“Paris talks about continuing the family tradition of real estate and what her grandfather had to say about his first granddaughter opening luxury resorts at Azure Beach Club in the Philippines.” *

I don’t care what you think about Paris but, to me she is an inspiration! Very few have done or can do what she is capable of and above all the bad press she always manages to get back on top. Who cares if she made a sex tape or got busted for carrying drugs, none of those who complain or gossip about it are even remotely capable of doing or achieving any of her successes. Paris is a goddess of success and inspiration and I FUCKING LOVE HER! xoxo

[ * source: parishilton.com ]

I may be a stubborn bitch but you need to understand that I am not “your” bitch. Precisely why I don’t work “for” people. I work “with” people, on my terms thank you very much. Don’t like that? Then GTFO. Simple as that.

This is perhaps one of the reasons for closing my business because I got sick and tired of retarded clients thinking that I’m their bitch. Don’t get me wrong, I’m huge on professionalism, customer service and satisfaction – In fact this rant has absolutely nothing to do with that. This rant is about conservative mind sets and old-school work environments. I’m going to repeat what I said in my earlier article: This is not the nineteen-sixties anymore. It is funny how we as humans have progressed so far with technology, fashion, etc. Yet when it comes to the way we conduct business things haven’t changed much at all. At least not for the majority of sheep out there.

What you need to understand is that I’m on another level, one which you (indirect) do not understand yet. One which you might grasp if you have worked in all the different departments of business from scrubbing the floor and every step upwards right up to being the CEO. I’ve been there, got the t-shirt, sold it, closed it down and now I’m happily living a more modern lifestyle. Perhaps not modern in terms of finance but, modern in terms of basic human behavior. Many of you who are reading this will understand and know exactly what I am talking about, if you don’t then I am afraid that you still fall into the nineteen-sixties business mentality group of people.

I am a free creative being, put me in a box, turn me into your bitch and I won’t produce anything of value. In fact I may even drag things down a bit if your way of doing things is so archaic that I need to time-travel before getting into work in the morning. I love what I am doing now and I’m perfectly content with it taking a while to show a solid and stable return. At least this way I know that it is on my terms, I’m no ones bitch ( at least not outside of the bedroom ) and I have 100% of my time to put all efforts towards what I am doing now instead of only doing a half-job by balancing my things with nineteen-sixties business practice.

</rant>

Now If you’ve got no idea what that ^ was about, don’t worry about it, LOL. I just had to let it out.

Till next time, much love! xxx

I’m sitting here on my bed, half asleep and waiting for the boiler to heat up so that I can take a bath before I go so sleep. To conserve energy and play or part in helping the environment we’ve put our heating on a digital timer which automatically switches on and off at certain times. This however is not one of those times so I had to manually over-ride it. There is no way I’m going to bed smelling like an ox so I’ll wait up until the water is at a decent temperature.

In other news: I’ve taken on the role of events manager at Lionheart Virtual Estate and I am really excited about it. As for the [DV] Store; it has recently been torn down to make space for a new “life size” virtual office which will be the new DAVIDVENTER.NET headquarters in SL. There will also be a new photo studio and a complete information center on all the services that I offer in both the real and the virtual world. Watch this space for more information about that coming soon.

The Miss Virtual World website update is long over-due. I’ll be working on that in the coming days so that the updates go live before the main event. I still haven’t received any word from BlackBarbie or Frolic about any sponsorships so I’ve been postponing the updates since I’m not earning anything from it anyway. I was also quite sad to not see my name as part of the web team in the BOSL magazine. Here’s hoping that the situation will improve soon.

I’m stressing about my Virtual Fashion Look of the Week since I haven’t had the time (or the money) to fashion a new look for this week yet. I might discontinue the Virtual Fashion Look of the Week and turn it into a Look of the Month instead, unless of course other content creators start flooding my inventory with stuff to blog.

That’s all the reporting, rambling and ranting you’ll get from me today since I’m writing this post on my mobile and don’t feel like typing lengthy essays on this tiny keyboard. Time for bath, Jira and bed. Till next time…

~ Much Love. xxx

Recently a few people have been asking me where to get custom branded promotional items and corporate gifts for their businesses. A lot of people have been asking about promotional apparel especially. As per usual I recommend using old faithful (the Internet) to find the right product or service provider for your specific needs. Although, since you’ve asked I’ll make my suggestion: Branders, a California based company appears to have the best service and most comprehensive catalogue from what I’ve seen. Not only are they the worlds largest and most trusted online seller of promotional items but they also charge, on average 20% less than their competitors.

