The Decline of IMVU and Potential Earnings
Let’s discuss the future of IMVU… shall we? I know so many of you are eager for a place where you can discuss this topic and say what you really feel without moderators looming over you and cleaning up behind you. So here is your chance to use my personal space as your own.
As a pro developer who uses IMVU as a major source of income, it’s only natural that I hope and pray that IMVU as a company succeeds in the way I believe it should – meaning IMVU makes money as well as provides me with the tools and opportunities required for me to continue profiting from my work. Unfortunately, the last year has shown me a steady decline.
I’ve made a lot of excuses for this – the economy, the summer slowdown, more developers and competition, my lack of desire to create, file sales, etc. I’m sure any one of these and mostly likely a combination is to blame. That said, I just don’t think these things alone are enough to cause the horrendous decline in sales that I have experienced.
Sure, I’m willing to admit that I haven’t worked as hard and a lot of people view me in a different light now because of this website. I get it. But it’s not really even about me – it’s about all of us. How many of you are experiencing a decline so great that you wonder if it’s time to move on… pack your e-bags and take your talent elsewhere? Some days, I feel that way and I’m noticing that more and more IMVUers are migrating to other virtual worlds [not just Second Life although that is the major one].
How much money are we all really making these days? Whoever thinks pro developers are “rich” is sadly mistaken. Remember those days when earning 60-100k in a 24 hour span was a good day? Okay I realize not all of you reading this have experienced that – especially if you’re fairly new to our community. But believe me… some of us used to make that kind of money. I’m sure some still do, but there isn’t a developer that I know personally that is making that kind of money any more – sadly myself included.
IMVU is slowly turning into a monopoly of sorts. The big name brands are taking over and IMVU is quickly taking larger slices of the pie. All of the “sales” they are running for their credits and outright knocking the value of our credits lower with each campaign they run – it’s killing the developing community. Sure, it’s good for the buyers but think about how much you make from a product on average. We’ll say 150 credit profit. In order to make just $5 you would have to make about 10,870 credits (or about 72 sales). That’s a lot of sales to make a measly 5 bucks. But we pro developers used to get that – easy. We used to easily make upwards of 100k or more in a day meaning making $40-$50 for a days work on IMVU was likely.
That used to be $16,426 give or take per year! That’s a full time job getting paid more than the minimum wage in America. Not bad for a job you can do in your favorite pajamas while sipping coffee.
Except now we’re making more like 15-20k per day. That’s what I’m making and while I’m ashamed to say it, I think it’s only right that I be honest. I know a lot of you are making that too because we’ve discussed it. So we’re making more like $10 per day maximum. And now? We’re talking more in the ball park of $3,650 per year. That’s grossly disturbing to me. That means we’re making only about 4.5% of what we were making a year ago. Yes.. can you believe it? That much change in just a year!
Who is IMVU fooling? They suggest sales are up “across the board”… but for who!? More developers of course equals more money to IMVU in the long run, but if everyone were really making more sales, we’d all see an incline in profit and we’re not.
Do these numbers scare you? They should. They scare the hell out of me. They aren’t exact numbers but the ballpark figures are very much real. How do yours compare? I hope you all are doing a hell of a lot better than I am. In order to put food on the table, I have no choice but to continue to sell files thus sadly contributing to apart of the problem. I sell ad space here to help pay for my hosting space. I make a buck where I can. It’s the only way to survive on an IMVU income.
What are your thoughts?
- How much are you making these days? (you don’t need to give a precise answer… I realize that information is very private for some).
- Have you seen a decrease in sales and profit in the last year?
- How much of a decrease have you seen?
- Are you seeking out other online opportunities such as Second Life or another virtual world?
- Has your decline in sales meant that you needed to acquire a job outside of our community?
I’d love for you all to take time to discuss this. I will be moderating comments as usual but I will not edit nor delete your commentary unless I find it to be overly vulgar or potentially harmful to yourself or my website. While I believe heavily in free speech and that this is my website and we can pretty much do whatever we want – I cannot guarantee the safety of your account. IMVU has rights too. So please use caution.
16 Responses to “The Decline of IMVU and Potential Earnings”
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I’ve been on Imvu since 2006 (have had various accounts though) and only recently became a developer myself. I used to be making a set of items every week, but now i find i can’t really be bothered making things as it just takes up the money that i get allocated from my disability support. I have noticed that my sales even though they were small to begin with have lessened, I’m lucky to make a sale every 3 months now. I know I’m probably jabbering but i really don’t make a fuss of things but i feel that we as a community are getting ripped off. I’d love to go to other virtual communities but i can’t afford to, and i couldn’t bear to leave the imvu community as i’ve been a part of it for so long. It probably doesn’t make sense what I’m saying but it’s just observatory.
Did you see the poll topic I posted in the forums which touches on this subject? The results were quite honestly surprising, even taking into account the fact that any one could respond and thus potentially messing with the results.
105 responded (to date) 25 (23%) of those earned over 1 million credits a month – top of the list; 30 (28%) earned less than 25,000 – bottom of the list
http://www.imvu.com/catalog/modules.php?op=modload&name=phpbb2&file=viewtopic.php&t=294213
[...] IMVU has been really pushing sales on their credits thus undercutting the resellers with ease. After all, IMVU can produce all the credits they want and sell them at whatever price they choose. And the more they do this, the less developers are paid. Need I direct you back to my post about the decline of IMVU and potential earnings? [...]
Yes but think about how much money 1 million credits really is. If I earn 1 million credits in a month (which by the way, used to be easy for a pro developer to do) I would make about $460 per month based on a sell rate of $46/100k. That is NOTHING. Last year around this time, I was still averaging 2 million credits per month not counting the amount I was making from file sales and artwork. So a mere $460 per month is just plain sad in comparison to what everyone used to make.
