I can haz freebiez
Ana posted up a lolcat to protest against the “Freebie Culture” of Second Life. I have to agree with her – I’ve never been a huge fan of people turning up in hordes to grab a freebie, and then just leave to find their next freebie fix. To me, its extremely unsustainable and as a business owner, I refrain from giving away freebies. When I do, they’re usually emblazoned with the company logo.
Freebies are usually given away by stores to say thank you to customers who are regular visitors and spend money at the store. However, it takes one person to post the details of the freebie in a Freebie group, and suddenly dozens of people turn up to grab the freebie.
It’s unsustainable for business owners if there are thousands of high quality freebies on the grid, as it leads to a culture where a large number of users refuse to buy anything and live off freebies. If content creators aren’t making any money, then there’s no incentive to release freebies. Heck, for the times I’ve released freebies, I’ve never even gotten a single “Thank You”.
Thank you, Prad! ^^
Prad, I totally agree with you. Nice to read someone share my feelings in this subject.
Well speaking as someone who looks for freebies AND spends plenty of moolah on priced goods, .. I find that there is usually a difference in quality between paid goods and free. At stores who give away full-quality stuff I always buy other yummies. (Prime examples being silentsparrow and Evie’s Closet.) I think a happy medium is a store whose pay goods are extra-extra-fabulous, whose freebies are *merely* extra-fabulous
Some stores are so yummy that the difficulty is narrowing down what to buy. I went on a hunt the other day that took me to cioccolata and they gave me a beautiful table but while I was there I HAD to get this marvelous bookcase full of tatty old antique books. So what if I don’t have a house yet? On the other hand, (without naming names) there is a hair designer that gives away tons of hair, I went to a couple of hunts but the truth is I never wear the hair and I stopped going, because I have bought other hair that is so much more beautiful. Quality will out.
My business partner sent me this, probably because i like to make freebies
The reason however (and i AM somewhat limited in what i’m allowed to make thanks to aforementioned partner hehe) is because it pushes my creativity to a different level than standard business does. For example, recently i threw together a freebie ‘prison fotobox’ for the new horst sim, not because i had any real interest in it, but to take the opportunity to make something i usually wouldn’t get chance to, and more importantly, to make soemthing people wouldn’t spend money on anyway
Serene, I agree wholeheartedly on the difference in quality: it’s extraordinarily rare to find a freebie that matches the quality of the goods on sale in the same place. And as a creator it’s always a hard decision: you need to offer something GOOD, as your visiting card, but then it’s always tempting to sell it – because you know for sure that the vast majority of freebie-hunters won’t even bother to look at the other things you sell once they have their trophy.
I’m picky and I admit it so it’s actually rare that I pick up freebies these days, unless they are by people who – as you say – do extra-extra-fabulous stuff.
However, when you say ‘quality will out’ – do you REALLY think so? Sometimes I think people are blind… or in a hurry…. or want to support their friends, or just too inexperienced / lazy to know where to find the ‘good stuff’. I can understand newbies and no-payment-on-filers picking up badly-made stuff, but what amazes me at times is to see ‘older’ residents pay out Lindens for rubbish, possibly just because it’s 10L or even 100L (less than 30 cents) cheaper.
I guess some people just don’t place much importance on something that looks good and have other priorities in SL. I have to admit I’ve met some great people in newbie or very cheap outfits who don’t see the point on spending money on anything else (even if my fingers itch to point them to some quality stuff).
I don’t agree with your opinion. I grab freebies and still spend tons of cash on stuff. To me a freebie is a good way of getting to know a designer by trying out something before I buy more from the designer. So if you never let people try some of your work, how will they know that they like it? Especially when everything is photoshopped before it’s put on sale.
Most of the bloggers that blog outfits either get them for free to promote them or photoshop their asses off to make their blogs look good. So how can I, customer who is willing to pay for quality clothes know if the clothes I buy are any good then? By spending a lot of money (because let’s face it, we buy stuff with real money that is virtual!) to conclude that the outfit isn’t all that?
So unless you give people freebies or a demo to let them try your work (just as you can check out clothes in store before you buy them) don’t judge all the freebie grabbers all at once. I’m sure there are people who only grab freebies and nothing more but I bet theres an even bigger amount of people, like me, that simply wants to see if they like a designer before spending money.
So I would like to thank those designers who do put out freebies for their customers because they thank us for shopping with them and make us able to see their work first before buying.
I am not against freebies as a customer:
1st – this is a second life, not my first one, where I really have to eat real food, dress real outfits and spend money to purchase these indispensable items to survive in REAL LIFE – this subject (MONEY) is not something that can be separated from real life – afterall I am spending real money to dress a doll – which if you think is completely stupid – but I like it, so ok, I don’t mind.
Let’s face it there is a real life, with real needs and honestly if one thinks that real needs don’t come 1st… I am sorry for that person.
2nd – I LOVE good quality freebies and I tell people where they are from, I actually go back to that store and buy when I can and when I want to – BUT ONLY if the freebie is good.
Believe me – free items given in groups have made my mind many times to purchase new skins and other not so cheap items.
I just wanted to add a few comments to the discussion. This topic came up on this site last April and I imagine it will come up again. Things change but not very much. We do have even MORE free items and hunts now. That has been joined by discount sales (what is a sale if not a discount?), “secret sales” promoted on fashcon – LOL, store card sales etc.
