Blogging Expectations & Protecting Your Image – Workshop Highlights

To quote a famous pop star “Oops! ((We)) did it again!” Yet another workshop that ticked all the boxes on the educational spectrum and brought some fun and excitement along with it. Lybra Rage, owner and designer of Lybra fashion, and SL partner Natzuka Miliandrovic, Miss Virtual World 2013, shared some very helpful tips and insight regarding blogging expectations and protecting your image on the Internet.

Blogs have become the newest trend in SL fashion with a growing number of designers offering bloggers free clothing and other incentives to help promote their creations, and to reach an audience that they may not have access to through other avenues. Lybra has a specific yet simple set of rules when scouting a blogger:

1. How active is the blogger. How frequent are the posts.
2. Does the blogger seem to love what she/he does.
3. Does the layout of the blogger’s blog match the theme of the Lybra brand.

It was clear that Lybra is a strong supporter of bloggers and values the effort each put into selling his creations. Natzuka shared her experiences as a blogger and both shared how they promote their products and services on social Web sites, namely, Facebook and Flickr. Their presentation included the pros and cons of being a syndicated blogger and using fashion feeds.

The other topic touched on was the Digitial Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) and how it pertains to models, designers and others who create and take photos on SL. DMCA is a law that was created in the United States to protect against copyright infringement. There was an invaluable source of information that came out of this discussion due to the intellectual theft problem that occurs through copybotting on SL, and those who copy your photos for their own malignant goals. But there are some things you can do to reduce the risk and impact if that ever happens to you. Visit www.dmca.com to learn more how you can get a “DMCA protected” badge for your blog. Don’t buy copybotted items and encourage others not to as well.

The discussion could have lasted much longer then the time allotted indicating a need to run an additional workshop on this hot new way to be a virtual model… the “Model Blogger” as coined by Suki Rexen.

The evening included a creative way to introduce Lybra’s new spring line. A “Speed” Styling Challenge! Everyone in the audience was encouraged to participate regardless of their experience level. Nine enthusiastic contestants took part in this fun, interactive portion of the Workshop. Each were given an outfit by Lybra and approximately six minutes to style themselves. Lybra, Natzuka and our surprise judge, Beatrice Serendipity (winner of Second Life Top Model 2013, Miss Virtual United Kingdom 2014 and an avid blogger) were on hand to judge the challenge.

Nerves rattled and chaos ensued as the models shuffled into a secret holding box where each waited to be called on stage to show off their speed styling abilities…and boy…we were not disappointed!

Winner of the night was Lopez Fairlady who walked away with 1000L gift card to Lybra’s store. Second place went to Chevia (mschevia) and tied for third were Mia (Praxislady Witt) and Momo (lavendersailor) who each won a 500L gift card. Congrats to the other participants: Mrs Nickle North-Sparrowtree, Daisy (daisyserodio), ElaraGloriana (Elaragloriana Scrabblebat), Kara Trapdoor and Fly (Flidais Etchegaray, who did a fabulous job styling their free outfit provided by Lybra, valued at around 700L each. Not a bad going away token just for their participation. The night wrapped with a generous surprise by Lybra who handed out 250L gift cards to everyone in the audience. WOW!

A special thank you to Lybra for sharing his expectations as a designer for bloggers of his brand and making us aware of DMCA and the steps we as bloggers can take to protect our image. We thank him for his generous gifts, his creative, elegant designs and his great sense of humour. Be sure to Visit Lybra’s Store and like him on Facebook.

Thank you to Natzuka Miliandrovic for taking the time to share her blogging knowledge and experiences. We’re grateful for the helpful tips on scoring those sought-after blogging opportunities and protecting our images online.

Many thank yous to Suki Rexen, MW CEO and the gracious host/organizer of this event. A very warm Thank you to Beatrice for staying up late to judge our speed styling challenge, and thank you to all of our guests—we sincerely hope that this topic will help you in your blogging endeavors.

I really enjoyed this fun-filled, informative Workshop!! Watch for more exciting Workshops like this in the future.

Jena Adder
Model’s Workshop COO