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Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Traffic Information at the Jewel of Atlantis Shopping Centre

Traffic statistics are the life's blood for any Second Life business, however, the playing field is being evened out between businesses who pay for advertising and those who rely on traffic stats to boost their ratings.

At Atlantis Jewell Creations we are using both blending these methods to boost our traffic. On Sunday our traffic was 2, yesterday 835 and today it is 1638! We anticipate that by the end of the week our traffic will be well over 2,000. This is a good start for a new shopping centre!

Information for vendors: Atlantis Jewell Creations is beginning a major advertising campaigns with the Edge Nightclub to promote the Shopping Mall, the SL Newspaper, and SLUniverise. Please note on the side panel of this blog there is a Traffic information and the date and time of when it was updated!

Meeting My Favorite Second Life Clothing Designer

It was a normal evening in Second Life and my collar sister, Fairy Contepomi and I were discussing who we should drop note card inquiries to regarding vending with us at our new shopping center.

Sunday evening I had attended my first Relay for Life organizational meeting and since I wanted to make an impression I broke out my "Royal Elven" outfit and off I went to the meeting. Monday night, I was still wearing the outfit from Sunday night and when Fairy and I were talking of vendors and who are quality clothing designers in Second Life, I absentmindedly said, "Oh, Fairs, drop a note card to ShadoWiccan and his partner Wiccan Sojourner at Bewitched...you should have the LM." I didn't give it another thought as Papi was busy building the Shopping Centre and I was busy moving floral and fauna that my landscaper, Mello Bonetto, had used for my beach home, deciding what to retain and what to return his inventory!!

Sometime, later up pops a name on my radar, Wiccan Sojourner! I was completely stunned!! I sent an instant message to Fairy and shrieked that Ms. Sojourner was at the mall! I welcomed her to the Jewel of Atlantis and said that the buildings would be built by end of the night Tuesday night!!

She said, "Love the outfit!"

I replied, "Thanks, I love your clothes and own quite a few items!! As does my sister Fairy!" We chatted and Fairy teleported to the Shopping Centre and Ms. Wiccan said yes she would be interested in obtaining a vendor and offered me friendship.

In Real Life I was dying to ask her for her autograph!!! It definitely was an OMG; I am meeting Ms. Wiccan Sojourner moment!! Why was this? Two reasons: One I love her clothing! I own lots of Bewitched outfits, making her one of the premier icons in the Second Life Fashion industry hence, in my personal and humble opinion, a Second Life Celebrity!

Two, she and her partner ShadoWiccan were part of the very first wave of Second Life Residents and that means they came into SL when it was truly wobbly and unwieldy (trust me it still is, but much better I am sure!) and they have made our lives in SL better by creating beautiful clothing! When did they come into SL? 2004! Wow, four years old! Here I am excited that I am now 41 days from my first Rezz Day!

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Exquisite Furnishings, by Papo Lungu

It is very important in Second Life to have furniture especially if the furniture has MLP and a sex generator engine. Most anyone can slap some wood together in Second Life, but making it look good and usable is a completely different story.

Second Life resident, Papo Lungu has the talent for making it look delightfully beautiful, inviting, soft, bold, delicate, and stunning. He has beds are fit for kings and queens or Knights in Shining Armor. Chairs that look so comfortable that you just want to curl up in them and read a book; set in front of a cozy, crackling fires, in larger then life fireplaces and rugs that have beautiful designs that makes you want to run barefoot over.

The store has an eclectic collection of modern and old style furniture, and the best is still to be made and designed. This furniture store is the main vendor at the Jewel of Atlantis Shopping Centre, Crystal Cove, Second Life.

Atlantis Jewell Creations

Shortly after coming onto the mainland from Orientation Island, I met an explorer, builder, and an ambassador of good will, Mr. Shenn Coleman. His spirit of help, exploring and sharing promotes the tenets that some of the first Second Life Residents promoted and valued. Mr. Coleman is a talented artiste, builder, and is an interesting person to speak with regarding Second Life.

