DISQUS

I think there are several factors that make advertising and marketing a challenge in virtual worlds.
1. The users of virtual worlds do not want to be "marketed" to. They are there to escape. Part of the escape includes a place to hide from the never ending deluge of advertisements and marketing in the real world.
2. Regarding "Why not give away a virtual radio or game console, and then charge for music or games to be played in these machines?" A. the music and/or games are copyrighted and trademarked. It is a violation to send the music without paying royalty fees. B. Why would a virtual world resident pay for music or games when they can stream them for free from the Internet?
3. Regarding "Why not make the 'revealing' of these gifts an experience, with music, animaiton et al?" Depends on the virtual world platform. In many situations, there is not enough space on the servers to host large files for music, graphics, animations, etc.
4. Regarding "Loyalty points, special event promotions, coupon redeemption are also fairly common promotional techniques." I think this used most widely in virtual worlds. In virtual worlds people join groups or guilds or congregate in one location such as a virtual world club and that is where coupons, discounts, loyalty points etc are distributed.
I think traditional advertisers and marketers have to stop trying to fit the old "square peg" ad & marketing ways into the new "round hole" of virtual worlds. The most successful entrepreneurs in virtual worlds have tossed to the side traditional ad & marketing ways and paved their own way.

Ahh but advertising DOES work that way. How do you think Dolce & Gabana sells cheap sunglasses for $500 a pair? The tabloids photograph the celebrity of the moment; said celebrity is wearing a pair of designer sunglasses-given to them as a "gift" no less. Fans of noted celebrity flock to the store to buy the designer sunglasses.

Isn't that what Oscar night is all about? Designers long to have a celebrity wear their creation down the red carpet. Why? The audience will catapult the designer into famedom.

Up and coming company wants to market its product. They just happen to make a cheap poor tasting Vodka. Company does in depth market research. They want to target a specific demographic. They choose Pdiddy to be their spokesperson. Slap an outrageous price tag on the product. Advertise to Pdiddy's fans. Stores cannot keep the Vodka on the shelves.

Perhaps I missed what you saw but John Chow did not convince me to go to the Crab Pot. In my lil blip o'the world, steamed blue crabs, oysters and clams are a specialty. I am very familiar with seafood feasts. Ok so maybe that makes me a food snob. I am more inclined to think John Chow did not have the "celebrity" status for me. Now, if Chris Brogan said I should go.....

HI Nancy!
Thank you for explaining the DISC system. I really like the way you presented the information with easy to read examples.

The DiscProfile web site even has an assessment for sales. The test is not cheap but for those in sales it may be worth the investment. http://www.discprofile.com/

Thanks again!

Congratulations Cristina!
I hope you will savor each moment. Take it slowly now so you recover emotionally and physically. If you rush the healing you prolong the process. Better to give your mind and body the time it needs so when you are ready to bounce back you can do it with a renewed energy and strength.
Again, congratulations!

@Janet Barclay perhaps this blog post by Margaret Greenberg on Positive Psychology News Daily will help. She explains the "Strengths Card Sort."
http://pos-psych.com/news/margaret-greenberg/20...

I would also like to add to the discussion here that "just because 'everyone' else belongs" to a program structured as an illegal MLM, does not make it legitimate.
Remember, there was a time in history, in the 3rd century BC, when "everyone" thought the earth was flat. http://www.theflatearthsociety.org/

Thank you for clarifying the term MLM. Your post conjured up the image of the "door to door salesman" of the old days. If a person participates in a MLM program, are they a franchise owner of TheBestProductEver company?

In your post, you said:
"I viewed the description of the Individualization theme as people who are touchy-feely emotional types — HOW could it be my first, most dominant strength? I was in such denial that I was going to buy another book for a new access code to retake the test."

My curiosity begs to ask, "did you take the strengths finder assessment while you were pregnant?" I wonder what your strengths finder assessment results would be if you took the test one year AFTER your baby was born.

If you want to do another assessment in July of 2009, I will treat you to another book!

Thank you for sharing with your community. Entrepreneurs have so many decisions to make. It is nice to have a tool, that if nothing else, helps you focus and prioritize.

How do you calculate ROI on your marketing efforts? The definition of "success" varies per individual. How do you define success?

The music and film industries are acting like spoiled children. If they cannot make a dollar off of you, they are going to punish you. "Momma! He stole my song!" Oh really? "Now, music industry, is it your song or the artist's song?"

Remember growing up? Momma said "Share with the others." If you were playing with a toy and lil SusieQ wanted it, Momma made you give it up. It was called "playing nicely." Supposedly Momma was training us to be "good" adults.

It would be mighty "adult" of the music and film industries if they learned how to "play nicely" and "share."

Part of the entertainment in my day is to try the latest and greatest. However, it is just that a part of my day. I keep the nitty gritty marketing of my business simple, tried and true.

For readers looking for existing charts and score keeping check out CJ Hayden's book "Get Clients Now." She provides you the tools you need to create a bare bones marketing plan around a score card and point tallying.

I think commenter, Susan McCall, raises an interesting point. Does a video tour help a potential buyer narrow down their selection of home/space? I would think that would be a time saver for a Realtor.

Does a video tour encourage potential buyers to personally tour a home/space? Then interactive video would be a great marketing tool. Video hot spot technology, similar to http://www.overlay.tv/, could aide in home/space sale.

What's my take? As an American, I believe in the freedom of speech. I like it when companies such as Twitter have a "we will not mediate user to user issues" policy. I chose to join the community. I choose who I follow. I have the choice to leave.

I have a Second Life. I like Linden Labs "hands off" approach. They do not participate in resident to resident issues. They have given residents all the tools they need to handle their own issues. (Yeah...yeah..yeah..I know I am going to hear flack about that one)

Why can't the edge users have a niche? Chances are if an edge user does not attract an audience they will move on. If they do become popular and it is not your cup of tea..no one is forcing you to participate.

What are the boundaries? Aren't the boundaries determined by participation? Since Twitter and Second Life are so wildly popular, self governance by community appears to be working. If the community decided they no longer enjoyed the platform and there was a mass exodus...well then the boundary was defined. The company can issue another product offering that conforms to the boundary defined by the community. Oh! I just thought of an example: The Sims Online = EALand.

Along the lines of keep a text file, you can keep an audio file. If you happen to be driving in the car, working out at the gym, etc. you could use a service such as http://jott.com for example. You call in and leave yourself a message with your idea for your next blog post. "Jott converts your voice into emails, text messages, reminders, lists and appointments."

For those of you too young to know...YES there was a time before cable. Guess What? The cable company's biggest marketing ploy was subscribers paid for television so they could avoid watching commercials. Then cable became inundated with commercials. Along came Satelite TV. Same song and dance. The VCR followed by DVR same song and dance.

Golly...remember CompuServe & Prodigy? Now that is going back a long way. The beauty of those services was the ability to exchange information without being bombarded by advertisements. You could really learn the value of a product from someone who actually used the product instead of trying to rely on the advertisement of the product for "information." When the Internet became a flood of advertisements, people escaped to social networks.

Ok so maybe my time line here is over simplified; perhaps I made some large leaps. However from my position at the keyboard, I see a trend. I am so sick and tired of advertisements I am willing to pay to be where there are none. If you offer your service for free without advertisements, I will stay. If you overload my senses with advertisements, I will leave.