From apparel to stress balls and everything in-between Branders has it all. Before doing business with various different service providers for different promotional items consider using a trusted one-stop-shop that can provide you with everything in one place. Branders offers an on-time shipment guarantee, free samples and free artwork enhancement. They even maintain a Giveaways Guru blog with some really awesome promotional ideas that could help boost your business. If you struggle finding the right stuff they’ve made it easy by providing industry targeted promotional items to cater for your specific target market.Visit their website at www.branders.com or if you prefer dealing with them via telephone you can contact customer service on 1-877-272-6337 from 9am – 9pm EST, Mon – Fri.

Feel free to contact me If you need further advice or information about promotion items or marketing ideas. I will gladly help you find the right product or service provider.

[My Fashion Sales]

Over the past few months I’ve experienced many problems with the data center at which my this website and all of my client’s websites were hosted. Intermittent router issues at the data center caused the email and database servers to stop resolving at the most inconvenient of times. Since May I’ve lost a few clients due to the network issues at the data center which got me to seriously re-evaluate my partnership agreements. I am now happy to announce that I have established a new partnership with leading hosting service provider, BlueHost.

I have already successfully moved this website to the new data center and I am in the process of moving all of my client’s sites over as well. No longer will you be seeing the frustrating “Unable to connect to database” error messages, php memory errors or 404 error pages. As a result of this new agreement The WebHostBox Company website will soon be taken offline and re-directed to BlueHost.

All agreements currently in place between The WebHostBox Company and clients will be honored and clients with active hosting accounts will be moved over to the new servers free of charge. Upon hosting or domain name renewal however, clients will have the option to either register for a new account via BlueHost or to drop service entirely and move to another service provider. This information will be going out to all clients of The WebHostBox Company before the end of June 2011 but since most have signed up for my RSS feed here I thought that a quick “heads-up” would be in order.

Now that I’ve moved my website to the new server and no longer experience the annoying error messaged that most of The WebHostBox Company clients have also been experiencing, you can expect to see a lot more articles being published on a weekly and even daily basis. Many thanks to everyone who have continued to support me in my personal and business ventures.

Watch the video below where Steve Jobs presents Apple’s new office concept to the Cupertino city council. if everything goes as planned the mothership will be landing in 2015.

The proposed building reminds me of the futuristic city concepts of the Venus Project. I think that this building will become an important landmark in our society and that other companies will follow suit by embracing futuristic environmentally friendly architecture. So exciting!

Efforts to improve operating focus and cost structure have resulted in two consecutive quarters of strong cash flow and profitability with Q1, 2011 the most successful in Linden Lab’s history.

Regarding customer support, Linden Lab made some changes late last year that unfortunately Impacted Residents with longer resolution times. Over the last few months, Linden Lab have worked through the backlog and have returned 24- to 48-hour resolution times for nearly all types of issues. They continue to add resources and adjust processes to further improve resolution times and customer satisfaction, especially for more complex issues.

After launching the new SL Viewer with Basic and Advanced modes in late Q1, 2011 and improving the new user registration experience in early Q2, 2011 Linden Lab have seen over 33% improvement in new daily completed registrations when compared to recent months. This is an early indicator that usability improvements are having an initial positive impact with more significant ones still to be delivered over the coming weeks and months.

In Q1, 2011 measures of the size and strength of the Second Life Linden Dollar economy improved slightly while users, usage and world size were consistent with the last few quarters.

DAILY COMPLETED REGISTRATIONS
There has been a positive trend since the new registration experience was introduced in April 11.

AVERAGE MONTHLY REPEAT LOGINS
Average monthly repeat logins have been virtually unchanged over the previous 3 quarters.

USER HOURS
Similarly, user hours have remained consistent over the last 3 quarters.

AVERAGE EXCHANGE RATE
The value of the Linden dollar has continued to improve from Q4, 2010 and is at its highest level in the last 6 quarters.

*Note that the exchange rate is expressed in L$/USD, meaning larger numbers represent a lower L$ value and smaller numbers represent a higher L$ value. The average rate is calculated by dividing the total L$ exchanged through the LindeX by the total USD exchanged through the LindeX in the quarter.

L$ SUPPLY
The US dollar value of Linden dollars held by Residents of Second Life has increased for the third consecutive quarter.

