Thought it was a game? Newbie needs an education!

I would say it is more accurate to think of SL as a place, rather than a game. You happen to use a computer program to get to this place, just like you may have to use a car or a plane to get to a place like Paris, France in real life. But once in this place, you interact with other people much as you would anywhere else. People from all over the world.

I run a couple businesses in Second Life. I make a small profit every month, but nothing I could consider enough to be worth quitting my day job for and working here full time. And I put in over 20 hours per week on my "work" in SL.

Running a business here is no different than running a business in real life. It takes time and effort, usually an initial investment in getting set up, and it takes ability and talent in a skill or service area that people are willing to pay for.

However, the economy here is scaled in much smaler terms. What you pay for a nice dress or a house or a car in Second Life is a fraction of what the similar items cost in real life. As a result, you can't expect to make as much real money for the same number of sales in SL as you would in real life. If you sell custom-printed t-shirts at a Saturday Market in real life, you might earn several dollars profit on each shirt sold. In SL, you would have to sell far more shirts to make the same real profit.

So asking about making money here is sort of like asking "Can I make money in Hollywood, California? I heard some people make a lot there!" Yes, some few people become stars in Hollywood, and make lots of money. But most people do no better there than anywhere else. A few people in SL have the right combination of talents and interests, and the right luck and amount of effort on their part, to make money here. But most people don't.

Only one person that I know in SL does actually make her daily real-life wage in SL. She has health conditions that make most normal jobs difficult or impossible, and while SL doesn't provide enough income to be well-off, she at least covers her real-world basic needs from what she earns here. She happens to be talented as an organizer, and reasonably good as an artist. Few people could just walk into SL today and duplicate her success. And of those, few would consider what she earns to be sufficent as an income in real life, unless that had no other options.

SL is a great place to interact with others. Here, pretty much no one cares if your Player is in a wheelchair, or deaf, or otherwise "different". Personally, I may as well be deaf, the way I choose to use SL. I normally have sound firmly turned off. Here, you look and "sound" no different than anyone else, and can appear as you choose to appear. And since it is a large, international community, you can probably find various groups in-world to support deaf users and other special interests.

Welcome to SL. I hope you find it entertaining and supportive. But don't get your hopes too high of finding an income here to cover your real-life needs.

Here are a few SL-centric possible titles to get your imagination cooking...

Showdown in Bay City
The Priest-Kings of Nautilus
Lagged Again
The Mermaid and the Pirate
The Hanja Orbiter
Poseball Prostitute: A True Story
I Was A Gorean Kajira
A Brief History of Caledon (Parts I through IX)
Crazod Zehetbauer, Av of a Thousand Faces
Dangerous Crossings

Welcome to Second Life, Nick. If you can afford it, I would encourage you to start out by buying about 10-15US of L$ (1US$ = ~260L$), and just spending time exploring and learning.

Please feel free to come by any of the four NCI Campuses. We are a resident run organization that offers over 60 free classes and events a week targeted at new residents. We have classes in basic Second Life skills, Land & Business, Building, Scripting, Texturing, Clothing Creation, Sculpties, etc.

NCI Kuula
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Kuula/71/173/28/

NCI South
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Hamnida/227/65/112/

NCI Beach
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Fishermans%20Cove/62/195/24/

NCI Caledon
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Caledon%20Oxbridge%20Village/60/164/27/

Caledon Oxbridge
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Caledon%20Oxbridge/98/178/27/
(an detailed walk-through Second Life Orientation Island)

how can we seriously say SL is "Your World, Your Imagination" then tell them... as long as it's not a game? If SL is a game, which it is to many, remember, it's their world, their imagination.... so be it.... remember the #1 definition of Game is:1.an amusement or pastime

A lot of role-playing sims require stories or storylines to keep things moving. I don't really know if that pays at all though. I guess it would depend on the quality of your work - and the quality and popularity of the sims in question.

That said, it's certainly an advantage to be able to work up a story and think ahead with it if you want to just get a kick out of role-playing for its own sake. I tend to treat SL like a three-dimensional novel or film and it seems to work real well with a lot of folk I meet. You will be surprised just how responsive even a complete stranger can be. It can also be downright confusing for just as many others but that's SL - you get all sorts.


Whatever it is, if you're interested, you will enjoy it and do well at it. The forums here have some real stars who give first rate advice on any aspect of SL you want to explore. I suggest you bookmark all the separate sections so you can easily locate the highest concentration of residents in a position to help with the subject or issue that concerns you.

I wouldn't focus on the money at first. That's not why you came here, I think. Focusing on the money often destroys the enjoyment. The people who have been most successful, by and large, make money because they started doing something that they liked for payment. The very few non-creative jobs as an entrepreneur typically require large infusions of cash for purchasing land.

You need to just relax and learn this place....it is a game, and yet it is much more than that. And it is what you make of it. But when money is the focus, it often becomes difficult to just be happy being here.

Wow, that's twice as many as me!

I am already learning a great deal from just reading this thread.

You're right. I am not too concern with the $$. As I continue to read, it is becoming clear the real potentials for SL. It real strength is the social networking -- I love the idea of interacting with others in a 3D setting.

I'm also seeing SL's other potentials. I like the idea of touring the NY Museum of Natural History in SL or a virtual Paris. I will very likely take advantage of the free classes in SL and perhaps visit a virtual Library.

Could I see a virtual WalMart? Oh yes, I can and one accessible by SL Residents. It will have to be on a separate virtual world. It would look a little strange in SL proper.

Hi Nick. There are plenty of ways to make money in second life. Building and scripting are just two ways. If your are a social person, you can use your social skills and become a promoter for others or yourself. If you can play music, you can do concerts or become a dj. I could go on and on.

