Would these hobbies/skills help make L$ in Second Life?

- Playing Video games (Especially FPS and Racing)
- Custom Graphics (Forum Signatures, etc...)
- Writing
- Drawing
- Amateur Film-Making

I think I can't get any detailed than that. Personally, I want to make some L$, but at the same time enjoy Second Life, and make some friends. I mean, this is the first MMO i've played that doesn't have starting money. So, sorry for the noob questions.

Yes they would!

Custom graphics is probably the best one. You can make compelling textures, which make for great products - or even sold directly.

Well it probably doens't have a start up fund beacuse its actual money. But you should get an allowance if you are a premium member. As for a business, yes you could rely on those skills. But be aware that it may take a bit of time and you have to be persistant at it.

All of those would be good. Graphics, as Desmond said, and maybe for filmmaking you could do machinima using SL as your set.

I suggest you find your way around awhile and maybe find a way to implement some or all of them into your business plan.

This is a very critical misunderstanding. SL is not an MMO where the goal is to make L$. It _used_ to be (when it was very first created) but it isn't anymore. If you approach it that way you're liable to get a rather nasty shock. So, before you try and start a business, explore and chat to people and learn a bit more about the world in general.

As the others have said, it sounds as if you have the skill set necessary to have a second life business. The real question is, what would you like to do? And yes, the best way to get ideas about what people want is to hang about for a while, see what people are buying and what they're interested in, and more importantly, what catches your interest.

Rule number one for Second Life businesses starting out is: don't put much cash into it until you have a positive income flow. Really, there's no need to. It sounds as if you'd be what we call a "content creator"; one can develop things in sandboxes and market them (for no overhead) on the Secondlife Exchange and OnRez. Later on, you may find a busy sim that fits your product and rent space there. Certainly, we'd all like to buy a string of islands, but then you're worried about making tier rather than having fun making things and hanging about with friends.

Which brings me to another point. You have to actually like being on Second Life. Trust me, there are far easier ways to make a Linden But if you are having fun in the first place by exploring amazingly creative builds and chatting with amazingly creative (and weird ) people, then you've already won. And making a bit of cash on top of that is so much the better.

I came here from MMO's too. The only one I've played that had a perpetually free account option is Anarchy Online, but I played that on a subscription basis, too. The increased options were worth it.

SL is different. There's really no reason to subscribe unless you wish to own Mainland property, which isn't really cost-effective.

However, if you're having fun in SL, at least budget yourself to spend as much on SL by buying Linden $ that you'd spend on a traditional MMO for at least a month or so. It goes against the grain, I know, and brings visions of buying gold from farmers, or worse yet, buying an e-bay character.

But it's really ok here, and in fact, helps keep this place going. No one will despise you for it, quite the contrary. Which I think is a major disconnect between MMO's and SL, since paying real dollars for in-game "gold" is hugely despised in other MMO's. Yet they cost us at least $10-15 per month, which I'm paying now for a game I don't play anymore, and probably will continue to pay for a few months until I decide I'm done with it.

You'll have more fun, too, exploring what others have made, paying them for the content that pleases you, and along the way, finding out for yourself what markets are over-saturated, and learning to make things that one day others might pay you for making.

You can but...
After 2 years full time, making just about everything (and getting pretty good) with no marketing skills or help I can make 2 dollars a day now.. Whoopieeeeeee!!!
Join the fun.

Had to chime in with the hours her day, dollars per hour. K never calculate your dollars per hour, its just scary. Try and do it for the fun of it. I have a day job, SL is just for fun, and it does pay it's tier, and I make a few bucks. But the development 'boom' is over, very much so. Even the last venue, land flipping, brought to a half this past few months.

i think we need to stop using the phrase own mainland land. ths is where people get the idea they own somethibg when they are renters that way when something bad happens as t ussually does getting the idea into there head they did not control it in the first place.

premium= owns land ;non-premium does not own

Well, I like to make pictures.... in SL and in RL. And I am convinced I could make some L$ with them if I wanted. "Some L$"... but not enough to pay a big piece of land for or even a complete sim.

But.... when you asked L$ for something, you also take some obligations with that (imho). And there is the reason I don't ask any L$ for the pictures I take. It is an hobby for me and nothing more then that. One day I am many hours in SL, the other day I am there not at all.

So I rather pull every now and then my CC and buy some L$.

But that is just me! I also know many people how take great pleasure at making things and want to take the obligations and responsibility that comes along with that. Blessed are those people....

Morwen.

I once had land and sold items I made really cheap compared to similar items in SL. Now I just make builds that take my fancy at the time, show them to a few people and if they want it, give it away, usually they ask how much I want, and I say just tip me, I usually get around 600% more than I would charge for the thing in a shop, so now I find my income matches my outgoings, so I'm happy with that

The skills you list could be used to earn an income in SL, certainly.