LINDEX VOLUME
In Q1, 2011 the LindeX Volume was at its highest level in the last 6 quarters.

WORLD SIZE
World size has also stayed within 1% range over the last 3 quarters.

[Source: Second Life > Blogs > Featured News]

Quick, grab some cake and candy because it’s time for a celebration! I am proud to announce that DAVIDVENTER.NET has crossed over into its second year on the web. Even though I have been blogging since 2005, this very site has only been live on the world wide web since March 21, 2010. – Just in case you’re wondering: Yes, this did slip my mind which is why I am only posting about this 4 days later than on the actual creation date.

Since the launch of DAVIDVENTER.NET, I have posted 471 articles and received 247 comments. – I would like to take this opportunity to look back at a few highlights from the last 12 months:

• In March of 2010 I adopted a new puppy.
• I also shared my American dream in March.
• In April of 2010 I joined DailyBooth.
• In August of 2010 I shared a very important article.
• In January of 2011 I thanked YOU for your support.
• I also had a fun photo session in January.
• In February of 2011 I covered New York Fashion Week.
• And most recently I took up a new hobby.

Looking back at it now I find it sad that there were so few highlights, to be honest. Last year was not the best of years and I even blogged about it being a shitty year when I posted the “Reaching The End of 2010 – Good Riddance” article. – I trust that 2011 and the next 12 months of DAVIDVENTER.NET will be filled with great success. And come this time next year I will hopefully be able to share many more highlights that are going to be a million times more exciting than the ones above.

Thanks again for all your support! – Happy Birthday Me!! *Yay* \o/ Let’s party like a one year old. GooGoo xxx – On second thought, let’s not! Bring on the booze, the tunes and the dirty words! FUCK YEAH!!!

Following up on the previous article from my Personal Blog a new opportunity has presented itself. This opportunity involves a large project that could very well get my business back on track and provide a way for me to improve current circumstances financially as well as emotionally.

I am yet to meet with the director of the company to discuss the project after which I will be required to put together a detailed proposal for consideration. As before, I do not want to give away too much information here because just in case things do not work out the way that I have planned but I will share one picture that might possibly give you a little bit of an idea as to where the project is situated:

Obviously I do not want to count my chickens before they hatch but this is a great opportunity for which I am very grateful to be in the running. Not only could this allow me to finally use my abilities to their full extent and to prove once and for all what I am capable of, but it will also give my business a new running start allowing me to finally practice my creative leadership skills and to build a little empire of my own by having this specific client on my portfolio.

Please send some positive energy my way because I really need this opportunity. It would kick start my professional future and put me on track towards achieving what I have always desired. – Watch this space for further updates within the next few weeks regarding this specific opportunity.

Blogging is not what it used to be. It has become a mainstream activity that is rarely taken seriously by anyone since it became possible for any Internet newbie to create their own blog with very little effort and zero cost thanks to Blogger, Tumblr, WordPress, etc… Many newbie bloggers simply use their blog as a space to vent or post an online journal in the classic ‘dear diary’ style yet they fail to realize that blogging can actually be so much more. There are many pro-bloggers two whom blogging is a full time job as well as a pay check at the end of the month. Unfortunately due to the mass increase of free blogging tools the general public have started abusing the blogosphere and we now have to work more than twice as hard as we have had to a year or two ago in order to remain a step above the rest.

Competition is healthy in any industry but I think that with so many people not taking blogging seriously anymore this is not competition, it’s ignorance. With millions of amateur bloggers to stand up against, we are facing a fork in the road: We’ll either become the envy of all amateur bloggers or we’ll be mistaken as amateur-bloggers and thus lose our credibility or simply not being taken seriously.

Many amateur bloggers fail to realize that most of the news and fashion sites that they visit such as the CNN or the New York Times websites, for example, are actually well constructed blogs that are taken seriously by billions of people from all over the globe. Let’s take a look at the meaning of the word ‘blog’ shall we?

Read the rest of this article »

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has taken another leave of absence for medical reasons. Yesterday Steve sent the following email to members of staff:

Team,

At my request, the board of directors has granted me a medical leave of absence so I can focus on my health. I will continue as CEO and be involved in major strategic decisions for the company.

I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for all of Apple’s day to day operations. I have great confidence that Tim and the rest of the executive management team will do a terrific job executing the exciting plans we have in place for 2011.

I love Apple so much and hope to be back as soon as I can. In the meantime, my family and I would deeply appreciate respect for our privacy.

