Most profitable business types in SL?

Of course this is a complex thing to answer, since profitability is dependent on MANY variables such as advertising, quality of products/services, location, business owners talents etc, but I would still like to hear your general (and strictly objective) opinion.


Which business type(s) would you consider most profitable in SL? For example, Clothing? Real Estate/land? Porn? Scripting? ...or anything else... Just be honest!

Hosting...

I bet you it is soon to be this....


http://www.utopex.com/models.html

And they even have insightful diagrams of the correct business model:

http://www.utopex.com/images/Managed.jpg

But to be seriously. IMHO There is no 'best' or most profitable business to be in. It's all a combination of creating a name for yourself, making quality products, good promotion and creating returning customers. Then the question with which type of product you reach this stage is of less importance.

Selling things over SLExchange. The only overhead is comission, and labor is pretty much what you value it as.

It ain't trees that's for sure.

That 'Perfect Partner' is wonderful. With that thing I could give my SL partner a nudge to wake her up in the morning, AND stir her coffee!.

Hell, and for $250L, I could be your SL partner.

Another $250L gets you webcam access.

Oh, watch out, or SL's morality police will come after you...
*rolls eyes*

Most profitable how? ROI? Profit/hour? Total income per month? Biggest warm fuzzy feeling from doing good? What skillset does the business owner have? Are there moral, ethical or legal limitation on what you will and won't do?


To make up an answer without any real data or research, be a content creator who becomes the de-facto standard at something because you're first. Even when others imitate you there is a huge advantage to having been first. And after your fixed costs (rent and advertisng) it's pure profit... no per-item build costs.

The most profitable thing in second life imo is...

Your artistic talent.

Land barons, definitely. That's easy.

But I'm happy with my humble little business making quality (I think) items.

Scripting things, and then selling them on a massive scale, is most profitable.

Ha ha - their phone number for information of illegality is the number to contact some U.S. Republican senators.

For SHIPPING of the Perfect Partner toy only, it reads like this.

Question:
Can you ship to a location where Novelty Toys have been outlawed?

Answer:
Sorry, no we cannot take the risk. Other toy distributors may take the risk, but it is definatly illegal and can land you in jail. (short list: (USA) Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi. and zip codes that start with 223--, 282--, 323--, 325--, 366--, 452--, 557--, 558--, 591--, 681--, 685--)
It's a sorry state of affairs in the USA. Please contact your local congress-person if this also offends you also.or call (US) 202 224-3121.

....Seriously?

Thanks everyone, for your informative answers. It's always a good idea to do some research before starting any major projects...

By "profitable", I basically meant something like "how easy is it to make a profit compared to the amount of work and money you put into the business". I mean, to run a business which makes you USD25$/month but requires 5 hours of your time each day just to function properly is NOT a good business IMHO. To be specific, maybe I should have asked the following (quite cynical) question instead;

Which business type can make me as much money as possible, while requiring as little maintenance as possible?

Good products sold on your own land.

Your investment is in developing and promoting the products.

All businesses need promotion so let's count that as equal. What we look at is maintenance effort.

Product design can take a really long time and a lot of effort, but once it's done a vendor on your home plot needs no maintenance.

In general, I don't think there is one. You can sometimes find a very brief moment in time when a business is very profitable. Then the competition comes along and starts picking off the apples too. Or maybe there is a juicy apple tree out there that somebody is managing to hide. I'm pretty sure they're not going to trundle into this thread and tell us all about it. Would you?

My theory is:
If you want the apples from off the tree, then you've gotta climb for them. Just don't wear bright colours though, or somebody may see you!

Put simply:
Sweat=Reward

Yeah, some drug dealers may argue. but then 10 years later, they're on a chain gang. They'll pay!!

Doesn't exist within SL. For the amount of hours one has to do this, a RL job within that field would pay considerbly higher. The difference being is that you need no prior experience or education to start.

Content Creation:
The amount of hours a content creator needs to advertise, update, create, and market research hardly actually pays off. If you are lucky, you can make that new thing that everyone needs, but the next week someone else will make one. You first have to learn how to create within the system, then constantly create to keep up.

Land Baron:
High upfront costs, but lower maintenance then content creation. You have to play the auction game, break up plots, advertise, and loads of customer service.

Casinos:
To get ahead in this field you'd have to hire hosts and run events.

Being a landbaron probably as it scales up almost infinitely.

On the actual content side seemingly it's av genitals. Seriously.

So... what gains the most, for the least amount of work?

Not really sure.

You can do what I do I suppose. But play for me might seem like work to you.

judging by the amount of new items flooding onto shopping sites it seems to be weapons/combat stuff

why don't you try by yourself instead of asking us to prepare the terrain for limiting your risks?

I don't think most of those make anywhere as near much profit as you would imagine, not in the league of skins or clothing anyway although the quality levels in weapons are highly variable so depending on your product it can be a lot easier to compete.