The freebie explosion! Pretty much every store in SL has a freebie, there are hunts on every month. A few years ago you could only get really poor freebies in certain places, or go to the Gnubie store or the Free Dove to kit yourself out on the free/cheap.
There’s been lot’s of talking (whining) and discussion (hysteria) about freebies, and freebie culture for some time. I have been thinking about it myself, and what I personally think about freebies compared to others bear in mind this is written from my point of view as a consumer rather than a creator. Freebies seem to come under 3 categories; 1) Promotional/marketing tools 2) Gift items and novelty items 3) ripped content.  For the purposes of this post I will be focused on 1. (3 is a clusterfuck of epic proportions which I have no inclination to get into right now)
When thinking about freebies, you have to remember there are 2 sides, the freebie creator/giver and the freebie recipient, the intent of the creator for making and distributing the freebie may be lost on the recipient. This is where drama comes from boys and girls. If you get something for nothing then you cannot complain to anyone, not if you have any sense/decency/self respect. Equally if you are a creator who puts a freebie out in your store (which let’s face it, it’s to bring in traffic and promote your store) you can’t bitch and whine that there isn’t a parade in your honour and weeping masses clamouring to thank you for your generosity. We have all heard horror stories about residents sending nasty vindictive messages to creators because a freebie wasn’t in ‘their colour’ or ‘their style’ or creators who sell a ‘freebie’ box for $25L or more of basically unfinished items. Both of these behaviours are unacceptable.
I keep approx. 1% of freebies I have found on hunts and those 1% of creators are doing it right (as far as marketing to me directly goes) as I go back to their stores and spend $L. The other 99% are made up of things that are either not my style (I have collected loads of posh dresses which although well made and beautiful are not something that I wear) or poor quality. These freebies are a marketing tool, in a SLworld where demos are rare it’s an opportunity to see an item up close, without bothering about ps’d to hell vendors. Hunts have a mixed press but I do think they are a great way to find new stores that I would never have found normally.
There is a section of SL residents who never buy anything at all, collecting freebies where they can. This still isn’t always a bad thing. These residents are still a walking advertisement for your store (if it has prims anyway). These avatars may be alts of residents who do spend money. Even if they never contribute to your shop directly or indirectly there are still plenty of residents who do spend money if they receive a good freebie. So, if you are a consumer, and you pick up a decent freebie, go back and have a look round the store, maybe buy something. If you dislike the freebie, delete it and move on with your life. If you are a creator and you produce a freebie have realistic expectations of the impact that freebie will have, and know what outcome you want from it. If people complain, then tell them whatever you like 
, if they thank you, then great. If you do not get the outcome you wanted there is a reason, either you expectations are unrealistic or something went wrong in the marketing (or even, horror of horrors, the item isn’t very good) Releasing a freebie is your choice, there is no obligation to do so, if it makes you unhappy then you don’t have to, I have never held that against anyone, in fact it barely registers.
Some content creators are amazing, generous and incredibly talented, Eloh Eliot and Sezmra Svarog have given SL some of the most amazing content, free for everyone. Our collective SL experience would be a lot poorer without these creators, who gave away their products for free and have kick started more skin creators due to their PSD files. Arcadia Asylum, Annapurna Onomotopeia, Four Yip, Rachel Boram, in her shoes, and Vignette are other creators who also give away their creations for free, asking for nothing in return, there are many many more I am sure.
A well thought out, well made marketing freebie can have long term ripples, I know myself that I have returned to a store months after I got the freebie (unpacking is hellish). For the record I do appreciate being given freebies or finding freebies, even if they are not ‘me’ anyone who takes the time to make something should be appreciated and not vilified. Whether they charge for it or not.
I like this post. My best stores I spend the most at have been found from hunts – the place I work at now I found from a freebie.
Some of my best friends I made around lucky chairs and sometimes the only way for stores (old and new) to get a chance to be seen is to be in hunts or give freebies.
There have been too many creators making freebies lately and then having the recipients complaining.
