All of the money paid in-world for Classified Ads goes directly to the Lindens. That’s right, the same Lindens who break SL at least weekly in some hideous way. So WHY ON EARTH are the top ten classified ads up at around 450K now??? It’s making it really incredibly difficult for a lot of people (save the sex stores, I s’pose) to make their money back in the few days that their classified might stay up before someone outbids them by L$1, pushing their ad further down the list.
Yada yada yada, before you say, “I never look at classifieds anyway,” consider this: The people that I know that have placed ginormous ads have reported back to me that there is a SIGNIFICANT increase in their sales and traffic. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is because of the new people flooding into SL every single day. Or, gasp, people who don’t read blogs and the fashion feed. I know, I know, I was stunned too, but actually our little community is quite isolated when considering the numbers in SL.
Here are some things for these people with money to burn (apparently) to think about:
① Looking at the actual classifieds tab in the search shows me that even the people who are spending a relatively paltry 71K on classifieds are getting on the front page, in the “any category” search.
② If everyone who spent more than 100K on classifieds made a concerted effort to bring down the average price to say, around L$100K, then you could afford to advertise more often. Four weeks for the price of one! Not bad, right? Not to mention you’d have more money yourself, for sex toys and whatnot.
③ Bidding only L$1 more than the ad before you is bad form. Come on, you’re forking out $1700 now for a classified ad! Don’t be a dick and fork out an extra L$2k to get to be higher in the ranks. It’ll only cost you less than $10 USD, and let’s face it, when you’re spending that much money on an ad already, you can afford it. Sheesh, reminds me of the assholes on Price is Right, boxing in people with a dollar more.
/end rant.
by Nyte, on 06.07.08 @ 10:11 am
<3!!
“Sheesh, reminds me of the assholes on Price is Right, boxing in people with a dollar more.”
Funny you said that.
I was watching Price is Right the other day and thought the same thing!!
by Sasy Scarborough, on 06.07.08 @ 10:33 am
Ive always argued that they should be capped at 10K because it really is crazy , and often i hear people say that these people that are spending 100’s of K DONT need their money, thats kind of yucky too, some designers are so happy to make a few K a week and build up to more etc , and then when you have someone willing to spend some incredible usd amounts a week on it , well its disheartening , if you are going to spend a k or more rl money sheesh start a real website and bring in people from all over the world lol.
look at all the people that joined sl through maxim and csi and what not , you could do more for SL and your own brand that way lol
xox Sasy xox
by Phoenix Chapman, on 06.07.08 @ 10:35 am
Yeah but I can’t see Linden capping it - it’s money in their pockets, after all.
by Dove Swanson, on 06.07.08 @ 1:06 pm
It stuns me that people can afford that weekly. I mean, when you look at the ones paying out that kind of cash, you can kind of believe it - but still, good lord! If I was ever raking in that much dough on a GAME, I would so be retiring to some small island already!
This was brought up in the cafe awhile ago too…someone mentioned laundering. I kind of disagree because, again, look at who is up there paying those amounts, I can truly imagine them making a pretty penny. Who knows!
And yeah, I really really doubt they’d cap it…why would they?
The target market for classifieds truly is new people though (just like popular - oooh, if it’s on the top it must be the best! Which anyone who has been inworld for awhile knows isn’t true.). I don’t think I open the classified tab more than once a month. My own best source of advertising is word of mouth - I only really have classifieds (which I only pay minimum for) just to keep my name “on the board” so to speak.
But yeah, insanity.
by Freyja Nemeth, on 06.07.08 @ 1:51 pm
As far as I can tell, the ‘arms race’ in classifieds was really intensified when the new all search was introduced. Having your classified featured as one of the top eight on the front page of the all search makes a massive difference to visibility. As soon as you drop out of top eight there’s a very marked difference. That change to the search display has no doubt earned LL a lot of money.
by Surrealia, on 06.08.08 @ 1:21 pm
$L450k…. is $1579 usd.Thats $82,108 usd per year. If people have THAT sort of money to just toss around per week for SL classifieds, they should REALLY use that money to save entire villages of 3rd world families sleeping in nasty cardboard boxes instead. Thats… a really disturbing fact Phoenix.
by Blaze Columbia, on 06.08.08 @ 9:56 pm
I’m one of the ‘guilty ones’ who’ve paid the high prices for a classified ad. I might be one of the people Phoenix is referring to speaking with, since she works as a customer service rep at my store, but I really can’t remember if we ever discussed it.
I paid 407k lindens to have the #1 ad over this past memorial day weekend and my store was packed all weekend and had great traffic for the rest of the week even after other merchants bought ads priced higher than me. According to the stats, the ad accounted for about 500 tps to my store every day. The ad did pay for itself in increased sales, but more importantly, it widened my customer base.
So, Like it or not… it’s business and those ads produce results. Not all the new traffic is wanted as top ads also bring in griefers and sex stalkers.
It’s just one tool in my marketing plan. Blogs, Update Groups, and word of mouth are all very important. But the classifieds are one of the best ways to reach new clients who may never hear of you via the other methods. They are not for everyone. You need to have a large offering of nicely priced items that will appeal to most of the general SL population. If you look at the top ads, you’ll notice that none of them have tight niches in the market.. they offer a broad range of items that appeal mostly to new residents.
As for the price… For my real life business, I could easily spend the same amount on a one page ad in a trade magazine that targeted my market, with questionable results. Ads in local phone books can easily reach similar prices, depending on size, color, placement, etc. The cost does seem exorbitant, but in comparison to RL marketing costs and the results, it is easily justified.
There have been attempts by merchants to agree to keep the classified ad prices lower, but it’s a free market and someone will always jump in and pay more for the top spot(s). Until they become ineffective, business owners will keep paying the high prices. And when traffic rankings go away, the classified will be even more important, driving the prices even higher.
And btw, there used to be a cap… when the open priced classifieds started, you could only enter five digits in the classified price field. It wasn’t long before all the top people were paying 99,999 lindens. So LL added a digit and the cap is currently 999,999 but I’m sure they’ll add a digit if it’s needed. May we never see that day!!