedback personally at The Bay. 

My, how I've evolved!  And I do love my bling!

Have fun, we always are.

Hermione

Hermione's Week: Diary of a Virtual Wealth Coach

The phone and broadband crash is holding up the lettings of the new luxury apartments in Second Life a bit.

Hermione had some "To Let" signs to put up (her first attempt at 3D Modelling, please notice!) on the windows of the new build apartments and she wanted to show her sister Larimar Watanabe around the show home, the decor of which the architect FenwayMonster Greene described as "awesome". 

Shopping in Second Life is such fun and the new man had some very helpful suggestions on where to go - saved her hours!

The realtor, Gwendolyn Fonck of Fonck Realty, has been over and had a look, and like them a lot apparently.  Hermione has been doing some research on rents for beachfront property, and is thinking between L$1000 (US$3.70) and L$1500 (US$5.55) a week, for a long term let, perhaps?  More for short term.  Difficult to tell, as property is so diverse, so we will see what Gwendolyn says. 

Hermione needs L$584 (US$2.16) a week per unit to cover the land tier fees on the three parcels (she gets her own parcel for free then) so anything over that is profit.  L$1500 per week x 8 units would bring in US$120 a month profit to spend in world on more land, new builds and SHOPPING!

Talking of virtual cash, Business Week have just published their first "Virtual World Rich List".  Douglas MacMillan reports...

"Their avatars and names are fictitious, but their bankrolls are plenty real; get to know Second Life's top earners and find out how they did it

Meet the virtual world moguls. The number of Second Life residents generating more than $5,000 in monthly income has more than quadrupled to 116 in the past year, according to San Francisco's Linden Lab, owner of Second Life.

BusinessWeek.com made a stab at finding out who's raking in the most, and how.   Virtual real estate has been the most lucrative industry from the start. The top land baron, Ailin Graef, became the first Second Life millionaire in November. Some Second Lifers are making a mint off consulting fees from the real-world corporations that are entering the virtual world. And there's a rapidly growing industry in designing clothes, accessories, and animation for avatars."

READ MORE HERE >>>>

Picture courtesy of www.SecondLifeHerald.com

Have fun, we are!

Hermione

p.s.  How's the virtual love life?  Aha, thought you would never ask....Bit slow this week due to   broadband issues, but a nice date on Sunday morning (2am Florida time) at Jade's Jazz Lounge!  Couple of email exchanges this week so it's ongoing as far as we know...

Hermione's Week: Diary of a Virtual Wealth Coach

What an amazing week in Second Life. 

Virtual Wealth Coach, Hermione Watanabe, hosted her first business networking event “SLadies Business Success Secrets” on Saturday, in the French Quarter square, which was very well attended.   Then her real life sister, Larimar Watanabe, joined her for an evening out, starting off at the Blarney Stone in the Dublin sim – always lively!

They then popped over to Manhattan Beach to see how the new build on the condo’s was going (architect is FenwayMonster Greene).  We own the parcel with the new build on, to the right in the picture, the sortof triangular parcel with the trees, and the square parcel behind, a total of around 26,000 sq metres.

The plan is 2 x 4 luxury condos on the square parcels (a unique feature is glass floors, in the living rooms, with fish and planting below swaying in the tide – how cool?), a luxury spa and pool on the triangular bit for the use of tenants, and perhaps a luxury skyhome and office above for Hermione and Larimar.

All rental enquiries, just IM (Instant Message)  Hermione Watanabe in-world.

While there, they were invited to a party later that evening, by CaptainBlackBeard Jessop and his lovely wife Star.  Their parties are legendary so that was exciting….6pm SLT / PST though…hmmm, could they stay up till 2am UK time?  Well, it was Saturday! 

We went home to the villa to change but on arrival Larimar went into the house but Hermione was caught outside by a couple of “griefers” who chanced on the private island and arrived on a magic carpet and started shooting!  What a shock.  She tried to reason with them, but no joy, so asked Larimar to teleport her inside but she was changing at the time,  so stark naked and not a little taken aback!  Hermione got inside and closed the blinds but then remembered ....

Hermione's Week - Diary Of A Virtual Wealth Coach

Hermione has been busy in Second Life. She's not only been perfecting her new look but has also secured the land deal she found, interviewed several architects and narrowed it down to two, and rented a Mediterranean villa for a month or two, until the project is finished.

