Where do You get your Disposable Income?

I started off spending truckloads of RL money for the first 2 months, then I started reselling several different designers' lines. I wanted to add to the shop and learned The Gimp and started making my own stuff. I love the challenge and have plans to eventually have a "living museum" of different ethnicities' costumes. It's vastly rewarding, in that I can be creative after my dull RL computer job.

i did the chatting ... the clubbing ... the DJing etc ... and then I found i could build..

So now my SL is completely self funding, I dont have free cash with having a RL family so I like to reinvest every penny back into the game and buy what i need from other retailers or build myself

Sploders. In 2 months I have made over 10k from the sploders; that's winning not owning. I made 1.2k just last Friday.
Now if I could just stay out of the casinos I''d be doing very good. The sploder givith and the casinos takethaway.

and I also donate quite a bit.

I remember with a smile that in the good old days of First Land, I bought my original plot of land with a sploder win

I have a RL stipend every month to squander on whatever I like. It's a nice bit of cash and even after SL bites into it (tier! ACK), I still have enough left over for my other addictions like manga. My RL entertainment expenses are, generally, a lot lower than many people's I think. I don't play other games, don't club...

Where does my RL stipend come from? Hard RL work

And I don't mind a bit. Sure, eventually I'd like to find something in SL that I can do to break even, but we'll see. I'm not in any hurry. As someone else said, I don't want SL to become a job... just fun!

Lately this is exactly how I have been doing things. I am sure I will still shop (cause it's fun to look for that next cute outfit), but for the most part I have enough SL clothes now that I should curb most of my shopping activities. But I have discovered a number of very talented SL musicians and DJs and as long as these people entertain me for a period of time, I am not afraid to throw a few hundred Lindens their way. Some of these people are very talented and they deserve their Lindens. I mean what's $1-$3 in USD I might give them for an hours worth of fun. I don't want to judge people, but some SL residents are very cheap when it comes to sharing the love to these talented SL musicians and DJs.

Anyway ...

I have a decent enough paying RL job with low RL debt that I can afford to bring money into the game. I was just going to spend it somewhere in the real world anyway if I wasn't here entertaining myself. I view SL as a holiday from my RL (at the expense of sometimes not doing my RL chores on time) and since I am a no talent SL resident (not a builder, not a scripter, not an animator, not a texturer, not a musician, not a real estate baron, etc, etc, etc) I pretty much have to self finance my SL musician and DJ groupie activities. Sure on a Blue Moon I might still occasionally camp for some added income in SL ... but unless I have some material to read, parking my butt at a camping location to earn < $20 lindens per hour is just a waste of my time and this girl has no desire to become a SL escort. I don't do that in RL why would I do that in SL.

Nope I self finance with RL money for most of my SL shopping and musician + DJ groupie activities.

I'm waiting to hear from the guy that offers to be newbies friends for a fee.

I sometimes think about finding a way to finance SL from within, but I really don't want to work in SL, that would defeat the purpose for me. I'm happy supporting eveyone elses businesses.

ha ha! But you know... there are always people with money and I suspect there MAY be a market for personal consulting and guiding in your new SL existence.

After all, some female Japanese Otaku (manga, anime, JPop etc. fans) do a screaming business for fellow female Japanese Otaku who are too shy to go shopping for fannish goods alone and without a knowledgeable companion.

We live in interesting times.

Actually, that's a good reason to do lot of things in SL , but yeah I definitely wouldn't want to turn sex into work.

My Mall and rentals which in turn cover my land fees and Island fees with some left over which in turn funds the sploder in the club which in turn funds my partners' insatible desire to buy clothes in other peoples malls which inturn makes them rich which in turn makes me turn to my cc to fund my mall and Island rentals which.................................ad infinitum

"Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite 'em,
And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum.
And the great fleas themselves, in turn, have greater fleas to go on,
While these again have greater still, and greater still, and so on."

By permission of Augustus de Morgan

_Ding

Just like in RL, you have to have a business plan, or a sought-after skill or product to offer if you want to make money. Then you can be the consumer you always dreamed to be.



And just like in RL, some jobs pay a lot more than others, regardless of the skill or training involved. The trick is finding these jobs.

