Que Niango, fresh from the Adult Conent User Group reports that Linden Lab have issued the following RFP:

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Linden Lab’s Adult Gateway Proposal

Goal: Enable the adult community to develop and quickly iterate upon a Zindra welcome/gateway experience for Residents interested in exploring adult content.

Situation: With “Zindra” as a primary search terms for adult content in SL, people are more likely to find and start at the current Zindra sim today as a result of its top search ranking. Unfortunately, the current Zindra region experience fails to encourage curious Residents to explore further.

For a number of reasons, it appears unlikely that a successful gateway experience could be efficiently developed and managed as a collaborative effort among Linden Lab and the Adult Content User Group (ACUG) using the existing Zindra region.

The Solution: A Resident controlled group will assume complete control of a prominently promoted Zindra/adult gateway (comprised of four regions).  The ZExpo four regions present a relatively easy way to setup Resident group ownership of the adult gateway experience. Upon conclusion of ZExpo 2011, these four region will be reassigned to a new group. This new group would be required to make tier contribution (setup fees waived) in exchange for group governing powers along with the exclusive use of “Zindra” name to guarantee top search ranking and Linden Lab’s active promotion in the Destination Guide. As the single mainland gateway for adult content, these regions would offer a unique opportunity to channel qualified Residents into high-quality, adult-related experiences.

Details:

• Resident group to receive full group ownership of the four ZExpo mainland regions.
• Group must contribute tier and pay $195/month for ea of the four regions or $780/month.
• Use of Zindra name will be reserved exclusively for four regions, guaranteeing top placement in search.
• Linden Lab agrees to promote four new “Zindra” regions in Destination Guide, as well as work with the group to promote the regions in additional marketing channels.
• Linden Lab’s promotion contingent upon the group providing a positive experience for all Residents interested in adult content and reserves the right to cancel promotion at any time and may take actions in accordance with its Terms of Service and related policies and procedures.

Open Call for Proposals

Linden Lab will accept group proposals from all interested parties through September 12th, 2011.  Send proposals to community@lindenlab.com with title “Adult Welcome Proposal”

Proposals should include the following details:

1. Proposed group members responsible for tier – max of four member (1 for each of the 4 regions). Please include links to each profile i.e.https://my.secondlife.com/Viale.Linden
2. Answer the question: how will you develop and manage a good, compelling gateway experience for all residents (new and existing) interested in adult content? 
3. How will you promote adult venues within Second Life ~ mainland and private regions?

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This RFP may appear novel, but it is entirely in keeping with Linden Lab’s desire to help promote sustainable communities within Second Life, as outlined during Viale’s Linden’s presentation (video) at SLCC 2011. Even so, one cannot help but wonder at how practical it will be; the Adult Content User Group at times appears to be very divided. As such, it’ll be interesting to see how this approach is going to be interpreted and what comes out of the actual implementation once the new tier group has been formed.

Linden Lab provide an Affiliate Programme that allows anyone with a blog or website to promote Second Life via ads created using destinations contained within the Destination Guide. These ads can be placed within websites and blogs, and commission is earned based on the number of people using the ad to click-through and join Second Life (registrations made within 30 days of the initial click-through).

Note: the Affiliate programme also utilises the Google Affiliate Network via an AdSense account. This article only relates only to the use of the Linkshare Affiliate Network.

Whether you are a Second Life user with a website / blog who wishes to promote SL, or whether you have a specific in-world Destination you would like to link to the Affiliate Programme, the steps for using this capability are more-or-less the same:

• Sign-up to the affiliate programme (LL will get back to you on the status of your application within 5 working days)
• Once you have been approved, pick the Destination Guide entry you wish to use within your website / blog (if you wish to use your own destination, and it is not already included in the Destination Guide, please also refer to the Destination Guide FAQ)
• Click on the Create Ad Widget and compose a promotional advert based on the Destination you’ve chosen
• Include your unique Linkshare encrypted ID (from Linkshare)
• Copy the generated code and embed it within your website / blog.

Notes

• Not all requests may be accepted into the programme
• The Second Life Affiliate commission totals are tabulated every month. Linden Lab pays the Affiliate Network for all qualifying referrals. The Affiliate Network, in turn, distributes these commissions to all qualifying affiliates
• I cannot answer specific questions on this – I’m just reporting on it!
• The Affiliate Programme FAQ provides further information
• The Create Ad widget FAQ provides specific information on using the widget to set-up an ad.