Tiers - An Explanation on IMVU's Tier Rewards program

Created by Keef.



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 ranked against their peers in nine categories.

The top most performing percentile of developers earn 3 points
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.

Note: The Tier Rewards system rewards ones who have a more broad participation on IMVU, therefore it is NOT a barometer for true success. The Tiers system actually shuts out the top most performers on IMVU, the specialists. Those who focus on one aspect of developing and do it exceptionally well will NOT score well on this system. Those who specialize 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 in this situation is to just ignore your tier level score and use your sales volume as your personal barometer for success.

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 unique 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 you would have earned. (you get tokens per sale instead)

Unique Metrics (participation)

Unique metrics are NOT performance based, one can max out 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 categorizes used 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.