1. business and industrial

New Creators Guide
“What to Know Before Creating!”
Company: MentalMorris_Creations (iMMuneC)
Author: iMMuneC
5/30/2014
Table of Contents
1. Abstract …………………………………………………………………………...3
2. Create Your Own Identity…………………………………………………………4
3. Decide Where You Want to Start………………………………………………….5
4. Creating a Catalog Image Part 1…………………………………………………...6
5. Organizing Your Creations………………………………………………………...7
6. Starting to Create………………………………………………………………......8
7. Catalog Image Part 2……………………………………………………………….9
8. Product Submission………………………………………………………………...10
9. Naming Your Products…………………………………………………………….14
10. Advertizing………………………………………………………………………...15
11. Knowing Your Customers………………………………………………………....16
12. Tier Level…………………………………………………………………………..17
13. Wrap Up……………………………………………………………………………18
This document is owned by iMMuneC. DO NOT COPY anything word for word in this
document! You may rephrase sections of this document to help other new creators. DO
NOT COPY iMMuneC’s banners, logos, or any other unique features.
Abstract
This document will help new creators build a better understanding of almost everything
there is to know about becoming a creator on IMVU. Here you will find the information needed
BEFORE you start spending all your credits on creations. Please read this entire document if
you are interested in becoming a creator or if you have already become one but you would like
some advice. DO share this document with friends in its original copy that gives iMMuneC the
credit for making said document.
Hope you learn a lot and enjoy, -- iMMuneC.
Creating your own Identity
Firstly, before you go making products for whomever, you need to adapt your own identity.
You can do this by following these simple steps:
1. Decide who you want to be while running this business. Do you want
to be the complete owner or do you want some help along the way? Are
you looking to work with others on creations or do you want to work on
your own? What ownership do you want if you work with other
designers?
2. Find your passion. What do you like most? Is it jeans, turtle necks,
fancy dress garments – find out! Or are you trying to stick to one type of
genre such as Gothic, Preppy, or Jock?
3. Decide what is going to help you stand out above the rest (ie: An
image, icon, or letter that you can add to everything you do).
4. Decide who you are marketing to. Do you want to sell your products to
only people living in your town (ie: Cheerleader uniforms of your old
schools name)? Do you want to market to those in your country? (ie:
Creating tops that support your heritage, country, or national
monuments)? Are you looking to reach out over the world and create
products that can fit into anyone‟s closet? Are you focusing on following
universal trends, celebrities, and other similar interests?
After you decide WHO YOU ARE, what is going to make you stand out?
You can start by choosing the right symbols to describe yourself and your catalog. You want
something that truly makes a name for you. It could be as simple as your initials, an icon, or a large scale
image. You want something that represents YOU!
Decide Where You Want to Start
Now that you know who you want to be, you need to decide where you want to start.
Do you want to leap head first into creating your first product from using the “Baby T” female
mesh, or do you want something exciting and actually worth making? Try to shop around. Have you ever
looked through your inventory and loved a top you saw, not only for its texture but also for its mesh? Try
to search for a product like that to start off.
Once you find a few products you really like, save them in your Wishlist for safe keeping. You
are going to want to stock up on only derivable meshes. Anything extra in your Wishlist you should either
purchase or remove. This way all you have is what you would like to make. Make sure to disable your
Wishlist box on your profile so none of your friends send you a mesh you won‟t want! By the way, you
don‟t need to purchase any mesh you derive from.
Here some types of meshes to use:
Simple T-Shirt with Bottoms
Long Sleeve Shirt with Bottoms
Both of these bodysuits are 256x512 Pixels.
Creating a Catalog Image Part 1
Creating your first catalog image is not all that difficult; you just need to follow these guidelines:
1. Your image must be the dimensions of 100x80 pixels
2. Your image should distinguish you from all other creators. Most creators do this by
creating one background that they always use as long as their products can show over it.
3. You want to have at least three options of your background to change in case your
product does not pop off it. If the customer can‟t see the difference between your product
and the catalog background, they aren‟t going to take a look at what you have to sell!
