So there's some interesting shapes in that data. Between 2014 - 2015 is where I started creating appliers after being a MP only, maintenance store with no new releases. So that explains that sudden spike. Between 2020 and 2022 must've been the EvoX mapping shift, where my entire store was suddenly obsolete...

...and I not only changed jobs in RL I also MOVED to a place where I don't even speak the local language, so while there was a need to quickly pivot and update old content + release new on the new UV maps, I simply couldn't keep up due to RL obligations. Possibly my store never recovered in reputation, but I think that's not the entire story here.

So, while I can't speak about other creators stores, it's definitely been a decline. The last couple of years SHOULD have increased IF it was a temporary slump of lack of market (EvoX) fit, now that most of the store is updated and I'm releasing new content and updates fairly frequently. Instead it's flatlining. More effort, WAY less payoff.

I know I have creators on my timeline so feel free to chime in with your observations

The more effort thing is consistent and really a problem. I have lamented the fact that we are taken more and more out of SL for what amounts to the entire creative process, but that is not a metric for this convo, though related. The difficulty in the processes has increased steadily over time, though PBR is a bit of a streamlining of some of that, it has

also added to the burden in other ways, for example putting out both standard and PBR versions of items rather than just PBR, which is technically easier but involves learning more software and changing processes.

I can't really say my sales data would be relevant because I have not been steadily producing at all for several years.

here is a quick chart of my mainstore and MP sales from the past couple of years:

the spike in 2017 comes from my store gaining popularity, i assume by doing lots of events, lots of releases and creating a couple of bestsellers. in 2018 - 2019 mainstore sales dropped, i assume because i slowed down a little with releases, while i saw a light increase in MP sales.

then came the corona lockdown years, 2020 and 2021 were the best years in sales so far, 2022 was still doing great as well and i fully expected a decline again after the lockdowns, which also happened. in 2023 mainstore sales stayed consistent, while there was a huge drop in MP sales (-30%)

i can only explain that due to LL messing with algorythms and search, items not showing at that time etc... 2024 only shows sales from january - october, so 2 months missing still, but i can already tell, sales will be quite low (compared with the corona years) and I expect them to be at 2019 level again.

this is my prognosis chart for 2024:

what is interesting to see: mainstore sales probably won't be bad at all in 2024. lower than the corona years, but still 29% higher than 2019. however MP will most likely have 25% less sales than 2019, 43% less than 2022 and 52% less than the best MP year in 2021. So for my store the most decline is definitely due to whatever is happening with MP.

IzzieButton: that’s fascinating, I’m going to have to filter on mp versus other locations to see if mine are similar. Anecdotally, I do notice I’m not as high up in relevant or best selling search results per category as I used to me, but there are also a LOT of very similar looking cosmetic stores nowadays

since we do similar items, maybe it's the same way for you too, not sure how important MP sales are for your store. i notice the decline, because MP is my main income source (then comes mainstore, then events). for others MP might be not so important, it's not as noticeable then.

what i noticed is that search results are different now. when you look for "beauty mark" my beauty marks won't show anymore, because of the s. people have to look for "beauty markS" in order for them to show. relevance has been messy at times too. at some point only very old items of mine have been shown, the relevant ones were far back

not sure what else they changed. but since my mainstore sales are quite good i don't think it's me lol i could be wrong though

Some more charts! Imogen (mainstore)GyazoMP onlyGyazoAll inworld, including eventsGyazo

oh interesting! our charts are very similar and looks like you also make a lot of sales on MP. i wonder what happened on this day in 2017 with the big spike

Looks like it was a lot of people buying Halloween-themed makeup appliers in the first week of October. No sale or event, I must've just had stuff that was very relevant to some halloween keywords.

I don't think it was this time, but there HAVE been times when I've noticed a featured search banner on the MP homepage and made sure any of my relevant stuff had the same keyword as their search. Free, and far more effective than the stupid paid listing enhancements on MP which have never done anything for my sales.

Right now you can do this with keyword: "Autumn". BRB tagging stuff.

wait, how do you find a featured search banner? i don't think i heard about this before

and i totally agree, listing enhancements never did anything for my sales either. most important was how i named my items

Go to the homepage and there's a carousel of images at the top with a resident featured image. Clicking on it goes to a search URL with a keyword already filled. Make sure you match the keyword with your relevant products.

I can see people gaming it by renaming their products the same as the keyword, too... I'm not gonna do that lol

OMG! autumn and underwater it is right now haha and i just clicked on the autumn pic and all search results titles are only "autumn"

tbh i never clicked on those pics before but yeah it's smart to use it in keywords for sure (as long as the items match the category of course)

thanks for the tip!

I can't really chime in with long term sales data, since I was inactive for so long like Max. But I've noticed my market share is drastically reduced, I have way more competition in almost all of the areas I used to dominate

It certainly feels like a much larger number of creators are putting out good quality content, I think a lot more mainstream 3d creators from other communities have migrated over now that SLs tools have developed

I wonder why MP sales have declined. I'm about to switch to all my sales.