Steve

I really hope that you get well soon Steve, Apple just isn’t the same without you!

UPDATE: Voting is now closed. The top three requested topics are: 1) Personal 2) Fashion 3) Lifestyle. I am really glad that you guys voted for these topics because this is the exact direction in which I have planned to take with this blog. You can expect to see a lot more personal, fashion, and lifestyle related posts.

-

I would like to know what you would like to read about so I have set up a readers poll to discover just that. Please take some time to vote on your favorite topic. – My website received an average of 4000 unique visitors per month (not much I know, but it’s been growing) and I would like to get to know my audience so I have decided to leave this poll active until I have received at least 200 votes (a small percentage in comparison to the viewer count). I have no idea how long that is going to take. It could take a few days or a few months, all depending on whether you, my dear readers would like to tell me what you want to read more about here on davidventer.net – Let the voting begin…

( See Website Sidebar -> )

I’ll update this post with the results once I have received at least 200 votes.

As I am working freelance I generally get to choose when and where I vacation. Initially I had planned on taking leave from December 25th until January 12th. I am now at home in Johannesburg and getting bored with not doing much during my time off. I’m not one to sit around and do nothing all day, sure it can be relaxing at times but it does get a bit boring after a while and why hinder progress? I’ve decided to cut my holiday short to start progressing towards my goals for 2011.

With that said, I’m ready to take on some more graphic and website design projects on a remote freelance or contractual basis. If you are looking to work one-on-one (remotely) with a graphic/web designer instead of working through a large corporation, I’m your guy. Or maybe you know of someone in need of my services and you can be an angel by referring them to me. I can really do with some income right now!

If I’ve still got your attention and you haven’t clicked away from this article yet, I will go ahead by telling you more about what I do. Web/Graphic design is my passion and I have over 6 years experience in the industry, having worked with many clients from all over the globe. I even held a few senior positions but decided to break away to freelancing again when the company restructured and put annoying employee rules and regulations in place. I’m not the type of guy to be put into a box. I like my freedom. Creative minds should never be confined to boring work standards. Freedom = Creation. Anyhow.. I put a lot of research, planning, energy and effort into the work that I produce.

I can assist with the following:

• Corporate Identity Design (Logo, Business Card, Letter Head)
• Website Design (Static CSS/HTML or Custom WordPress CMS)
• Domain Registration (via my sponsor – The WebHostBox Company)
• Web & Email Hosting (via my sponsor – The WebHostBox Company)

My rates vary according to project requirements but I generally work at a fixed hourly rate of USD $100 per hour for Graphic Design, a flat rate of USD $650 for a basic Static HTML website (with up to 10 pages) and a flat rate of USD $850 for a Custom WordPress website (with up to 10 pages). These fees are of course only an indication and fully negotiable depending on the amount of work required for the project. I just wanted to put it out there so that I will hopefully stop receiving requests to build professional database driven websites for under USD $100 because that is not going to happen. If you like what you see, and you’ve got a decent budget to work with then please, hit me up!

CLICK HERE if you are interested in working with me. You won’t be disappointed

A while ago I was approached by Frolic Mills, one of Second Life‘s most prominent residents, to develop and maintain a website for the annual Miss Virtual World pageant. I am proud to announce that the Miss Virtual World website is live and ready. It’s actually been live since the day before the Miss Virtual World 2011 pageant but I’ve been too busy to even think about updating my blog.

Miss Virtual World provides experienced Second Life residents the opportunity to represent their country and sponsors in this pageant, they even win some real money. Click here to learn more about the Miss Virtual World pageant and while you’re over there have a look around, pop back here and tell me what you think about the website.

Nelson Linden has updated us with the latest Second Life Economy statistics for the third quarter of 2010. Click here if you haven’t yet seen the second quarter economy statistics. The Second Life economy continues to be steady, with nearly all key measures staying within a narrow range of just a few percentage points up or down over the last year. The largest changes compared to last year’s Q3 were an increase of 7.2% in World Size, a decline of 11% in User Hours, and a 115% increase in Web Merchandise Sales Volume.

Over the last year, the number of people participating in the economy has also been consistent, ranging from 480,000 to 496,000 (currently 486,000), as has L$ Supply, which has ranged from US$25.4 million to US$26.2 million, and was at a 12-month high in Q3.

Monthly Repeat Logins

Average Monthly Repeat Logins fell 2.1% from Q2 but still rose 5.3% year over year.

