Every couple of months a new topic, or one revisited, comes up that gets blogged and sends everyone into fits.  The most recent is again the Great Debate on Freebies.  Prad stirred the pot quite a bit with his post, Entitlement and loads of other bloggers have commented or written on their own blogs about it.  I’m not gonna debate the worthiness of freebies with anyone.  They have their place and use and if someone works really hard at making something and then decides to just give it away…. Well who am I to tell them they can’t or shouldn’t? 

There are many things in the SL economy that annoy me to no end but I’m not going to waste a lot of time complaining to the internet about it.  I stopped doing hunts ages ago.  If my friends are doing one and want company, sure I’ll hop my way around with them but I don’t feel compelled to continue.  I have to say though, I’ve found a few new favorite stores through these things so they aren’t all bad.  But saying that, I won’t waste hours and  hours going to hundreds of stores for stuff that I may or may not end up keeping.  Just as an aside, a list of all the participating stores in a hunt would be great because even if I don’t go on the hunt, I can always visit these stores later when they aren’t as crowded and can do some serious shopping.  Just sayin…

The problem isn’t the freebie in my mind.  The problem is the people.  The consumers who have gotten so engrossed in the ‘hunts’ that they have forgotten that these are actually stores, not just buildings holding a hunt a gift that you have to find.  The designers in an effort to improve sales or traffic or both keeping improving the free gift they give out or join more hunts.  The quality of some of the free gifts I’ve seen is just stellar so kudos to all of you for the higher standards you’ve set.  But when your freebies are so damn good, I don’t need to buy anything!  Then there are the bloggers.  I use the fashion blogs just like everyone else to see what’s new and for ideas.  No, I don’t like seeing something on every single blog and usually those items i’ll avoid.  At least for a few months anyway.   The point I’m making here is that we ALL have contributed to this feeling of "Entitlement" as Prad puts it. 

For me, freebies taught me how to build.  I took things apart, figured out how they were done and then tried to duplicate them.  Once I realized I could make a copy, well then I had to make my ‘own’.  I don’t have a store and I don’t sell anything on Xstreet but I do know how to make some stuff.  Clothing and shoes and hair escape me mainly because of the amount of photoshop time and patience and frankly skill needed that I just don’t have right now.  Right now I’m focusing on making some animations for myself.  When I’m happy with them, maybe I’ll sell them or give some away, who knows.  The fact is I learned how to do things by pulling other peoples work apart and seeing what made it work or how it was put together.  I also spent hours watching Prad build and learned sooo much from him, seeing how he puts something together.  So, the freebie served a purpose for me.

All that being said, I’ll still grab a freebie that I see that is amazing or that I just simply have to have.  To be honest though, I’d pay for these items if they weren’t free. 

Instead of everyone getting angry with each other, designer and consumer alike, or attempting to point fingers or throw the blame around, why don’t you all start the designers consortium as someone suggested in Prad’s comments.  Get together and talk about how to increase business or traffic or marketing or PR.  Talk this stuff out together, ask your customers what they think, work together rather than against each other.  Get some folks together who know how to run a successful business in SL and RL.  Come up with new ways of doing things.  This is SL, if we can fly then surely there are different ways of marketing your product.

I’ve met quite a few designers in SL and without exception they are some of the nicest people I’ve ever met.  They are also incredibly talented and busy and smart.   I’d love to see a group of them get together to sort out some of the issues with SL business. 

Look what they accomplish for RFL every year….

Imagine what they could do for the SL economy….

After reading Prad’s post this morning, and then seeing all the comments something occurs to me.  The idea of freebie’s and freebie hunters increasing is actually a selfulfilling prophesy.  Before you all flip out think about it for a minute.

Back in November ‘06 when I started in Sl there were a few *Freebie warehouses*.  And frankly the quality was well, questionnable then and horrible now.  I picked up some stuff but until I bought my first bunch of lindens and actually went shopping, I wore the same system skirt and shirt, changing the textures myself.  Ditto on the hair. 

I’m not a big freebie shopper.  Most of the time I almost feel embarrased to take one.  If I see something in a shop that’s free and looks awesome I’ll pick it up if I’ve never been to the store before.  Usually though, my freebies come from very generous friends, lucky chairs(which I don’t seek out either) and the groups I’m in.

So here’s my theory….

Store owners are constantly looking to improve traffic, boost sales etc etc.  Think about how many clothing stores there are all competing against each other.  So, you want to increase your traffic and boost your sales.  What can you do?  Here’s some options:

1.  Have a sale.  Drop the price for a week on some items.  Do it often on different things so that no one knows what will be on sale and when.

2.  Re-release retired items.  Did you see all the people at Last Call before they closed and previously retired items were re-released?  Yeah, full sim, a lot.  You may have to tweak the quality of the older items but that shouldn’t be a show stopper.

3.  Advertise Advertise Advertise.  Got a blog? Get on all the fashion blog feeds.  I read them everyday, write down what I want to see and make the rounds later.  Don’t always buy everything but I do go and look.  Sometimes I’ll even buy something that wasn’t on the blog.

4.  Have an event at the store.  Treasure hunts, live DJs, parties whatever.  Have a contest.  All these things will get people to the store.

5.  Flickr contest.  I love flickr contests.  I don’t join all of them.  Two of the ones I joined recently I even won something.   Yay me!  Ya know what happened, I ended up going to the stores, a lot.  Give a gift cert as a gift for winning and you get repeat customers.  Not only did I use up the cards, but I spent more while I was there.

6. Lucky Chair.  Put some limited edition coolness in a lucky chair.  Leave it out for a short time.  You’ll boost traffic yes.  Not sure if you’ll get people buying other stuff though.

7.  Group freebies.  Sure, send freebies out to the store group.  Make is a subscribe -O- Matic(S -O- M0 though so people don’t use up groups.  I’ll stay in a S-O-M group.

8.  Pay for an ad on search.  How much to spend is up to you.  Spend a lot, or a little, change the amount if you are running a special event.  This is probably not the best way to go, but hey, I use search so I’m sure other people are too.

So, there are 8 suggestions for store owners that don’t include the ever popular *freebie*.  Lets face it though, not every store will succeed.  It takes hard work and dedication.  Just as it does in RL.  You get what you put into it.  Work hard, maintain your integrity and stand up for what you believe is right, you’ll be a success.  It may be a more winding slightly  uphill road but when you  reach the top, you’ll be able to look back and be proud of what you’ve accomplished.

Or, you can stick out freebie after freebie and deal with the complaints from the so-called *entitled*, boost traffic but not sell anything and get more frustrated.

One other point to make….

If you put freebies out, people will expect freebies.  Stop giving them away and people will eventually be *forced* to pay for what they want.  Those that are willing to do that will stay in SL.  Those that aren’t… well…. don’t let the door hit you in the arse on the way out.

/end rant