president of marketing at IMVU. "The counterpoint to that is, if you want to create everything yourself, that limits the scope and range of the type and quantity of goods," he says. Don't: Underestimate the work ahead. While the virtual goods industry has certainly grown in recent years, it's still a rather nascent technology that requires plenty of research and even consultation by experts. "It's still about building a quality product," says Balfour. "It's just a different marketing model layered on top of that." Try to build it all yourself. Many large companies already possess an arsenal of designers and software engineers to create and maintain their virtual goods market, so if you're going it alone (or even with a few colleagues), it probably wouldn't be wise to take on all the behind-the-scenes work yourself. Balfour suggests enlisting the aid of independent software developers and third-party providers for certain tasks. In order to actually make money from the virtual goods on your site, you must create a form of virtual currency system. This involves establishing a certain payment method -- coins, credits, etc. -- that allow your users to buy items or reach different levels of play or interactivity. IMVU's users, for example, receive 1,000 virtual credits when they pay the real-world equivalence of $1.00, which they can use to purchase a "dance move" for around 600 credits or a piece of furniture for 500. There are several tools out there that you can implement within your site that can