There is one thing I do know tho ... whining doesn't help. I don't see Anshe, Weezles, Willowdale, Luxory, Fantasyland complaining. They do what has to be done. You don't lose customers just because you raise rent by 2 or 3 % if you offer quality and support. If you rent land for L$1,000 a week, would you rip everything apart and move to another estate because your rent goes up by L$30 if you are happy with your estate, if you love your land and if your landlord explains to you why the adjustment is needed? - I wouldn't. Especially, if for me buying L$ is getting 3% cheaper at the same time. You just have to sell it to your customers.
Edited by DykodaWell if their land is already some of the most expensive land parcels in SL that could put people off renting even more.
" ... if ... could ... " - yes, it may happen in some cases, but that doesn't mean it will happen all the time.
If you don't raise your prices, if you keep sitting on your hands out of fear some of your residents may abandon ship, you could very well lose your entire business if the rate keeps going up.
Then you will lose 100% of your residents for sure who will wander off to your competitors who did what had to be done.
after all - there is no guarantee the rate will not go much higher! easter is coming. summer is coming!
but that's a decision every business owner has to make for himself.
ExpandAll this isn't exactly new. There have been times where the exchange rate was much worse. All the way up to 270 and higher. And Linden Lab has zero interest in making it harder for their business owners, content creators, land barons, etc. They need stability just like the business owners depend on stability. But whenever demand for L$ is low, when less land is rented, when less items are purchased, the rate is going up. And as soon as demand for L$ goes up, the rate goes down. With less demand, sellers get desperate, especially the land barons who are forced to pay their land fees to Linden Lab in US$ which forces them to sell their L$. They are running out of time so they decide to sell at the next higher rate where they will be served fast. And once more and more L$ are piling up at the next higher rate, the longer it takes to be "next in line", the game starts again and someone decides to bite the dust and to accept an even higher rate. And so on. Until, one day, users start buying more L$, eating up what is offered at the best rate, then the next best rate, and it goes the other way around.
The question is: when will the peak be reached? Easter season is coming, demand for land etc. will go down, demand for L$ will go down even more and we could very well see even higher rates.
Adjusting your prices may not be easy, but there won't be many other options. And your competitors are in the exact same boat with you. Those who decide not to raise their prices will have to deal with less income. Those who can afford to sit it out will survive. Those who can't may be pushed out of business.
And yet...and yet...YOU are new! So perhaps you have a fresh take.
Look at the issues of my "InfoNut" and you will see many times when the LindEx consistently valued the Linden dollar more. 270 is not a norm but an aberration. Clearly there's been a decision to downgrade it to make new people feel like they have a real thousand dollars.
It's not true that "the rate goes down" because we have been following this for years; we see what they are doing; this is a political decision. It's a controlled economy. It is not "floating". Back when third-party exchanges were permitted, the GOM (Gaming Open Market) was the most reliable with the least fees, and peaked at $4.00 per Linden 1000; today it is routinely $3.80 to cash out quickly. The Lindens outlawed third-party exchanges years ago.
I don't especially think that Easter means "slow business". A lot of people like shopping and decorating for holidays. Yes. they are family times and religious times -- Easter is my personal favourite holiday. But a lot of people want to escape their family and even religion and come to a virtual world. So that doesn't track.
No, I don't adjust my prices; I adjust my land. I abandoned or sell as much as I can, every month. Loads. I used to try to keep land open "to look nice" in communities even if it meant carrying vacancies; I'm over that now. Let the "transportation games" tier it, since they seem willing to tier a prison yard with barbed wire and some stationery trucks for US $10.00 per month that does nothing. I'm not sentimental about land. Land is not an investment. It's a cost center. If it doesn't rent, you can try this or that, change house styles, change the theme, change the deal or the price, but at the end of the day, the best way to end vacancies is not to tier the land any more : )
It is not possible to make a RL living in SL in the land business despite the widespread belief that you can. Possible those with 100s of islands and the non-disclosed bulk discount might do it, but it's a very labour- and cost-intensive way of making a living.
