Enabling Regular users to rent Premium regions

[Selby Evans]

Where exactly would you expect to see such a category Marstol?

[Marstol Nitely]

Good question Ilan. Off hand, I guess it should have its own category under Commerce? Perhaps something else for philanthropical opportunities?

[Deuce Halsey]

On Shareville, I rent (at no cost) to people I know from other grids, folks I am trying to tempt into Kitely because they bring a great deal to the party and are likely eventually to become premium members.

I don't operate on any other grids - other than HG voyages to them from my base here in Kitely. My other big online activity is an MMORPG called RuneScape, where I belong to a group of older players. We call ourselves the Association of Essentially Sane Older Players - known more commonly by our acronym, AESOP. I actually have been thinking about setting up a clubhouse in Donnybrook Beach that could be used as a base by any of my friends from AESOP who would like to check out OpenSim worlds. I wouldn't charge them for this access, which would be by invitation (via private AESOP channels) only.

Many of us in Kitely probably know people via our other online activities outside the OpenSim/SL universe. Providing those people with a place to hang their virtual hats in the OpenSim metaverse would be a good way to make use of any spare land we have laying around. At least you already know these folks to some extent or another. So hopefully they would be less likely to cause problems for you on your Kitely world. Chances are that some of these people could become involved in the metaverse and Kitely, which would make this another good way to help grow the Kitely user base.

[Carlos Loff]

This is not SL - People don't have to pay an upfront 1.000$ fee to have a whole sim, they just have to stay Regular and pay 14,99$ a month to enjoy their own whole region with no more time costs to any kind of visitors, etc

So in my point of view to be a Landlord at Kitely it only makes sense to have a fixed priced world (no time visiting stress) and subdivide to small lands and than yes, rent them cheap

My project right now is - I built a 16 region resort (Wont Say the Name - No spamming) - It is still on premium mode to save money while I decorate it and bring first tenants but ultimately the business model is - Setting the 16 region world to fixed price - 100$/month regardless of visitors and times, etc

Offering 60 parcels of 7.056 mts with 1.000 prims capacity for only 5$ a month - That offers a lot for a few $ and leaves me huge prims amount for common areas builds, landscaping, decors and living creatures - And using fixed-price there is no visits/times stress

When I manage to rent all the 60 parcels I will earn 300$ a month ---MINUS--- 100$ fixed world price = 200$ profit

I think any attempt on renting whole sims or half sims makes it much more expensive for Landlords to offer a sustainable price under the 14,99$ that Regulars just need to remain Regulars and go directly to Kitely and get a fixed priced whole world - Can anyone charge less than 14,99$ a month for renting a whole region ???

We could say being tenant its more easy than having a fixed-priced world but again that was on SL because of the upfront 1k fee - On Kitely starting a rent and abandoning it its as easy as requesting a fixed-price world and abandoning it

Also - Counting visits costs and charging for that when there are many tenants is a huge constant checklist and contacts and reminders stress - very time consuming

My main problem is how to make it easy for people to Pay fast and easy - Rental boxes I tried don't work because when the region goes down (unvisited) time stops and when the region goes up (visited) the boxes do not acknowledge the time lapse in between - Paypal makes it necessary to go Ofworld to the web and again many checklists and contacts and reminders - arghhh


What are your thoughts on my approach ???


PS - Anyone knows of a Rental Box or Payment Board that resets elapsed time when a region goes ON and updates for real remaining time ???

[Dot Matrix]

What are your thoughts on my approach ???

Here are my personal thoughts, Carlos -- you may disagree with them!

First, 60 avatars is roughly 7% of Kitely's current active user population, many of whom are likely to have their own world(s). Where are the intended renters going to come from?

So I'm wondering whether it might be better to start small, say with a Starter World with 5 renters (or pairs of renters), and build up gradually. Then you could develop the rental tools needed over time, perhaps by paying someone a commercial rate to code them for you.

[Carlos Loff]

What are your thoughts on my approach ???

Here are my personal thoughts, Carlos -- you may disagree with them!

First, 60 avatars is roughly 7% of Kitely's current active user population, many of whom are likely to have their own world(s). Where are the intended renters going to come from?

So I'm wondering whether it might be better to start small, say with a Starter World with 5 renters (or pairs of renters), and build up gradually. Then you could develop the rental tools needed over time, perhaps by paying someone a commercial rate to code them for you.

You are right on one side, but Kitely is Hypergrided and steadily growing

As I intend to make it a business and Kitely allows big affordable lands, maybe is a good step to start big and get a dominant position upfront

I wouldn't be surprise if 7% of active users would be Regulars and looking for a home

Lets see how far I go

cheers

[Dot Matrix]

Any chance of getting a "For Rent" category on the forums? I know it's been suggested for the Market before, but can't remember what the outcome was.

Going back to Marstol's suggestion, perhaps the best fit in current Forum categories would be Service Providers. In fact Min and Johnny have already advertised places to rent there.

For the Kitely Market, if rentals are seen as a service, a comparable example might be Minethere's terraforming service, which she advertises via an info board under the category Building Components > Kits and Templates. I'm not sure this is a particularly good fit for land rentals, though.

A better way to find land for rent is to use Kitely World search with "rent" as a search term (currently 12 worlds, often full regions) or "rental" (currently 11 worlds, mostly different from the first set).

The search can be refined by using terms such as "rent region" or "rent parcel" or "rent shop".

Using Kitely World search makes it easy for prospective renters to compare different offerings. It also helps landlords to test out the effectiveness of their World Page descriptions and finetune them.

[Shandon Loring]

Welcome Samarah, and consider this a personal invite to Seanchai Library events.