Establishing an SL Presence

Hello:

I'm interested in establishing a presence in Second Life for my company. I have created my avatar and begun to explore, but I'm finding the environment to be a bit overwhelming and not as intuitive as I'd hoped.

Is it possible to set up a small presence in SL, via leasing office space or something like a kiosk, without having to expend a great deal of time and resources? If so, some pointers would be helpful.

Thanks.

David R. Strachan
Senior Managing Director
DRS Advisors, LLC

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Barry Everett on February 24, 2008 at 2:58pm: Another good VWC group is http://virtualworld.ning.com/group/SLbizNet - Meet every Saturday in SL to discuss exactly this topic...; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jack Ryker on February 25, 2008 at 12:31pm: Yes I can understand how overwhelming it is for a first time user to directly jump into Second Life. There is a high geek factor in that there are a lot of control panel buttons. And one cannot simply walk off in one direction without running into invisible barriers ( its not one big world but more like a series of web pages--islands---.....a private internet within the internet). A user cannot randomly walk into your island, they have to search for it and then teleport to it.... no different than the 2d internet. The building tools are very complicated, especially for a new 3d user ( I assume...). Then you have the exchange rate etc etc........ on a 2d webpage, there are none of these complications. The 2d webpage should just evolve into a 3d webpage.
But the best thing to do is to explore and .....chat with the people there and you will get a good sense of what Second Life is about ;); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ashish Dinkar on February 26, 2008 at 3:51am: Yes you can definitely lease some small office space in Second Life, a lot of companies do this! There are a lot of companies that provide office leases and would develop it for you. There are a whole bunch of them, check it up on http://secondlifegrid.net/gettingstarted/find_solpro . The company I work for, Indusgeeks, is also a Solution Provider. You could lease out some land from us or any other such Solution Providers.

About the environment, yes it does have a certain learning curve. Second Life has an Orientation Island, the place where you first enter Second Life, to help you acclimatize yourself with Second Life. Solution Providers could also create a custom Orientation experience for you and your company.

Please do get in touch if you need help with anything else.

Cheers!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jenn Hienrichs on February 28, 2008 at 9:03pm: David,
Please look at my company's website...we offer open source builds (an business tools) to rl companies establishing their presence in SL. You can visit us at www.cleverzebra.com. We are also preparing for a large business expo in SL in April-- see also http://www.youtube.com/user/vbusiness for a few videos about what we're up to! Look forward to seeing you in world some time!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Prokofy on February 29, 2008 at 12:12am: David,

I charge a mere $6800 Lindens and hour (about $25 US) to explain to you the basics of advertising, the land market, etc. Why such a low price? Because this is very basic stuff, and you shouldn't be paying a lot for it, any more than you should pay very much to get a few basic guidebooks and maybe a basic bus tour of a city when you visit it abroad for the first time.

You can lease space or even 16 m2 stalls in places like my plazas or boardwalks, but what's more important than approaching SL literally with a question like "where can I put out my shingle" is to understand first what you are trying to achieve, whether you are willing to spend to have people see that shingle, or whether it doesn't matter.

Prokofy Neva; ▶ Reply to This