I'll never forget this couple on YouTube claiming they could quit their jobs and make $2000 a month in island rentals. And I heard them recite this widely-held false belief: that they needed to "plought the proceeds into the business and expand" or they would lose their place in the market. This is precisely what makes people collapse. Now they are long gone from SL, along with their "thriving" business; only one of them still logs on to go to clubs. Sad.
What is your own personal interest in this? Do you hope to start a land business?
I never understand why people are reluctant to criticize our socialist Soviet-style economy in any way, and yet combine this lack of criticism with a scolding attitude towards those not "sucking it up enough" to be in business properly. Well, which is it? State-controlled communism or wild capitalism where you are supposed to be "cut-throat"? Or perhaps oligarchy, the last stage of communism in the Russian setting. Really, the ancient Renaissance Faire model seems the closest to our reality, with a few top craftsman supported by a few ruling families and the rest shopping and living on gruel.
Edited by Prokofy NevaExpand" ... if ... could ... " - yes, it may happen in some cases, but that doesn't mean it will happen all the time.
If you don't raise your prices, if you keep sitting on your hands out of fear some of your residents may abandon ship, you could very well lose your entire business if the rate keeps going up.
Then you will lose 100% of your residents for sure who will wander off to your competitors who did what had to be done.
after all - there is no guarantee the rate will not go much higher! easter is coming. summer is coming!
but that's a decision every business owner has to make for himself.
Or you could just be a vampire.
There is one thing I do know tho ... whining doesn't help. I don't see Anshe, Weezles, Willowdale, Luxory, Fantasyland complaining. They do what has to be done. You don't lose customers just because you raise rent by 2 or 3 % if you offer quality and support. If you rent land for L$1,000 a week, would you rip everything apart and move to another estate because your rent goes up by L$30 if you are happy with your estate, if you love your land and if your landlord explains to you why the adjustment is needed? - I wouldn't. Especially, if for me buying L$ is getting 3% cheaper at the same time. You just have to sell it to your customers.
We can't assess your claims because you have a nearly blank, anonymous style inworld profile you're using to snipe on the forums at business owners -- for reasons unknown. Do you have a business of any kind?
Of course you lose customers if you raise prices. You even lose customers if you decide to abandon a place that isn't doing well and consolidate, and offer a customer one month's rent to move to another sim. That ALWAYS happen. People HATE change. I have had some customers for 15 years plus. I don't have rents of $1000 except at the higher end of private islands and some large platforms; most of my customers are in the 25L - 350L range and are not Americans and live in poor countries. The end. I never understand the felt need for these kinds of conversations.
Absent other context, just looking at this graph, it appears that over the last five years or so, the rate is making a very gradual reversion to historical norm.
That seems like bad news for a business that set prices back when the rate was historically low, if that business is paying fees (like tier) denominated in constant US$s.
On the other hand, within that interval Mainland tier decreased about 5% on November 17, 2022, and Estate fees by about 9% on March 6, 2023. Some landlords, however, would have dropped rents accordingly.
I suppose LindeX™ transaction fees have changed too, but I don't know their history.
I don't have anything like a business in SL so I can't judge how any of this may affect those who do.
Just between us, though, I doubt any of this will matter as much as the global economic catastrophe being triggered today at 4pm Washington time.
I can't judge how any of this may affect those who do.
Just between us, though, I doubt any of this will matter as much as the global economic catastrophe being triggered today at 4pm Washington time.
The Lindex going up, in combination to fluctuating Dollar/Euro exchange rates, for me as a creator, have affected me by a few percentages at most. I'm far more worried about 'Liberation Day', as you say, at 4pm DC time.
In the media, people have been advised to spend their $$$ more wisely for the coming time. Spending more wisely in my book does not include shiny virtual things.
Expand
Absent other context, just looking at this graph, it appears that over the last five years or so, the rate is making a very gradual reversion to historical norm.
That seems like bad news for a business that set prices back when the rate was historically low, if that business is paying fees (like tier) denominated in constant US$s.
