How much will you spend in SL in 2010?

I really HATE hearing this, from anyone......and on the other hand, I actually WISH my interest would wane. But it's not. Not one little bit.

At the very high end of the poll along with a surprisingly high number of people.

I can't honestly say, even as I think about it. My spending goes in cycles, based on my interest and activity level. I don't have any "regular" expenses, ie premium orland fees, and my Linden buying goes in peaks and valleys. Right now it is definitely in a valley, I've bought maybe $5000L in past 4 months or so. At my peak shopping times, I would buy 20-50K Lindens a month.

I don't think I'll ever quit SL totally but the last 6 months or so there's been silly drama in social circles I run in which has led to splintering of groups and friends slowly logging in less. There's a bit of a ripple effect when your friends spend less time in SL. Also my neighbourhood went bust so I'm left wandering the streets and I haven't bothered to get a new house but this will probably change in the new year when I get a new computer and can hopefully get a better technical experience. Even though I'm a bit doubtful, I hope all these changes being implemented by LL will grow SL as I do have a soft spot for the place.

One added comment. I expect my in-world spending will be a mere fraction of previous years. I know this last year saw a severe drop in in-world spending by all my accounts, because I simply wasn't earning enough to have money to spend on anything other than my land payments. I used to spend thousands of L$ per week on stuff for my main avatar and my alts. But now they have a lot of what they need, and I don't have a lot of spare L$ any more at all. So probably the only serious spending I'll do next year will be if I create a few new alts for roleplaying, and equip them with furry avatars and a selection of clothes and accessories suitable to their purposes.

I wish I was able to put in more than 10 poll options as it would have been nice to get a better handle on the >700USD segment of the population. I was debating on how I should do this poll and maybe I should made my increments larger.

I probably will be spend less if I don't include tier for mainland holdings/estate holdings and my premium subscription.

I have way too many clothes (gowns), shoes (don't believe that one) and I probably have purchased all the big ticket items I am going to unless we decide to expand to another full sim or homestead (unlikely).

I foresee my future spending mainly will be business related such as updating our Intan. BTW, please visit our ballroom, we have 70+ couple dances. Our goal for 2010 is to spend more time seeing each other irl and meeting our families.

We are offer to a good start as we will spend a week at Madi Gras and we are planning a trip to London in the summer. Not to mention flying to see each other on some weekends.

Funny there's no poll option for $0. O_o

I meant to add that to the "break even" part of the poll, meaning you either plan on spending $0 USD next year or your revenue and expenses essentially cancel each other out.

US$1572. Tier plus another year of premium.

Unless they piss me off to the point of leaving.

I answered as if 2010 was going to be like 2009, but there are two reasons that won't happen...

1) My sales are down
2) No way in hell I'll let the bleeding continue. I'll tier down this year.

I just don't know when I'll break.

Well, I looked at my linden balance and the number of days left before tier is due and came up with an answer. I break this month. Closing shop, selling all my land.

I dont really measure my spending accurately because I do have funds I can draw upon from real. BUT I can say for sure my tier will be over $600 and my art spending will be comfortably over the 10 thou lindens per month. Clothes and good stuff will add at least another 10 thou. And land is always an item. Then I gift people I like with tips etc. I have a daughter in sl I support, friends etc. Yeah real costs mount up.

I think people who dont put money in are rather like people who snitch grapes in supermarkets as they walk past the fruit aisle. Low lifes.

I'm closing shop December 19 and abandoning/selling my land, so I guess my answer has changed to US$0.

Why?

if we're just talking cash outlays, not one red cent, but I can pretty much guarantee I'll make some profits

That's a bit extreme. Couldn't you scale things back to a smaller land parcel? That's what I had to do in January 2009 and it worked for me. In 2008 I had half a sim. Things were going well. But I shifted my focus from building [which I'm OK-ish at but was able to earn good money in SL] to music [which I'm very good at but earns next to nothing in SL].

My income plummeted and it coincided with the Open-Space / Homestead malarkey. So I had to scale back. Drastically. I was down to a single 1536 parcel for 4 months while I slowly saved up and now have 3300 sq m. It was tough going. I had considered going landless for a while but I needed a location to set down my vendor and to use as a stage / venue for my music.

Anyway... enough of me. What I'm getting at is that it won't always be a simple uphill curve towards prosperity and business success. It'll be a twisting, turning road with all manner of unexpected events along the way. It just seems a bit drastic walking away like that after you've put so much time and effort into creating your unique and interesting products.

I agree here I have traded up and down at least 3 times in 3 years for various reasons the casino close was the first.It can be good fun and you get your drive back when your expences are low.I have been stable for over a year and in profit but with SL who can tell?

As to the thread I can,t predict the future.Safe to say if it goes t-ts up I will trade down to my little safe haven and start again.

No.

Even if my tier was zero we're still only talking about lunch money. Less than lunch money, actually. Even if I got to keep all my sales money I'd still be eating off the dollar menu

That's not a business. That's a waste of my time. I do not want to re-design my store, create new graphics, etc, to make static displays, particularly since my items can't really be understood unless seen live. I would never ever be compensated for that time at RL rates.

I do not live in a third-world country, and my alternative is not a sweat factory. I could instead earn first-world wages with my time.

For the satisfaction of creating things? Hogwash.

Developing my products and nearly completing two non-product SL projects has been about two full years of full-time development. In that time I could have instead earned tens of thousands of dollars, which I could have given to an animal rescue organization. Or bailed all of my friends out of financial difficulty. In that time I could have learned a language. Or read hundreds of books. With the money I spent on RL expenses while working on SL stuff I could have instead toured Japan and Europe. For months. Living it up at spendy hotels.

I feel really #*&%^#*& stupid for having spent that time and money on SL. My store is a constant reminder of having wasted two years of my life and tens of thousands of dollars.

I'm closing it with extreme prejudice.



We're talking about peanuts. It's really creepy when you talk like that about peanuts.

Peanuts. Really (*#&*&$^ stupid. I am a ^%@&^%& idiot for ever having drunk the koolade.

I'm sorry you were misled into seeing SL as a RL business opportunity. It may be, for a handful of people, in a few specific areas like clothes and land, but only for the best of the best.

I see SL as a cool way to do cool stuff and share it with people. I don't treat my time in SL as work. I resisted selling anything for the longest time lest I be tempted to do so.

I hope you don't quit SL altogether, but if you do I wish you the best wherever you go.

I will spend much more than $700 in SL next year, close to many thousands mostly because I have sims that I use for long term plans that may or may not work out.

If they do, I hopefully will be able to offer RL salaries as I continue to do what I love.

If it doesn't work out, I will chalk it up to nothing ventured, nothing gained; I've learned so much here that a graduate degree would have given me far less. No matter what happens, I will always consider the money spent here well worth it though I suspect many in RL would consider me crazy.

but really, what is life for if not to dream and take risks and learn new things?

ive spent over 700.00 for my land rental for my homestead from Aug - dec and month isnt over yet .. not counting my clothing and buying my new house and furniture . and the club i had earlier i spent for the event board dj's and for my host. i spent over 2k in rl money .. so prob 4k .. lol but ive got the money to do it .. long ago yrs and yrs ago i was in here 2yrs i didnt have rl money to spend its up to what we all think out hobbie or fun is worth .

Closed shop early. Just sold more than half a sim to the bots. I'm basic again!

Welcome to the unwashed masses.