User Hours

User Hours fell 3.7% from Q2 and 11.0% year over year. The most significant quarter-to-quarter loss of user hours was from the heaviest usage segment (accounts logging over 300 hours per month).

Monthly Economic Participants

Active economic participants fell 1.0% from Q2 and year over year.

Exchange Rate

As expected from the fluctuations in June, the average exchange rate of L$ per US$ rose 1.7% from Q2, or 2.5% year over year. Note that a rise in the L$ exchange rate represents a drop in the value of the L$, as one US$ now buys more L$ than it did last quarter.

L$ (Linden Dollar) Supply

The equivalent US$ value of all Resident-held L$ grew 1.2% from Q2, or 6.1% year over year. Although there may have been fewer economically active accounts in Q3, this suggests the L$ in those accounts did not exit Second Life.

LindeX Volume

LindeX volume in Q3 fell 3.8% from Q2 and 2.8% from Q3 2009. With fewer economic participants, there was less need to replenish L$ balances from the LindeX.

Web Merchant Sales Volume

Total sales volume on both Xstreet SL and the new SL Marketplace rose 8.5% from Q2 and grew 115.2% year over year. Note that the SL Marketplace was only in beta during Q3 and makes up less than 10% of total Q3 Web volume.

World Size

Total world size fell 1.4% from Q2 and grew 7.2% year over year.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW ORIGINAL ARTICLE WITH RESIDENT FEEDBACK

Even though I have been blogging for a really long time, this is and always will be a work-in-progress. So please bear with me if you notice anything out of the ordinary.

Ideally I would like to post one article per day in each of the blog categories but I have been unable to do that for reasons which are out of my control. That is all about to change if things will go as planned from this point onwards. You see, some events in my personal life has forced me to re-evaluate my priorities in terms of what I really want out of life and what I am doing in order to get there. Things haven’t really been going as planned and I was literally on the brink of giving up entirely and closing down or selling my business.

A serious lack of new projects in the last few months have made things really difficult for me financially. So difficult in fact that I couldn’t even pay all of my bills and had to seriously scale down on things in general. Yes, I’m being totally honest here, there is no point in me trying to pretend that I run a huge successful company when I’m in reality struggling to make ends meet. Thus I have come to the point where I need to re-evaluate my priorities and re-think my strategies for future success.

I’ve been in business since quarter 4, 2006, officially and legally incorporated since June 2007. My business has been proving well for my needs but lately its just not helping anymore. After about 4 years I’m still unable to show a good turn-over, barely covering the bills and in more recent months not even being able to cover everything. I cannot afford to pay out a salary for my assistant and my advertising budget has dropped down to ZAR 100 a month. Yes, that’s how bad it is.

For the most part I have been making more money from my blog and Second Life thanks to a few sponsored ads and DJing at virtual clubs but in all honesty that doesn’t provide nearly enough to cover even the bare essentials. It’s time for me to take a step back, sit down and re-evaluate the situation and my priorities to find a way to get out of this lower-class pit that I have fallen into. Once upon a time I had it all, business was doing great, I was driving a stunning little car, living it up in a luxury apartment and could afford most things, now I am living with my parents, barely surviving.

The point of this article was to create buzz for what I have planned in regards to blogging and vlogging but now it has turned into a personal pity party. Sorry about that but I need to vent. I’ll stop complaining about what is wrong in my life by turning the situation into a motivational tool.

First of all, I have read that gratitude plays a very important role in moving forward in life. If you aren’t grateful for what you have, it is said that you will never have more. So instead of continuing my venting about what I don’t have, I’ll take some time to show gratitude for what I do have.

I’m young, healthy and I have a great future ahead of me. I have friends and family that love me, support me and care for me deeply. I have a roof over my head and food in my stomach. I have my own business with potential to grow into a multi- million dollar international corporation. I have an Apple iMac, something which I have wanted since the first day that it was released.I have uncapped internet which allows me to take full advantage of the technology that I own. I have the cutest little puppy in the world. I have a boyfriend that loves, supports and respects me. I have many followers that support me. I am happy, grateful and celebrate each day. Thank you. From here I can work hard and achieve great things but only if I prioritize and plan effectively.

