Newbie, looking to get started

Hello all.

I am one of the remaining six people on the face of planet earth who don't do *any* financial transactions over the internet. [1] I heard about SL ages ago, and was fascinated by the concept, but only with the change to allow unverified accounts have I finally been able to make some initial, tentative, explorations of this incredible place.

My main interest is in building "cool stuff", I have a background in programming, and hence intend to focus on scripting here. Have already written my first half-page door script: t'was such a proud moment as the door hesitantly slid to one side when touched.

I had initially thought I would not need any form of $L, since I'd be making stuff myself. But I note you need money to upload textures, and even to buy the $1L boxes that contain sample textures, etc. So, my question is: is it possible for someone on an unverified account [2] to make a modest (say $40L/week) income, preferably by working in the scripting area?

Thanks for reading this, and for any input/advice you might have.

Cale.


[1] I do play other MMOs via mechanisms such as PayByCash.

[2] I cancelled one account and created another when I made the mistake of teleporting off the start island before doing any of the tutorials. In going through this process, Linden Labs make it clear that they are happy to have freebie account players around - they actually suggest you do this rather than cancel.

Theres a orientation island on the mainland too, should you ever need it.

If SL wasn't tied to so many closed commercial libraries, it might have a chance.
I say at this point, throw your weight behind libsecondlife(-cs). It has a much higher chance of creating a good client than LL does of fixing all the bugs (hello! Linux client! 10min bugs here!)

You have a couple of options. There is a group called "The Job Market" where people solicit builders and scripters. Unfortunately it costs L$100 to join. You are welcome to play around in my sandbox in Jizo where I give awa L$ randomly as you work (there are four moneyballs strewn about to encourage builders and new users to get a feel for Second Life). Many other places offer camping chairs, money trees and other time-based incentives to get free L$.

There's also a fairly easy way to earn L$1,000 from me and explore Second Life at the same time. You can read more about it (and other jobs) in the Employment Forum. A quick summary is I'm basically paying L$50 per region for someone to go, find a parcel with a nice build on it that has been around for more than a week , take a snapshot and enter information from the "About Land..." dialog at my website. My project is based on building some alternative ways for people to explore Second Life as well as show potential residents many of the wonders they will encounter should they choose to sign up.

Anyway, good luck with your scripting and have fun!

I assume the OP is less than 30 days old; I used to make as much as L$200 a day picking L$ from money trees.

P2

Sounds like a great project!

Go to ivory tower, there you well get notecards and what nots on everything that you need to build, and its free

I really think this is a must for all new people, and its neat looking.. heh

OH and be careful, some people like to sell freebie stuff.. So go and collect all of the freebie stuff you possibly can now, and go through it so you wont buy it.. -.- Seriously

Here's a link to the money tree thread:
/108/f5/33319/1.html

You can also search for "free money" and "money tree" and such in the inworld Search diaolog.

Welcome to SL.

What exactly is a money tree, and how do you activate it? Sounds like I get LIndens?

I think I am going ot check out that thread...

This was a set-up. We put the money in the tree so we could hide in the bushes and watch you monkey about. Those were the days!

Hi Cale, and welcome to Second Life! The good news is that if you're scripting, you don't really need to upload anything. You can copy/paste from Windows Notepad if you're doing your rough-in work offline, but more likely you will be taking other people's free scripts apart to see what makes them work and going from there.

I have a folder of free scripting landmarks I would be happy to send you if you IM me in world. They include places that charge $1L for a bundle of hundreds of scripts (like Yadni's) to places that just give it away. I also very highly recommend Jopsy's Particle Lab -- take a few hours to work through the tutorial lessons and then go up to his Cloud Chateau. The Chateau alone will blow your mind and inspire you to script your little heart out

See also: The LSL Wiki and the ...

Using the Linden Scripting Language tutorial.

I also have a notecard I offer for free to whoever asks called "How to Make Money in Second Life". It's mostly tips gleaned from these boards, a few personal insights and an overall look at ways to snag yourself a few $L to get started. I'm happy to send that to anyone who IMs me in world.

Thanks Marla, as soon as I have enough data to extrapolate categories, sub-category trunks and more any landowner or explorer will be able to add their parcel to the database, and after that add their products and link those to in-world sites for shopping. The greater hope is that other explorers and shoppers will do more than just P2P to a location, and instead see other places that look interestung in the vicinity of their destination.

You can see the over 100 parcels already added the last two days by this direct link: http://slhandbook.com/rjquick.asp

I can vouch for Clubsides building grid on Jizo being a good place to work from, the money balls do pay out about every minute, there are often a lot of people on the building grid, and are more than happy to talk to you, give you advice, even chuck the odd script, texture, pose/anim at you - now and then they might give you something small that they have made, and that is always helpful, give you something you can study (even though you can not take it apart). Also you will often see peoples works sat there for sale or landmarks/teleports to where they are selling said works (until the sweeper gets them), so you mught be able to make a few L$s from leaving works to sell there - just please leave them towards the sides rather than the middle, saves space.

Also roam around, look for other money balls, money trees, camping chairs. You can also find prize balls (or along the lines) that give out random items when you are in range. As for items, Yadni's Junkyard is a good place to find items and textures, as well as some tutorial info on building and most helpful of all, builders tools. The newbie centre at Kuula is also good for free stuff as is Odds And Ends (and I do not know what zone that is in). Someone else mentioned the Ivory Tower and it's info cards. If you see me in Jizo before you find the Ivory Tower, come see me, I have all the Ivory Tower cards packed into a box and I happily give people a copy - they are a good resource.

You might also want to look at some casino's, like the Man-O-War that have free play slots and/or blackjack - these have a timer on them so you play one then wait a few minutes or more for the next freeplay - you can do well of that as well.

Just from Jizo and from random roamings over the grid I can easily make L$100 in day on a good day.

Dammit, after reading other responses I obviously have to update my "How to Make Money" notecard now

Xceptopec and Clubside, excellent posts. I hope you guys don't mind if I add your info - I'm not charging anything for the notecard and I will be happy to give credit.

Be my guest

Please do Cindy, while my intention was to study traffic calculations I also saw the many zombine camping chairs other have written about and figured, why not throw out a few L$ to people while they are actually learning and socializing. It has been a great way to learn about how people use Second Life, and there have been more than a few occasions where I have encouraged builders to go set up shop and see where things go.

Wow, thanks everyone for the welcome, and all the great advice/tips.

I got to a number of the places suggested last night before the grid went down, started working my way through Ivory Tower, was awed by Cloud Chateau, found some money chairs at Emerald Falls, and checked out the Sandbox in Jizo (though the money balls seem to hate me there ).

I confess I'm still largely in "wow, look at that!" mode but plan to settle down to dedicated study of the scripting Wiki soon.

Don't want to take up too much more of your time at this point, but one quick question based on one of the replies above: is it OK to offer stuff for sale in the Jiso Sandox? I realise I'll never get rich doing this (lack of permanency, relatively poor demographics), I just want to be 100% sure I'm not using a Sandbox for purposes its owner did not intend.

Cale.