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)

 

LIFE ON IMVU

Until now i had one year live in the IMVU World, many thing that i have experienced, of friendship, love life, attempts to create a product and other thing. I'm writing this, do not mean to boast., but just wanted to share the experience, because there are many people who are better than me. 

About friendship, i'm not very good at getting along with others, My friend just a little, many friends who have a lot of friends. How to make friends and hang out on imvu, of course we had to go in room. sometimes someone throw a party, get in that room , say hi with politely, introduce yourself and talk. My friend just a little, but I'm trying to get to know them well, sometimes my wife says my friend very much, so a little or a lot of is still a relative thing :D. Here we can see, behavior, speech, everyone has a different behavior may be based on his life in the real world. 

Everyone has a different way of life here, there are people who are just looking for love and enjoy the beauty set of room, some are just looking for a job, there are happy both or some are only playing love. People looking for love will focus on the single avatar, while people who playing other people will play more than one avatar, he will continue to repeat and repeat. So, how i run living here, it all depends on my personal. 

About love life, romanticism, mine,  is not your business hehe... :P , you just need to know everything is possible but loyalty is not a difficult thing to do. And most important in love is mutual trust, each honest, play in public room, privacy room only used only for specific (love) service.

About create a product, I'm just the new guy trying to be a good creator, till now i only have a few products./lol.  Later i will write more about create a product. Here we will see and understand the flow of the IMVU economy world. 

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

How to make IMVU Video

Very exciting if you have fun and be able to document them. In IMVU documentation can be done by taking a picture.  IMVU already have an integrated tool to taking a picture. But if you want to make IMVU Video theres is no integrated tools.

IMVU environment includes its own setting, lighting, and in the case of Furniture Rooms, props. The IMVU gives you 360 degree movement, and don’t forget avatar animations, both individual and cooperative. Now all you need to do is find a way to grab that movement and get it into a form you can edit together

I have my own way to make IMVU Video, this time i will tell you, how to make IMVU Video. Here is the way :

1. Prepare for the Screen capturing tools (you can use any screen capture tool that already familiar with you), i just have snagit software, so i use that. You can find this software at here or oldest full crack version here. Or Microsoft itself has the tools named Microsoft Expression Encoder.
2. In order for not to slow, Set Screen Resolution to 1024x768 True Color (32bit), but if you have highclass computer spesification and high speed internet, this step is not need.
3. Start your IMVU Client software, invite friend, search nice dance pose
4. Begin Recording :) while playing a movement wheel with your mouse, and save every scene files.
5. Remove backsound noise, and set 16:9 video size. for this step, i used Total Video Converter software.
6. Search a nice mp3 you will insert to IMVU Video
7. Begin used Windows Live Movie Maker, make new project file 

• Add the scene files and mp3 song
• Use your imagination on this video editor to use animation effect, start n stop position and so on.
• Save Your Movie with  426x240 pixel wide screen.
• Upload your IMVU Video to youtube.

Most importantly, it is essential to remember that although some of these applications look scary, you only need to know how to use enough of them to do just what is necessary to create your video project

Only that,  good work. ;)

This is my example video :

If you want to watch all my IMVU Video, you can find it at here

IMVU Creator Program

I have several time met with some of the IMVU creators, and makes me wonder.. what the advantages of being a creator's. Until now i still gathering information by asking questions to friend and read in IMVU website. 

They say, if we join to the IMVU creator program, IMVU will give us the basic tool to get started and the rest is up to our imagination. By being a creator we can create our own design, the more challenging with a hard work and a little capital, we may discover a lucrative side business that will earn our financial rewards as we continue to develop as an entrepreneur and artist, ..hmm.. the question is, is there anyone that has experience a lot of money from this business

Of interesting is, a creator has a potential to make real money, the plot may like this :
Creator makes product  > Consumer buy product with credits > Creator sells credits to reseller

But IMVU determine the rules, creator sale of credits to an accredited Credits Reseller is fine, however, this creator account cannot engage in the resale of credits to other IMVU users.

I read at IMVU forum, and found this opinion:

When you start you just make things for yourself and a few friends, and it costs you money.  

You start making a few sales then figure if only you could make enough to support your own shopping addiction.  

You make enough to cover your own addiction but then you feel like a billionaire and start feeding all your friends as well.  

Friends of friends of friends start asking you for gifts and you realize just how stupid you are so you stop buying for others... own the catalogue yourself and your credits build up and up til it dawns on you that they can be sold.  

And from that point you decide if you want to put more effort it and really then the sky is the limit depending on how much skills you learn, sleep you want and how much you butt can handle sitting in a chair all day.  

The CEO of IMVU reported last year that the top earners here were doing 100k a year, but I can tell you right now its a lot more than that, probably closer to 250k but to be at that level, you need staff, years of experience and are quiet a good sized business.  

You initial goal as a developer though should be to make enough to cover your costs and its not as easy as it seems especially if you have no prior experience in graphics or marketing. IMVU is a market place, developers just rent stalls, some go home broke and some go home with fits fulls of money. Main thing is to have fun, meet new people, learn new skills

I also still read myself if i could take the time to be creator. May be i will try.