It's Money Honey ~ How to make money in SL?

Unlike real world where there is a always necessity to fulfil our basic needs, comforts and luxuries, in virtual worlds we do have any of such. You may often hear, virtual world being an escape for us, a window to live our imaginative life to the fullest. So, when there is no requirement of any necessity to be fulfilled, we still love to shop. Who does not like to shop? Our bags are full of items we used once in our entire virtual life time or never used at all. Most of us know how to bag the pennies and some struggle with it.

Here are a few tips for the starters and an addition list for the existing players:

The following are the ways to earn lindens if you are just starting in Second Life.

·         Trivia Balls

There are clubs at Second Life that have trivia balls. A random general knowledge question is asked in local. If you give correct answer you get few lindens. For a starter this is one of the best ways to earn some. One such is located in Wasteland Reloaded http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Sommerinsel/225/34/23 , answer trivia questions to win L$2.

·         Contest Boards

One of the major fun activities which helped me have my first home in second life. The clubs have contests to dress according to a theme. One has to ask one the host to join the club group for vips and click the “Join Contest” on the Contest Board. After about two hour or the end of the shift, voting starts. Some clubs either select one winner or three or as many winners as they got voted. One may ask for votes during the voting time. One wins a substantial of amount. Most of the clubs put in L$250 which is split among winners. However, clubs may give out as high as L$2000 up for grabs. For example: Club Vanity http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Carnival%20Land/93/198/1804 Energy Club http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Energy/103/112/21

·         Traffic Huds

There are many huds available in the marketplace. Add the hud to your outfit. Each hud has a info on how to operate. Read the info before you start. Basically, once you wear the hud, you will be given a place. Teleport to the place and move around for 2 or 3 minutes to get paid. Only condition is you can’t stand at a place for  along time or be away from keyboard. These were introduced to increase traffic in a region. It was once upon a time a good suggestion for business in SL. However, it has lost its magic for the business in the late years. For a person wearing hud, one can earn as many as L$20 per hour. A few links to get huds on market place are;

Hunt for gold coins https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Linden-Gold-Hunter-HUD-Earn-Linden-by-hunting-for-coins/2265556

Click on magic crystals https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/MAGIC-CRYSTALS-MONEY-HUD-Earn-Lindens-playing/3809599

Pay per visit hud https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/PayPerVisit-hud-earn-linden-by-visiting-locations/5813278

Catch fish https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Linden-Fish-Hunter-HUD-Earn-Linden-by-hunting-for-fish/2622187 

·         Jobs

Ever since March 2012, I have always been looking for a job. The best place to look for job is at the agencies. Click on the board to receive a notecard for application. Even with no experience, one must completely answer the application. There are jobs for managers, hosts, DJs and dancers throughout the year. Other jobs also are available from time to time like sales agent. If you need training with any club jobs you may visit Club Staff University http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Portimao/212/158/22,a learning school or the clubs train new employees too.

A few landmarks you may want to visit while job hunting are: Job Squad http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Sommerinsel/225/34/23 Jobs 4 u Job Center Agency work and employment http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/No%20Devil/201/138/22 Pisces Jobs http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/No%20Devil/201/138/22

·         Sploder

Once you have a few lindens in hand, you can play the Sploder at clubs. Pay the Sploder and you might get lucky to win extra. At some sploders, you may have loss too. So, I prefer the no loose sploders. If you pay L$20, there is guarantee that you would get it back. The hope is you might get much more and never loose. One such club you may want to visit is The drunken lizard beach http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Portimao/212/158/22.

Park your avatar

There are some places where you may park your avatar for a while to get paid. Sometimes you have the option to go away from keyboard as well for long time. It is one of ways to increase traffic. Neko Launge http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Volokov/23/98/286 pays L$1per hour. While I was visiting I saw old avatars about 4 years old doing the same.

The following are the ways to earn lindens if you are an existing player in Second Life. You may also adapt the above ways too. These require either a few Linden Dollars or experience to start off.

·         Affiliate Business

Under the business category look for affiliate programs in the marketplace. Here is the link https://marketplace.secondlife.com. All you need is rent a shop space. There are businesses that give you the franchise to sell their product for a percentage of commission.