He helped me in the early days of my building of my Museum, and at that time gave me some lovely textures on which said: "Atlantis Jewell Creations." When he gave them to me he said, "My lovely Atlantis, go out and create." Bemused, I thanked him for the lovely textures and put them in my inventory where they would stay for over nine months.

However, recently, I have discovered how to make silks and I have been creating beautiful silks that are BDSM/Gorean collar friendly; meaning that if put on and taken off correctly the silks will never "knock" off your collar.

As a collar wearer, I know how difficult it is to dress in Second Life and depending on the outfit, you may have to forgo wearing a beautiful jacket or coat collar as they are attachments and they are either attached to your spine or chest, where your BDSM/Gorean collar is attached. Most Master's and Mistresses dislike their sub/slaves collars coming off for any reason, however this is most impossible when you are trying to guess what attachment might be attached to your chest or spine.

This dilemma and constant aggravation in regard to a "missing" collar and constant demands from my Master as to why I took off my collar, forced me to learn how to make silks, and the charge from my friend, "Go out and Create" has been realized.

At the Jewel Of Atlantis Shopping Centre, Atlantis Jewell Creations has a store that will sell silks specially made for collar wearers. One line will be for wearers who have their collars attached to their spine and the other line will be for those who wear their collars on their chests.

The line that are for chest collar wearers are being launched first as yours truly wears her collar attached to the chest. The next line of silks will be the spine collar wearers.

Atlantis Jewell Creations signature silk line are the Swirled Gemstone Silks featuring a different gemstone with complimenting silk colors and either Gold or Platinum for the breast plates, armbands, thigh and ankle bands, and earrings.

The Building of a Shopping Centre


What do you need to do in Second Life to build a shopping centre? That is the question that I have been asking myself recently and as I am now 42 days from my first Rezz Day in Second Life, I have finally figured out what I need to do to build a mall.

Over the last year, I have been learning to build, networking, reading, asking questions of residents who have been there and did that, successfully, I might add, and a light bulb came on this week and I am turning my old beach home in to a shopping centre.

The first and foremost is that you have to have land that either is yours, or you have the right to have commercial buildings on it and the Sim Owner's covenant supports business without too many restrictions.

Next you have to build the buildings or go into business with people who know how to build, or hire a builder. So what do you do? The high end builders who can erect a sim in one day commanding top Linden dollars and it is not logical for your first endeavor. That leaves finding a business partner. That can be tricky because I feel you have to get to know the person behind the Avie first and see if they are straight shooters. If you are fortunate enough to find someone who is and they happen to be builders ... all the better and if they aren't builders, ask around in Second Life there are builders who love mentoring and will take time to show you tricks of the trade, the more you build the better you become.

Then you have to find vendors. Again, this comes with networking. One business partner may know this person or that person and they are looking for a vending site for one reason or the other, however, you will definitely want to go out to the big merchants in Second Life and invite them to look at your property and invite them to vend with you.

Now comes the nitty gritty of business that remains the same either in Real Life or in my case Second Life, and that is paperwork, contracts must be drawn up laying out your rules and regulations regarding vendors, rent of your stalls, how many prim is available for rent, setting up payment boxes, and advertising.

As the owner of the shopping area, it is your responsibility to drive up traffic and bring visitors to your area!! How is this done? Advertising. In fact, this week should see Atlantis Jewell Creations launching a huge advertising campaign with the Edge Nightclub. Since I am a writer, I write advertorials for the Second Life Newspaper and some will be going out this week heralding a new shopping area with high quality vendors and vending stalls at a good reasonable price.

In addition to the advertising, you put your place of business in the Classified Ads and on your profiles and that of your business partner's profiles. Each business partner brings in certain qualities to the table, just as in Real Life, one person might have the Lindens to cover the endeavor, another might be fashion savvy and be brilliant in talking to vendors, and another might be a builder or have items they wish to sell!

Personally, I enjoy taking my Second Life and writing about it in Real Life, so you will find articles from almost all my blogs at http://www.ezine.com/ and you may be featured in one of those articles. (For your convenience, I have put the links to the side of my blogs.)