I can't tell you enough, rather than camping for days, weeks, and months for mere peanuts, why don't you use that time to learn how to 3D model. There are far too many citizens that sit around collecting pennies for countless hours a week. If they simply used that time to learn a useful skill, they could be making more money than they could spend.

You may say, "Well, I don't want to 3D model...build, or design." Well, fine, that's not my point--my point is to 'free your mind.' And don't complain about not having money, when all you do is camp, or manage someone ELSE'S store...

You have to be self-motivated. A self-starter. Then the money will role in, and you can consume as much as you want.

And if you REALLY want to make a lot of money...use a skill to offer RL companies a SL presence.

To whom is that remark addressed?

imogen

Disposable income? What's that? *grin*

I don't have many needs within SL, so I don't have a large budget. You'll usually find me wearing one of about a half dozen different outfits. I've got more, but I tend to stick with the same ones.

When I got started, I stumbled into a "Sugar Daddy" who spoiled me. He constantly bought me clothes. Nowdays, I make my money either through my photo biz, or from tips made while dancing. I love to dance and flirt with the guys, so it's a win-win. I like to dance/flirt, they like to be on the receiving end. Some nights I bring home L$200 for an hour on the stage, other nights I bring home several thousand for an hour on stage. It all depends on the crowd.

I also have a very small collection of items on the SLExchange which usually gives me L$300 - L$500 / week.

Oh ... and did I mention that I'm still a free account? I have no need for land ownership and I have a wonderful friend who owns quite a lot of land. She let me build my office building and studio on her land. She refuses to charge me rent, but any time I sell something, I send her a portion to help offset her tier.

I buy lindens for the most part. I have some original clothing I've made for sale in my husband's store, and a small re-sell stand, but don't really get much from either of them. When I first started, I spend a lot of lindens, on skin, hair, clothes. I wanted to get rid of the "newbie" look very quickly....lol. Now I am premium, own land, pay tier and still find myself buying about $20 worth of lindens a month. But it's starting to slow down due to some RL situations that are eating into my entertainment money, so the couple of thousand lindens I have now will have to last a while.

No one in particular Imogen (I love that name btw).

I'm simply saying that it frustrates me slightly when a noob asks me how they can make money, but every single option I offer up is rejected, because it actually takes practice and/or a skill.

If you don't want to educate and train yourself in a needed service or trade, then you shouldn't expect much in return.

Wouldn't you agree?

Personally I don't really have a disposable income what I did in recent months is I went without things in real life, then I was lucky enough to make small group of very generous friends who helped me reduce my tiers. One of my friends for period of time was making lot of money doing classical music concerts she would give me all her tips but now she is quite busy with her real life so that source has dried out. I didn't really expect much either way from her or my friends but it was really nice gift. If they took back the tier though I probably now have to sell everything and become homeless and most likely lose over half or more of my investments. I don't really know if I have skills persay to make money through a business work here and when I have attempted it just too stressful so if I really need something and I can't use my real life bank funds I have to make due without or camp.
Camping these days though is pretty non-existant. It use to be great way to find social and recreational activity, few L inbetween sleeping, learning and building now its pretty difficult and all there is places like hippie pay with few places that give you 10L a hour.

I chose to "play" SL in the role of a poor immigrant, like many who came to my native US with almost nothing, and see how I do in the New World with no more than the modest bonus you get for providing payment info. Camping was key for me in the beginning, since I came with no special skills at all - no Photoshop, no 3D or animation experience, less-than-zero coding skills (I can screw up ANY script!). A hundred years ago such an unskilled, uneducated immigrant without enough savings in his pocket like me needed a strong back; in SL, an avatar with strong sitting muscles proved similar. Progress has been slow but instructive: I've got a security guard job, now that I have acquired some good anti-griefer gear (can you spell Irish cop?), and I sell a few things I think are well thought out but still have to solve the marketing puzzle to make much from them. Even so, now I have worked my way up from unemployed nomad to modest mainland renter with a couple sources of income (yes, I still exert those sitting muscles too). At this point, I have advanced beyond "shanty Irish" to "real-lace Irish" (New Yorkers, or anyone else who knows what Hell's Kitchen was, will understand what I mean). I wear a clean, white designer shirt, have a respectable roof over my head I built myself (fully self-taught), and can cover the rent for it and my two modest shops. I'm not remotely "rich" in SL terms, not even middle class yet, but I actually feel good about my modest progress and look forward to more.