4. Easiest way to make multiple backgrounds:
i. Choose a really unique idea
ii. Chose an icon , letter(s), or other image to place within the catalog image
iii. Search around after you think of what you want to use before you actually start
making your catalog background image
iv. If you don‟t stumble upon a creator who already has your background then go for
it!
Additional Tips:
1. Don‟t mess around with sizes! Start 100x80 and keep it that way!
2. Don‟t save your background image as a JPEG or GIF, it might ruin the
quality!
3. Mess around with colors, textures, prints, and patterns. Don‟t settle for
the first thing you make! Always implement new ideas until you get it
just right!
4. Create one darker background, one lighter background, and one full
white background that has crafty edges and your icon or letter(s).
1. Dark background: to show lighter products
2. Light background: to show darker products
3. White background: for creations that do not show up well on the
other backgrounds.
4. You can also create another catalog image for only custom
creations or products you plan to hide
5. Stay away from the common background ideas as much as you can!
1. Some of these are:
i. Lace
ii. Hearts
iii. Sparkles
iv. Paw prints
v. Flashy GIFS that change so fast you can do recognize
the product on them.
5. You want your creations to look uniform & like they are all made by the same person.
1. In other words, DON‟T create a new background for each
product you make! Keep it as similar as you can by using the
same icon or letter(s). You want customers to recognize your
products over others!
Organizing your Creations
Organizing your creations is important if you want to see your improvements, credits earned, and
other necessary information.
For each product you create you need to decide if it is a standalone product or if it goes along
with a collection of products. After you decide, you can create a template (EXCEL File) that holds all
your creations.
This template can contain the following information but is not limited to it:
Product Number (1, 2, 3…)
Female, Male, Furniture, Room, or Mesh
Section/Topic (Neon, Lingerie, Punk….)
Type of Product (Top, Bottoms, Shoes…)
Product Name
Investment to Create Product
Derivable Tokens Used In Making Product (If any)
Sales Price in Catalog for Product
Profit you intend to make off product
Amount of the product sold
Number needed to sell to earn back what was spent
Actual Profit Made After Sales
Remainder (For Example: Product A cost 805 (Derivable cost + IMVU
Submission Fee + IMVU Markup Fee) credits to create and is sold for 588
credits; and the profit is set to 188 credits. It will take 5 entire sales to get back
the original credits it cost to make Product A, but the remainder in sales would be
135 credits.)
xv. Additional items you can add to your list for each product:
1. Product on sale (Yes/or/No)
2. Date of sale (Day/Month/Year--Day/Month/Year)
3. Set profit during sale
4. Number of sales before actual sale
5. Number sold during sale
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
vi.
vii.
viii.
ix.
x.
xi.
xii.
xiii.
xiv.
Product #
Type
Name
Investment
Sales Price
Profit
# Sold
Profit Made
1
Shirt
A
904
620
66
0
0
2
Bottoms
B
738
415
27
0
0
3
Shoes
C
907
650
93
0
0
4
Hair
D
999
700
106
0
0
Now Let’s Start Creating!
You can look up every tutorial you want for certain products including rooms, furniture, clothing,
and others; what I am going to explain here isn‟t a tutorial but just what you need to know as a creator.
When creating clothing you always want to know what mesh you are going to use and what color
you want to represent with that mesh. For this, always look at new meshes and full body suits; they can be
the easiest to take from for a new creator. Try to avoid anything at first that involves using multiple
meshes and downloads of different files in order to create one product. You want to look for something
that is easy to use. After you find a mesh that works for what you want to use it for, you will then want to
create the patterns, prints, textures, or images you want to use within the product itself.
Tips:
1. If you have very little skill in creating your own textures, search on Google images for help and
assistance with what you might want to use. After you find a really good print you love, save the
image and start to change it to fit your mesh.
2. With that said, you WILL have to look at most meshes and copy the UV Maps and other Maps to
properly apply your own textures to them. If you think you can just run an entire catalog off of
not ever having to look at the Maps you are mistaken!
3. Don‟t steal from other creators because you are not able to make your own textures. Hair, for
instance, if you don‟t know what you are doing, don‟t do it until you learn!
4. If you really enjoy a texture and don‟t know how to recreate it from scratch, you can always
apply a transparent color over it. This will still show the texture you want, but in a new color so it
is not the same as its parent creator.
