I love those people who see recurring issues and debates like the freebie debate – all heat and no light – that recycle frequently without resolution and instead of adding their two cents, sit back and break the problem down and proactively search for an alternative. Rika Watanabe is just that sort of person. She looked at the whole freebie/hunt/entitlement/hoohah/blah/blah and proposed a solution – The Designer Showcase Network. You can subscribe any of the nine channels that interest you and receive a daily promotional item from a designer producing work in that channel. The channels are Animations and Poses, Business Tools and Services, Female Fashion, Gadgets, Vehicles and Weapons, Home and Garden, Jewelry and Accessories, Male Fashion, Skins and Hair and Full Avatars.

For designers, this lets them expose their content to new potential customers. For customers, well it’s one to nine freebies per day depending on your interests. This post is actually about how this leads to sales. Last night I opened up a DSN freebie from Miss Muffet and tried it on. It was an adorably cute little lavendar dress that had Gidge calling me Bo Peep. It was cute, well made and not my style. However, I liked the quality and the wit so I decided to follow the landmark in the folder and check it out. I immediately saw that is was a store Achariya would love and im’ed her with a “check it out” landmark and then saw a dollarbie that would be perfect for  Gidge’s freestyle blogging and bought a sweater and this fabulous pants out above for myself. Gidge also bought the dollarbie and an outfit I am sure you will see soon – complete with – erm, I better let her suprise you. So…one item that I deleted… but interesting and good enough that it got me to the store and had me sending LM’s to two others. It’s a win-win.

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