SL Business Success Stories

Thanks, Phil. Hope you're right I will take your advice and look into getting the most out of the search tool.

Prawnyloks I would consider your business a definite success story.

It sounds like passion for what you are doing is probably the most important quality for a successful business in SL.

I have worked as a land surveyor both above ground and below ground using compasses to chart a route. I have used compasses on sailboats to chart a course and for dead reckoning. They are even handy in automobiles on occasion. I like compasses a lot, they look nice in my opinion, but I have never found much use for one on a desk.

Does your desk move around a lot?

LOL, OK back on topic.

If "successful business" means I could support myself on my SL Income, then no its not anywhere near successful.

If "successful business" means it pays my tier and produces a profit, then yes it is successful.

I think of it as a fun hobby that pays for itself.

My biz is home decor....yes i make RL money..no i have no helpers.

I agree that it is possible to make money in SL if you are willing to work very hard and promote the heck out of your biz. I teach marketing in SL and would be happy to drop you a notecard with text from a previous class if you are interested. Also, i will be teaching the class again on mon night on Etopia. All are welcome. (and no, i make zero money from teaching these classes)

Did you bother to actually read the thread which had loads of useful information and wasnt a marketing ploy... oh wait, nvm

Imagin, have you seen the thread on "Advice on Sales?" Near the end of the thread (last time I looked anyway) the participants of that thread, many of us who have also joined the Biz Network Group (it's getting late and my mind is fuzzy so I think that's the name of the group), are talking about getting together once a month to share marketing ideas.

One of the main topics mentioned was understanding how to better use search tools to our advantage. Keep an eye on that thread and/or join the Biz Group so you can come join us in those discussions if you like.

I also looked at your website - your land is gorgeous!

Group name in full is "Biz Owner Network"

Ah thanks - at least I got the "Biz" part right.

(Still not myself and posted that late.)

You definitely need to enjoy what you're doing, you'll just get bored otherwise. If you do enjoy it, then whether you make a profit or not, it'll still be a success to you.
Obviously a little profit is nice too

Good luck with your venture. I'll be wandering over for a good look around.

Jojogirl Bailey - I sent you an IM. I just TP'd to Jojo's Folly from your profile and recognize your work, I own most of your stained glass Thanks for your offer, I would love to take your class.

In my experience the SL economy has changed. When I started making things to sell, over 18 months ago, they did sell, slowly but steadily. So I bought some 32m plots around the grid use as stalls and increased my sales a bit.

My products were unsophisticated, but attractive and nicely made, I think. And they were not expensive. But business dwindled to nothing, I sold all the 32m plots and forgot about making money.

Recently I relaunched the business. More and better products at even lower prices - better displayed at my extended shop. Also all the items are on OnRez and in addition are available through 5 roadside OnRez vendors around the grid. Not a single sale anywhere!

As well as perhaps less prosperity, I think more people make their own stuff, there are more good freebies around (my freebie bundle 'sells' OK!) and more reliance on established brands.

PS - I spoke too soon - just checked my OnRez account and I've sold 2 items!

- what kind of business is it? Heliconia. Shoes. Costumes. Misc.
- how long have you been doing it? 2 years
- do you have helpers? if so how many? none
- do you feel it is possible to make a living entirely in SL with this business? Yes. I can pay the rent and upload fees and still have enough to go shopping and rent a house.

My impression was that scripting was fairly lucrative. I didn't see any scriptors weigh in on this thread but I have to imagine certain things end up filling the coffers pretty fast. There are a number of defacto HUDs and systems that are very popular and I imagine those content creators make a killing off them, long after they invested the time into creating them initialy.

You're right, but that's a problem in both directions: once a de facto standard appears, there can be no more businesses selling that product. Occasionally a change-over occurs, usually because an older business user became lazy or left, but most of the defacto standards are now controlled by pure business "professional" users for whom that is unlikely to be an issue in any reasonable timeframe.

Scripting also has difficulty with the ability for businesses to offer "updates" to their scripted products, which essentially means that any new attempt to compete with them can be blocked - you add in your new feature, but in the next week, the competitor's existing customers all have it added for free. By far the worst of these are the "multi gadgets" that some designers make, because if a new business creates a new tool, it can be absorbed into a free update of the multi gadget, cutting the new business off at the roots. It's true that many of the multi gadget creators (and generally, makers of updating products) choose not to do this, but having your entire business depend on the civic-mindedness of a competitor isn't a position that many business-focused people want to be in!

So, yea, there certainly are scripting success stories - you probably know their names without needing to be told - but most of the actual money earned for scripting is probably earned for custom work for particular clients.

- what kind of business is it?
Low prim furniture
- how long have you been doing it?
Geez, about half a year or so?
- do you have helpers? if so how many?
None
- do you feel it is possible to make a living entirely in SL with this business?
Yes, if one can put many hours into it. At this moment, I could cash out a bit of pocket money, and I do not have too many items yet. Cashing out is after paying my rent (4800 m2 double prim estate land), uploading textures, buying textures, animations, sculpts, and so on. So far my surplus gets invested back into SL though. So if I would have more time, I could definitely make a living here. So far, available time is making it hard to expand.

