hi all  =) hope your Halloween was spookie *resisting urge to say spooktacular* =D

okay, blogging and all that “social networking” stuff.  subQuark is HUGE into it and sets up our “strategy” for using it

and you know what? it works out pretty well and is not a huge time suck (i thought it would be) o_O

we keep running across peeps with sl businesses that are passionate and believe in what they create. if one thing is true about virtual businesses, it is that it takes perseverance, passion, talent, and patience

so for those that are truly interested in creating more for their business, consider blogging and a grassroots  social networking campaign =)

but that takes time . . .

yes it does and as soon as we hear that, well, we step back. but some people are open to improving their exposure. in fact, those that embrace their own online networking tend to get more ener-gized! *derr* =p

some suggestions to make it easy

1. make some sort of logo or online avatar image to use on your new accounts
2. pick a unique name (like your avatar’s name or your biz name – do a quick search)
3. get a Yahoo mail and a Gmail account for that name (use one of these for everything else)
4. set up a gravatar account
5. get a free flickr account (uses your Yahoo ID)
6. get a twitter account
7. get a free blog (we like Wordpress, but Google’s blogger is one of several others)
8. open a facebook account (you can do a normal page, which is limited to 5,000 friends or a fan page which has no limit)

once you have these setup, connect them! (that means complete the profiles with links back to your blog and a maps.secondlife url too)

connecting them saves time (lots of time). some blogs can be set to auto tweet whenever you write a new post and your twitter can auto update your facebook wall

your flickr can be connected to your blog, twitter, and facebook too (if you set your flickr images to creative commons licensing, then others can use them and spread your name around)

use one of your flickr images in each blog post (flickr is owned by Yahoo, so it helps your search ranking)

this is a great start! you can go bananas and do other stuff, like a free CafePress store, YouTube, blip.tv, LinkedIn, all the sl forums, and so on

if you search either “ener hax“ or “iliveisl“ you’ll see all the nutty things we are in

then blog! don’t see it as a chore, see it as being your own marketing department! and don’t be all pushy about your sales, people hate being told to buy this or buy that  :\

educate people as to what you have, unique features of your whatever, and also share a bit about you and your adventures in virtual worlds

$621 million will be spent in virtual worlds this year.  someone is getting that money – if they don’t know about you, how will they ever become a customer?

customers are people, not dollar signs, be honest, be helpful, and tell them that your product or service is not right for them if it isn’t =)

poutine est la meilleure aliment