Q: "Do I need to pay to make products for IMVU" ("does it cost money to become a Creator")?A: There are two parts to this question; (1) "
does it cost to make products for IMVU?" and (2) "
does it cost money to be an IMVU Creator?". Both currently answer in the affirmative - "Yes".
(1) There is a 'cost' associated with the upload, submission and/or publication of items to IMVU's virtual catalogue. This cost is in the form of 'credits' that can be obtained from
IMVU themselves or one of the many
trusted and authorised resellers of IMVU credits. The 'cost' of submission varies depending on the item itself -
the amount of profit the Creator wants to generate; and the costs associated with the item from the the product was derived -
the 'derivation' costs and IMVU's 'submission' fees^.
(2) As of the
10th May 2012 in order to create items for IMVU, user will need to be subscribed to
IMVU's VIP service [
see official announcement here]. This change affects
NEW USERS and/or NEW CREATORS ONLY who sign up to the Creator Program
ON or
AFTER the
10th of May; all users who were signed up to the Creator Program
BEFORE the 10th have been "grand-fathered" into the system, meaning,
they can continue to create and publish products as normal. Some key points to the new VIP program are;
- As VIP 'rents' a users name (it temporarily removes the "Guest_" tag prefix), NEW Creators will not be required to 'register' their names in order to make and publish items as was previously the case.
- If at any point a users* VIP subscription lapses, all benefits, both as a Creator and VIP member will be lost and any submitted products hidden from the catalogue.
- Should users* VIP lapse, accounts will revert back to "Guest_" status and access to Create Mode will be prevented.
- Although a users* products will be hidden upon lapse of VIP, they can still be purchased it linked to directly.
- If a users* items are hidden, they will continue to earn sales income from such items - items ARE NOT disabled
Footnotes:
^ The cost of products varies. Currently the only way to find these out is to go through the submission process, during which the associated costs will be calculated. Note that credits are not regarded by IMVU to be money or virtual currency; although purchased with 'real' money, they are simply seen as being tokens, used as a medium of exchange within IMVU.
* As applicable to Creators signing up to the Creator Program AFTER the 10th May 2012.
