How to "Succeed" in Second Life

Thanks Emerald

Bilbo I guess you have to help Gandalf clean up his beard lol.

My vote goes for sheer jammy luck.

Having fun, having infinite patience, doing hard work.

Ewwww!

... /me dons rubber apron, gloves, wellies ... picks up bucket of water ... reaches back .... aims ...

Then why am I having such trouble with my businesses?

trash removal & landfill
plumbing, sewage and septic maintenance
housecleaning products
bottled water (replacing the empties with full water in drinking fountains)
health care clinics
nursing homes
drout and flood insurance
mortuary & funeral services

Seems to be very little interest, other than a strange character who was interested in purchasing by products from the sewage & septic maintenance business.

I bet there are some funny examples too, of RL business that just won't work in SL.

(Not to detract from the OP's intended point, which was valid, reading "is a need" as "might be a need".)

Woo! Someone who has read Herbert Spencer! Yes, he did coin the term "survival of the fittest" many decades before Darwin published "The Origin of Species."

To add to your trivia... Herbert Spencer is buried in the "new" section of Highgate Cemetery in north London. He's roughly just across the road from Karl Marx. Thus, my always-funny "Marx and Spencer" joke continuously gets laughs from the Brits. To get to Marx's grave from the main gate to the new section, follow the tarmac path. Every time the path diverges, go left. HAHAHAHAHA. It's true, but also so fitting.

If you have gone all the distance out to Highgate, make sure you take the guided tour of the old section. The architecture is stunning. It's a creepy overgrown cemetery that's been neglected for so long that it's now deemed a urban forest.

Try making things for FUN. First, if you don't enjoy it, why bother. Second, as you have fun you may hit on something of value.

Try making simple furniture! Copy items you have to learn the techniques. Collect freebie textures. Have a ball, and develop building skills. If you make something you're proud of, then try selling it. (Marketing stuff is a lot harder than making it, IMHO.)

Look for things in RL that you'd like to have in SL and make them for yourself. Chances are someone else would like them too.

Once you're reasonably adept at making simple things like furniture, try making jewelry. It takes patience and can be tedious, but once you've learned to make a tiny link, collected a few inexpensive or free textures, and developed a little technique, the biggest limit is your imagination and sense of taste. It doesn't require the graphics skills that clothing takes; you can do most of it ingame and find plenty of images on the web to use as well (you'll just need to learn how to use a program like GIMP to make a transparency mask, which isn't hard -- a little prodding and I'll post a tutorial).

Don't wait for the idea. Work on the skills, and HAVE FUN. Start by copying designs that look simple. Befriend anyone who has similar skills and can show you the ropes. This is way fun and far less repetetive than some of the most popular pastimes in SL (I bet you know what I mean).

If only half the people on the forums looked at it that way!

Yeah, I consider myself only starting to be successful. My standard of success in SL is the fact that my sales and other ventures have me at a point where the game pretty much pays for itself. I also spend more on L$10 uploads of textures, sounds and anims than other peoples' products these days since I have (a) everything I need to enjoy the game (good weapons, good avs, etc.) and (b) the ability to make anything I need on my own!

I only have a couple more projects to go and then I'm going to start focusing on more artistic and original projects simply for enhancing the world around me.

Actually, some of these things already exsist but not by the name you refered too, for example

Landfill = Freebie store Very popular!
Plumbing Sewage and Septic- Have you seen Bleed designs?
Home Cleaning products - Ok no products that I know of, but have you seen the camping cleaners?
nursing home is nothing more than a rental property wher you provide a activity structure

Now things you mentions that would be a great venture if you looked at it right.

Healthcare- Change this to health and wellbeing Lets face it Someone out ther needs a little mental support and is willing to pay for it, and also I think I seen someone with a bad case of ickes so you could treat it

NOW for your money shot idea!!!!

Funeral and mortuary.. what a great idea!! Lets face it, alot of people get bored with SL and need a place to rest their avatar in the big SL Sleep. What better pay tribute to a fallen resident than by giving the quiter a place to rest his bones, of course for a charge, I doubt the quitter would mind much giving you all his cash since he is leaving. and you can work out a program to keep his "remains" in a box for a certain amount of time incase he rises again in the future, of course storage of remains have everything to do with how much money you get paid. You can charge for funeral services, burial plots, even have a onsite florist that can make tons of money.

See, no matter what you see in RL there is a SL equivelant, it just takes a little thinking to get it going!

Absolutely agree. I've seen some places selling some absolutely wonderful creations with really low traffic, and other places selling ... well crap really ... with high traffic (discounting of course those that cheat with camping chairs) simply because they either have found some marketing gimmick, or have an owner with good connections.

Broccoli

Excellent OP.

Another piece of advice I'll add (and I keep having to remind myself of this) is that business owners shouldn't get too worked up over sudden, sharp dips in sales.

When this happens - and it will - it's a good idea to verify that your ads are still up and running and that there isn't anything obvious that would prevent or discourage people getting to your product. If nothing's changed, then just ride it out because chances are it has nothing to do with anything you or Linden Labs did (unless it's a Wednesday morning). If there's nothing actually wrong, then it WILL get better.

I've pretty much given up trying to figure out why my sales fluctuate the way they do - and that's not easy for someone who compulsively tries to find the patterns in everything.

On the other hand, some of my low-sales periods (and associated panic attacks) have prompted me to look for and find new ways to promote my products, and that has helped my business overall.

My main character is landless, dead broke and kinda goofy. Wanders around the mainland and has NEVER been to Desmond's sims.

Sometimes noobs talk to him. Some are rude but most are nice.

On rare occasion, really nice noob peoples have totally random but rather fortunate SL things happen to them out of the blue. They never find out why.

Is your "main" still your main, though? Or are you now your own alt?