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As a resident of Second Life for over two years, I have lost count of the number of times that new residents have asked me "How do I make money in Second Life?" It's a common question and I think that this has a lot to do with the media. There are frequently stories about people making a real life income from Second Life. I know people in Second Life who are making their full time income from the 'game'. That is, that they do not have to work because their Second Life income is enough to live on. But I know of very few. On the other hand, I know of plenty who make just enough in Second Life to give themselves a little cash bonus, on top of the salary they make from their full time jobs. So the first thing I would advise anybody going into Second Life trying to make money, is to lower your expectations. The time you have to put in to make a little bit of cash in SL is huge and the chances that you will make your full time income from Second Life are lower than you might expect. All the same, here are ten ways to make money in Second Life. 1. Make and sell a product. This might seem obvious, but, in my experience, this is the most successful way of taking a few Linden dollars. Point to note, however, is that you really should research your market first. Most things have been done! And you will have more success if you can find a product area with less competition - something that is easier said than done. But once you have made one product, you can sell unlimited copies of it and if you get a good one, this could be a great little earner. 2. Write for a Second Life blog or magazine. There are tonnes and tonnes of Second Life blogs, newspapers and magazines who pay writers. Many of them just like to hire people to write up about places in world, some like gossip, others like virtual worlds news in general. Depending on the quality of your writing and the publication you submit to, you could expect to earn anything between L$200 and L$1500 per article, which isn't going to make you a millionaire, but if you enjoy writing anyway it is a nice financial bonus. 3. Work as a dancer! If you have your avatar already looking pixel perfect, then getting a job a Second Life stripper or dancer will not be hard. Be warned, however, the pay is not great. It's often tips only and this, of course, depends on your ability to make people want to part with their cash for a flash of your virtual flesh! 4. Complete surveys. There are a number of places in Second Life where you can earn Linden dollars simply by filling in a few surveys. In my experience, these tend to pay better than the RL surveys on ciao.com, for example. They can be time consuming, however and, again, do not expect them to make you an instant millionaire. 5. Learn a Second Life skill and offer it as a service. Scripting and sculpting, in particular, seem to
be sought after skills at the moment. There seem to be fewer scripters and sculptors around than builders. If you offer your service to someone for a personal or commercial product they are making, you can either expect a decent up front fee or a percentage of sales of the product. And you can often avoid dealing with the customer service afterwards! The scripters I know get in the region of L$ 10000 per hour of work. This can be very lucrative. 6. Buy and rent out land. Now this requires more of an investment than most things you could do in world. You can buy a sim from Linden Lab for 1000 USD, or you can usually find them from other residents for between $600 and $800. Then the monthly tier on top of that is 295 USD. So this is pricey. But dividing it up and renting it out can be very lucrative indeed. However, the market is hugely saturated right now, so you have to offer great prices and amazing service, and you cannot possibly go a day without taking part in some sort of marketing activity to keep your name out there. 7. Offer your marketing services. If you are a great online marketer, perhaps you're pretty good at SEO or just have a great networking ability, then there is a chance that someone in Second Life could use your help. Second Life is full of creative who are highly skilled in their product building but who will admit to just not being such great marketers. These people, particularly as the market is so saturated these days, will often hire marketing experts to get their products out there. Negotiate a set fee or a commission package. 8. Design and develop websites. If you are a skilled web developer or designer, someone will need your skills. More and more creators and retailers in Second Life are turning to websites to further market their products and if you can offers your services at competitive rates, you will undoubtedly find work in game. 9. Escorting! No, I am not joking. If you go through the Second Life age verification programme (free to do but requires you to enter the number of a passport or other legal ID document) then you can access adult sims. There are a number of adult clubs on these sims where people can sign up to offer escort services. Alternatively, you can freelance. Now, this one might test your morals a little. But I do know people who would never dream of doing something like this in real life, but who do in Second Life and who make a lot of money out of it. Those who do best out of it are those who offer "voice services." This will not be everyone's cup of tea. Far from it. But there are a lot of people making a LOT of money from this. 10. Take on a customer service job. There are lots of these going in Second Life. Just go through the in world classifieds. Again, this seems to be because a number of creators like to simply create and not have to worry about providing services afterwards. So they will pay people to take care of it. And there you go. The only ones, in my experience, that have left anyone making a real life income from Second Life are renting out land, creating and selling a product, scripting for people and escorting, believe it or not. Personally, I use Second Life for fun. I do not think that it is the easiest platform from which to make money online. But if you develop a skill successfully, you could strike it rich.
Josue Habana is virtual worlds enthusiast with a rather large ego and a Second Life Blog to entertain it. He is also learning (slowly) the art of Second Life Machinima
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