So it's my third day..

And as a newbie, I really like SL. The people here are pretty polite. And I've searched through the forums before to learn what I could do to get freebies. A lot of the sources are VERY informative, so thanks.
I still have some questions, however.

I've heard from one the forums here that Hippypay is a great way to camp for money. However, when I go to one of those areas..I'm not sure how to set up camp. I know how to be active, but when I ask for help, no one responds. :/ Could someone help me with this?
Also, is there an approved list for certain programs to make clothes? Or can anyone with an editing software like GIMP jump into the world of SL clothing design?

If you're only three days old, go and gather ye money from trees for the next 26 days. I guarantee you'll earn a fair bit that way. It's all perfectly legit and above-board, and has been running for quite a while in SL, helping out a lot of newbies along the way.

Start here for info:

http://moneytree.wolfhavenproductions.com/

With regard to your other questions, the reason why all of those avatars don't respond to you is probably because they're automated bots. Sadly you'll find more bots than RL people camping for money in SL these days. Admittedly, sometimes they're RL people who are just away from the computer, and sometimes they might not speak your language, but usually they're bots.

Anyone can jump into clothes-making, and there are a lot of great tutorials online for all the popular graphics programs. This page is probably your best bet to begin with:

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Clothing_Tutorials

There are a lot of useful templates online that you can download, such as those made by Chip Midnight and Robin Sojourner, and many other residents have created helpful downloads and tutorials.

Have fun!

Hi Lehjamins, welcome to SL and the forums.

I'd steer clear of Hippi pay - it's really a way of collecting email adressess and other personal data. Skell is right, search for places with "Money Tree" and TP round them. You do need payment info on file for a lot of money trees though - but not all. Take a bit of time to explore too - best way to learn.

Yes you can use Gimp to create clothing textures. If you are keen on creating clothing then it is a good idea to go to classes. Check out Torley's video tutorals too and take a look at the many fashion blogs.

Good luck and enjoy your Second Life.

To "camp", just right click one of their dance pads and start bopping away. You are "camping". Camping "chairs" may be chairs, dance pads, or a poseball that animates your avatar to scrub floors or push a broom.

If you camp at Hippy Pay, do NOT accept the offers to fill out surveys to "make even more lindens". Those sites are hotbeds of spyware and malware. There are other, much more pleasant places to camp...just search on "camping" in Places.

But camping is not something you'll want to do long term. After all, you're just sitting there, hour after hour. And most of your companions will be bots, as other posters have said. SL is supposed to be FUN!

Money trees are good, and looking for them does get you moving around the grid.

Once you lose the newbie look, you can make pretty good money by pole dancing or by escorting. Or if you have good people skills and a big music collection, DJs can make very good tips.

The big money is made by the content creators (the ones who are both skilled creators AND skilled business people) and the land barons (which does take a lot of startup capital). Even then, only a small percentage make a significant income from SL. Most people are happy if their SL business pays their tier and other game costs.

I still think the easiest and most efficient way to get L$ is just to buy some with your credit card or PayPal account.

Agreed, and as the OP seems to be enjoying SL thus far, it might be the best way forward. $10US gets you a goodly amount of L$ - enough to go shopping and maybe rent a nice little plot of land so you have a home to return to and unpack boxes and try on stuff in peace.

Welcome to Second Life and the forums!

You know - Lindal got it right. Camping will drive you bananas. Go collect whatever you can from the trees. Play with freebies and the like and have fun learning. Gimp is fine for making clothes if you want to learn how to do that.

I really think you're better off buying Lindens. Look at it this way: If you went out and bought a new video game, you would probably drop $50.00 for it, right? Maybe $40.00 if there was a sale. The entertainment you would get out of that game would be worth it to you. Spend half that on Second Life. Call it $20.00. That gives you 5300 Lindens. You can stretch 5300 Lindens a long way if you're careful. What are you doing now? Scratching around for 3 or 4 lindens? $20.00 on entertainment is money well spent. I'm at the point now where I like my look, I'm happy with my stuff, and I just blow my Lindens on tipping DJs and musicians, and the occasional splurge purchase or shopping spree. Hanging out with friends, dancing, exploring, and experiencing the joy you get from the incredible creativity of others is free.

Everyone keeps mentioning buy L$10 to get started, isn't the minimal buy L$25?

Welcome when you start off you're only eligible to buy 10 usd dollars worth of lindens.

And that's L$2660, not L$10.

I think you have to deposit at least $25 US to your account...that does not mean you have to spend all of it on L$. In fact, you *can't*, at least for the first few days until the automatic transaction limits on a new account are raised.

Or, if you don't want to do that, you can open an account at SL Exchange, transfer any amount of $US to it from your credit card or PayPal, buy L$ on their exchange and transfer them to your avatar in world. http://www.slexchange.com

Is that how you keep from getting banned?

ROFL

Some camping places now require you to join their group in order to get paid for camping there. Places that do that SHOULD have a sign up stating that policy and the name of the group you will need to join. If you are sitting on camp chairs/dance pads that don't seem to do anything, that could be the problem.

As others have said though, camping will bore you to tears for a very small return. I'd look for money trees, or check out that teleporting HUD system that pays you for TPing to random locations around the grid. The pay isn't great, but at least you get to see some sights along the way. I can't remember the name of it right now, but if no one comes up with it I will look it up when I get in world. (Is it HoppyPay?)

If you can, buying a few dollars worth of lindens is really the best way to go. Then, you can focus on exploring and having fun.

Welcome to SL and the forums!

**edit - it is Hoppy Pay. You can get follow this link and get the HUD free on slex. http://www.slexchange.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=411676

The Cartel Hangout doesn't have camping chairs, but it's a much more interesting place than any camping operation to...well, to hang out.