·         Photography

It is one of the most cherished careers in Second Life. If you can take a good shot and you have an unusual view to things, you may want to take photography as your career choice. A good graphics card helps. There are tutorials available on you tube and various blogs. One of upcoming photographers, Val Valsnia started with L$50 per picture and now makes L$500 each. There are many great photographers. It is a tough market but you have a creative look, you are spot on with lot of customers.

·         Custom build

There is always a need for builders. For starters try building something and put it on marketplace. If your product has a wild appeal, you may soon open a store in world. To learn building, you may join the most active group in Second Life, Builders Brewery. Here is the link for more information on the class schedule. http://buildersbrewery.com

·         Animation

With building comes the basic animations. Although there are many poses in the marketplace, there is always a need for a few realistic ones. There are very few pose makers inworld. This one has a great demand among customers. They are wanted by builders, designers, bloggers, models, fashion magazines and end users. You can learn to make animations on Youtube. Among other free software, I prefer one called Qavimator http://www.qavimator.org/  to make animations and save them in .bvh file and later upload to SL. Note that it takes L$10 to upload per file.

·         Textures

If you are good with digital art, this one is for you. However, if you are starter, there are many tutorials available on the web. Artists would normally suggest PS, i.e., Photoshop and it the best. But if it is too much to start with, try playing around in http://www.picmonkey.com . Pixlr is almost similar to PS, but it does not support PSD files. You can work around it with PNG files. Here is the link to the editor http://apps.pixlr.com/editor/ . The cost of uploading a texture is L$10 each. Here is the catch, either you may sell seamless textures on the marketplace or if you are artist in real life, you may sell your art inworld. Before selling textures, I suggest you to read the TOS and be aware of the infringement rights.

·         Scripting

Animations or builds do not function like real life without the scripts. All hands down to the scripting experts. If you know java or any programming language, you may be able to do a little bit of scripting. Scripting is taught in world as well. Builders Brewery has scripting classes. This is another career which has a great demand in SL. You may sell scripts on marketplace. If you look into second life community there are special on hand jobs available for scripters.

·         Modelling

By modelling, I mean fashion models. Clothing, accessory designers and fashion magazines are on the look-out for models. There are modelling schools in world. But, they are not cheap. Total fees may vary from L$500 to L$10,000. There are free modelling schools (FMU) available as well. To be among the top celebrity models, it is best suggested to get into the best schools to get maximum exposure.

·         Estate Sales agent

Although this job can be taken by a newbie too, but the estate owners normally do not hire newbies. The estate owners look for some experience and stability to hire these sales agents. After one is hired, one gets a rigorous training for about a week. You can earn a percentage commission selling virtual land in SL. This percentage when converted to pennies is so much, that you might be the owner of a small land yourself living lavishly. But the only requirement is that you have to be really good at marketing. You may hear the job opening either from a friend or community in Second Life but seldom at any agency.

·         Re-Sale

Do you love breedables? I do. You must have a home in second life to breed them and take care of them. Breedables range from fantasy animals like meeros to pets like dogs, cats to farm animals like horses and plants. Breed your pets and sell the younger ones in a rented space.  Another kind of resale is to sell food and weapons etc. Food? Yes, food. If you roleplay as a Gorean, an avatar has to eat food to do the various activites in Gor. There is a world of Gor who have traders ad merchants selling food, bricks of copper, gold and silver and weapons which are based on G&S Hud.

·         Advertising

To be an advertiser, you must have an active group in world and a space to put up the ads of your clients. Show your marketing skills, bring in clients and get them customers. You can have a Job agency for us or an a market in-world where others come to sell their stuff etc.

When I started in Second Life, we could use the gaming portal like the casinos. Many of us earned a lot. About late last year or early this year, there was a certain change in the regulation of TOS. For more information, you may read in the following link http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Linden_Lab_Official:Skill_Gaming_in_Second_Life. Well, these are a few to start with. Other professions may include a machinima artist, role players like doctors, gynaecologists, nurses, bloggers, writers, policemen etc. One can search for more in http://search.secondlife.com.

*Note: The was originally written for SL Enquirer