Most come to second life and try to start a nightclub. Very easy to start, but not a real money maker. More like a money taker in my opinion. Have fun, that is the main thing. There is plenty of that for free!

Welcome Nick.
I guess you could think of SL as a game in the same way that you could think of the internet as a game - something you sit down at your computer to entertain yourself with.
I think of it as a world. I put on my virtual body and step into SL and then I can go dancing at a club, look at pictures in a gallery, play games of all kinds, build things, throw a party, go to the beach, attend a business meeting, take a class, fly around... on and on...and there are probably about 2 million things I could do that I'm not aware of.

Mostly I do business related things. My very modest clothing business earns enough money to cover tier and membership plus other business expenses and everything else I've ever wanted to spend money on in SL. The more clothes I make the more sales I have. But I don't make new clothes very often.

I spend most of my time making signs and ads. For that I get a few PayPal dollars every month. Not enough to make it worth my while if I didn't enjoy it. Sometimes I get work designing logos or custom tee shirts. I've gotten paid to do a little building and texture making too.

I already had had some skills with 2d graphics and 3d modeling when I got here.

One thing to remember is that for every rl$ someone takes out of SL someone else has to put a rl$ in. Lots of people consider money they spend in SL to be well worth whatever they get. And lots of people are trying to figure out how to get more money out. Those who are good at getting money probably aren't going to be sharing all their secrets.

Anyway I wish you lots of success in everything you do here and I bet you'll have a lot of fun.

eta: I also meant to say that with your writing skills maybe you could publish an SL newspaper or magazine and sell advertising.

Hi Nick and welcome to SL.

As far as writing goes, I am a member of several active writers' groups that you can join. They have frequent in-world get-togethers with a chance to listen to other people's work and - if you would like to - contribute yourself. It's not about making money though. It's about meeting like-minded people, networking and getting feedback for your work. See my in-world profile for the groups.

I don't know if it's that easy to make money in SL, I have never tried myself, but finding a niche won't be easy.

I consider SL to be a game, but that is subjective. I think it can fill a void for many people who are missing something in their RL. For others it is a business, they do make money working, designed etc in SL. I guess it's what you make it or what you want it to be.

QFT.

Lindal: "Lagged Again"?? LOL!

Hi Nick welcome to your Second Life

One thing to consider is...

SL could disappear at any moment.

Gone... finished... over....

Your hard won income suddenly dries up. How long would it take you to replace it? Make sure you have that much in the bank.

That doesnt mean you shouldnt try though!! Good luck

imogen

Nick,

Let me echo the welcomes that others have posted.

One of the beauties of SL is that it is different things to different people - for some, a game, for others, a chatroom with avatars, or a way to meet people, a way to explore a side of yourself that you don't/can't show to the "real" world, a way to explore your creative side by making things, a way to run a business.

You choose what you want to make it for yourself, and please don't let anybody tell you what SL should be all about.

In its early days (before I was rezzed) it was quite easy to make decent money in SL - anybody that could make a t-shirt could set up a store and make some cash. Not only that, people were actually getting into the business of Virtual Real Estate speculation. Those days are gone, with the maturing of the market. A lot of the creative markets are over-saturated at the low end, meaning that, in order for it to rise above non-money-making hobby status, you have to be the best of the best in the area where you choose to build.

That having been said, it has opened up a market that still remains only moderately untapped.... picture this, if you will - you have people who just love creating stuff - their stuff is good enough to have an in-world business. The challenge is - if you have the best blue frumbles in SL, how do you get the word out? How do you set yourself above all the other blue frumble makers in SL? It takes a lot of work, and chances are you'd rather just be building new neat stuff - after all, that's what you're good at.

So what is emerging are career opportunities for "middle-tier" people - people that help run businesses, marketing, advertising, etc.

If you are diligent and devoted (which is relatively hard to find in SL, due to the fact that a lot see it as a game), and can hook up with the right people, then you can most certainly earn money in SL.

However, you're NOT going to get rich, or even earn a RL living wage - it's pocket money at best.

I'm not saying don't reach high. I'm saying get in-world and explore and get to know people in the bigger businesses. Find someone with a lot of energy that is untapped for one reason or another, and work with them.

Or strive to produce those wonderful blue frumbles and make it the nest great thing that everyone needs!

I really hope your SL time is enjoyable, whatever you end up doing.

Well i'm going to go against the grain here a bit

I think making a RL living via Second Life is very possible. However, it will take the same amount of effort as it would take to start a RL business, I'm talking about 60 - 80 hours of real work a week... start up money, a good business plan etc... And even then, like RL, most of the people who try will fail. I say if you have the desire, and the drive... GO FOR IT

For myself, my biz covers my tier payments and premium membership, and I can buy pretty much anything that strikes my fancy in SL, and still cash out a good bit of $ at the end of the year for Christmas presents .. Not bad for a "game"

There used to be a large store in the no-longer-existing "Taco" sim called "Dwell-get", that was patterened after a Target store. They sold merchandise from dozens of different merchants, offering shelf space for free, as an incentive to draw people to their sim. Worked pretty well, really, and the merchants had to pas a quality review before being given shelf space. (This was also back when high traffic for a sim allowed the sim owner to get a small monetary compensation back from LL.)

Sadly, the sim eventually closed, and the store went with it. A real shame, because Taco was a fun sim.

Don't feel bad...he does 'em one at a time. You do 'em all at once.

By the way...we haven't met in world. Do you REALLY have a multiple-otter avatar? I wanna see! Otters are teh Cute!

SL doesn't have the technology for me to implement the real Argent, so I have to present bodies and faces one at a time.
Alas, no, not in SL. I had to leave that behind on the text-based virtual worlds where I could simply be...
With scripts so that the order of names and the name and description of the closest member changed all the time. The description also changed when the pack was swimming.