Classes at The Forum Shops

Meep...I've accidently become a teacher! If you read one of the earlier blog posts I made about Xstreet SL, you may have noticed the bit about looking for the short class on how to signup for Xstreet.  It's true, I've now stumbled into teaching inSL.  

It all started one night when I was suffering from writer's block.  My goal is to write one blog posting a day, but as you can see I'm writing one about every two days.  My mind started to wander as I sat at my desk, banging my head against the keyboard, trying to jar something loose for the screen.  I began to think about how my learning style seems much better situated to being in a class and learning from an instructor.  If most people are like me, is it even worth it to write a how-to blog entry?  

That's when I decided I needed to start teaching too!  Along with writing about how to do things that help avatars going into business inSL, I'd also start offering quick classes.  We're all very busy, so a quick 15, 30 or even 60 minute class is a perfect way to spend a short amount of time learning a new skill or product that can be essential to the success of your Second Life whether you are a creator, shopper, or business owner. 

I've already started offering two classes, one on how to signup for the web shopping service Xstreet SL that lets you shop on the web and have items delivered to your Avatar inSL.  The second is a class on how to find freebies on Xstreet. If you have ideas for other classes, or specific times you'd like to see a class taught, please add it to the comments for this blog post.

Following are ideas for several other classes I'd like to offer. 

• How to signup for Xstreet SL (already being offered)
• How to find freebies in Xstreet SL (already being offered)
• How to sell items using Xstreet SL (in development)
• How to use the forums in Xstreet SL to market your items (in development)

Other course possibilities:

• Creating and using a group inviter for your store
• How to use the slide presentation Tool
• How to make a blogspot blog for your business/creations
• How to make a drop shadow in Photoshop for a sort of 3D effect
• How to make a seamless repeatable texture in Photoshop
• Demonstration on how to use the Fashion Show Venue 

And I'm sure you can think of many more!  Please post suggestions to the comments or drop me a notecard inSL to CultureCannibal Zilz.

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More Xstreet SL: Finding Freebies for your Second Life

One of my favourite things to do in Second Life is to find nice freebies.  But this kitten's legs get tired running from store to store and sim to sim sorting out which freebies are keepers and which ones get buried in the kitty litter box.  Xstreet SL is the purrrrfect way to shop for freebies from the comfort of your own couch.

Freebies, Freebies, Everywhere!  There are two ways to find freebies on Xstreet.  The first is to look at the marketplace freebie list and the second is to do a marketplace advanced search and limit your maximum price to L$1.  When I checked earlier today the list of freebies, excluding non-mature items is 1,000 pages long.  That's over 10,000 freebie items! Enough to keep me purring all night long, and the next night, and the next...well you get the idea.  You can even find some naughtie freebies by enabling mature content.

However browsing through 10,000 items doesn't exactly make our shopping life easier...and that is my intended goal.   Using Xstreet's marketplace search not only helps you find a particular item you're looking for, but can also tell you if that, or a similar, item is available for free.  One of the first things I do when shopping on Xstreet is click on the advanced search button to expand the search options.  Along with the search words I set the maximum price to be L$1 and then we're off.  If there is anything matching the search words that cost L$0 or L$1 then they will be returned.   If nothing interesting is returned then I remove that and go about my search normally.  

Quite Easily Done.  The 12 days of Christmas ain't got nothing on Xstreet's list of freebies.

Living Luxuriously inSL,

~CultureCannibal Zilz

Xstreet SL: A better friend than diamonds inSL

It was a sad day for diamonds when I had to drop them from my friends list to make room for SL eXchange.  Oh what a wonderful world it is with SLX,  or as it's now called, Xstreet SL.  For those of you who don't know, Xstreet is a great resource for both content creators and customers.  Can diamonds help you comparison shop, find quality freebies, or sell your products without having a store?  No, but Xstreet can! 

Hello Xstreet, my new best friend.  And what do you do with new best friends?  You show them off to all your old friends so that they can see how trendy you are.  Gentle readers, I'm soooo trendy with Xstreet!  Come to think of it, I'm even trendy dumping my conflict diamonds.  I'm trendylicious! And if you continue reading with me, I'll share the scoop about Xstreet with you.  

Before you can use Xstreet to purchase or sell items, you'll need to sign up with them. This is much easier to do in-world, where you can visit an XStreet terminal and type in general chat, "signup your@address.com" [without the " marks]. But you can also go to the Xstreet new registration web page.  When you register, please consider adding me, CultureCannibal Zilz, as the person who referred you!  

When you tell the Xstreet terminal your signup email information it will respond that it is contacting the server and then if everything goes right the terminal will tell you that signup has succeeded and to go to your e-mail to complete registration. The email from Xstreet SL will have a link to click that will activate your account and your member information with your SL name and a new password used to login to your newly created Xstreet account.  You must follow the instructions in this e-mail within 24 hours or your new signup information will be deleted and you'll have to start all over again.  

Now you can login to Xstreet and start shopping!  Ooops...well you can shop for freebies since you haven't added any $Lindens to your Xstreet account.  The easiest way to add money to your account on Xstreet is to visit the Xstreet terminal in-world, right click on it, and pay it an amount. I suggest paying a small amount like $L25 at first to see how it works.  And not to worry, if you deposit more $Lindens than you need in Xstreet, you can always withdraw them back to your SL account.  

If you're someone who learns better with a teacher than from reading, look for my short fifteen minute class on how to signup for Xstreet SL on the Second Life Events page.  I teach it at The Forum Shops and we have an Xstreet terminal right there to use too.

Tomorrow all write more about how to use Xstreet SL to find freebies, to find other items that you're looking for, and also how to use Xstreet to sell your own creations.  

Living luxuriously inSL

~CultureCannibal Zilz