DTs and IMVU Economy 2.1

 How you get Developer Tokens

When you get sales that result in no credit profit, this either means that:

1. You are selling your product for the base price. No markup from the base price = no profit.
2. The customer used promotional credits to purchase the product and you received one Developer Token rather than your credit markup. When this is the case you always get 1 Developer Token for each sale regardless of your normal markup/profit.

You can also get Developer Tokens if you have stickers on your homepage. When people click the "buy this sticker" link on your homepage and buy the sticker, you get a Developer Token as a sort of referral bonus. Currently anyone can get Developer Tokens this way.



How you use Developer Tokens

Non-registered members (members with Guest_ in front of their name) cannot currently use Developer Tokens.

Registered members (developers and non-developers) can use Developer Tokens to reduce or eliminate the cost of shout-outs. For this purpose each developer token reduces the price by 10 credits each. If you have Developer Tokens they are automatically used to reduce the price of any shout-out you buy.

Developers (only) can use developer tokens to reduce the catalog submission fee when submitting an item to the catalog. For this purpose each developer token reduces the price by 10 credits each. This only applies to the submission fee paid to IMVU, this never applies to the derivation fee paid to developers


So you want to be an IMVU developer huh? If you want to do it for fun then by all means, jump right on it. If you're looking at developing for IMVU as a business proposition however you should take a moment to become with how the economy works. Things have changed a lot from the early days of IMVU. It can still be a very lucrative business for the right kind of entrepreneurial artist, but understanding how you can make money before you start is important.

Making Money as a Developer

Unlike a salary job in the real world, the amount of time you spend working on a product does not directly affect how much money you can expect to make out of it. Talent, business savvy, and luck are much bigger factors. You also don't get paid for your work all at once. When you sell products in the IMVU catalog, people are spending small amounts of money to buy your product. In addition to this you only get a portion of what they spend, and you get paid in virtual credits.

IMVU allows developers to sell credits. They benefit just as much from selling credits them selves as they do from developers selling their products on IMVU. The ability to resell credits is the developer's incentive to participate in the IMVU economy. IMVU has more products in it's catalog, and developers have virtual credits they can sell for cash. This arrangement is mutually beneficial.

Because IMVU sales credits for a certain amount, developers generally have to sell credits for less in order to compete. Without the incentive of a cheaper price, there is little reason for an IMVU user to buy from a developer rather than IMVU directly.

The important point to note is that you will make very little money on average per sale, literally pennies in most cases. The good news is these pennies add up to dollars as you get more and more sales. You can think of your business on IMVU as more of a royalty than a salary. The lucrative end of the deal is that the work you do today continues to pay off over time for weeks, months, and sometimes even years after the work is done.

How Developers are Paid

There are two types of currency on IMVU. Credits, which customers pay for with money, and promo-credits or predits, which are free. The debate over the value, logistics, and fairness of promo-credits is beyond the scope of this explanation of the economy. Needless to say there are people that feel adamantly that promo-credits are unfair because they are a way for IMVU users to purchase products that result in very little compensation to the developer. There are also people that see promo-credits as a necessary component of the virtual economy, and should be considered a business expense of sorts. There are valid claims on both sides of the fence and the debate is ongoing.

Promo-credits are a harsh fact of doing business on IMVU. They are useful for getting new users and that means more paying customers, but result in sales which developers get little compensation for.

To understand how purchases work look at the diagram below: 

1. When customers purchase your 3d product, if they purchase it for themselves and they have any promo-credits they will pay for it with promo credits. If they don't have promo-credits or of they are purchasing the product as a gift for someone else they will use credits. In some cases they will have some promo-credits but not enough to cover the entire cost of the product. When this happens they will pay part of the cost with what promo-credits they have left and the remainder with credits.

2. Each time a product is purchased IMVU gets 250 credits or promo-credits. These are effectively destroyed. IMVU does not "recycle" credits because they have no need to. They can create as many credits as they want at no cost because credits are simply a virtual currency. IMVU always creates exactly enough credits to cover what people are purchasing. IMVU cannot "run out" of credits or have a surplus. Out of what is left, each developer that made part of the sold product gets their markup price in credits if credits were used to pay for the product or a developer token if predits were used to.

3. Developers can then choose to sell any credits they have made for cash, or re-invest them in the IMVU economy. They can buy other developers 3d products, advertise their own products, or use the credits to cover the cost of submitting more products to the catalog. If a developer gets a developer token for a sale, each developer token can be redeemed for 10 credits worth of advertising or 10 credits off the price of submitting a product to the catalog.

As you can see, getting credits is obviously preferable to developer tokens. Most products you will sell in the catalog will have a markup higher than 10 credits, so there can be a significant profit loss in addition to the fact that you cannot sale developer tokens.

The Bigger Picture

To get a better understanding of how developer tokens come into play, we can zoom out slightly and see the IMVU economy in general: 

 1. Credits are always purchased, promo-credits can be earned in a number of ways, but they are always free.

2. The the non-developer, credits and promo-credits are virtually the same thing. The only real difference is that promo-credits cannot be used to gift products to other users. Promo-credits can also not be transfered.

3. When users spend credits or promo-credits to purchase services or do other things on IMVU that doesn't involve developers all of the credits and promo-credits simply go away. When they buy 3d products made by developers IMVU still takes a portion of the payment and it goes away. What is left goes to the developers, but only credits go directly to the developer. Promo-credits are never used to compensate developers for sales.
4. Credits can be cycled through the economy because they represent real money coming in and going out. It is undesirable for promo-credits to cycle this way since this creates loopholes that might be scamed. To prevent promo-credits from cycling, developers are never compensated with them. Instead developer tokens are issued. These can be used for some things developers would find useful, but they cannot be used for anything that would compensate another developer. This is how cycling is prevented. Only IMVU can receive developer tokens, and like credits and promo-credits they are destroyed when IMVU receives them.

