Location, location, location.

This mantra for business success doesn't just apply to the "real" world. Choosing your virtual retail or office site within Second Life is a crucial part of establishing your business or brand inworld. 

How to select just the right site was the subject of a recent forum at the Beta Business Park. The discussion, led by B2P General Manager Gayle Cabaret, touched on many of the practical and technical issues involved in virtual real estate shopping. About a dozen new and established residents were on hand to share their experiences.

Sage Pexie, owner of Sage Fashions, has a large main store and several satellites.  "I chose my main [store] by price and prims and made sure it was surrounded by other businesses," she says, "my satellites strictly by traffic."

The right neighbors can make a huge difference in the success of your inworld business.

Graceful Aeon owns two public gallery and park sites. "I didn't get a chance to decided where they would go," she explains. "one was an established site, Lauk's Nest Center. The other was donated land for Gallery in the Park."

This has given her less control over her property than she would in a private sim. "We've been lucky enough at Lauk's to have some great neighbors that watch out for the neighborhood," but with land being bought up in a neighboring sim, she is concerned "about how that [potentially] affects the look and feel" of her property.

Melchizedek Blauvelt says when he's looking for potential sites in Second Life, he looks "for the amount of scripts that are running in a sim, and presence of megaprims, especially hollow ones." Hollow megaprims, he explains, can cause performance problems and lagging, as do too many scripts running at once.  

"I found a great sim -- until a newbie purchased a lot there and made the scripts jump from 2K to 8K. He holds regular parties, making the scripts jump to 21K at times, effectively grinding the sim to a halt."

This is one reason Failed Inventor, founder of the F.E. Energy Project & Learning Technologies, chose a "sky build" for his inworld office.  It helps him "avoid the clutter of most mainland sims."

Gayle Caberet believes that community is one of the key factors in choosing a location.


As manager of the Islands of New England estate, she knows she can give her retail residents robust service that includes events, notifications to  group members, an external website, a "business of the day" program, and a guarantee that a business owner will never arrive inworld one day to find a virtual brothel has moved in next door.

Community and service are the guiding principles behind Beta Business Park. "What's not to love?" Cabaret asks. "Office space, estate staff that will not only help your visitors and clients, but also help you with projects you might want to do,shared meeting facilities, shared orientation area."

"You have to look for the value added," she concludes. "What you want to accomplish and really what they have to offer. And don't assume you have to do it all yourself. Look for places that have built-in mechanisms that already reach people doing what you can tag along on."