This is my first non-outfit post, but I truly felt this was too important a development in the world of SL fashion (and that of all creators/designers and shoppers) to let pass without a mention.
Today - May 9, 2009 - the Designer Showcase Network, or DSN - went live. The first I heard about this was this morning on a Plurk from Gabby Panacek where she shared a blog post link - "It Lives! Designer Showcase Network" - from her blog, Couture Conumdrum.
I must say, I feel that a piece of SL history has been made today. Before, a seller had to use giveaways, dollarbies/freebies, deals, and participate in hunts to get their content out there and noticed by residents. This has been the way of doing things for some time now; especially after LL brought down the "bot farms" that were believed to grab more attention by having a high number of residents at their store all at one time.
It is about time that something like DSN came out, and the concept is fairly yet brilliantly simple. A subscription-type system allows content creators to offer a particular item to residents who have chosen to sign up. Those residents can choose from any of nine categories of content - Female Fashion, Male Fashion, Avatars, Hair/Skin, Anims, Home Decor, Accessories, Gadgets and Tools - and receive daily items (1 per day/per content category) randomly picked from the stash uploaded by those content creators. It's a wonderful way for residents to get quality content while discovering new stores and for the creators and designers - especially the newer and/or smaller ones - to get noticed in a fair and noteworthy manner.
The great thing about DSN is that it is unobstrusive and does not boggle the resident down with more-than-they-know-what-to-do-with content; as can be the case in huge giveaways, expos, fairs, and hunts. Therefore, it gives the creator a more sound chance of being not only noticed, but of piquing enough interest to quite possibly gain a new customer.
I have already signed up and can't wait to start getting my daily items. Shoppers and content creators can do the same at any of a list of locations with little effort. SLurl locations can be found on the JOIN page of the official website.
You can read more at the offical website and blog, here, and in the informative blog post, "Designer Showcase Network: It's Live!" by Rika Watanabe at Through the Broken Looking Glass and owner of the SL store Clever Things [SLurl: Takalo].