This may work for some designers. It doesn’t work for me, simply because it seems so desperate. But, we all have to find our own systems and we all are “playing the game” by our own rules.
My policy for over two years has been to give away store items from the walls, items that will go on the walls, or items I would be proud to have on the walls. I can only think of one time I put out something I wouldn’t sell. I put it out for free and for fun simply not to waste it. We only hurt ourselves by giving away things that we would not happily sell in our stores.
Demo clothes are certainly one way to let people see what your goods are, but that is way too much work (and some expense) for me. I have models now which are in the store most of the time wearing whatever they want within my line. I think that works well and people can see the outfits ON someone.
So there ARE options. It does get depressing for the designers to see people come take the freebies or dollarbies and never buy anything. I still do dollarbies but I don’t change them that often and they are not mulitpieced items that cost me a lot to upload. They are usually simple garments made off of my regular templates. They are the same QUALITY, certainly, they just don’t have the same number of pieces and work involved in my normal designs. That seems to work for us all — and that’s a good thing.
It was my post back in April on this subject that Samara is referring to. It was heated and definitely dual sided and I learned a lot from it all. This seems much saner, and I am thankful for that
Meanwhile I would like to comment on some remarks by Ari and Noa.
I spend a TON of time looking for high quality freebies for my Chic at Phil’s Place blog and repost all those entries here at iheartsl. I can personally attest to some FANTASTICALLY high quality, perfect, cost you a ton of money if you had to pay for them freebies, dollarbies and lucky chair items given away each week. So I do get very upset with people who make blanket statements about the quality of “freebies”. That may have been the case a year ago; I wasn’t here. But that is not the case now.
For the most part, you can tell the “bad” freebies easily enough and just avoid them. They often have very bad photos, are the very same style dress you have seen 100 times or are from places you have already visited and know that their products aren’t that great. Sometimes these are just new designers who need more practice. Nothing wrong with them being generous in their own way.
If you don’t like the pictures of the things on the wall, chances are slim you will like the free item. DUH (wink).
Group gifts and picks prizes fall into a slightly different category and are most often of good quality.
There ARE freebies out there that will end up in your trash folder for sure. I’m not saying everything is moonlight and roses on the grid. There are also things that just aren’t to your taste. Still I think it is important to highlight our VERY GENEROUS and TALENTED content creators and that is what I try to do.
And to Noa. Yes some bloggers get free things. I do too now and then, but mostly I blog free items that I have gone out and FOUND. I try very hard not to blog something that everyone already knows about. Sometimes I can’t help myself because I am so impressed and blog it anyway — but not often. I try and find designers I don’t know as well as the ones I have become somewhat friendly with. And I NEVER blog something I think is awful or even not worthy. There are too many great things out there that deserve mention.
I don’t personally “photoshop” pics except to cut out a background area or smooth a very rough FLESH area from a pose. I do my best to make things look good using Windlight. I love photography and that is a big part of why I blog. And if you can tell someone has photoshopped something to death, you already are alerted — aren’tcha?
OK> All that’s off my chest. Things to do, places to go, cookies to bake. Keep on keepin’ on guys.
PS. Sorry. Didn’t mean for that to be bold. Must have left out an “R” in my
DANG some bloggers are given free stuff for review? *mock serious* where do I sign up for that deal *giggle* I wish. I do empathize with the freebie shopper a bit I guess … I remember the first time I forked over a few hundred lindens to upgrade the awful freebie hair. It happened because I found a high quality freebie skin at the Freebie Dungeon, and then I noticed how AWFUL the hair looked next to the skin. After that first hair purchase I was hooked. Hmm … I agree that there are more hunts these days, and more gorgeous stuff given away on the hunts, but on average many stores are still giving away stuff that I would be upset if I had paid for. I agree with Chicaeon that if you dont like the displays on the walls, don’t bother with the freebie.
HOHOHO Serene. If you count the tons of hours we blog for (at least for me) the free items we get — the “pay” is minimal (big wink). Actually, for me anyway, I like the idea that I am doing a service. Now and then I get a really wonderful gift that is both my taste and my style and I KNOW I will actually wear it again. Most of the time I am in the Last-Thing-Blogged and then it gets replaced by the next. It’s all fun and I love it, but I wouldn’t go into blogging for the “stuff”. I doubt that’s the point for many folks. Know you meant it all in fun (wink). Smiles.
have to disagree on the if the photo is bad the item will be, part of the comments, that is not always the case, many creators will say that they hate taking vendor pics and when they start out have fewer resources as well as knowledge on how to show off their work to its fullest.
I have bought items many times , where i see something in that terrible pic and take the risk and am blown away by how fantastic it looks on, same of course can be said the other way, it can look bad and be bad , but the freebie is the perfect way to realise that that creator has skills in one area that matters, the clothing, the rest will come.
xox Sasy xox
I too have to laugh at the bloggers get free items bit. Yes, I do occasionally, but I would estimate that amounts to 5 or 10% of what I blog. I get tired of hearing that over and over because it is so not true.
As to photoshopping photos to death, that’s not my style. At MDR, our goal is to get the photo in-world, including the lighting so that photoshop work is mainly cropping and maybe adjusting levels a bit.
I would say that any statement that beings most bloggers or most designers is going to be false because there is not unanimity that way.
*slips into a sugar coma from all the sweet freebies she found today at the ghostbusters hunt*