How do I earn money?

I just started today, and every time I apply for a job, I'm told I need 30 days under my belt. What am I supposed to do for the first 30 days for money? Please help.

http://www.secondlife.com/currency/buy.php

Easy peasy.

Buy some.
Truly inexpensive, quick, and easy.

You could camp, but I'm completely against people actually camping, personally...

Basically you sit in a chair and get paid X lindens for Y minutes.

Money Tree Farming and/or Hoppy Pay

Many places have public spots for dancers (male and female) gives you a chance to learn how to work the crowd.

One thing to do for the first 30 days is to learn the appearance editor inside and out while going through the various freebie places

I'd recommend noob island, Sara Nerd's Freebies, and the Free Dove

Quite a few out there have decent items, but the 1L per item can add up to hours camping

Don't waste your time trying to earn money in-world. Just buy some Lindens with a credit card or Pay Pal, and then go and have some fun!

You will quickly find you'll best serve your time learning the ropes of guestures, appearances, communication skills, dress codes and such, way before attempting to find work in SL.

Set up a Paypal account with just a few dollars will also be an advantage though not necessay. As there are plenty of FREEBIEs stuff to be found, SLX (slexchange.com) also have plenty of free stuff for you.

Once you have equipped yourself with the necessary attire and communication skills, you may find the responses more friendlier and finding work... that will depend on your skills.

A note of caution.... people will respond better to logical reasoning and sensible conversations. Otherwise you may just find yourself MUTED!

Best of luck in your ventures.............

Cheers.

Welcome to SL and the forums.

Camping pays so little that it just isn't worth the time and boredom. Much easier to buy your Lindens like almost everyone else has already mentioned.

Search for Money Trees. Most are limited to people 30 days or less. If you have no payment info on file, though, many trees will be off-limits for you.

Buying L$ is the best way to get started if you must have money right away. Otherwise, there are lots of freebie places for new residents where you can find everything you need to start out.

Depends on how you look at SL. If you take it as a game to conquer (which is not the point of SL really IMO) then camping is probably your best start. If you see it as an entertainment value then camping is stupid. approx $1USD = $265L.

You will burn more in electricity camping than you will make up for in $L.

Also if you want to make $L for free why not just collect pop cans? 22 cans equal 1 pound of aluminum. In my area you get $.50 a pound for aluminum cans. Collect 44 can's and you get $265L. I can almost grantee you can find 44 cans quicker than you will make $265L camping.

Unless you are underage and have no way to buy $L or have some other reason you can't buy $L then camp on or make and sell stuff. Otherwise just buy some $L. If you want to be an escort/dancer in SL then throw about $10USD (440 cans) into your avatar and learn the job then you can start making some real $L without ever needed to buy again.

hmm, another thing to consider is: What exactly do you want to do in SL

Use that 30 days to figure it out, play with the freebie, explore some, working a sandbox a little learning how to edit things

Do you want to model, build, work in clubs, script, escort?
Do you want to be human, furry, robot, animal, or something else entirely?

Let me state the even if you do get a job, its not a get rich quick scheme, or something that will take no effort. It's a job just like one in RL, you will have to put time and effort into it and ultimately it should be something you enjoy doing. Even then be sure you do not get in too deep and it looses its fun.

For me It's DJing, not an easy job to make a quick buck and be good at, but if you want to be paid a wage you have to be good. It is also something that I tend to get moody if I am not doing it often enough because I really do enjoy it.

Yea in the beginning its just a lot easier to buy a few L until you get used to Second Life and develop your skills.

Just buy the money and have fun rather than being bored crazy for 30 days to earn peanuts, also what isn't told is that the exchange rate is roughly $270 Linden Dollars for every US dollar, so $20 can go a fair way in world, but don't keep buying small amounts like $5 at a time, the transaction charges will bite you.
In the meantime get your basic skill sorted out, use SEARCH > EVENTS > EDUCATION to find heaps of free classes on SL's interface and content creation.

i'd like to ask something. is there any gambling mini-games? i alreayd have a little L$, is there maybe some golf/bowling/dart/tennis/etc sport thing i can get into to earn money?

Gambling in SL is Verboten.

not irl money. i meant the lindel cash.
considering some of the extremly adult content in the game, it makes no sense why they'd forbid in-game currency betting.

because it is based in the us and it was ruled online gambling by the courts.

There are games of skill still, and you can play them.

oh....
do those games of skill offer lindel prize or not?

many do, but you will be competing often against other players.

Best way I've seen to make lindens winds up being dancing/performing. But that is not steady income as it varies a lot on the amount of tips you get.. and it is possible to do it while in freebies (get one of the nice skins, tweak the body shapes, get some of the nicer outfits and if necessary learn to adjust the prim parts on them)

lol @ lindel cash.. thast like 3 times you've said that.

and IRL money IS lindel cash.. but ya know what? I've been at this only about 75 days, an avg or 6 hrs per day, and I've made about $30US.. . so I've made about .06 cents per hour.

so that 450 hours of "work" in sl, has equated to less than one hour of RL "work".. so like others have said, the best way to get started is spend some time learning, shopping the freebies, try some dance contest or get a hosting job, or just spend 5 bucks and stretch out that thousand lindels over the next 30 days exploring the world.

if you are going to try the stage dancing gigs, you should brush up on the typing skills IMO.

There are some freeplay Zyngo and DMC games where you can win a few L$ - search for Slingo, Zyngo, Devil May Care or DMC. Sometimes there are Primtionary events with small L$ prizes - these are good as you can practice your building skills and learn from experts.

There is a job room at the back of my parcel that people list jobs for djs and hosts there - it is free to job search there. Plug this URL into a webpage http://slurl.com/secondlife/Bear/236/79/101 and the click the orange 'teleport now' button.

There are also free-to-join job groups (avoid the ones that offer you 'free Lindens' or tell you to fill out surveys. At the bottom of your screen click on the 'search' button. Then on the box that pops up click 'groups' tab. Then type JOB in the white find area and click the search button. You can join the job groups that you like.

One thing to do in your first 30 days is to hit all the places with really excellent free-to-new-players-only deals. Fleur has a really quite good male skin for free to new players (one which I've actually purchased, full price) and I'm sure a female one, too. And some of the larger hair stores let you pick one style and get reimbursed the full purchase price. (I'm terrible with these--anybody remember? Gurl6, I think, but there's at least one other, too.) All told, this can save you a thousand L$s or so, and take your avatar some distance from the usual newbie/freebie-feeding look. It's not the same as earning L$s, exactly, but after 30 days, it's not an option anymore.