Op/Ed: Skinning the Economy

By now, I think it’s been clear to all my readers that Another Shop has released full perms skins. Even more, released proper PSD source files for female skins (and one feminine male skin). After all, I’ve been wearing these skins for ages in my freebie posts.

This isn’t really about more freebies though. This post is about how this connects to the economy. Other sloggers have been bitching about free skins for a while now (Exhibit 1). I decided to stay out of it for now. Until I logged in today and I was mercilessly thrown into a group IM chat on freebie skins.

Cries like “Oh Noez! The world iz ending! I iz skinz creator & now my kidz iz starving and naked! I no more afford clothz & foodz nemore!”, were no longer a part of my vivid imagination only.

Now, of course you can use common sense and say that Second Life is just a game and that anyone trying to make a real life living out of it should get their heads checked. Just look at Second Life’s economic statistics. (Exhibit 2) Less than 1000 accounts out of 1.3 million active accounts make an income over 1000 US$ per month in Second Life. And unless you live in a third world country, this is probably the minimum you want to earn to pay your RL purely with SL income. Also, important to note is that part of those 1000 people are bankers, and we all know that’s illegal now. Then again, if people are really so idealistic to think they can make it, that’s their choice.

So what do you with those convinced they have the right to make a real life living out of Second Life? Well, you make it clear that if they want to do business, they need to know how to do that first of all.

Learn how to do business! Maybe I’m a bit biased since I am graduating my management degree in two weeks with distinction, but I truly believe that management skills can make the difference. If you know how to run your business, it shouldn’t be hurt by competition. Not even by free competition. These skinners bitching now are just as blind as the music industry has been in the past decade (Exhibits 3, 4, 5 and 6).

Now, how do you improve your business? First of all, if you didn’t study management, just use common sense. Most of the shit they teach you in college is common sense anyway. If you lack common sense and you still think you’re a great designer, outsource the business part of your store. I’m sure there’s bureaus in SL that can take care of all your marketing, branding etc for you if you give them a cut of your profits. Your choice to decide if they’re worth it. But here’s my first tips … I’m not making money off this blog, so I just wrote down whatever came up in my mind in about 5 minutes.

1. Listen to your (potential) customers. Why are they going for the free skins? Because yours are too expensive, because they just want something different, or because your skins simply suck? Each problem requires a different strategy to fix of course.
2. Improve your quality. Why do people buy a Mercedes when they could buy a Hyundai? Because Mercedes offers better quality. Believe it or not, people are still willing to pay for quality.
3. Diversify and position yourself. Sure Eloh’s skins look nice. But they still have a somewhat cartoony look. If I look at the amount of people who prefer photo-realistic skins – focus on those. Or focus on ethnic skins, sure Eloh makes one dark skin, but you can do much better in that market niche. Or focus on any other hole you can find in the market: “Your world, Your imagination“. You need a unique position in the market. If you’re the same as every other skins store, it’s no surprise your business is failing.
4. Marketing! Why do you think marketing people are some of the most overpaid assholes in the upper management world? Heck, in Belgium several of our ministers are even marketing people by education. Use the tools you’re offered. Start a blog. Hand out free copies to Second Life celebrities. If you release a whole line, pick one tone and give it away. People will see their idols using your skins, or will see how great the free tone is, and they’ll want to buy more. Though free loot is only one form of marketing. There’s many other ways to reach the same goal. Look at ETD’s or Last Call’s sale. (Exhibit 7) Sales and limited editions are brilliant marketing, just look at how these sims are constantly full. Marketing doesn’t end with buying a 30 L$ classified in the search window.

Last but not least, is one thing everyone else seems to ignore. Yes, these days a lot of people in SL are obsessed by Eloh’s skins and stopped buying commercial skins. But Second Life is a very quickly evolving and excessively vain world. Give it 2 months. By then no fashionista will still want to be seen in an Another Shop skin. Standards constantly grow higher and higher. By giving them away, Eloh’s skins will be reduced to another one of those newbie items that everyone tries to get rid of as soon as possible in exchange for something better.

At most, the people that currently run around in a newbie skin after 6 months in SL, will switch to Another Shop for the long run. And is that a bad thing? Those people didn’t spend money in the past either. And at least now their ugly selves will be slightly less ugly. All of SL will look better thanks to these free full permission skins.

So my closing words to all you skin creators out there: your faith is in your own hands. Stop blaming others for your own weakness.

~ by Daman Tenk on January 19, 2008.