Money Making Techniques

Being relatively new to the SL community, I am currently developing my skills to make me not only a contributing member of the SL society, but one that has a sufficient income to support a modest property and arsenal of objects.

What I would like to hear are some of the more creative ideas that people have attempted, either successfully or unsuccessfully to make money. Points for originality, entertainment value and making us all laugh.

Reese

sell monkeys

Hipro ranching is always a good bet.

Actually I have made most of my money participating in events.

sell hippo ranching monkeys

Sell hippo ranching monkeys who attend money-making events.

Ride the hippos into a herd of grazing monkeys. THen get the monkeys to pay you protection money to protect them from the Hippos.

or you could try this technique:

Step 1: Raise Hippos
Step 2: ...
Step 3: Profit


-Bone

Reese, you dont need to do anything in order to support a "modest" build. You get free money every week. As time goes by and you make more friends you will get better and better ratings and more and more money every week.
No one really needs to have a job here.

In the nature of 99% of SL residents I would think it quite possible a 'modest build' is a castle 100m above ground.

Sorry Reeve not really meant to pick on you. Heh.

I own and run several casinos, I make gambling games and places for people to put gambling games. I like to think I'm the most successful at it, but that could be my imagination. I really do it though because I think it is great fun to make games. I have some really nice ones now including video poker and yahtzee.

Sorry to everyone else for posting something serious.

Thanks for the reply everyone!

Eggy, my understanding is that I get $1000 per week, plus some kind of bonus for calling cards and ratings.

Looking at my account statement right now, it shows a tax of $703, which leaves me an after tax amount of $297. Do the bonuses you get for cards and ratings really make you a significant amount of money? If so can you give me an idea of what to expect as a stipend weekly, assuming I keep my tax rate close to where it is?

Thanks!

Reese

Bonus money yields a -tremendously- larger amount of money than your base stipend.

Hold events. Make friends. Like (someone above) said, this is the best way to make moola.

Oh, and above all things, LEARN THE TAX SYSTEM. UNDERSTAND THE CAP. That's most important.

The people in the Top 10 ratings make around 9000 dollars a week or so im told. I make about 4000 myself in bonus alone, not counting of course the money I get from teaching classes and other stuff. There's really no need to run a business unless you want to have a very large building (which would be best supported by a group).
I renew my vow to help anyone and everyone decrease their taxes. Just IM me in the game and tell me where your build is, and I'll check it out and give you some advice.

I'm confused now... I thought the max you got from stipend + bonus was $3500 a week, and if you had more than 3.5k you got no additional money at all?

Thanks again for the ideas! I was under the impression that in order to earn a comfortable living, you needed to have a secondary source of income. Ill adjust my goals in SL from earning a living in business to improving my overall ratings, and enjoying learning building and scripting.

On a side note, Id like to say how impressed I am with the participation of the citizens in SL in improving the game as a whole by running constant classes at both beginner and advanced levels.

Ive taken classes from Candie Apple on item creation and design (nicely done too!), received significant help from Fleabite regarding clothing design, and Trent Hedges (of Trent Cycle) regarding the use of PhotoShop 7. Im making strides improving my skills, but without the class and individual help from these and a multitide of other people, Id be nowhere near where I after a few weeks.

And Eggy - I may take you up on that offer!

Reese

It is a bit strange how it works, but I think it's pretty sensible. Here's a few scenarios:

You have no taxes, your balance is zero and your stipend and bonus are potentially $1,500 this week:

Result, you get a balance of $1,500.

You have no taxes, your balance is $3,500 and your stipend and bonus are potentially $1,500 this week:

Result, you get a balance of $3,500.

You have $1,500 in taxes, your balance is $3,500 and your stipend and bonus are potentially $1,500 this week:

Result, you get a balance of $3,500.

And here's where a lot of oldtimers are at:

You have $4,000 in taxes, your balance is $10,000 and your stipend and bonus are potentially $4,000 this week:

Result, you get a balance of $10,000.

or,

You have no taxes, your balance is $10,000 and your stipend and bonus are potentially $4,000 this week:

Result, you get a balance of $10,000.

Stipend and bonus will not increase your balance any if it is above $3,500, but they WILL pay off your taxes to the full extent of the bonus, until you hit break-even.

Clear as mud?

To put it another way:

It's time to pay your taxes.

1) your stipend and bonus are applied to your taxes.

2.1) if there are taxes left to be payed, they come out of your cash balance, possibly taking you in to the negative

2.2) If there is bonus left over after your taxes are paid, the bonus is applied to your cash balance, IF your cash balance is less than $3500. Furthermore, the bonus will ONLY take you up to a maximum of $3500. If you have more than $3500 cash balance, the remainder of your bonus just goes away that week.


Simple, non?

Ahh ok so to put it another way:

1. If I have a larger net stipend coming (meaning my stipend minus taxes is still a significant number), its to my advantage to spend money buying land, items and uploading textures in order to reduce my overall balance to below 3500. Of course by buying land I increase my taxrate marginally, but you get the idea.

2. If I have no net stipend (meaning stipend will at best cover taxes only), I need to find myself a job!

So I guess Im back in my original boat - how am I gonna earn bucks if I dont know anything about hippo/monkey crossbreeding techinques!

Reese

I blackmail the Lindens for my money... I thought that was the best way...

Aye me too, the things I know about Haney, it makes me millions

JV

1) Run events. Events events events. Easy money.

2) Make and sell things people want. It will become easier to make money at this when version 1.1 drops and we have protections for all things you might want to sell (sounds, textures, scripts) like we do for objects now.

3) Government work. From time to time the lindens will announce a building project or a management position for one of the big attractions.

4) Contests. There's a photo contest with Big Prizes ever other week or so (check the "Resident Life" page) and there's the SL movie contest, what's deadline is pretty soon (search the forums)

5) Attend events. Most events have $500 to be distributed to attendees. If you're totally mercenary, go to events that are boring or at unpopular times so you have a better chance of grabbing that cash

6) Sell out your friends. You get some $L if someone who signed up via your referal link becomes a paying customer.

Ranch hippos to enslave the monkeys to be your spies to spy on the lindens so you can blackmail them!

Also, have the hippos hold your money to avoid the cap ^_^