Archive for the ‘credit resellers’ Category

Today, an email went out to those registered at IMVUSale.com to the tune of this…

Our apologies, as much as we are working on sales we still have over 70 million credits stacked up, even higher than last month.

Imvu’s printing too much money again, giving away free credits for quizzes, contests and running sales with lower prices than us resellers do. Yet they still fail to shut down at least 12 fraud websites that are currently SELLING stolen credits at 30-38 per 100k. We really can’t do much about it until they stop this none-sense. Buying price is lowered to $39 per 100k, hope you understand the difficulty we are facing, hopefully the holiday season will bring some light.

Resellers are teaming up on protesting imvu’s recent financial decisions already, it should take some effect.

Sadly, I fear that a lot of resellers will soon face the same problems. Actually, my own credit partner DevCredits.com has already felt some pinching in the last six months or so as we frantically try to sell credits to whomever we possible can so that Tidy can continue to purchase credits from us at the rate of $46/100k. It’s been hard.

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?

I don’t need to say much more than what the email from IMVUSale has covered. Sad, sad day for developers.

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.

Remember last year when the drama surrounding the registered reseller “IMVUPay” occured? For those of you who aren’t familiar with this, I’ll do my best to quickly explain.

IMVUPay.com was a sort of IMVU credit stock market which fluctuated. You could watch the market, buy and sell credits directly into the system and use the market to gain the most from your credit sales or use it to get the best purchase deal. It was a great idea that flopped horribly when suddenly people found themselves paying for a service they weren’t being provided with. At this point, it is estimated that IMVUPay owes members of the IMVU comminity hundreds of thousands in dollars for credits sold and purchased credits never received.

It’s a locked thread and just under a year old, but if you need a refresher on this topic, you can check it out Here in the forums.

My interest in this topic was revived today when the question rose in the CCGen forums “Any IMVUPay News?” Well I had long since given up on there being any, but a little research and with the help of the community, I landed on some significant pieces of information.

For starters, it looks like IMVUPay.com no longer exists. They closed their doors and left the following message:

“NEWS!! PLEASE READ!
We regret to inform our wonderful members that IMVUPay will be shutting down. Things have been extremely hard pressed on our small team to keep this site functioning with little to no budget and we would like to personally apologize to our users for any misunderstandings and/or inadequate service you have received.

We do have some exciting news for you though: IMVUPay has been purchased! We have been told that they will be incorporating our clients to their new website, which is very user-friendly, and all the old accounts will be reconciled. We hope this will help to clear up any issues we may have had in the past. Thank you for all of your loyalty to us, we hope you will show the same level of energy to the new management.

Best Wishes,
Phil + Chad
PS: Please remember to keep checking here for updates.”

Too bad whoever supposedly purchased IMVUPay, missed the memo because its clients are still without payment. No one’s accounts have been incorporated anywhere and hundreds of people are still filing complaints with the BBB and Paypal in hopes of getting their money. Some people are owed several thousand dollars.

Here are ex-IMVUPay customer’s stories about their run-around dealings with the company:
Report: #418069 @ RipOffReport.com
Report: #437766 @ RipOffReport.com

The most disturbing news? IMVUPay’s Exium has been allowed to re-register as a Credit Reseller under the name IMVU Credits Express or IMVUCE. Exium (Phil) was the creator of IMVUPay while the above signed “Chad” did the coding. for it.

It’s my understanding that Phil first denied his involvement with this new company, but was caught and has since told the truth. UPDATE: Exium wrote a message to me today basically to tell me that he never denied involvement with his new company. He was not ready to unveil it when his files and folders were found and people began to call him out. Fair enough sir. Several members of the community are suspicious that “ex-partner” Chad may still be working with him. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

I cannot believe IMVU allowed a person involved in such fraud to not only continue as a member of the community, but has allowed them the chance to defraud us again. That is a slap in the face of the people still waiting to get paid and and a big middle finger to the community.

Looks like the real world economy is starting to grossly effect our virtual economy. It was expected, but for lack of better words – it still really sucks.

Seems every week (if not more often) the big topic in the CCGen Forums is “Who’s Buying Credits?” With each passing day, it’s becoming more difficult to sell one’s credits to a registered reseller. Why? Because with no customers to buy the credits already in circulation, resellers can’t afford to take on any more.

There are the lucky few who are partnered with the larger reselling companies that so far are guaranteed their credits will be purchased. But for the rest of the content creating community, they are stuck with large amounts of credits and nothing to do with them but sit and stare at the growing number.

It won’t be long before the price of credits drops drastically. That isn’t as good as it sounds. Right now, the average resell rate is $46 per 100k. That’s not a lot of money. The lower the demand, the less value the credits hold – which means the less value developers hold.

What can we do as a community to help fix the economy? For starters, we can all get together and do our best to advertise for the credit resellers. Even if you aren’t partnered with a particular company, it’s a good idea to support your favorites – run some shout outs, tell your friends, etc. Every little bit helps! Additionally, it’s a good idea to help support the entire community by advertising IMVU. More new faces means an opportunity for us all! More people to buy more credits!

It’s no surprise that we are in an economic recession – no matter where you live in the world it seems. But seeing as IMVU is an American based company, we’ll just focus on that.

Times are hard here. We’re literally seeing one of the worst recessions since the Depression Era. Countless people are without jobs. Some people are losing their homes because they can’t afford their mortgage and property taxes this year. Companies are downsizing due to their inability to pay all of their workers and countless businesses will shut down this year. With everyone tightening their belts, there is little (if any) extra money in budget for luxuries like buying credits to spend on virtual products.

What does this mean for members of the community (like myself) who create content in our virtual world in order to pay the bills? It means either finding a “real” job or expanding our horizons in any direction we can – including migrating to other worlds such as Second Life. In fact, you’ll find many of your favorite developers now – some have moved there permanently while others are working hard to create content in both worlds.

But for those of us sticking it out here on IMVU, it means a lot of hard work – not all of which seems to pay off. Big name developers like Lollirot once claimed to make 100k in a day. We know those numbers are possible. We’ve seen many developers achieve such numbers in the “glory days” and the old Pro requirements dictated such numbers. But what about now?

Once upon a time, I myself made 60k daily and despite a much larger catalog with better products and more marketing, those numbers don’t seem to be possible any more. On average, a “big” developer like myself is looking at 25-30k per 24 hours on average from catalog sales. That’s not a lot of money considering the resell value of 100k is only $46. Meaning – despite how many hours I work, I wouldn’t make enough for a part time job these days. In order to make ends meet, I have had to start selling my graphic services in the form of File Sales in the Product & Content Request forum.

And what about Credit Resellers? Tidy of DevCredits.com has reported a significant drop in credit sales – a whopping 15% down from just last month. Credit Resellers are the lifeline of Content Creators who are looking to turn their hard work into cash. If they cannot find customers to sell our earned credits to, then the cycle comes to a screeching hault and Creators will go unpaid.

We’re in an interesting place right now. Only time will tell which way the door will swing. Let’s hope that in months to come, the recession will pass and IMVU will be returned to its glory days once again.

If interested, here is a list of some of the developers you can find on Second Life. Not all listed here are active and not all of them develop in SL.
►Pop
►Lassarina
►Lollirot
►Keef
►Mercuria
►MsOrgasmic
►Ewe
►Miranda
►Cindypoo
►Bitter
►CaptainLust
►Scarling
►Mechadollie