1. Introduction
Are you ready to sell your own creations in the IMVU Catalog and make money?
This tutorial will walk you through the process, showing you how to Upload a Project to the IMVU Catalog. Once it has been uploaded, it will become a Product. This means that it will be added to the IMVU Catalog and given a Product ID.
- Project – A creation that is saved to your local computer.
- Product – A creation that was published to the IMVU Catalog.
- Product ID (PID) – Product Identification Number. It is assigned when a product is submitted to the catalog.
At the end of this guide your product will be visible in the Shop and people will be able to purchase it!
You can watch the video below that explains the process of uploading products, or read on!
This tutorial is part of the Creator Program. To learn more about the Creator Program, please click here.
2. Open your project
Once you have created and saved a project, and you are happy about how it looks, it is time to upload it to the shop.
Open the IMVU Desktop App and Log In. Click on the Create button.
Click on the Open a Local Project button.
The Open Panel enables you to browse your projects that are already in progress.
When you click on the Open a Local Project button, your “IMVU Projects” folder will open.
Select the CHKN file and click Open.
If you did not save your project with a specific name, an automatically generated file name was used to save it. In order to find the file, look for a file name that contains the PID of the product you derived from.
Product IDs can be found at the bottom of product pages if you access from the IMVU Classic Website and it is also the number at the end of a product page’s URL if you access from the IMVU Classic Website or the IMVU Next.
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From IMVU Classic Website
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From IMVU Next
The Editor will open.
A default avatar is displayed on your screen.
If you want to see your own avatar, go to the Bottom Toolbar and click Outfits 
.
Click the avatar you want.
The one on the screen will be substituted with the one you have chosen.
3. Upload your Product
Uploading a Product costs Credits and requires a thorough knowledge of the Virtual Goods Policy.
Please, take a look at our “Your Responsibilities as a Creator” article to understand and learn about the importance of following Creator Guidelines.
Click on the Upload button to upload your product to the shop.
The Upload button is smart enough to know whether you are trying to submit a brand new product or just editing an existing one.
When you click Upload, a copy of your CHKN file is made and converted into a CFL file. Only CFL files can be submitted via the web submission flow.
The Product Submission Card will pop up.
● Edit Product Information
The Product Submission Card contains input fields for everything your product requires in order to be submitted to IMVU.
Completing the input fields of the Product Submission Card is required in order to Submit your Product to the Shop. To do so, click here.
● Submit Product to the Shop
When you have all of your fields filled out to your liking, click on the Submit to Shop button.
● Product Page
Once you have submitted your product to the Shop, a browser window will open with your product’s information (Product Page).
From the Product Page, you can do a lot of things such as Add Custom HTML, Toggle Visibility, Edit Product Settings, or Publish the Product.
If you find that you need to make some changes to your product before publishing it, read the article Product Page to learn how to do it.
If you close this page and then cannot find your product in your catalog don’t panic, it will take a while for IMVU’s servers to catch up and see the new item in your catalog.
You can either get back to it by using:
- Browser History
- Your Inventory
- Your Creator Center Dashboard under “My Projects”
○ Publish
When you want to use your product out in public and/or want people to be able to buy it, you are ready to Publish.
There is a Red Publish Bar at the top of your Product Page.
Click on “Click here to publish it” link to put your product into Peer Review.
● Peer Review
Peer Review is an opportunity for Creators to test your product and its description.
IMVU users will have a chance to vote on whether it meets the requirements set forth in the Virtual Goods Policy and to be added to the IMVU Catalog.
We highly recommend that you read our “Terms of Service” article to understand Copyright and Property Rights.
We also encourage you to be a peer reviewer yourself. Once you Sign Up to be a Creator, even if you have never submitted a product, you can review products. This will give you ideas about how to test your product as well as help get more products into the IMVU Catalog.
To learn more about Peer Review, please go to the FAQ tab on the Peer Review Page.
Once your product is in Peer Review, your Product Page will show a bar at the top warning potential customers that this product is in Peer Review and may not pass.
While a product is in Peer Review, customers may prefer not to purchase it because it could be taken away from them if it does not pass Peer Review. Therefore, you may want to hide your product until it passes Peer Review.
To do so, go to the Creator Tools Bar and click on the small red circle.
Remember that while your product is unpublished, you can use it and test it but no one else will know it exists in the catalog or in IMVU. You can wear it, but no one else has permission to see it (in some cases, that means they will see you in the default option). If the product is a room, you will not be able to use it as a public room.
You will receive a message once your product has passed Peer Review.
On your Product Page the Warning Bar has turned green. Now people will know your product passed Peer Review.
If you want to make your product visible to IMVU customers, do not forget to click on the green circle in case you hid the product while it was in Peer Review.
To confirm your product is ready, go to the Shop 
in your IMVU Desktop App, type your Avatar Name in the search bar, and your product should appear!
4. Sell your Product and Earn Credits
CONGRATULATIONS! Your product is in the IMVU Catalog already!
You can start making sales and earning credits! And others can derive from your product so you earn even more credits!
You can market your products by taking photos of your creations and sharing them with the IMVU Community. Click on the following links to learn how to take photographs and how to post pictures in the IMVU Feed.