It has been said that you will never be able to become truly wealthy unless you are doing what you love, thus my priorities are now shifting to put what I love way ahead of what I can do for money. If I make a great success of what I love it will eventually generate money and open up doors for many other things including my business. What I love is blogging, vlogging and virtual content creation in Second Life. It’s me, it’s my passion. It’s what I am going to focus on. Don’t get me wrong, I do love designing and building websites and I will never entirely drop my company but I will only work with those who truly appreciate my work and those who understand that good service is not cheap. Instead of focusing on my lack of web development projects and moaning about what I don’t have I will be grateful for what I do have and divert my attention to what I truly enjoy doing instead of running after clients that can’t afford my service in the first place or clients that expect everything for free.

My business is there, its not going away, I have partnered with top industry service providers and I’m here for anyone who needs me but It’s time for me to stop flogging a dead horse . I’m going to move on to focus on doing what I love and hopefully it will generate some cash in the process otherwise I might be forced to look into finding a job and working for someone else again, which I promised myself will never happen. The day that I became self-employed is the day that I made a promise to myself to always provide for and be in control of myself, my time and my money. This is going to be a tough couple of months ahead but I am working on a master plan that will hopefully change my life for the better. I’m still planning on migrating to the United States and doing everything in my power to achieve that goal, the only thing holding me back right now is my financial situation so here’s hoping for improvement.

I am going to put a lot of energy into my blog from this point forward and I’m going to work hard at creating more virtual content for Second Life. I might even take up modeling and extra-acting again in local soap opera and TV series. Please check back often, stick around and enjoy my real and virtual life with me. Thanks for all the support from my blog readers, twitter followers and Second Life family and friends. I love you guys!!

Have you ever wanted to know how you competitors are performing on the Internet? Being in the industry of providing web services it has always been a necessity for me to be able to see which keywords are being used by competitors, how much they are spending on advertising, how affective their keywords are, and how they write their ads. Now to go about finding this information manually can be quite a daunting task and in most cases you will not be able to discover real results. All of that has changed.

There is a service available that allows you to see competitor advertising strategies, monitor keyword performance, uncover top products, super-affiliates, view advanced reports and more. KeywordSpy offers all of this and they serve some of the most reputable companies such as Toyota, American Express, IBM and many others. Now you too can access this state-of-the-art system in order to improve your online advertising campaigns and keep your ad quality score consistently high.

Of course you would expect something like this to be quite costly but it seems like this might be your lucky day. You can now get a 20% discount on your subscription by using this keywordspy promo code.

For those of you who still don’t know what Second Life is, click here. This online virtual world actually has its own economy and currency, the Linden Dollar, which trades against the US Dollar. Second Life residents and buy and sell Lindens in Exchange for Real money. There are millions of users making a full-time living by creating and selling content in the Second Life Virtual world.

An update from the official Second Life website shows that the Second Life economy remained stable in the second quarter of 2010. Despite one-time events that affected a number of metrics. The most notable economic event of the second quarter was a temporary decrease in the exchange rate of the L$ vs. the US dollar in mid-June that was since returned to typical levels. Research in the weeks since this occurred indicates this change was due in large part to Linden Lab’s merge of residents in-world and XstreetSL L$ balances. This had the temporary effect of deducing L$ purchase volume as residents lowered the total amount of L$’s they were holding because they now had one combined account. Previously, residents held a higher combined L$ balance in to separate accounts and purchased L$’s more frequently when they were keeping a minimum balance in each.

Monthly Repeat Logins

Monthly Repeat Logins indicated improved retention and engagement over recent quarters:

• Q2, 2010 averaged 805 million monthly repeat logins, a rise of 8.6 percent vs. Q2, 2009 average of 742 million.
• Levels are flat with Q1, 2010.

User Hours:

User Hours were slightly lower, at 108 million for the quarter.

• The Q2, 2009 User Hours figure of 126 million includes substantial usage attributes to “bots” and other scripted agents. Bot policy changes took place in mid-Q2 2009, making it difficult to make accurate comparisons with the year-ago period.
• User Hours in Q1, 2010 totaled 116 million.

Monthly Economic Participants:

Monthly Economic Participants (those accounts that receive or distribute L$ in a given month) are the most active and engaged participants in Second Life and the economy. Economic participation in the second quarter, on average, was flat against the previous quarter, and rose against the same period a year ago.

Exchange Rate:

The average Linden dollar exchange rate moved from approximately L$261 per US dollar at the beginning of the quarter, to just under L$269 per US dollar at the end and fluctuated across a larger range for two weeks during June (see second chart below). Average exchange rates, however, remain largely unchanged. As noted above, research indicates this change was due to a merge of residents in-world and XstreetSL L$ balance and temporary market uncertainty immediately after the announcements of Linden Lab’s restructuring and changes in senior management.

