The question that most people ask me (and I am sure you have heard it too) is, "How do I earn money?". This is a complete guide to making money in SL:
There are eight parts in this guide:
- Here's the Good News - You don't Need Money to Enjoy SL
- The Fastest Way to Get Money
- Money that Grows on Trees
- Working for a Second Living
- Getting Paid and Reinvesting or Cashing-out
- Making enough money to buy land
- Making enough money to pay tier
- Making enough money to enjoy it
You don't have to have money to enjoy SL - there are a lot of high quality freebies available. Shop around, visit freebie places each week - things often get added or removed. Visit popular malls and clubs - they often give things away. I recently got a free tux - it very high quality but was free for only one day as a promotion.
You can even 'live' in SL for free - I came across a mansion that is free to use. The owner furnished the mansion beautifully and includes several private rooms. You cannot add your own furniture, but then you don't need it anyway.
If you want to build, visit one of the many sandboxes. If you are tired of the more crowded sandboxes, visit the less popular ones - they are often empty.
Are you making something and want to texture it, but don't have L$10 to upload? No problem - you have a lot of textures in your inventory that you can use. Need some more? Visit the freebie places - there are a lot of high-quality free (as in L$0) textures available now (visit the Bazzar - a Linden location with free (L$0) stuff including textures).
Have something to sell? There are free places for that too. Just spend some time using Find in-world or check the SL forums. The time-investment you make there pays off quickly.
Can't find any empty sandboxes or a free place to live? Ask a landowner - you might be surprised how helpful people in SL can be! Be polite, explain what you want to do, and maybe you'll come across someone with some spare land (even if it is only temporary).
Money that Grows on Trees
In SL, money does grow on trees! If you are less than 30 days old, use the Find button and search for 'Money Tree' - or visit places like The Shelter and get a current listing of Money Tree Locations.
The generosity of other SL residents makes Money Trees possible. Everything from the actual Money Trees to the land they are on and the money they grow is made possible by other SL residents! If you see the owner nearby, or see someone donating to a tree, take a moment and say "Thank you".
Working for a Second Living
Many SL-ers have a day job (a job in RL [real life]) and really don't want to work in SL. Some of us like to work in SL since it is part of their Second Lives. So, how do you find work?
Answer these questions first:
- Do you login to SL regularly? Can you be available at certain times?
- How many hours do you spend in SL per day and week?
- What are your RL skills? (writing, marketing, socializing, shopping (yes, people have personal shoppers), programming, graphics artist or wanna be artist, RL artist, role player, etc)
- Do you understand terms like IM, "rez", TP and other assorted SL idioms?
Looking for a Job
Once you have answered the questions in the previous section try the following:
- Check the employment section of the official forums.
- Ask owners or managers in places that you at which like to frequently hang out (be polite and not too pushy).
- Consider hosting events, organizing parties, weddings, or other places where your skills can be of value.
- Ask friends and other acquaintances if they know of anyone that is hiring.
- Update your profile - add a brief listing of skills and the fact that you are looking for work. You'll be surprised how many leads that brings in.
If you plan to work in a service-oriented field, customize yourself, and borrow L$10 from someone, and add a snapshot of your avatar to your profile.
Making your own Job
Of the people that earn money in SL, many are self-employed or occasionally sell things or services on their own.
The great thing about SL is that you real life skills make a difference. Enjoy providing top-notch service? Do you like to make things? Have a good eye for interior decorating? Garden design? Can you establish and use a network of friends and associates to help others? Do you enjoy writing?
There are a lot of businesses you can try. Don't let the fact that your business might already have a few instances in SL already stop you. Take a look at the huge number of clubs in SL - new clubs pop up every day - they don't seem to be de-motivated by the sheer numbers of competing clubs!
There are a number of ways to get started that don't necessarily involve investment beyond time and your skills. Look around, be social and you'll be surprised (remember to be polite and not too pushy - business and land owners are usually very busy).
Making enough money to buy land
I have heard of people doing this, but have yet to personally come across someone that registered six months ago as a basic member, and made enough to own land.
The reason I say six months is that older citizens may have had better opportunities though stipends and other incentives to accomplish this. SL is a different place now, and selling killer products or services (those that have a very high demand) is much more difficult than it once was.
There are people that make a fair bit of money in SL; however, they have either had excellent insight into consumer demand or may have invested their own money in SL to start out and are recovering their startup costs. These aren't the only possibilities, just the most likely ones.
One of the complicating factors with land is that, up until recently, you had to be a premium member to own land. With recent changes, you can now buy land on private islands (that is another discussion) without being a premium member. More about this in the next section.
Getting Paid and Reinvesting or Cashing-out
If you sell things (objects), set them for sale and you'll accumulate L$ in your account.
If you sell a service, people usually pay you directly based on your terms. Remember that any agreement between you and the person receiving the service is your agreement - LL won't help in any disputes, so be fair but cautious.
Once you have enough L$ and you could re-invest by buying things or land, or you can cash out.
If you don't want to buy anything in-world, you can cash out -- convert your L$ into real money.
Visit https://secondlife.com/currency/, read the information, click Sell L$ (if you qualify) and enter how many L$ you want to sell. As with everything else, do your homework and learn about trading L$ and you could make some more US$ for your L$ (hint: visit https://secondlife.com/account/currency_settings.php).
Making enough money to pay tier
All land owners, regardless of whether you buy/own mainland land or private estate land
must pay a 'tax' on land - the tax is called tier. Tier is the fee that Linden Lab charges to maintain our virtual world. All land owners pay tier.
If anyone offers you tier-free land, it is a scam - everyone pays tier in one way or another.
Tier changes based on how much land you own, and making enough to cover your land purchase price and then the monthly tier can be challenging (unless you come up with a killer product or service).
Don't let this stop you though!
Making enough money to enjoy it
You could enjoy SL and your business so much that the money is actually a bonus! Cash out whatever you can and pay what you need to since SL and your business are fulfilling enough.
This is a great way to go if you can afford it or if you can wait a while for returns on your investment. Enough said.
Well, that is my brief guide to making money in SL. Next post will be about: Living in SL.
1 comment:
You could almost have written that for RL as well as SL. Excellent common sense, which is really not that common at all.
Thanks for the insight.
Post a Comment