Lou's "How.2" : Finding Freebies

Noob-No-More:
Finding freebies on SL Marketplace
Written by Lou Daines

"...there's only one thing a man can do when he's suffering from spiritual and existential funk..."
"...go to the zoo, flip off the monkeys?"
"...no, buy new suits..."

~Ron Burgundy & Champ Kind, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy

Deep Breaths, deep breaths! You made it through the Welcome Area and now you're ready to explore the new world... but before you do decide to teleport to that new club or role playing sim, let me ask you something. Would you go out to a singles party wearing the outfit your momma picked out for you in the 1st grade? Or, would you go to church in your favorite S&M latex bodysuit? How about scuba diving in a tuxedo?

Of course your answer is NO; or at least I hope it is. You know if you did venture out past your front door looking like that, you would be considered a foolio. Or, Dumbass, idiot, poptart, moron, and brain-doner for all y'all that don't know what a foolio is. Well that's sort of what it's like being a noob is in SL. Noob = Foolio!

As a noob, you probably still have your SL default clothing, you walk like a duck, you look like an outdated cartoon character and you're 8ft tall. Not a good look; if you care about first impressions. It's most definitely time to beat it nerds and get some styling!

I should clarify that I'm not suggesting that you add your credit card info to your SL account and spend a fortune making your avi SL-beautiful. I am suggesting you take 15 minutes to see what free goods there are available to you to help enhance the look of your avatar. Just see for yourself!

In the past you would have to travel from store to store; sim to sim; and sandbox to sandbox, to find merchants that were giving away free items. Sometimes you would even stumble upon a super generous patron, that had whole stores of free goodies to offer. Although helpful, this process was very time-consuming. Not to mention most of the free items were crap!

Fortunately, some brilliant mind devised the SL Marketplace. This site is separate from the actual SL world, meaning you don't have to be logged into the game to access it.  All you have to do is go to:  marketplace.secondlife.com and you're ready to shop. Don't worry you wont need any money or a sugar daddy; there's plenty of quality freebies. So before you step out on the SL town, log onto the marketplace and follow the guidelines below.



To Shop for Freebies on Second Life Marketplace:
1. Go to the official SL marketplace website @ https://marketplace.secondlife.com/ and sign in. To sign in click on the "sign in" link at the top right of your screen. You will use the same log in information that you use to log into SL.

2. Once logged in, you can begin shopping. Since you don't have any Lindens it is pointless to shop around randomly. A really quick and easy solution to finding the items you can afford, mainly the free ones, is to look for the SEARCH WINDOW and type FREE or FREEBIE or PROMO or PROMOTION or any other "free-like" vocabulary in it.

3. Now that you've entered FREE into the search window, click enter on your keyboard. The marketplace will organize a list of goods that you can add to your shopping cart.

4. To add an item to your shopping cart, simply click on the picture. Another window will appear with additional information about the item you about to purchase. If you still want the item click the button: ADD TO CART. After you have added the selected item to your cart you can click the link "continue to shop" to be brought back to your current search.

5. Continue shopping as long as you like or until you reach 10 items in your cart. You're not limited to only 10 items but you can only CHECKOUT a max of 10 items at a time. Apparently the shopping carts aren't that big in SL.

6. To proceed to checkout click on the button CART on the top right of the website. Double check the list of items you have added as some of them might not be free. Even though you typed free some merchants still charge 1L or 5L for the item. If you change your mind about a product just enter 0 in the "Qty" window and the item will be deleted. Otherwise you are ready to click the orange button: CHECKOUT.

7. SL will ask you to review your order one more time by presenting to you another window. Click CONTINUE to proceed.

8. One last window will open displaying more marketplace goods. I consider this SL's last try to get you to buy something you don't want; Just scroll down to the bottom of the page, past the impulse buys and click PLACE YOUR ORDER. After clicking a confirmation window will open telling you your order is being sent to you in-world. You will also have the option of continuing to shop.

9. To access your new items you will have to log into Second Life and ACCEPT the deliveries that will be sent to you. As you accept your deliveries they should appear in your inventory. Open your inventory to view your purchases.

10. You're not finished yet.  You still have to open the boxes in order to wear the items in them. To open a box: Start by having your inventory open. Drag the item from your inventory to the ground your avatar is standing on. (You'll need to be in a public sandbox in order to drop items.) You should now see a small box or panel where you dragged the item. Click on the item and from your pinwheel selection window, select OPEN. One last step; from the window that just appeared after you clicked OPEN, click the COPY TO INVENTORY button. You now have your items in your inventory. To wear them just click on the item and select WEAR.

A little goes a long way, so if you only have a few minutes, here are some suggestions of Freebies to look for: Skins, body shapes, clothing, hair, shoes, eyes, eyelashes, jewelry and an AO(Animation Over-rider). Those are the only items I grabbed for LouLouRocks' new look and if I do say so myself: damn those pixels look fine!

~ <> ~