SL Business Directory
December 09, 2009

Category: Business Reviews

Pleasant day to all the lovers of ventures and commerce, this time reporter, Vazul Neximus, will guide you through the realms of business.

Today, I was visiting the business complex of SL Business Directory, located at Shubelik 31, 43, 21.

The heights impressed me at the first glance. Their main HQ consists of a lot of floors or rather, departments; each dedicated to separate business tasks well-known to anyone in the marketing field. Now that is impressive, I thought, but the residents of Second Life have seen many luxurious buildings, palaces, even whole isles built (and fallen) within the Realm, yet many of them are nothing but a decoration, or placeholder of some great businesses in First Life; however, their Second Life offices are void all the time, and some don't even provide the means to find them in First Life. They are just left like that. They are built, paid for, and forgotten.

So the main question that emerged in my mind was, "Is this company similar to one of those mentioned above, or rather a real, thriving business within the world of Second Life"? "Is there money flowing through the company’s veins"? Well, keep reading further to find out, as Vikky Dryke, Chief Representative of SLBiz2Life, was so kind to answer these pressing questions!

About SL Business Directory

Vikky first told me about the history and goals of the company. Their firm was developed to offer the advertising solutions for Second Life business owners. At the start, (in 2007), they only had two advertising services, but now they have numerous services and tools to help advertise SL businesses of any kind, and they can also track the statistics of the advertising campaigns.

On my inquiry about how they thought about starting this specific kind of business, she told me that they were running another SL-based business at that time, one that was advertising real-life products in Second Life. It turned out, however, that SL business lacks of quality advertising networks. As they had experience developing online advertising networks, they were quick to start developing such a network, and the process was very interesting work for their team.

As every business needs important partnerships to operate successfully, my next question was about their partners and contacts, and if they developed fruitful partnerships. Vikky told me that their most important success was that their ideas and services have been accepted and used by a wide range of SL and RL companies. For example; they were collaborating with Quelle promoting their business in SL. Also, they regard it as a great success that a lot of SL-based companies trust them and run advertising campaigns worth more than USD $1,000-$2000 worth each, with them. These are indeed very serious payments for a SL business. Vikky did not forget to mention how proud they are of the companies ordering their services over and over.

During the conversation, I could not resist mentioning to her also how impressed I was with their headquarters, and I inquired about its usage. Regarding this, she told me that their HQ is intended to be used both by existing customers and new visitors who have came by searching SL advertising solutions. She also told me that they are still developing the HQ and plan to introduce more services for business owners there; like a store to sell professional business tools and gadgets.

As maintaining an office like this one surely has its costs, I asked about the revenues the SL Business Directory generates from all of this. I was told that it is comparable to the real world revenues: about 20-30%. Their business is tightly connected with thousands of SL residents, as they pay them for taking part in their in-world opportunities. "The way of increasing profits by cutting the residents earnings would be unfair, as the mission of a serious business is to make people satisfied, not squeeze out the cents from them, she said".

Obstacles, Partnerships, and Plans for the Future

Well, so we know they are making a good deal, but how they do that I guess that is what our readers would like to find out the most. Vikky was kind enough to reveal some of the obstacles they experienced at the start. In her opinion, the hardest obstacle for every business is to gain the fair name and popularity. She is convinced they've passed this obstacle already, as their advertisers constantly post positive testimonials at their website. She told me they have faced a lot of other troubles, but they were mostly technical, and fortunately, they have been solved successfully.

Now there are many ways of operating a business. One way is like the SL Business Directory has done, to start one from scratch, but there are other ways too; like partnership and collaboration. Vikky told me they offer possibilities on this field too! They allow partners to resell their services, they constantly look for new publishers, and they encourage their partners to spread a word about their services. I was curious if they offer some special tools or gadgets to further their customers goals with the campaigns; however, she told me that advertising campaigns should not require any specific objects or gadgets to be installed by the advertiser. The advertiser orders a campaign, and their work is to deliver it, track the results and provide the exhaustive statistics. In spite of this, they have developed a lot of useful devices for their own projects, but they are not ready for selling yet, since these products require at least a good documentation, thus they will start selling them once they open an in-world shop for business owners – so I learned.

It is also an important aspect from the customers perspective, if they can expect any help after purchasing a service too? Regarding this, she told me that their support level is one of the highest ones in Second Life - that's a proven fact, and several of the business owners thank support managers while writing testimonials. They try to provide 24/7 support, including weekends and holidays.

After hearing all this, I was curious about their future plans too. I learned that the major direction of their activity is to develop further advertising services and tools for business owners. "SL business is fun for a lot of business owners, so they try to make them happy, and have more fun by using simple and effective instruments, she said".

Useful Tips

So I learned a lot of important information about how they do business, but could I or other residents experience success as well in the business world of Second Life by bearable investment? Of course, that was my last and most important question. Vikky told me, that they also get a lot of questions from residents who want to start a business. In her opinion, developing a new SL business is cheap and easy; especially if you do the basic things in the right way. To help residents start an SL business, they've created a wikipedia, which is dedicated solely to SL business aspects. You can find it here along with a lot of useful information:

http://www.slbiz2life.com/business-wiki/Main_Page

After I thanked her for the interview, I left the complex with the satisfactory feeling of a day well spent and a lot of useful information learned.

[ SL Business Review ]

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