Making a shopping center....

I was wondering your thoughts on a shopping center done on a simple 512m of land... possible? or impossible?

Not practical. At most, you have enough prims on a mere 512 M2 get 4 merchants set up. Unless you happened to luck into a parcel that was already high-traffic for other reasons, that is too small to be viable.

Almost impossible, since you may only use 117 prims on that amount of land. You can build some shop floors, but that is about it.

I think I jumped the gun (getting premium) way too fast. I see potential $$$ in having rentors but the knowledge I have now that I didn't have before I got premium has gotten me into a mess. Getting land is soo expensive and I don't really want to put any more real money into this game because I'm a poor college student. Don't know what I should do either make the small shopping center, turn the 512 land into my own store or just cancel premium alltogether.

I wonder how many people have jumped the gun like me...

What I would do is start small. Maybe start with a store that is just you. Make a few L$ off of your own creations. Bring the traffic and the people to your store. Once that starts happening, you may be able to find someone that would be willing to rent some of your space. If you can continue making a profit, then you can slowly expand. As you expand, you can rent out more space.

If that doesn't work, then just build a little house and hang out there with your friends. premium is not that expensive anyway.

Or you can sell the land you just bought and go back to basic.

It is really up to you on how you want to go forward.

The best bet is to first build skills that people in SL are willing to pay for, like making clothes, building, scripting, custom textures... rent merchant space at first, until you get a steady income. L$50 a week for a 20-prim booth in a busy mall is pretty cheap, and if your stuff is good, you should easily turn a profit. When you are making enough income to cover land purchases and tier costs, that is the time to expand.

Think about SL as an entertainment expense at first, not a money maker, and you'll enjoy yourself a lot more. As a Premium member, the tier on that first 512 M2 of mainland is free, so build a small house or a personal store there, and enjoy the land. Most of what you pay for Premium dues you get back as an L$ allowance each week. The difference between what you get back and what you put in is less than what most college students I know spend on beer and pizza each week.

The L$ income from being Premuim should cover your upload costs and modest spending money. After that, either work to build a career in SL, or get out your credit card.

My own opinion is that it's more cost effective in the long run to stay Basic, and if you want land, get a parcel on a private island sim. What you save in Premium dues can buy a heck of a lot of L$ on Lindex. There's a short-term gain if you buy First Land and sell that for a profit, but after that, any additional land is at the market rate to get it. The first 512 M2 or mainland property that you hold costs you nothing per month in tier. There is no 'free tier' for your first 512 M2 of private sim land, unless a sim owner is offering a special rate.

I started as Basic, selling t-shirts. Now I build, make clothes, and make custom textures. I even design whole sims and build them for people. My first few months, I must have easily spent $100 USD buying L$. But now, over a year later, I've earned all that back, I take money out every week (enough to take my family out to a nice restaurant for dinner), and have enough left over to pay for a cozy 4096 M2 parcel on a private island as well as all my in-world spending money. I'm still Basic, as I don't want mainland property and I earn all the L$ I could ever hope to spend.

Second Life is like Real Life. There is no real 'get rich quick' scheme that works. You get out of it what you put into it.

I just want to thank you both for the support and help... It's weird to think that Second Life can actually get me depressed... (thinks I may have made a minor mistake)

As of now I haven't got my first land. It's hard to obtain, which I know all of you know, so in the mean time I will go find a place to rent and make a temporary shop in hopes I make some profit. When I do get my first land I will set up my base shop.

Once again thanks.

EDIT

Does anyone know any good ( cheap ) places to set up a shop?

Cheap place to set up shop: Constanta Mall. 10L/wk! No campers and decent traffic.

Cheap store rental. I am sure there are a bunch.

Shinsa Market. Set up like an outdoor market.

Be happy. There's a lot of great things to see and do here.

For the time investment you'd have to make in this game to make anything more than lunch money, your best investment would be in your first life more than in second life. This is pretty much an entertainment venue, and while some people make good money, its because of the investment and professionalism they've devoted to building the business, and the constant attention they've paid to being present in the game.

Sadly, that amount of time would take a good chunk out of your study and "work to cover the groceries and rent" time, and being a poor student I suspect you're really stressed there.

If you're in this for the money and you've already got a Premium account, buy your First Land, sell it, then bail (i.e., get the profits from the land, then stop payinging monthly subscription fees, and use that money to pay for rent instead).

If you're in this for the fun, my advice would differ.

If you're looking for a place to put just a few items to start out, and don't mind resetting your items once or twice a week, do a search for the free yard sales where they allow people to put their wares out for sale (make sure to read their rules). Some of the larger ones are good for getting exposure and seeing if people are interested in your products before you go full out and set up a store somewhere.

And I have seen stores set up on 512 and even smaller lots. If you go this route you have to be very sparing with your prim count, use a simple design for a building, maybe use some of those low prim vendor thingies.

In theory, you could even rent out space to others who are using the low prim vendors and have a tiny 'mall'. I think you'd have to advertise heavily to get people in the door, though, unless you are lucky enough to find a space next to a pre-existing mall or club that gets a lot of traffic.

a 512 is fine for setting up One store as long as your not selling houses or furniture or something else that requires prims to display.

But yes when first land isnt availible , getting a 512 can be pricey.

A small mall on a 512? Highly unfeasible - especially considering the HUGE number of malls already out there without the severe prim restrictions youd have to set.