5. Obviously, credits are most desirable because they can be sold

Virtual Job on IMVU

In IMVU, the way to get credits is not by getting a virtual Job. However, you can search groups that are hiring and willing to pay you credits for whatever they want. You would work in a public room and get credits. You can also Earn Credits as you probably know. See if in any of your groups they have a public room & are hiring. If not, look for frequented public rooms and see in the room description if they are hiring. If you are unsure, send a message to the room owner

Non official jobs on IMVU , most pay in credits

• Working in people's rooms as bartenders, DJ's, strippers
• Creating original homepages for people
• Selling avi pics and avi art
• Modeling

Official , More Ways to Get Credits


There are currently several ways to get and earn credits on IMVU including...

• Purchase: Buy credits from IMVU or its Developers. Be sure to avoid these fraudulent resellers, however.
• Referrals: Earn promotional credits for bringing in new users with the Power Earners Program.
• IMVU Movies: Enjoy the drama of IMVU's ongoing web video series! only available in some countries
• Developing: Earn real credits by becoming a Developer. (Will Earn a Token for a Promotional sale)

 

How to make Free IMVU Credits

Perhaps can help some IMVU users to get free IMVU Credits, like me. :). Only promo credit can be done by this way.

Here is how:

• Of course only a new Account that can earn up to maximum Promo Credit, so step one is Create New IMVU Account as and Earn Credit until the maximum you can earn.
• IMVU has partnership with myyearbook.com in exchange currency IMVU Credit with myyearbook (L$). For myyearbook L$ 100.000 = 500cr IMVU
• If you already have an account Myyearbook, login to your myyearbook, if you not have a myyearbook account goto http://myyearbook.com to create account. 

Login to your myyearbook account and follow this step : 

1. Open Three (3) Tab browser. Make sure all the tabs is opened with IMVU Exchange icon (Black icon Color), if no black icon yet refresh your browser until the black icon is appear.
2. Now transfer from new imvu account (source) to myyearbook account. Klik every IMVU exchange icon, a login popup will appear, fill it with using new imvu account. After login and connect with new IMVU Account, change direction  to the left ( << ) and fill right coloum field with numeric 500. After all tabs filled click submit button on every tab as fast as you can do. Your myyearbook account will be charged L$ 300.000.
3. Now tranfer from your myyearbook account to your IMVU account (destination). Same way as in step 2. except the tranfer direction must be to the right (>>).  Klik every IMVU exchange icon, a login popup will appear, fill it with using your IMVU account (destination). After login and connect with your IMVU Account, Fill right coloum field with numeric 500. After all tabs filled, click submit button on every tab as fast as you can do. Your IMVU Account will get 1500 promo credits.

here i show video to imagine step 1 to 3 :

Note: 

• the transfer step can be successfully done every 24 hour from the same source and or destination. so if you do it correctly every 24 hour, you can get 1.500 free IMVU credit to your IMVU avatar. :D . may be sufficient to continue living in IMVU. if not yet sufficient i'll be back with another trick how to get free imvu credits. ;)

Just that. good luck.

IMVU Economy

IMVU contains its own economy with a currency system based on IMVU "credits" and "promotional credits." A third form of currency also exists for members who sell custom-made items, "developer tokens," which are earned when a user purchases an item with "promo credits," also known as "predits." Credits can be purchased online using actual currency either directly from IMVU or from third party resellers. Credits may also be purchased on IMVU gift cards available from retail outlets such as department stores. Credits may not be transferred back from IMVU to actual currency but can be sold to registered resellers who will purchase them for real-world currency. The credits are used by members to purchase virtual items like fashion pieces (hair, clothes, skins, and accessories), pets, and 3D scenes such as homes, clubs and open landscapes. Furniture can also be purchased the same way and placed into unlocked rooms, but there are also rooms that have some furniture included in them as well as locked rooms that include furniture that can not be removed.

Promotional credits, abbreviated to "promo-credits" or "predits," are a second form of currency distributed to members by IMVU and can be obtained by participating in various "Partner" promotions as well as a few activities the IMVU provides. With relation to a standard free or full member, promo-credits are similar to standard credits. A given number of credits equates to the same number of promo-credits. However, promo-credits cannot be used to purchase items as gifts for other members and may not be traded back to an IMVU reseller for actual currency. Promo-credits used to purchase a virtual product are exchanged into "Developer Tokens," also known as "Dev Tokens." The purchase transfers the Predits into Dev Tokens but nets a single developer token per purchase when predits are used regardless of the price of the product purchased.

IMVU allows members that have paid for VIP membership and have had guest_ removed from their username to participate in a 'Content Creator Program', which offers participants software utilities for creating custom, virtual, in-client items.

They may then sell their items by listing them in an online product catalog and IMVU Software the client which allows them to view or try first the products before purchasing. Content creators earn credits when their items are sold and are allowed to resell the credits they earn, though an approved trusted Re-Seller, as they cannot be resold to IMVU itself. Developer tokens appear only if a member pays a developer for a custom item using promo-credits instead of standard credits.

Once received by the content creator, promo-credits automatically translate into developer tokens. One developer token is technically worth ten credits, but developer tokens may be spent only on developer related fees, such as the initial cost that must be paid when putting an item on sale or to buy advertising called a "Shout Out," which buys the purchaser a certain number of placements in the scrolling ads that appears on the top of all IMVU pages