Every so often I like to impose my “this is my personal blog” rule and write some emo dribble and then impose it upon the handful of readers I have. Sorry!
***Warning, this particular flight of fancy is full of pity parties, fever induced babble, bad metaphors, general whinybuttedness, made up words, all heavily laced with OTC medication. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.***
Since I’ve been super sick I’ve had a lot of free time to sit around and ponder… ponder while in a cold medicine addled haze… but ponder nonetheless. One of the things I pondered was where I’m going with my SL shop and what exactly I want out of it. Well, of course, the answer to what I want is fame and money. Naturally right? But seriously, I really would like to have my shop pay for itself so to speak, tier and upload fees… which it has not been doing. Part of the problem lays in pricing, which I stupidly dropped recently because I caved to asshats demanding lower prices. Dumb, to be sure. Part of the problem lays in my non-existent advertising. Were it not for the kindness and awesomesaucedness of bloggers occasionally highlighting my shit, I’d never have even made a linden. And a huge part of the problem lays in my own hangups about what I do. Mod skins. MOD. I can’t get over that weird feeling that I should not be allowed to advertise what I do. That it’s somehow so much less than creating something from scratch.. which it kind of is, but still. I keep trying to tell myself that with the exception of the bodies, my skins (especially my newest ones) are very different from the original template. I think they look different than other people’s mods. And I price them ridiculously low because of guilt? Something like that. Yes it’s stupid, I know. So I fail. Nothing really new or different when thinking on it this time versus the last time I had an emo meltdown over my shop. I still fail at advertising and my skin prices are still way too dang low to ever turn an actual profit, let alone pay tier. So where does all that mumble leave me? I have a couple of options as I see it.
Option #1, leave it as is. No more new releases, no more freebies, but the shop stays up as long as I can muster to pay for it. This option blows because it’s currently what I’m doing and it sucks.
Option #2, shut down and leave town. Close the shop, sell the land, salt the earth. Dramatic! Well I’ve considered this option a few times and it has it’s merits because I’d no longer have to deal with jerks complaining and I’d no longer have the emo meltdowns about my stuff which would be a nice change of pace. But I honestly enjoy having my little shop, despite the occasional bad outweighing the good.. which creates the problem with this option.
Option #3, last ditch effort. The riskiest of all. What I’ve considered doing with this option is blowing the works. Setting aside my personal hangups. Expanding the shop because I’m almost out of prims, going whole hog. Putting my nose to the grindstone to come up with a huge release. Using a lot of metaphors. And trying my damndest to advertise the hell out of it. This option, quite frankly, scares the crap out of me because it will either succeed or blow up in my face. It’s also a lot of work and I’ll admit it, I’m effing lazy. But more importantly, I’m quite scared that it will fail and I’m not sure I want to deal with the backlash of it all.
I’d like to give a special thanks to Nyquil for the part it played in this particular moment.
I might go browse for some land just out of curiosity. But I think I’ll wait until I’m OTC medication free before making any major decisions. In fact, I should probably go take a nap.
And here’s a random picture, cause that’s what I do.
Boots by Zero Number
Fricka's Flights of Fancy 
That’s a beautiful shot, Fricka. I love the contrasts and lighting.
Oh yeah, and regarding the shop. I am too noob to offer any advice. Sorry :(
I believe we have to do something for your shop.. because A- if Mia Snow is doing so well.. why not YOU.. (I think some of those skins look very similar to yours.. but I’m not making any accusations.)
B- don’t cave into lower prices and just take your shop to the web if it has to be that way.. because you have to be THERE.. I can’t see SL without {Frick} Skins! its not functional inside my mind.. but at the same time I don’t want you to feel “commited” to having deal with this crap.. if you don’t feel comfortable.
C. you are a brilliant and original designer.. don’t just design for “cheep-os” (myself included)
D. You got to do what makes you happy.. and sometimes in the middle of things stressful, its really hard to find out just what that is..
I’m trying to make my “sl” investment back.. I can’t see having enough ambition to make tier and yet.. if you dragged me into something I would be forced to commit.. just because of how I feel and how I know other people feel about your works..
I’m sorry I haven’t noticed this until today. Be well and get better..I’m hoping for the best!
Thank you for the comment Marnix. :D
AET: Thank you, thank you, thank you for the kind words. As self serving as it sounds, I really, really needed to hear them. I’ve been rolling the whole thing over and while I’m still at a pretty good loss for a solution, I’m not ready to stop making stuff just yet. I still have a lot of ideas that I’d like to see go live. So I think I’m going to mull over it for a while and see if a solution doesn’t eventually present itself. In the meantime though, I’m going to try and sign up for a spot on the Iheartsl blog so I can at least get a bit more visibility harking my wares for now. :) Thank you so much again, I’m lucky to count you among my friends. :D
oh.. I’m really lucky to count you as one of my friends.. Fricka.. we have enough people who agree that we need to push you forward, but I understand the caution.. I will try to rally up people on your behalf as well.. Ruina and Helena may also help with the pushing you forward.. I myself well I’m not so popular but I still pack your landmark in every one of my boxes.. I mean, its only fair seeing how much you have done for ME!!
Hang on and lets see the help march in.. especially with Helena’s new inworld Magazine coming.. and her work on the Free Style blog.. WE MUST help you succeed!! BACK away from the delete button..;)
Thanks Fricka- You know you mean much to me, even though I’m probably one of the most silent friends ever, most days!
I got one idea.. just now.. XSL and packing a promotional eye box (1 linden box of 5 shades of gold, in 2 sizes) Pretty images of some of your skins, which I already own or will buy.. and naturally your landmark in with that.. Just because these things really move continously on XSL, however larger packages are not for me.. where as they move BETTER on Apez.. possibly because of the vendor, in your shop and in mine.. but mostly your location..
Prims busting at the seams? perhaps your images would look good on a modified vendor that has a display of things you in one view.. I could do the alterations since those vendors are full perm.. (they also take LESS than XSL does for commision)
WiseGuy Capra, who is one of the owners of Apez sugested that I put out a package of my eyes with a commsion rate of 20% for the reseller.. (which is something one can do in Apez to promote.) I don’t know how to do this EXACTLY, but I am considering it because other people seem to be able to sell my stuff better than I do and he said it would be great for others to get the landmarks in their hand, which is a goal for me.
I’m just thinking out loud or writing down my “brain storm” if you have any ideas we could share them and figure another way of thinking outside of the box.. ;)
Be well! :)