On the other hand, within that interval Mainland tier decreased about 5% on November 17, 2022, and Estate fees by about 9% on March 6, 2023. Some landlords, however, would have dropped rents accordingly.
I suppose LindeX™ transaction fees have changed too, but I don't know their history.
I don't have anything like a business in SL so I can't judge how any of this may affect those who do.
Just between us, though, I doubt any of this will matter as much as the global economic catastrophe being triggered today at 4pm Washington time.
You forgot how LL first charged VAT, then began charging US Internet tax in the states that charge it.
That equalled more than the cost of an entire sim for me -- with no actual sim to actually rent, just lost expenditure. So back then, I did raise my prices universally by $5L and $10L. I thought that would be a rough equivalent of adding a sales tax as hotels do. Of course some people objected even to such a small increase.
Look, the answer to the Lindens not caring about the Mainland is to move to one of the other products if it bothers you, and if your business depends on it -- make your business not depend on it or go out of business. It's ok to go out of business or do less. I personaly have had to conclude that virtual world economies tend toward entropy and have all kinds of distortions and disasters all the time precisely because they are controlled and because there are no signals, e.g. we no longer have the data about how many people inworld spent more than US $25 per month. The concurrency numbers are "nice to have" but they don't really tell you anything unless you can understand what people are spending -- and on what -- so as to know whether to bother to do a business in the first place.
ExpandWell, thank you so much for your "forgiveness" - I know you think you're a hot shot with your few rentals, but I also know that you are the only one whining about a small rate change, while there isn't a single professional estate participating in this conversation. Most likely, because they understand that the exchange rate is not fix and because they know how to deal with it.
The EUR/USD exchange rate is affected by wayyyy more factors than the L$ exchange rate which makes it more volatile. And instead of crying a river you should just react like a professional business owner would do and stop crying.
Exchange rate goes up? - Adjust your prices!
Exchange rate goes down? - Adjust your prices!It's not exactly rocket science!
Stop crying!
Who are you? You are a nobody who is afraid to post with their actual account. The moment you post you get a like by the biggest forum troll there is on these boards captain obvious. If the troll wants to get into a debate with me don't be act like the little ***** you are who needs to make an alt account to hide their real identity.
Plenty of companies would be crying when there is serious money involved. The couple percent in losses amount fast to sums where other people have to work a month for.
Some little nobody comes to tell me I should stop crying hiding behind some alt account. Am I working on your nerves little nobody?
- You, Rowan Amore, Solar Legion and 1 other
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All I know is, I've been paying about the same every couple of weeks for my 5000L. Roughly $20. I doubt the majority of users even notices the several cents one way or the other.
ExpandWho are you? You are a nobody who is afraid to post with their actual account. The moment you post you get a like by the biggest forum troll there is on these boards captain obvious. If the troll wants to get into a debate with me don't be act like the little ***** you are who needs to make an alt account to hide their real identity.
Plenty of companies would be crying when there is serious money involved. The couple percent in losses amount fast to sums where other people have to work a month for.
Some little nobody comes to tell me I should stop crying hiding behind some alt account. Am I working on your nerves little nobody?
wannabe land barons like you are the reason why I prefer to log in with an alter ego. trust me, this "little nobody" could eat your meager 60 sims for breakfast 
keep starring at the rate as it will go up.
wannabe land barons like you are the reason why I prefer to log in with an alter ego. trust me, this "little nobody" could eat your meager 60 sims for breakfast
keep starring at the rate as it will go up.
When it comes down to it you are a little nobody who needs to hide behind an alt. If you claim to be who are you aren't very good at math, it appears spelling isn't your forte either little nobody.
- You, Solar Legion and Love Zhaoying
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wannabe land barons like you are the reason why I prefer to log in with an alter ego. trust me, this "little nobody" could eat your meager 60 sims for breakfast
keep starring at the rate as it will go up.
If you could eat them for breakfast, why are you ON HERE for lunch?
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