Steps to follow when creating:
1. Take the UV Map or other offered map of your choice and copy it into a workshop (Photoshop,
Microsoft Paint, or other resource available to you).
2. What I always do: You‟re going to want to put your texture within the map, so you will need to
fill the map in with white and leave the unused portion black so you can easily put your texture
underneath the map. You will need to use multiple opened programs for this.
3. After putting your pattern on the map, you can then upload it into creator mode. It‟s going to take
practice before you know exactly how to do it.
4. Tweak your texture or mesh as needed and then submit the final version to IMVU.
The Catalog Image Part 2
The catalog image makes a return when you are ready to submit your product(s).
You will want to take a well put together photo to place over your 100x80 pixel catalog background.
Tips:
1. Always use the same pose for products that are the same!
2. Always change your avatars head, skin, and avatar from the traditional female/male avatar.
3. Zoom in as close as you can for products that as not large scale. This includes but is not limited
to: heads, eyes, hairs, earrings, rings, necklaces, nails, shoes, and many more.
4. Practice different poses and looks before you decide on a catalog image your first few times
doing so. This way you don‟t make as many mistakes.
5. If you already have catalog images and they don‟t follow these requirements, go back and fix
them! It will only increase your sales if you images are attractive (or don‟t if you‟re like me and
don‟t want to spend time fixing catalog images for products that don‟t look good).
These are perfect examples for what you will want to do when making the same product multiple times
with different textures:
Each of these products have the same pose, same skin, same avatar, and same background. When
someone looks through your catalog and sees that your products can be bought together, then you have
the opportunity to make more credits off what customers buy. Try to match outfits like these to sell
together!
The more outfits and collections you make, the better your sales will be. Just make sure to match
everything you can (as long as it looks good)!
Product Submission
Product Submission is another simple subject in the creating process. When you finish a product and
you want it to show up in the IMVU catalog, than you will need to grasp the following:
1. The First Step: Understanding how pricing works
1. So now that you have created a product you need to understand how the pricing works.
This is how your credits are split up:
i. IMVU takes 350 credits for each product you submit; this is called the
Submission Fee. This price may lessen if you use deliverable tokens (tokens you
get when someone buys your product using promo credits).
ii. IMVU also takes a Product Markup Fee that can be very low to very high
depending on what you set your profit to.
iii. Then you have a Derivable Fee that can be low or high also (just a tip, make sure
you go through the derivable chain when looking for meshes. If anything seems
too expensive, there is a reason why it is. It could be a stolen mesh. Also,
anything over 499 to derive from may not always be worth the cost).
iv. Finally you can input your Profit. This will be the amount you make when the
product sells with real credits.
2. The Second Step: Pricing can be extreme
Unless you have a high quality product, you are going to spend a lot before you make a lot.
So you will want to make sure you understand what you are doing and how much you are spending
per product!
3. The Third Step: Deciding on what to set your profit to
Depending on what your product is, you may want to either set your profit to a higher price or
lower price. For example: You want to create a pair of unique Monkey Shaped Earrings. If you
set this product to a high profit margin, then you might not be setting to high of a price for a
unique product no one else has created. BUT, say Monkey Shaped Earrings are so popular they
are ranging in various prices and quality. If you still want to make this product, you will have to
choose whether to make little sales at a high profit margin or many sales at a low profit margin.
You should always shop around before creating new products! This way you don‟t run into
the problem in the example above. If everyone has the same product as you and it is even the
same color, than the only thing that will make yours sell versus theirs is to lower the price of your
product.
Tips on pricing:
1. Don‟t make your profit super high
2. Don‟t aim to lower your prices just to make sales. It doesn‟t help to make sales if all your
customers are Guests_ with only promo credits. You won‟t make your credits back if no
real credits are being used to purchase your products.
3. Try to even out your prices as much as possible. Set your profit to 100 as much as you
can versus 103.
4. Try to avoid pricing anything that goes over 1000 credits. Customers want high quality
products that are cheap enough to buy so that they can create an entire outfit. They don‟t
want to purchase credits just so they can afford your overly priced t-shirts.