It helps me understand the real value of making available sources of income to newbies that they can feel good about while they learn what SL is and what they can do here to contribute, and benefit accordingly. Give them that experience, and they will either be constructive citizens (like me on my modest scale) or avid importers of RL currency to SL. DON'T UNDERESTIMATE THE VALUE OF THE WORD "FREE" WHEN TRYING TO DRAW PEOPLE TO TRY SOMETHING THEY DON'T YET UNDERSTAND!!! More camping "jobs" like mopping floors, sweeping up, etc., etc. would be good for everybody IMO.

Camping has its pluses and minuses, and there are plenty of threads about that (which I have contributed to, I hope positively), but it would be really good to find ways to employ true newbies, people with few or no computer skills beyond what it takes to navigate into SL. Then, more newbies will stay, and in the end that will be good for all of us Residents, for SL the grand Internet experiment we all want to succeed, and for LL.

I don't think I've ever seen such a positive spin on camping...

Good point tho, Har, about keeping people in the game! You make camping sound all noble now.

I made all my closest friends while I was camping and playing scramble.
I wouldn't have made very many friends if I hadn't found fun camping places but those places seem to not exist any more.
It wasn't always about sleeping and being afk and camping for me.
The place or community I use to hang out on mainland prior to moving to island was fun, friendly community that also provide jobs for those of us struggling to get to next Lindens to purchanse uploads or spend on new outfit or new adventure but when they moved to the island and I realized it wasn't about the owners caring for community it was about getting the next buck, something very selfish and self seeking. At that point camping changed for me.
If I had means to do so I would create fun, supportive community that provided jobs and social place for struggling creators and newbies.

This isn't quite true and is a risky thing to believe. I've known many people who manage to become content creators but who then find that they can't go on to leverage it to do what they originally wanted - because they have to devote all their SL time to content creation, marketing, business dealings, etc. If they don't, they'll lose out to a competitor who does.



You make far too many assumptions. Prim building is quite easy to learn, but the actual skills required to take a percieved shape, visualise it and divide it into prims are part of subconscious-level artistic ability. That can - just about - be learned too, but an artist of age 16 has probably been learning it for 10 years.

Yeah, it would be good if we could advance beyond camp chairs. I mean, it's true, camper colonies really are creepy. (Don't get me started on camper bots, either.) For example, being a good greeter just requires being sociable and friendly, and knowing what your workplace needs - er, oh yeah, and maybe having suitable clothing and such, hhmm. Or, you could train someone in a rudimentary skill you don't have the time to exercise yourself but really do need to use. That would teach them something and might really be well worth it to you. SL would benefit from more people thinking beyond the camper chair IMO.

LOL!!

I began SL on May 1, 2007. Still have a basic account so no stipend. I purchased about 500 L to begin and very shortly thereafter just lucked into a job on SL that I love!!!

Been extremely fortunate to have met some wonderful people who are very caring and have generously given so many items to me - mainly clothing, shoes, jewelry, so my needs are certainly taken care of and my *wants* aren't that extravagant. I saved up for a really nice horse...that and my skin were likely my largest single purchases.

Yes Michael, if thats what you meant, i am with you all the way. I get peevish when noobs come and ask me for handouts but at least they have ignorance as some excuse; I get more peevish when not-so-noobs do it, or people invent scams and nasties to steal from people who worked hard for their ingame capital, as I did.

However, for people who ask me how to make money, i have a notecard telling them about ways to make money in SL. It includes camping, money trees, and how to find a job. I do agree that they should do a little work for it, even if its only camping to get a start. Thats how i started and i am not ashamed of it, although camping is generally despised now, not because of the campers, but because of the difficulties caused by large numbers of camping points on one spot.

I gave a noob 50 linden not long ago.. which he flung back at me when he found out that i earned it being an escort.. to quote "I wouldn't touch your dirty money"

/me shrugs...

fair enough

imogen

ps.. thanks for the compliment about the name

Was that before or after he asked you for Sex?