Advice for a new island owner

I just bought an island and am curious to know where to start:

1. Do I get some LInden dollars with the island (it hasn't gotten through yet)?
2. Do I start with figuring out the terrain?
3. If I want a cosy village like town, and not those cold, glass and steel office buildings, is there anywhere I can purchase them? I also want a town square.
4. Is there a fairly easy to use guide for how to show video clips?
5. Anything else useful to think about?


Thanks in advance!

Answer to Q #1 no you don't get any L$

1 - nope

2 - One of the steps when you order an island is to choose the initial terrain layout. You can edit that at any time after it is delivered.

3 - There are many places you can buy buildings. Or make your own. Or comission somone (such as myself).

4 - I've never seriously tried to use videos in SL.

5 - Have fun. That is very important.

You might like to have a chat with some of the people on the Developers Directory who provide these kind of services.

Yes, it'll probably cost, but a good developer will work out with you what you can do, and what you want them to do, in order to keep the costs down. Try the "Consultants" listing as they are usually smaller companies that like projects like these.

Broccoli

Ok. I'll look for smaller companies. I should add that I am actually setting this up for my company, so it isn't my own money, but I don't have a very big budget anyway.

You'll see some that list "landscaping" and "building" as their specific skills, rather than scripting, avatars etc. Some have websites, have a look at their work, drop them an email, and you should get some idea of who would be interested in such a project.

Broccoli

If your looking for a expert builder (she has built my castle as well as building the sim, Atlantis) then IM Elphaba Jinxing. She is a great builder and can build anything you need. So IM her now and said that Flowerdew Zagoskin recommended her.

In second life, click on the search button and in the places or classifieds tab do a search for the word "prefab"

This will give many places where you can buy prefab houses, castles etc
Its best to look for the major house producers. They usually have entire islands dedicated to show off their buildings.

They usually have copy/mod permisions so you could easily set up an entire village with just a few purchased prefab houses.

This is MUCH cheaper than hiring someone to build your sim for you, since a prefab building only costs around 500 L$ to 5000 L$ which is only 2 US$ to 20 US$.

[Some usefull terminology - A prefab house is a "house in a box". You buy it, then can put the house on your land usually as many times as you like providing you keep a copy of the box]

For nice trees, flowers, gazebos, cottages with ivy climbing up the side etc I recommend you check the various garden center islands

I can recommend a wonderful in-world building company who does a spectacular job with cozy villages. Send me a message if you'd like the company's name. They do charge, of course.

Please tell me about the company and if they have a showroom.

Gonkerplumb Flanagan is also a great landscape artist. He has "Gardens by Gonkers" in-world. Give him a holler.

Hey, glad to see you're getting an island, and I'm also glad to hear that you're doing this as part of a business initiative. I think posing a question like this on the forum is a really useful way to generate some ideas, garner some advice, and get a good discussion going.

I acquired my first island a couple of months ago, and it's been a hoot! Fun and enjoyable, and a great learning experience.

One thing I put into my Business Plan (BP) was that I'd host an initial prototype stage, that is, I'm not expecting anything out of my island for a set period of time--in my case, I decided to have a prototype/experimental period of 90 days with my island. I invited a couple of friends to participate, and formed a group that will let us all build there (our building skills ranged from Good to fair to non-existent, so we had a wide range of abilities available!).

To make a long story short, we've all learned more than we imagined we could about building, and especially about terraforming. It's been a great experience, and we've done it without outside help and at practically zero cost. The island looks pretty good, although it's definitely still a work in progress.

My advice: see how much time you can design into your business plan for experimenting with your island. This will give you a better idea about the challenges and constraints involved, and a better basis for planning continued development and future objectives. If you're new to SL, this can be very valuable.

As other posts say here, you can hire consultants to:

build your entire island from the ground up to your design and specifications, or

to advise you on what pre-fab/houseinabox units are best,

or to teach you how to do it, so you can do it yourself.

Of course, you can always mix and match within these options.

Make sure, however, that you have a good grasp of your time constraints, your resources, and, most importantly, your business objective in owning an SL island. You have a great opportunity to learn from the ground up, or, to just buy from the pros and get on with your core business. Choose wisely, after doing the research and considering the alternatives.

IM me in world if you want to see my place, or want some free advice on yours. Although I am "The Consultant" (see my group), I am not involved in the land or building industries, so I'm happy to share a few bits and pieces of knowledge.

I have really nice friend who played i.e created in island she rented bit back ago. She might even help for free if she had time. I bet there are people who aren't always here to make money but just like the challenge and would help for free rent and place to create in who have lot of skills but don't or aren't into buying property.

Excellent idea--I have three friends who help me out, and in return get a parcel for their own private sandboxes.

Personally I found having very smart, gifted friends who are into creating and friendship more rewarding then stressing myself out to make the next product,etc.
One thing I learned from my smartest friend is that if you get island or develope community don't expect it to just build something and have it become self supporting.
Also if you're whole purpose in buying land or spending money in SL is about making money things will go wrong and it just become aggravating and stressful experience.
Most important thing is your friends and those around you that you can create, learn and bounce ideas off. Friends that have proven there ablity to be honesty and trustworthy are best.

Agreed, and my model.

I believe the OP has a bit of pressure on him, though, because his company is footing the bill...yikes!

Oops I missed that sorry I have mental packet loss and my fps are really lagging. LOL
I just hope the OP doesn't find himself in expensive, stressful situation where there is set result thay may or may not materialize.
Business in SL is hard and extremely competive. I know there are successful business in SL. Yet I also know few island owners from where my friend rented part of his islandand I think person though if he just paid for stuff, that money would roll in and he be successful with no real plan.
Even if you have scheme to bring people in via camping there is no guarantee people will even buy your products.
I have business consult friend who provides free consult or use to for first session.
I don't want the thread closed so I won't mention the persons name but if OP wants the name they can im me in world.
I might know some people who could explain video streams for free too.
It depends on if you're showing movies that are like through current places like from in world rental services or your own but you need way of bring it via server link through media files. I assume its like doing live music except with video but I might be wrong.