5. No matter how good quality is, pricing will still come into concern when someone buys
your products. Make a fair profit, not a “get all your investment back in one sale” profit.
6. Try to make your catalog range in pricing.
7. Learn to take a hit on some products (such as necklaces, earrings, and glasses) so you can
beat out the competition who may be selling a similar product.
8. If an item is just not selling and it is high quality, try advertizing more and lower the
price.
4. The Fourth Step: Categorization
At the top of your product submission box, you will notice a section in which you can chose where
your product should be located within the catalog. You will never want to just hope that the creator of
what you are applying a texture to has put the product where it fits. Always look and make sure you put
the product where it needs to go. If you don‟t, you could be putting an elegant ball gown in Baby Tees
where it may not get any sales.
Sometimes it is easy to skim over this section also, so be very precise. When doing a set of products
that are the same minus a different texture, make sure to put them in the same location. You don‟t want
the same dress in five different places.
Part of categorizing is also choosing whether your product will be a General Audience rated product
or an Access Pass rated product. If you do not own an access pass make sure you completely cover the
MCG skin. This skin is what opens up as default in Creator Mode. If you don‟t cover all portions of the
RED you will be creating an Access Pass item. If you don‟t properly put your product where it belongs
than you can lose your account. So make sure you remember to cover all the red for GA rated items!
5. The Fifth Step: Keywords or Tags
In the larger box, you will want to type 12 words that are able to describe your product.
Tips on how to use the right words:
Example 1: An American Flag T-Shirt
1. Start out with what you know. (American, Flag, T-Shirt)
2. Add as many details as you can. (Red, White, Blue, Stars, Stripes)
3. Add any holiday or theme that the product goes with. (“4th of July”, Fireworks,
Politics)
4. Add any other word(s) that could describe the product. (Sparkle)
Example 2: Yellow Spring Dress
For this example I am going to show you why each word fits with the example at hand.
12 Words: Yellow, Spring, Dress, Banana, Pineapple, Lemon, Sun, Sunlight, Daylight, Summer, Rain,
Short
1. Yellow, Banana, Pineapple, and Lemon are used to describe the color of the product and because
it is a spring outfit it could be used at a picnic in which these types of fruits may be available.
2. Spring, Sun, Sunlight, Daylight, Summer and Rain are used to describe the season or timing in
which the product could be worn. In the spring it is sunny, rainy and bright. Any variations of
these words could be used.
3. Short is used to describe the length of the dress. It could easily have been „long‟, „narrow‟,
„heavy‟, „small‟, „curvy‟, or any other variation to show a length or width of the product.
Final Tips:
-
-
Always try to use words to describe every feature of your product. Don‟t leave out the fact
that something is both „white and gold‟.
Try to fit in as many variations of colors you can that truly describe your product.
Use “quotation marks” for multiple words that can be put up together (ie: “Cotton Candy”)
Always use at least six different tags or keywords per product. If you leave them out then the
only way someone can find your product is if they type in a piece of the title or your name.
Don‟t let that happen! You want to be as publically seen as possible.
Don‟t use other creators‟ names in your keywords to get noticed.
Use genuine tags. Don‟t mark something as “Gothic” if your product is for “Jocks”.
Use commas to separate each word and don‟t use caps!
6. The Final Step: Controls
You can uncheck any box you want in this section. If you uncheck “Visible in Shop” your item will
become hidden and no one will be able to see it and therefore purchase it. If you uncheck “Allow
Derivation from this Product” then no one can derive from your product; making it completely unique and
also not taking sales from the actual deriver you took from. If you uncheck “Allow Inclusion in 3rd Party
Bundles”, your product cannot be used in other creators‟ bundles.
Naming your Products
Naming your Products is a very important idea to understand.
Using your letter(s) or icon to help set your products apart from others is what you need to aim
for when you name your products. Some creators use their initials to put in front of their item in the
catalog ( ie: [MMC] Red Dress). But with only 24 characters to use in the product title, you may want to
rethink what you want to use. For example: If you are naming „Red Dress,‟ then maybe add another few
words to enhance the products features (ie: Royal Ruby Red Ball Gown).