Oh yes totally agree, I was just surprised that some devs were actually earning that as I honestly didn’t think that was possible based on the way the ecomony has been going as of late.
But that 95% loss of income you mention – 16 down to 3 – is astonishing.
If I am mistaken Imvu never stated there website was a supplement to a 45,000 or more job. If anyone read that then please let me know.
As i am disturbed that developers are making less then 20,000 a year, in harsh realty, even without the economy lets be serious your not being pay alot of money considering lets be real, a full time nurse.
So Your putting over 40 hours a week, with less guarantee of making ends met, i know some have childern, medical bills and so forth, so is developing real worth it?
You’re right… IMVU never said that. Actually, no one ever said it. But that isn’t the point whatsoever. Just because IMVU doesn’t say “Hey, earn lots and lots of money comparable to that of a real life job which requires years of secondary education by developing here!” doesn’t mean that many of us hadn’t managed that or better.
The point of my post is that due to economic changes and very poor business practices on IMVU’s part… making high, 5 or 6 figure numbers from developing doesn’t seem possible anymore unless you are one of the very lucky individuals or.. Anshe. My post was intended to be less of a complaint and more of a way to inform, educate and raise awareness in the community that developing doesn’t have the perks or potential for profit that it once had (although for many, this is no news to them).
Is developing worth it? In a financial sense – absolutely not. If you are using IMVU as your main source of income and depending on it at all any more, you’re a fool (and sadly, I have to aim that same comment at myself). It doesn’t matter how many hours you put into your work any more. It doesn’t matter how fantastic your products are marketing strategy are. You’re just not likely to see the results we saw from such work a year ago. Is it still worth it for some? Absolutely. It’s still a fun creative outlet and there is still the potential to gain profit.
@ LoLA : not sure when you registered on IMVU so I don’t know how much you know about their history, but, IMVU did in fact encourage users to become developers by signing up to the development program on the basis that they should/could take advantage of what they themselves called a “unique business opportunity”.
So whilst they never gave any figures in that respect, they most certainly did view it, and advertise it, as a *business* with earning potential.
So what does the future hold? I wonder if it will continue to get worse or level off at some point. I’ve been apart of IMVU since 07, but only recently got into creating back in April. I made things previously, but never sold much of anything. Over the last few months I’ve been seeing some actual profit and was really excited, then today I got an email from my credit reseller (FurryCredits) telling me they are feeling the pain and won’t accept anymore credits until further notice. I don’t see why IMVU wants to hurt the creators like this seeing that without them they wouldn’t have gone very far. Sure IMVU can create items as well, but they wouldn’t have the diversity they to thanked us for recently without the private creators. What are they thinking?
I completely agree with all you have said Kimi. It used to be far better than it is now. I spend many hours making what i think is a great product but then it doesn’t sell. The search engine doesnt help much any more. To get on the first page when someone searches on for example “Black Dress” You have to call your product title “Black Dress” as it sorts it in relevance. If you are imaginative and call your product something else it may never get found by Mrs Joe Blogs but only by your followers and fans who will take time to look through your catalogue, but most people wont do this…they see the thumbnail and click it.
I know some people that are still averaging 65k-100k a day by just selling hair. That’s because their hair is on the front page of hottest sellers, not many people click beyond the 3rd page when looking for something new. So if you are on the hottest sellers first page on catalogue per category then great you will still have high sales…but getting there is another thing.
If it wasn’t for my graphics, then i wouldnt continue with IMVU as the hours put in, just don’t match the reward.
Luckily people like my graphics and im filling up with requests every time i open my shop again. I charge 350k per page and im doing a page a day. My sales though….average about 10-15k a day on my kllgraphix name and about 10k on my avacouture name….so still not the same as it was last year, about half.
Although I am still earning money with my graphics, whats the point in stacking up the credits and doing the work if no-body is going to buy them. I too am with Devcredits and Tidy tells me he can no longer at present buy them. I tried lisnevash “not buying today” I tried Cass “not buying today”, so i tried Anshe – she is buying, but at a god awful rate even worse than IMVUsale – $30 per 100k. Its shocking!
So if your earning 1 million credits a day or 1 credit a day – its all worthless because no-body is buying them.
Secondlife anybody?
Already there. lol
I’m not too worried about the amount of credits I pull in. If they decline it just means that I have to work harder. And perhaps ditch the whole I-make-what-I-like and follow the “hot sellers” bandwagon. I’m more worried about having no decent place to cash in said credits. A slight drop of the value of the credit I can absorb, but when it drops too low…. Lets hope IMVU grows a brain for once.
haha dont blame you!! I am on there too….just stocking up on sculpties
I’ve thought about trying Second life, does it work the same as IMVU in the sense that you can just make items without being a mesher? I hope so, cause I don’t know much about making 3D items yet, though am trying to learn.
You can make lots of items no meshing required – skins, some clothing, eyes. But I have found that on SL, it’s important to know meshing but not a requirement.
well its understandable… recently the developer community has grown a lot compared to the old days. Many of them are really talented and make great quality products. What we may have missing here is that many of this devs accounts are part of a same company that specializes in making and selling virtual goods on clients as second life, imvu, etc,etc (and not just the one you are thinking now, there are MANY of them). While they continue making great stuff for the catalog, they are basically taking the individual devs off the market, since it might be not fair in terms of competitivity, we cannot compete against them. We have to try to make our way into the market by using our imagination, and make unique items never seen before. Or just think of another source of creds, lol.