It's empty much of the time (like most places in SL). But if you show up and just sit around for a while doing random Searches or organizing your inventory, you're likely to find entertainment that's worth far more than any camping cash you could ever earn.

I mean, just to mention a few things from memory...
- Marcel showing up as a flying book avatar
- Crazod showing up as any number of wild and crazy avatars.
- Dinosaurs.
- A dancing hermit crab with a psychedelic shell.
- Aebleskiver dancing nude on the bar
- Me dancing nude on the bar.
- Jezabell dancing nude on the...well, lots of women have graced that bar.
- A wedding/lynching party/funeral/wake
- An infestation of cheeky squirrels, followed over the next several weeks by an infestation of cats.
- Slalom racing in tiny toy cars, dodging chair legs and people legs
- Aircraft of various sorts flying through. Not through our airspace, through the BUILDING
- Vampires seducing their victims
- Tourists coming by and boggling (we really should sell T shirts and postcards)
- Wild games of Truth or Dare

Plus lots and lots of good conversation, both serious and wacky.

Darn, I need to stop by and see if I can figure out how to get Chris' missile out of its silo. No, Feline...I really DO mean his missile!

You can buy from Lindex immediately from beginning as long as you didn't do anything else first. Do not need to deposit 25$ into account first. The anything else, though, can be killer. The anything else is going premium. Used to get lindens when you did that, immediately, I mean, but no longer. So, you are brand new, you decided, what the heck, and go premium, and . . . you can't buy any lindens because you have already crossed the amount you can spend in 24 hours just by going premium. Bummer, eh?

How do you think I got that free premium membership?



OK - I can explain. The first one was all your fault. The second was all Ann's fault, although I dearly love my tiny little cars. Where you there when we made a ramp? Nuku was there, I think. Who else?

The third one was all, I think, Chris' fault. He made the landing strip on the roof way too small. Sometimes I lag and hit the building. Besides, it's not just me. Where's Lexxi? She's flown through the dance floor before.

Don't forget base jumping off the changing room platform, the occasional snowstorm and tornado strike, and lots and lots of good conversation.

I'd make a sexual joke, but that isn't me. There is a handle next to the bouncy thing. Touch the handle. Door opens. Missile slowly emerges like a turtle slowly pushing his head out of his shell to look around. Sit on missile. Missile is good. Missile go up. Missile go boom. Missile fragments look like fireworks. People fall. People land on bouncy thing. People bounce. Go onto SL Forum. Write oddly.

See? See? Only in SL...and only in a few places even there...can you expect to find a cat writing an operations manual for a nuclear missile.

I love this place.

After having way too much catnip.

QFT!

Many of the posters here are landlords, content creators and/or own businesses, etc. Which is fantastic and I admire all of you!

When I played EQ, each expansion that came out was approximately $20 or so; then the monthly play fee was $14.95 or so when I left 2 years ago. With the goal being to whack monsters and level up.

Nothing wrong with that (except for me it got very monotonous).

In SL, the skies are the limit - one can do almost anything their imagination dreams!

My first year in SL I purchased lindens as needed/wanted which probably averaged out to less than the 14.95 mo. I used to pay for EQ. (Not to mention the regular expansion packs.) I did have a job that I used to pay for my rent (a whopping 150L/week) and to help with the land my group had purchased. But mainly the job was fun.

~ ~ ~

Then I got "ambitious" - went premium and purchased 512 of tier-free land to put a little shop on to sell the few items I learned to build. I should have stopped there. Instead, I purchased two more contiguous parcels. It is nothing compared to what many people own, but then I felt I should be "doing something" with the land. (Previously my partner and I were renting a bit smaller of a plot and living there happily).

I began teaching, taking more classes to learn how to build better, am now taking a class to learn how to use a photo-editing program, started working on my shop to the point that now I'm not enjoying SL as much. And by the time my partner gets online I'm exhausted with no inclination to explore as we once did.

~ ~ ~

I'm now seriously thinking of selling off the two other plots I purchased - live simply on my 512 land and go back to enjoying SL before I thought I needed to be "productive."

Again, I realize some love the business aspect of SL, so I'm not knocking that at all. My main point is that there are many ways to enjoy SL and I'd love to go back to the days when I just purchased the lindens I "wanted" (I too have everything and more than I "need" and just....relax and enjoy.

That would be me.

/me waves

i'm sure the original poster has stopped reading after the de-railment

i always found that www.mermaiddiaries.com was one of the best sites/blogs i had ever found on SL. lots of building tips for clothes, items, sculpties, animations. Natalia (the writter of the blog) is a well known designer in SL and touches on almost every subject and has visited just about every cool place in SL through her blog.

it's the first thing i tell new people to do is read that site, befor i send them off to Kuula for some freebies

-Crunch

Hi there and welcome to SL.

Camping is booooring, and I'll second the advice to go for the money trees instead, and maybe buy a few dollars worth of Lindens on the lindex. You don't need to add US$ to your account first, and there is no minimum spend.

Hippiepay - stay well clear of that. All they're doing is farming email addresses and selling them to spammers.

And Gimp is fine for making clothes, although most of the online tutorials you'll find will be for Photoshop. I think Gimp can do everything you need though - as long as you are comfortable making transparent parts and alpha channels you'll be fine. There are templates you can download free off the SL main website.

You can get loads of really good freebies without spending a single cent. Try Sarah Nerd's freebie paradise, the Free Dove, and NCI to start with (type the names into Search).

/me wonders if he can fly the chopper through the hangout... or maybe the P51.