Don‟t clutter the product you are selling with words that don‟t define it, but instead use many tag
words if you have a product that doesn‟t need more words in the title. You can always loop your titles
together if you are making the same product but with different textures (ie: Red Ruby Dress, Blue Gem
Dress, and Green Stone Dress). Also, don‟t steal other product names; be as original as you can.
Advertizing
The trickiest part about making a catalog filled with wonderful creations is getting those creations
out there in the public eye. Firstly, you are going to want to advertize through any means you can as a
beginner.
This can be, but is not limited to the following:
a. Pulse Updates
b. Wear you products in the Daily Outfit Challenge
c. Take a snapshot of your creations and share them through Photo
Stream
d. Make multiple banners for others to share on their own profiles
(get codes)
e. Use the forums regularly and change your signature to your
banner or simply your catalog URL
f. Become involved in groups for creating and advertize there
g. Make multiple badges to share with others that represent you or
your catalog
h. And as always, continue to chat on a regular basis
Whatever you choose to do make sure you do not over do it! You don‟t want anyone blocking
you so they do not see your profile, pulse updates, or anything alike. The best way to advertise is through
pulse and only doing so 1-3 times daily. Always make sure to switch your messages up every once in a
while to attract everyone!
Knowing Your Customers
After a while you will start to see who is purchasing what from your catalog. When this happens
you will begin to notice common trends in what type of customer is purchasing products from you. What
I mean by this is that you will recognize when a large amount of Guests_ accounts purchase your lowest
priced item and you will also encounter VIP customers purchasing tons of your highest priced items. It
just happens this way.
If you do not want too many derivable tokens then it would be best to raise your prices. But, being
new, you will want to see any of your items being bought even if you do not receive anything really from
those purchases.
Get inside your customers head when you see who is actually purchasing from you. You can do some
snooping through profiles, groups, and other means to see what the buzz is all about. Or you can wait
until you make real sales. Remember that most sales are one time buys (a customer finds you product but
doesn‟t look through your entire catalog). If you match items together you will begin to sell them
together.
Do what the customer wants, but always have your limits. If you won‟t wear the product, don‟t make
it! And don‟t follow trends if you don‟t enjoy them!
Tier Levels
You can find out about your rank in tier levels by going to your profile and clicking “Developer
Reports” underneath your profile picture. You then can click through the tabs on the page that opens.
These are: Product List, Developer Income Events, Reseller Income Events, Customer Balance Events,
Tiers Info, and Pended Credits Schedule.
To access your tier level information click the Tier Info tab. In this tab you will notice the Core
Metrics, Unique Metrics and Spare Metrics sections.
Each section has it owns details and are as follows:
Core Metrics: These show the points you get for Direct Sales, Derived Sales, Income with Credits,
and Income with Promo Credits. All of these are very self explanatory.
Unique Metrics: These show the points you earn for Products Recently Submitted to your catalog,
the Average Product Rating for your creations, and your Peer Review Activity.
Spare Metrics: These show the points you gain for Creator Content Forum Posts and the amount of
products in your catalog.
If you want to gain tier levels fast, focus on your Unique and Space Metrics first. As a new creator,
without advertizing you may not actually sell enough in the first few months to do well with Core
Metrics.
Wrap Up
Overall, you are going to want to spend tons of time learning what creating actually means. You want
to fully understand everything you can before you submit your first product. As a 2-year creator, I am still
learning more and more new things each day I create. You will never stop learning. If anything, you will
constantly want to learn more so you can get more sales. The creating business on IMVU is difficult at
first but it doesn‟t take long to find your niche, what you are good at, and how you can be more effective
in the community.
Please message me any questions, comments, concerns, suggestions or any other feedback you may
have in regards to this document and creating. I will try to help anyone who needs it as best as I can.
Please allow me to give you any more advice you need as a new creator. You are always free to set up a
time with me to chat openly versus in messages.
Always try out anything you can while creating. And also always remember to Be Unique, Be
Desirable, and Be Courageous. A small amount of work goes along way, good luck with your creations!
Sincerely,
iMMuneC.
This document may expand if enough creators get involved. Please let me know if you would like
to be on an acknowledgment and reference page that will follow this one. Your links will be added as well
as your most popular product if you would like it available.
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