Apr 27th 2008, 13:57 ZEN Zhenya Zoning Real Estate
by Zaldar Rhode

FAQ about ZEN

Hello Everyone,

I was recently approached by someone asking me questions about ZEN, and I thought it was important information that all shareholders and interested investors may want to see. This will also be posted in the Forums.


==================================================
1. Your business model.
----------
What type of land do you buy and how do you generate your income. Do you buy sims directly from LL or do you buy it from other people?

Well it all depends on what deals are available. Currently we own 2 sims. 1 bought through LL and the other bought through resale. Resale to me is riskier and also if the land is already inhabited, it makes it harder to mold the land to match your current island. This makes it more difficult to make it appealing to everyone. ZEN will probably stick to going through LL from now on especially since the price of islands has dropped.

----------
Do you sell the bought sim by pieces or you rather rent it.

I sell the land for the cost of one months rent and then set up a directory of rent boxes to reduce lag around the sim. So everyone goes to the same building to pay rent for the month.

----------
Do you sell or rent ithe sims raw and let the customers develop it themselves or do you develop it prior to offering the land to your customers?

This is a 50/50 go. We set a theme for the island and give it a rough beginning and then let the land owners mold the entire island. Tamaqua looks nothing like we had originally built it as. The land owners worked together to build the streets to their liking and together they made it look awesome, This we believe is a great strategy because the landowners become friends and then they all work together to make the sim work on a higher average than other sims.

----------
If you develop is it residential or commercial prperty?

Once again this is a more 50/50 go. I usually leave the destination of the island up to the people living there. So to start, the islands are always mixed commercial and residential. This is more because we are trying to create a realistic city life. In the future we may limit limit sims to one or the other, but for now we are sticking with mixed.

==================================================
2. Profitability.

How much expenses other than tier to LL do you spend monthly to operate one sim?

Expenses other than tier are very minimal. My employees are more my best friends and we work together, many just to do it for fun. So what their pay ends up being are shares of the company to sell or hold for dividend payments. The only other expense is for shows at Zen Live Stage. we limit our expenditures to 10000L a month but we tend to look for performances by people who sing for tips only. There are other expenses that show up from time to time, and are listed in the financial reports.

----------
If you develop (build buildings on sims) - how much is the development?

My builder Pixelsage Guru is one of the top builders in SL and we work together, and he works for fun as well. I allow him land to sell his items on for free.

==================================================
3. Marketing.

How do you attract new customers?

This has always been a challenge for everyone, but due to the community aspect of the islands, When a new sim opens or land opens, people call up their friends and say "quick buy this land". But also I have a commission deal when land is starting to get hard to sell. But most of the time it consists of me and a few of my friends going out and finding people interested in buying land. So in the end there is no cost of advertising although I do do some minimal advertising in certain places.

----------
What is your product compared to your competitors?

The community aspect is what is missing from every competitor, and if they do have it, it usually does not cross sim borders where here it does from edge to edge. We also have a town setup where the leader of the town board sets up town meetings when needed and informs me of what they want changed if I could not attend. Thus keeping the company in touch with the concerns of all its residents.

=================================================

For now those are all of our FAQ answers and I will also be posting this in the forums for anyone to comment on and/or ask more questions.

Thanks,
The ZEN Team