Main question is though: would you want to make a living doing this? For me the answer is no, for two reasons:
- Unstable market: No one knows where LL is heading for with SL, so what I do now might render worthless in the near future. Developing myself on my current job, offers much more stability.
- Fun. So far I love what I do in SL, but the question is whether I would still love it if I had to do it 40+ hours a week. And if my income would rely on it. So I rather see it as a hobby, with which I can eventually earn some extra cash.

Scripting's kinda funny. I made about $L 250k off a ten line script once.

It was essentially the default 'hello avatar' script but I substituted it saying 'hello avatar' with an llrezobject() command.

How could that have possibly made any money, you ask? Well, I used it to rez houses I made without prim drift when you set them out. A problem that was a lot worse in the old days, I guess.

People figured I'd done a lot of math to accomplish this, but in fact I hadn't (well, okay my first attempt *did* work that way but I tossed it when the 10 line script did the job).

I was offered lotsa $L for the script - people were coming to me daily and wanting it. I couldn't believe it, because it was so incredibly stupid. Any scripter could write it! Once I'd made enough money to get my first region, I started telling people how I did it. Much to the great consternation of others who made the same thing and were trying to sell it. Of course it didn't allow for easy moving around like rez foo so I didn't really impact that kind of product - but still not a bad bit of scripting for ten lines

Crazy but true. Happened around late 2005.

As far as I can tell, there still are people selling even simpler rezzer scripts for hundreds of L$ - in stores, that is. I mean, if people are offering you money for it, OK, but selling it in a shop at a high price seems to be getting into rip-off territory to me.

That's a very good point. Right now there is livelihood levels of RL money to be made by anyone with an average brain and who has the will to actually do it - not the desire because we can all desire things, but the will to see it through. But what about in the coming years? Will it still be possible then? My gut feeling is yes. I don't see SL going offline, and as long as it stays up, the money will be there. In a few years it may have some real competition, but that will only mean that there are more markets to earn in. Maybe the SL slice will be smaller than the 100% slice it has now, but the whole thing will be bigger. I may be proved wrong, but that's how I see the future.

Imagine 10 years from now, or even 5 years. What will the metaverse be like then? I can imagine so much business going on, and many people kicking themselves for missing out because they didn't give a good shot in the early pioneering days. Just a thought

Oh, I never actually sold it for those crazy prices. It was steadily serving me well with my houses, which weren't terribly expensive, and I figured anyone who demanded the script for $L 100k and then found it was maybe 10 lines would get really, really, mad.

Beyond that, I think it's 100% fair to sell a scripted item like Mystitool or whatever over and over again. It's just like anything else that can be made, really.

Um, longer, Marcel dear. You were renting from me when I was Deck, weren't you? At the very least, you were on Edscapes immediately after we moved onto it. I got Deck in December, and Edscapes in January.

ETA: You also rented from me when I was managing that club, that was in mid-December. You're coming up on a year, my friend

Oh, sure. The point is when they're selling a script for far more than its complexity warrants. Mystitool, on the other hand, is underpriced if anything (which is another competitiveness problem)

Bubbled! LOL

Phil, you've met me. I'm blonde (or was...redhead now, most of the time).

"Bubbled"??

There's really only one particularly valid reason to operate a business in SL, and that's because you enjoy doing it. It's certainly possible to earn a living from SL, but it's not easy (and not common), especially if you're in a particular market that's already oversaturated with competitors, but if you're having fun, enjoying seeing other people enjoy what you do, does it really matter?

Another thing you can do is to post offers of free land in exchange for full perm copies of the creators work...oh wait, nvm

That little bit of spite and venom aside, that 'fake' thread you refer to has been a huge amount of help to a lot of people, myself included. My sales have more than quadrupled based on things I learned there, and most of the people who have posted there have never posted pictures of their products or used the thread for promotion.

By the way, if the op would like, there is a marketing genius (ok that's an opinon lol) who posts on that thread regularly, you could go over there and get her name and IM her, she might be able to help you.

Back on topic:

- what kind of business is it?
I make pixel clothing for SL avatars

- how long have you been doing it?
since May of this year

- do you have helpers? if so how many?
my partner is a huge help to me, he keeps track of satellite stores, checks all my work (making sure permissions are correct, landmarks and thank you notes inside boxes), and models for me (albeit grudgingly). I don't pay him, he wouldn't let me if I tried, (and I have tried lol)

- do you feel it is possible to make a living entirely in SL with this business?
I think it would be possible given time, but it wouldn't be anything I would want to count on because there are variables. SL could disappear, my eyes could give out, I could get bored...but since I can no longer work outside the home, and I really love making the things that I make, it fills a niche nicely for me.

~Edit: I was in a hurry to snip back and didn't read all the posts until now, I see you have already hooked up with the marketing person I was talking about so you can disregard that