Tiers
An
Explanation on IMVU's Tier Rewards program
IMVU's Tiers system
is a motivational system intended to inspire developers to
have a broader participation in IMVU.
The System has
seven levels of advancement, each level gaining the developer
submission discounts and increased credit transfer limits.
Those who are currently at tier 5 or higher will have the
'Pro' tag on their products.
Once a month IMVU
samples its developers over a three month time period. It
takes those scores against how all developers performed on
IMVU and arranges them on a curve. Developers are then graded
against their peers in nine categories, each individual category
earning them a maximum of three points for a total maximum
of twenty one points.
The top most
performing percentile of developers earn 3 points per category
The good to high performing percentile of developers earn
1 and 2 points
The Majority of developers will earn 0 points
There are no set
benchmarks to hit. As the system is graded on a curve your
scores are directly related to how your peers perform. If
sales drop overall the points 'to hit' will drop, if sales
are stronger the 'to hit' numbers will go up. As IMVU's developer
population grows the numbers of those earning top scores will
increase to reflect the increased population.
Your sales and
participation numbers will not be cumulative, they will only
reflect the three month period of the sample, this is so newer
developers can compete with established developers.
Percentage of developers
allocated to each Tier Level
numbers as of 2008 provided by IMVU
83% of Content Creators
are Tier 0
10% of Content Creators are Tier 1
3% of Content Creators are Tier 2
1% of Content Creators are Tier 3
0.78% of Content Creators are Tier 4
0.53% of Content Creators are Tier 5
0.38% of Content Creators are Tier 6
0.03% of Content Creators are Tier 7
How
to understand the points breakdown
Tier points
are in two schools, Core and Unique.
Core
Metrics (performance)
Core Metrics are
the bread and butter (Core) of developing, sales made and
earned income. Bottom line, product popularity is singly the
best ear-marker for performance. If you made the best thing
ever on IMVU but no one ever buys it, it is not a successful
product.
IMVU has broken
the Core area down into four areas worth 3 points each, for
a maximum of 12 points.
Sales
(direct) The number of product sales you've had.
Sales (derived) The number of products
others have derived from yours that have sold.
Income (credits) The number of credits
you have earned.
Income (promo credits) The number of promos
that were spent on your items. (tough you get tokens
per sale instead of promos)
Unique
Metrics (participation)
Unique metrics
are NOT performance based, one can max out all of these with
only ever having sold one product. These are not at the 'core'
of developing but are additional points awarded for productivity,
community participation, and how your products were received
(product reviews).
IMVU has broken
these down into five unique areas. Each area is worth 3 points.
Only the top three of these Unique categories are
used for a maximum of 9 points, the other two scores
will be listed as 'Unused' and not count to your total, therefore
the categorizes used for the total will vary from person to
person reflecting their personal strengths.
Average
product rating: Average of your own product's review
scores
CC Forum posts: Number of posts you made
in the CC sections of the forums.
Peer Review activity: How many 'accurate'
peer reviews you did.
Products in the catalog: Overall quantity
of products in the catalog.
Products recently submitted: New products
added to the catalog.
How many points do
you need for each tier level
numbers as of 2008 provided by IMVU
0 points = Tier 0
1-3 pts. = Tier 1
4-6 pts. = Tier 2
7-9 pts. = Tier 3
10-12 pts. = Tier 4
13-15 pts. = Tier 5
16-18 pts. = Tier 6
19-21 pts. = Tier 7
What
Tiers Get You
‘Bling’
Badges.
Level badges are fun to have but have no intrinsic value beyond
badge fun. Some may find advertising their actual tier level
of value others will not, it’s a personal choice to
share it or not.
Submission
Fee Discounts: As you advance up the ladder your
submission fees will reduce 50cr per level achieved. While
this is a great perk at the lower and Mid levels at the higher
levels Tokens earned tend to well more than cover all submission
fees so this perk will become less valuable as you get more
successful.
Submission Fees at each
Tier Level
Tier 0 500cr
Tier 1 450cr
Tier 2 400cr
Tier 3 350cr
Tier 4 300cr
Tier 5 250cr
Tier 6 200cr
Tier 7 150cr
Increased Credit
transfer Caps
& Credit Transfer Lock Immunity: This is by far
the most valuable yet under acknowledged Tier perk for any
developer making money on IMVU, and the only perk for one
who sells a ton of items on IMVU would want to work on to
achieve. In order to move large amounts of credits to your
reseller you will NEED this perk. (IMVU has yet to release
what the actual caps are per level.)
‘Pro’
tag on products for those tier 5 and up. If your
Tier score is in the top .94% of all those who are registered
as devs and have submitted at least one product you will have
a ‘Pro’ Tag. Roughly just under 1 in 100 devs
on IMVU will have the ‘pro’ label on their products.
Please do not confuse
the current ‘Pro’ label with the old Professional
Developer Program. This tag used to be reserved for those
accepted to IMVUs Professional Developer Program, those who
hit high sales benchmarks and who’s catalogs were pre
screened by IMVU staff for quality, TOS compliance, and originality.
The current system may share the old label but it no longer
has the same weight or meaning it used to.
A
Personal Note on Tiers:
Tiers are a motivational
tool no more no less.
The Tier Rewards system rewards those who have a more broad
participation on IMVU. They are intended to inspire participation
in IMVU by the masses, not to just reward those who have successful
catalogs. Non sales related activities such as mass product
submissions, the number of products one has in the catalog,
forum participation, Peer Review participation, all count
to tiers as much as having actual successful products. In
fact you can max out your Unique Metrics without ever selling
a thing! Therefore, your final Tier score, while giving a
few nice perks, should not be looked on as a barometer for
true sales success on IMVU as they place an equal value on
unrelated participation based activities as they do a catalog’s
sales performance. Only the Core Metrics are a reflection
of actual sales success.
If you are seeking
to make an income of IMVU do not get preoccupied by focusing
on Tier levels as they do not reflect the skills and things
needed for true fiscal success. Instead just focus on making
good quality items and marketing those items so that they
sell well, period.
The Tiers system
actually minimizes the efforts of some of the top most performers
on IMVU, the specialists. Those who focus on one aspect of
developing and do it exceptionally well will NOT score tops
on this system. Those who specialize purely in Mesh Making,
Texturing, or Poses/Animations and have far superior product
and sales than the majority of IMVU's developers are ignored
by this system. My advice for those who ‘just’
mesh or ‘just’ texture is to simply pay no attention
to your tier level score and use your sales volume as your
personal barometer for success. You are the backbone of the
IMVU catalog, don’t let not being top score because
of what arbitrary things are counted discourage you.
In short, try and
keep Tiers the fun motivation tool they are intended to be,
they should not be something to fixate on and fret about every
month. Please do not get focused and worried so much on your
Tier score that you get sidetracked from the reason you wanted
to develop here in the first place. Whatever that reason is,
your Tier score should ALWAYS be incidental to it.