But if obtaining L$ is your only objective, it's a better use of your time and effort to pay for them with your credit card, and if necessary get a part-time job in Real Life (RL) to provide more RL income to cover the credit card bills. Virtually any part-time job in RL pays more per hour than 99% of what you can do in SL, and less than 2% of the millions of SL Players make any profit each month at all. The other 98% pay more real money into SL each month than they earn from SL activities.

Earning income in SL is just like the real world. It takes talent, hard work, and a certain amount of luck. But the average pay scale for work in SL is far lower than in the real world. People expect to be able to buy a car or a designer dress in SL for just a few dollars in real money. So what does that make your in-world hourly wages come out to?

As a writer, I'm looking to do some work writing for L$, of course. There are numerous SL publications out there. More than making a few L$ however, some would serve as an excellent addition to one's resume, I imagine.

You got it backwards. You meant, "stop using the phrase, 'own private estate land'"

Both are equaly valid, stop paying tier on mainland or on estate and your land gets taken back, LL just can afford to wait a bit longer before reclaiming, but run negative to much on mainland and LL can not only take your land but also ban you. If an estate owner lets you run negative and you still don't pay he has nothing to fall back on.Should call it lease in both accounts especialy with the balance between tier and upfront costs like they are.

That is also a tip for the OP, unless you like risk don't go in the land business.

Well, it can be if you want it to be, yeah?
- As your business competes with the others you can rise through the PMLF tiers as published on the Economic Statistics leaderboard.
- After months of heavy grinding you can level up your Billing and Trading Limits.
- Employ your real time strategy skills to obtain player housing!
- Do a corpse run after every major SL Blog announcement.

Yes, you should be able to do well with those skills. However, you will have to put a lot of time and effort into it before you start seeing much cashflow. Many people would earn more working those hours at MacDonald's.

This may be helpful. How to make money in SL
http://www.sluniverse.com/php/vb/showthread.php?t=389

If you spent $10/month in another MMO for the subscription, spend $10/month and buy L$. If the only reason that you want to start a business is to get L$, you'll be a) overworked b) poor. The vast majority of business owners aren't in it for the money; they're in it because they enjoy it.

The best advice I received from the friends who brought me into Second Life was to spend $25 on buying Lindens so I could just enjoy the grid. That was more than enough to buy good skin, hair, clothing and rent a modest apartment while I learned.

I've had a business in SL for over a year now, and it helps offset my costs somewhat, but I do it because it's fun. Almost any RL job, even minimum wage, would pay better than the rate I get for the time spent.

I'm not as think as you dyslexic i am

I had actually joined SL because alot of the people I knew said I could cash out some real money in there. So joined and found out that I had no idea how to use the building tools, my artwork wouldn't sell very well because people don't like wasting prims on pictures and I couldn't paint a pair of jeans to save my life so basically I realized I had no means of making money in SL.

After being here for a little over 2 years I've finally started to understand the building tools (except for the durn sculptie prims... gah they just have to be difficult huh?) I started making hair and jewelry mostly because people are more willing to buy things for their avatars then for a home since most members don't even own/rent land anymore.

Now I'm at the point where making money isn't even my official goal, I just want to run across someone while I'm wandering about the world and see them wearing hair I made and for them to say they love it... Its no longer about money to me, I just want to feel proud of what I have learned and to have people appreciate the effort it takes to create content for SL.

As it is with any RL business, you have to start small. Build up a following by giving out alot of stuff free and investing in a nice amount of land so you have more availablity for modification as well as paying for a classified (it doesn't have to be a huge amount but just enough so you show up on the page) and making new stuff regularly. In my experience, people lose interest in a shop that doesn't have new things at least once a week.

Just my 2 cents...

no they are not do not confuse how an idle bussiness modle works with what is accually going on! as a sim owner ihave a plan to cover most of my teir by rent,this is my plan but my sim is only 1/4 full so i have to cover the short falling. in other word that teir s due wether you have rents or not. as a renter your not paying teir only LL gets teir. if you pay the landowner say 5000 in rent today and he closes the sim tommow your out and LL will not help you on the oter hand if you paid your teir to LL today and they close tommow you contest it with the and you have some protection. not alot beouse true teir is paid at the end of te month not the start like rent is. teir is bsically the property tax a land owner pays to keep the pumbing all working and the train running on time( yes i know a couple of the ll trains have derailed,we are not talking the value or return we get from our taxes herethat is for another thread)

what i think happened is that when this type of bussiness modle was frist presented the person discribing it said it worked simular to LLs modle and when the next guy repeated it they dropped the word simular, though simular looking there are major differances and when that mouse roars is when people get upset and hurt

Longest. Sentence. Evar.