Second Life – Making Real Money In Virtual Worlds

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How To Make Real Money In Second Life
How To Make Real Money

At one time I was a top successful entrepreneur at Second Life. I want to share with you my experience there as a virtual business entrepreneur.

I initially joined Second Life after reading an article which had proclaimed it to be one of the top business opportunities. Wanting to know more I joined.

How to Make Real Money in Second Life by Robert Freedman, Robert Freedman, December 11, 2007, McGraw-Hill edition, Paperback in English - 1 edition. From the start you don't need money. There are lots of places you can get free stuff for accounts under a certain age. Or look on the marketplace there is plenty of free stuff there too. Of course the easiest way to get L$ is to buy them but earning them you could make stuff to sell. Get a job, host, dj, performer among others.

Right away I realized that I could use my programming skills – graphics design skills – and business skills to make a go of it.

I started off with a very small store and initially filled that store with some clever jewelry items that I had made. First few weeks in and the store was making about 30 dollars a month net profits.

So I opened a 2nd store that was twice as big as the first and within no time it was hauling in 75-100 dollars per month!

As time progressed I became more advanced in my ability to create and script virtual world content and my data showed that it was making more than reasonable profit.

To make a long story short, I continued to build new stores one after the other and each one being near double the size of the previous store. I ended up designing and selling a variety of items and at last I had 9 different stores running, a successful beach club and 2 sims of land which is a lot.

At one point I had more than 1 million Lindens of game money in my account and at this time that equated to roughly $4,100.00 USA dollars. The best month I ever had was in excess of $3,800 USA dollars NET profits across all nine stores!

At or near the pinnacle of my virtual business in Second Life I brought in a business partner to manage everything and I split the net profits with them. I can tell you that a portion of my profits went to help put my son through college.

As time became more critical for me and as I began to be absorbed in my full time college studies and the running of my full time business (real life business that is) I was having more and more of a struggle to maintain and design new and updated items for Second Life.

Simultaneously to this I was tracking all of the data and had noticed a slow but gradual decline in gross sales as well as a noticeable depreciation in Second Life land values.

Whether wise or not I made the decision to pull the plug. I liquidated all of my virtual real estate one by one until nothing remained. As of today I no longer do business in Second Life as I am beyond busy with my real life business.

What I can tell you is that I met a lot of cool people there and very much enjoyed designing content for the place. I can also assure you that once I was going good this thing generated a very impressive amount of side income for me.

If you are looking for a place to socialize and yet remain somewhat anonymous you might consider making use of 2nd life. If the thought of having real world profits from a virtual world business is interesting to you then by all means take a look at 2nd life.

I am not the only one who has found ways to make money there as you will see in the video included here. Some people have found a way to pull 10k per month from the place and literally make it as a full time job there!

Some develop content, some are photographers or dj’s, others buy-sell-develop-rent land… and the list goes on as to how people find ways to make $ so there you go the rest is up to you!

A Documentary Video On Second Life

Can You Make Real Money In Second Life

Help Portal:

This page includes a helpful compilation of unofficial guides about HOW TO MAKE MONEY IN SECOND LIFE.

Got your attention? Great..

THE USUAL DISCLAIMER: like 'real life', there are more opportunities than can possibly be summarized. There's no such thing as a single formula that works for everyone, but certainly actions worth doing and learning from. Also, unless otherwise stated, these resources are not approved by Linden Lab. We can't guarantee they'll work for your personal experiences and aren't responsible for any risks — if you have success, great! Be sure to thank the guide author(s), and consider sharing your own tips.

Please improve this page with guides you've actually found useful, but don't add any spams/scams/splogs or vague lists without applicable advice; they aren't welcome.

3Guides
4Q&A
5Myths

Ways to make Linden Dollars

The Linden Dollar (L$) is Second Life's currency. Real-life money can be exchanged for L$ (keep reading!).

Here are some of the more popular (not the only) ways to make L$ in Second Life:

Receive your weekly Premium Account stipend - Learn more
Buy L$ on LindeX
Play linden earning games - Land owners enable players to earn linden by hunting for coins and gems, fishing and other games
Get a job - A diverse variety is available, and includes:
- Buy and sell land - Virtual real estate
- Create and sell content - Clothing, gadgets, etc.
- Participate in referrer/affiliate programs - Verify they're legit
- Host and perform at events - Gameshows, rock concerts, etc.
- Sell information - Write/proofread manuals, provide consulting, teach classes — Torley did this
Win prizes at events - By playing a game, luck, etc.
Fill out surveys - Verify they're legit
Sit on camping chairs (generally, a slow, ineffective, and likely net-loss process)

In short, the breadth and depth of options is comparable to your first life. Perhaps even greater, because many things, like the cost of construction materials, are cheaper (prims are free!) in Second Life. A wise general principle: look for unmet wants & needs and fulfill them! If you do or learn valuable skills in real life, you may be able to profit from them here, since your abilities are transferable, e.g., if you're an art student, start sketching clothes.

In addition, more well-established 'real-world' companies like some of our Solution Providers are hiring for positions in Second Life. Roles like Community Manager, Virtual World Evangelist, and others are becoming more popular. Keep your eyes out for jobs that leverage Second Life's unique opportunities, and be aware that the skills you learn inworld could be useful outside of SL, too.

And remember: Second Life, like soylent green, is made of people. REAL PEOPLE!!!!

How To Make Real Money With Second Life

LindeX

If you don't want to get a job but do want acquire L$, you can use the LindeX currency exchange to exchange real (like US$) currency for Linden dollars (L$). This can make it a lot quicker to get (land, goods) what you want. Please notice that there are certain billing and trading limits.

I've (Torley) noticed this seems un-obvious to some newcomers, so I'm pointing it out for your benefit.

Guides

Start with our Knowledge Base's 'Guide to Jobs in Second Life' and move on to these Resident-created guides:

Articles

2008-06-27 - 'How To Make Money In Second Life Without Being An IP Maximalist' - By Rob Myers. Explores intriguing, lesser-discussed notions and talks about the flipside of control-freak product distribution.

2007-11-27 - 'How to make money in