L$ (Linden dollar) Supply:

Linden Lab is improving and changing how they report the L$ supply with this quarter’s figures. Previously, this metric did not include individual XStreetSL account balances, and misclassified some administrative accounts as resident accounts. For this quarter Linden Lab have updated the calculation to include only resident accounts, and have summed their balances across both XstreetSL and in-world. This number now more accurately represents the total purchasing power of all residents in Second Life. (Both old and new methods of calculation are displayed in the chart below)

• L$ Supply in Q2 was US$78.2 million vs US$77.9 in Q1.

LindeX Volume:

Historically, LindeX volume has been very stable, and the slight decline from Q1 is within past ranges. This metric is traditionally less volatile than many other indicators that Linden Lab report, and they expect this behavior to continue.

• LindeX trading volume of US$29.4 million in Q2, 2010 was up slightly against the year-ago Q2 volume of US$29.1 million, but off from Q1′s US$30.7 million.

XStreetSL Merchandise Sales Volume:

Q2, 2010 saw 39% growth in sales over Q1, 2010 and 124% growth over the same quarter a year earlier. The primary driver of this growth was the merging of users’ XStreetSL and Second Life Linden dollar balances. This simplified the purchase process on XStreet, producing an immediate jump in sales volume. In addition to the benefits of the balance merge, Linden Lab continues to show healthy growth from the acquisition of new users paired with the development of new creative products from XStreet merchants. Q2 continued the trend of setting record sales volume an this quarter in particular contained an important milestone, as XStreetSL had it’s first month with over US$1 million worth of sales.

World Size:

World Size grew up to 2,110 square kilometers at the end of Q2, from 2,070 at the end of the previous quarter, and 1,900 for the year-ago period. Private regions accounted for the largest portion of in-world land (44 percent), and private homesteads the next largest (36 percent). Mainland regions accounted for 19 percent of the total in-world and mass.

Ok, I know what you are thinking. Sure you’re heard this before, but this time the topic is something personal that I am struggling with, especially in terms of business. Some of you may recall that I have blogged about this topic before. I’d be grateful if you could sit through this one, read it thoroughly and leave your thoughts in comments below.

An article written on January 8th about “Biz 2.0 – The Future of the Workplace.” talks about stereotypes in the workplace and how they limit potential. Click here to open the article in a new window. When you are done reading please close the window of the Biz 2.0 article, then return to this window to continue reading this article.

Read the rest of this article »

We at Vervean Media have been working hard to deliver high quality, interactive websites for our clients. I would like to thank everyone involved; our teams from South Africa, America and India. Below are some of our most resent website design projects.

Click on an image below to open a website in a new window/tab:

Do you have a website? If not, then its about time you get one! Contact Vervean Media for affordable, Professional Website Design Services. Click here to visit the Vervean Media Website.

According to the White House Blog, President Obama travelled to Seattle, Washington and met with three local small business owners, Senator Parry Murray and Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke in a roundtable discussion about strengthening the economy and creating jobs. The President met with Gillian Allen-White, owner of Grand Central Bakery in Seattle and Portland; Tiffany Turner, owner of the Discovery Coast Inn in Long Beach; and Joe Fugere, owner of Tutta Bella Neapolitan Pizzeria in Seattle.

Small businesses create two out of every three new jobs in America. During his remarks after the roundtable discussion, the President called small businesses “the backbone of our economy and the cornerstones of our communities,” and discussed the importance of supporting them during these touch economic times. Ready to start your own business? Click here.

US clothing chain American Apparel has revealed that it is facing bankruptcy. The discount retailer, which has more then 280 stores worldwide, said debts has mounted to more then $120m.

This news sent it shares down by 22% on the American stock exchange to $1.08.

The retailer expects losses to continue and warned that it may not have sufficient liquidity necessary to sustain operations for the next twelve months. These factors among others, raise substantial doubt that the company will be able to continue as a going concern. The company has faces several problems in recent months, from underperforming results to mass layoffs of illegal workers.

American Apparel targeted urban fashion tastes with items such as shiny spandex leggings and cotton t-shirts. But it has been trying to re-position itself with a more conservative ‘preppy’ look, leaving much to be desired.

This budget brand hardly comes close to other strong international brands originated in the US.