If you've ever wondered about developing and the kinda things developers do to get more credits and money and why developers really should get treated better for al their hard work, then please read on.

Before I begin...
Buying an avatar name through SMS
If you wish to buy your avatar name through SMS, look out for a green imvu advert which says you can purchase your avatar name through SMS. I DO NOT KNOW IF THIS IS STILL POSSIBLE. It should be, as this service is still being advertised by imvu. If it is not, then it's not my fault! This would be false advertising and imvu should be told asap. Please do not contact me anymore on this matter, as this is all the imformation I can give.

1. is becoming a developer worth the money?
It depends. If you just want to earn enough credits so that you can buy anything you want from the catalog. Then by all means start developing. Depending on the quality of your items you can earn quite a bit of credits and some not so useful developer tokens which can only be used for submitting products.
If you are looking to start meshing however, the costs can be extremely expensive as the programs you will need cost a bomb. I would recommend it only to anyone looking to make a serious profit. Although if you already have the required tools then by all means start developing.
You also have to consider that you only get a small percentage of the credits the buyer paid for the items. That is, of course, if the buyer paid with real credits. A sale with promo credits AKA predits will only earn you 1 developer token regardless of how much profit you make on the item. This DT is worth 10 credits towards a catalog submission fee or shout out. There are no other uses for them.

2.how much of a profit do you make?
I personally make around 1000 credits and a handful of dev tokens each day. If I were to sell to a reseller, I would make about £24. Not much when you consider that I've paid £20 for credits, username and more credits. For a UK resident to sell their credits they really only get 1/4 of what a credit is supposed to be worth.

3. do you get to use all of the items you make (for free)?
Once you have submitted your item to the catalog - which costs 750+ credits - you can then use your own product for free. Unless of course you submitted a sticker. In which case you must buy the sticker in order to display it on your homepage.

4. if you don't have a ton of time on your hands, is it still worth it?
Define a ton. I usually derive from products after school, on a weekend, or during the school holidays. I can spend 5+ hours on just one item. Maybe I'm just slow at texturing, but unless you're amazingly quick at producing high quality images then its going to take up quite a bit of time. You also should spend time on creating good catalog images in order to let potential buyers know what they are about to purchase.

5. can you give out your items for free, or do you have to pay for each one you gift?
No, you cannot give out items for free. You must pay the original mesher's fee plus the 10% catalog mark-up. You do however get back the profits you earn on the item.

6. how long does it take to start making profits?
It took me about a month to earn back every credit I spent on imvu. However, if you're talking about cash, its taken me almost 6 months to earn that extra £4. But I still have 2 years until I can get a paypal account and until then I can't sell my credits. At least I can get a small windfall. I just hope people are still reselling for a decent amount.

7. why do you like being a developer?
The fact that people are actually buying my items cos they think they will actually look good on their avatar. I get all happy when I see other avatars wearing my items. More so if they're a fellow developer because they know what they're looking for. Plus I like watching the credits build up. ( Not so much the developer tokens though)

8. any mistakes you've made and wish you hadn't?
Not sorting out a logo sooner and wasting my credits uploading silly little thing like those dreadlocks and not getting started on really making what I wanted earlier were 2 of my mistakes. But hey, every now and then someone buys those dreadful dreads....I just wish I'd made the emo glasses sooner.
Infact, my biggest mistake had to be not discovering imvu or developing sooner.

9. have any tips on being a developer?
Start off with items you would like to own. Read as many tutorials as you can find. Even ones that give tips on how to shades fabric folds for pixel dolls are useful. Get a decent image editing program, Paint Shop Pro, photoshop or GIMP if you don't want to spend too much money.
Most importantly, read the imvu TOS. It's not as long as you'd think and it will save you the embarrassment of asking in the forums why you're 'Snoop Dogg music ring with added bling' or 'Hawt sexy Playboy bra' got removed from the catalog.

10. is the process of becoming a developer, making items and selling them easy?
Yes. Deriving is easy once you've got the know how. The its a matter of pricing the item and making the preview images look good. Always set the price as the amount you'd be willing to pay. No-one is going to pay 1000 credits for a plain black t-shirt. I try to keep my clothing and accessories around the 500-600 mark (that's without the 10% mark-up) depending on how much I paid to derive and what kind of item it is. Cheaper items will sell better if they have a good quality to them.

I would like to thank everyone who has purchased one of my products. I am sorry I cannot thank all of you personally on your homepages. Time simply doesn't allow it. with much love
OOO
xxx

wow, so i've finally finished my new line and bundled the products!
You can access it through the new products box ^^
I wanna see how this sells....but i need more promotion...

Go me! I'm now officially 16.
Had a fancy dress party last night and by god it rocked. twas ab fab darlings.
I wish I could've been in three places at once so I could talk to everyone last night oh well, everyone had awesome costumes aswell.
So anyway I've almost completed my new <3Oh.So.Emo line, just needs the hightops and same pumps. I wanted to have ballet pumps, but alas there be no mesh for little ol' me to use. Watch this space cos I'll bundle all the <3Oh.So.Emo. products hopefully by the end of the month.

Much love to everyone that has bought one of my products and I hope you enjoy wearing it! And remember darlings, promo credits are horrible nasty things, us developers have spent alot of time and REAL credits bought with REAL money, and to not get anything back but a measly token won't keep us going, especially as we have to have real credits to submit derivaions in the first place.

much love
xxx

oh yeah, thats right.
notcie something?
I no longer have guest_ infront of my name yay!

So I've started developing stuff, y'know changing textures and stuff. (meshing is a bit above me at the moment)
Anyways, if you have any requests, let me know! Just promise me you'll buy them aswell, I don't wanna pay a derivation fee and submission charge for nowt y'know.

much love xxx