I admit it….I am a Freebie Whore. But I am a discerning Freebie Whore.
There are probably a dozen shops that I have on my ‘go to’ list due to a freebie I have received at some point and time from them.
Many freebies are not what I am looking for and I do just delete them.
But there are those gems….oh and they are so lovely and I am a very thankful recipient.
I try to always send an IM to the designer who blows me away w/ his or her generous gift.
And let them know how very much it is appreciated.
do a pokemans blog next please
Yeah I like this idea, do a pokemans blog update.
Just wanted to say I do have a freebie group and it was a chance for me to pick up on this marketting and find new places. Honestly if their place isn’t in a hunt, has a freebie, or blogged at all. Chances are I’m never going to find them.
I think there is a huge ‘OMG U DO FREEBIES’ thing going on where if you do it for a hobby, even if you go back and shop, you get branded as someone who never buys something. It’s a pretty terrible thing if you get enough people trying to brand you for doing something you like (though it is very common on SL anyway, not even just for freebies).
Overall I think this was a very good post on the stand for what things are. I may not always take the time out to thank people (because I’ve had creators be unhappy that I capped their IMs just with a thank you themed message). But I really hope people take a look at things and break the sterotype that tags the people that enjoy freebies or hunts.
Thank you for this post. Seriously. You’ve clearly communicated all the things I think about freebies, and done it better than I’m sure I could have. As a creator and a consumer, I really appreciate well thought out posts like this.
I’d like to share with you all a true story that happened today.
First of all, yes, I’ve always been a freebie whore. I was extremely lucky in that the reason I even came into SL was because of a job offer, whereas most have to hunt long and hard to make their Lindens. But even so, this is currently my only steady source of income and thus I’m extremely tight with my L$. I scrounge through XStreet for every freebie and dollarbie with remote value to me. I recently got addicted to Hunts, but at the same level as Darkley—I keep maybe 1% of what I find, not because of quality (which is often very good) but quantity. Being a money-tight guy in SL is worlds harder than being a money-tight gal (unless you -want- to look like a ghetto trash wigger/chav or grunge-will-never-die hobo, in which case you’ll be swimming in clothes).
Anyway, I digress from the story I wanted to share. I’ve also recently started hitting up the Midnight Mania boards offering stuff for guys. Being anti-social and having a slightly older computer, I usually don’t wait for shops or the people in them to fully rez. Go in, slap the board and or/grab any freebies offered, and leave. I went into a shop today to look at a bracelet on the MM board there and at first took no notice of the other person there—the owner himself.
Next thing I know he’s calling out to me, and I checked the local chat. I had just gotten off of work and hadn’t switched out my group tag. We strike up a conversation about where I work (an estate agency I’m not gonna plug here), how he used our sandbox sim when just starting out, etc. etc. and ends up offering me any item from his store free of charge.
I take my time and pick out a really great belt, talk with the guy some more about the lack of menswear in SL, and end up the encounter with buying two more items, subscribing to his update group (and snagging another great free gift in the process), placing his store in my picks to help him spread the word (I’ve put the SLURL in the website field here. He’s just starting into clothing, and even though the selection is small at the moment, the quality is top shelf and the prices very budget-friendly) and most importantly, making a friend.
The moral of this story, folks, is that none of this would have happened if it weren’t for freebies.
I would also like to touch on the fact that items set for 1L are still freebies… Because dollarbie is a friggin’ stupid word.
That said…
I agree entirely with this post from both ends, as a creator and as a consumer. The things I look for (next to quality) are a follows:
-Do they have a landmark
-Do they have their name in the product title & items.
(For instance- I put +>A&A<+ before my product title, Sn@tch puts :::Sn@tch:::, Tiny bird writes tiny bird etc etc. Helps keep things organized! I like it best when things have the name in front of the item as well- when it doesn't, it just looks sloppy to me, but I'm really picky…)
Anyway- probably not entirely relevant, but hey…
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