"It got to the point where I couldn't keep popping back to The Money Gym office to get changed. The office across from ours had been rented out and it was embarrassing getting undressed in some very public conditions! I bought some blinds but lost them somehow while trying to install them - a common theme for me, although I have found out how to move things without spinning them into the floor and walls.

While chatting to one of my preferred architects, I mentioned that I was house hunting and he said I was welcome to rent one of the villas he's built on his biotech/pharma island for a couple of months. It's fab, completely private, with a fire pit tiki hut, a fountain grotto, with dolphins and whales and even a tame octopus just in the sea by the villa's pool.

Today I dropped by the ICT Library for Social Research. They have loads of great reports on social networking and other interesting topics about human behaviour in Multiplayer games like Second Life. I was looking for business stuff.

How did I get there? Not sure, I must have clicked a link somewhere for sure. My ADD plays up horribly in SL.

What was I supposed to be doing?

Paying Chester Orbit for the land we are buying in SL. The rental from the luxury beachfront properties FenwayMonster Greene is going to build us, on that land, will cover all ...

Hermione's Evolving....

Hermione Watanabe, Virtual Wealth Coach, is getting the hang of the whole avatar shape, skin, hair thing now....see how she's changed from newbie to supermodel....

Now how much fun is that? 

                                                                             

A Week In Second Life: Buying Land & Red Nose Day

So what's Hermione been up to this week in Second Life?

This week she's been doing some more work on the office (there's an Art Fair in the French Quarter for the next two weeks so lots of footfall - how to entice them to the second floor office?) and trying to get her head around the whole land buying / rental thing. 

Studying her 100 page guide, purchased on eBay last weekend, she first went looking for First Land, a parcel of land that Second Life allows you to buy for L$1 per square meter, only to find that this has been phased out because the less scrupulous avatars were just selling it straight on, at a profit rather than using it themselves.

So then we looked at auctions, and, finding those a bit hard to get your head around, much less being able to find any we liked the look of, we turned to Derik from Fonck Real Estate.  Derik found us the office in the French Quarter, furnished it for us and is incredibly helpful and nice.  We told him our land requirements, paid a L$600 finders fee up front, because we wanted to buy not rent (it's L$250 if you want to rent only) and flew off to view some properties.

The power of networking keeps cropping up, as the first properties we saw were on a Type 5 Server island (no lag apparently) owned by Derik's ex-boss, before he joined Gwen at Fonck Realty.  While very nice, and with a decent footfall (some parts of Second Life can seem a bit deserted especially out of US peak hours) but it was a bit too business park like, and had a nasty little housing development that reminded us rather too much of a Butlin's holiday camp.

A bit more wandering about looking at land, and Hermione starts to think "what I really want is something like Depo Consulting have, a beachside office, with waving palms, on an established island, mixed use, with houses, commercial, but not too high rise".  She wondered if she should send Marissa or Chester an IM to ask if they were thinking of selling, as they are moving to their new Business Park soon...........but thought before she did that, she would pop over to have another look, tour the island and see if there was any land for sale.

She'd only been there for a second when up popped Chester from Depo.  They got chatting and she asked him if he knew any land for sale and lo and behold, they are thinking of selling, not only the lovely plot their office is on but the one next door.  2 x 12,000 odd plots.

Some enquires about the owner, one Captain Blackbeard, who is lovely apparently, with a great wife, who throws lots of parties, and a deal was struck.  If we buy the two, we can have them for L$2.6 per square meter - this is a great price because apparently land is considered cheap at L$3 per square meter, according to my guide.

(Trying to do a deal with said publisher of guide, as it's excellent and selling via eBay, Hermione thinks there is a market via Google Adwords for this tome, and the owner has no affiliate scheme - no answer as yet)

Chester even threw in the existing office, loads of plants, free houses, furniture etc., that he had in his inventory.  That'll make for a happy Sunday morning sorting through those....

The entire time we were talking, Hermione was wearing her Red Nose T-Shirt and Red Nose, as in the UK it was Red Nose Day.

There were a few parties in the evening, kicked off by Wolf Clinton's in Shinsa Market. 

When Hermione got there, via a couple of others which were OK but not great, while dancing she was approached by a chap who asked her if she knew Nicola Cairncross. 

Of course, she replied, why do you ask?

"I've been reading her ezine for years and we had a chat on a dating site for a while" he answered.  "I live just down the road from her in Littlehampton".

How weird is that?  Second Life is huge and full of people from all over the world, but Hermione ended up at a party dancing with someone from the South Coast of England who knew Nicola.

Spooky!