Should I just quit?

Ive been trying out SL for the past few days and it seams great and all. But I can't seam to make L$ other then the really pitifull money earned from those chairs and such. Im trying to get a job but it seams like you need to have tons of L$ invested in your avitar for most that im qualified for experiance wise. A catch 22 to me who can't afford right now to buy L$. So im thinking of just giving up. Should I? Because Im not able to have much fun when I can't do much. :/

Dko, the simplest thing to do is just spend the $5 you were going to spend on tomorrow's latte and buy yourself some Lindens. You can make small amounts at clubs and through money trees, but in the long run you'll turn this into a second job instead of a second life. You don't actually need money to enjoy SL, but it does make it more fun.

Unfortunately I think that this is one of the biggest limitations with the basic accounts, I appreciated it when they used to give an L$250 signup bonus even though it wasn't really worth that much.

There are ways to make money in-game and a number of guides describing how to do so, but most of them involve doing things that I'd rather not do (i.e. callgirl). I've pretty much figured out that I'm not going to make money off of this thing. On the other hand, there is a plethora of freebies floating around out there, money isn't a very strong requirement to play this game and a lot of people are willing to give you a lot of neat stuff. However, in the end you probably are going to want some spending money.

Unfortunately the best thing I can tell you is to stick a small amount of money directly into the game and see what you can do with that. The credit card (when I last did this) was limited to a US$25 minimum payment, but I just stuck US$10 into the game (translated to about L$3500 at the time, probably less now, and the other US$15 ended up going to my first couple premium account payments when i finally decided to upgrade).

From what I can tell, people can make money in SL mostly by:
- doing jobs that have skills people want to pay for, like making clothing, builds, hosting events really well, DJing etc
- land sales and rentals (more of an investment deal, I guess)

But both of these would take experience for you to become good enough that your skills in these areas become something people will pay good $L for. Still, it's tiddlywinks next to just buying $L with real money. $10 US is worth thousands of Lindens, for example. There's only a few folks that can make more money per hour in SL than flipping burgers in RL. I just buy what money I need.

Look at it another way - if you aren't on Premium, and are not renting, you only need money to buy things, none of which you need to just exist in the environment. So you don't neccesarily need an SL income. Otherwise, I would look for jobs in the classifieds in SL, if you are commited to not spending any real money here.

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This sticky may help

Assuming that's how much tomorrow's latte costs where Dko lives. To me, £30 quid for approx 15000 Lindens is the equivalent of a cheap Saturday night out (RL). I think nothing of buying that amount. However, my Phillipino friend informs me that's equivalent to a manual labourer's fortnightly wage. Ouch.

The big problem is I don't have $5 for tommaros latte(Well I don't get Latte's anyway but you know what I mean) I currently am looking for a RL job as well and Ive read every guide I can possibly find on Making money in SL. I just don't have what it takes it seams to get L$

Dko I understand and appreciate your pain but the fact is that there is no easy way for a new citizen in SL to make money despite what you have been told. You can develop a skill and sell your services or products but this may take many months. This is not the type of game where you can polish gems to make money.

Take my free advice and go about about learning all of the wonders of Second Life before you try to make a profit here. It may come to you if you are a business minded type person. If not, just have some fun.

Being without resources .. even a few spare dollars can really suck.

But I hope you dont give up on SL quite so soon. There are tons of freebies around ... the Shelter and NCI both have great programs for helping new players get started.

Use the freebies that are around, explore what others are doing. Give it some time.

Being here wont incurr any additional costs ... and you never know what you might run into.

A lot of people make things to sell, and they make money doign so. That doesn't mean they are working .. but that they enjoy the building process and sales are a nice side effect. A lot of people make stuff that they dont sell, just because they enjoy the process. Building is like puzzle solving .. how can I get the effect I want with the tools at hand ... how can I get the look I want with the minimum number of prims.

So, I hope you decide to hang around for a while and give it some time. You never know what might be around the next corner.

Welcome to SL

Honestly, if you don't have $5 usd to spend tomorrow, than you probably need to kill your home broadband, save yourself at least 40 dollars a month, use the library, and reprioritize. When you have the disposable income of broadband plus $5 a month, your question nulls itself out. Good luck!

edit: let me add a few thoughts. Not quit, but make this where it needs to be right now for you. Even a treat, something that if you get other things, you know, Maslow's heirarchy and whatnot, a goal. I wish you the best.

At least it is possible to have fun in SL without spending money at all.

If that works for you depends on what you want. If you do not want the designer skins and dresses you can do a lot with what is supported by SL already. And beside that you may find many things on junkyards or in the GNUbies shop.

If you want to build you can learn that in the different universities (search for Education) and make you own builds in Sandboxes then.

Wandering around and exploring you can get friends who share interests with you. You may also search for groups with topics you are interested in.

There are a lot of things you can buy for money in SL. But one thing cannot be bought: friendship. And if you are a nice person you will find friends.

I am quite sure in the welcome area people have some more tips where to go and to look for. maybe one of those without payment info makes up a list of tips else than how to get money?

Bibi

You don't have to spend money to have fun in SL. Exploring is cool Building is cool.
IM me in world sometime.

I tired to play in game with no cash...I made 6 whole lindens sitting in a chair...

Having no money = no avatar upgrades, no tipping, no sploding balls, no slingo...and no fun.

Then I decided to look up what a dollar is in Lindens...$1 = about $300L ($.30cents per linden)

So, i bought $10 worth of lindens (round $3000L)and been sufficing on that for a while...well untill the blackjack Tables...>:

I'd say invest a little to have fun, but be cautious in playing games.

You also need to be diligent on learning how to do things...there's plenty of help around, and it takes time.

Lastly, this is a SIM...not a GAME.

You will earn money the moment you stop thinking about making money.

Patience. That is the best advice I can give you.

You have only been at this a short time. You are not going to get rich quick in SL. Too many people come here thinking they will find a fortune. I have been in SL off and on since 04 and I don't have a massive Linden cash flow. I spent a lot of time goofing off and only lately started really looking at a business with my wife here. It is not making tons of cash but I am in it for the fun.

My other advice is for you to go to classes like NCI, TeaZers and places like that offer. You can learn to make lots of items that can be sold at yard sales or you can even rent a booth somewhere when you get some money. The classes teach how to make a certain item but they can inspire you to get creative and work on lots of stuff.

Taco has a point about the broadband though. It sounds like you may wanna do some RL restructure before you worry too much about your SL.

Good luck in RL and SL. I hope you get that job soon.

I gota say thanks to all of you plus the people who also talked to me in SL personaly. Youve all helped me not feel dicouraged any more. :3

I think the way I first made money was the chairs, from there I went to YadNi's newbie junkyard to get out of the SL newb clothing. Lots of vendors, malls, and stores offer newbioe packages. Like GuRL 6, offers a female box of stuff for free, including hair, shoes, etc.

Look for those to start. Watch around to see what the most popular contests are at several clubs. Start buying that up. I haven't seen you or your av, or know your personal choices, but goth is a pretty big event at all the clubs I've ever been to or worked for. And add some free wings from YadNi's and you are in for a winged event.

Start with the basic and most common contests from the places that interest you and build around that.

20L is made in... 100 minutes in a 2 for 10 (and some are much better than that). That will give you the 1L you need to buy newbie essentials and 'freebie' boxes.

~Seola~

Dko

I may be able to help in you making a few L$, as I have a few jobs open.

Skills needed are communication skills.

I would also agree with everyone who has advised classes.

IM me ingame if you are interested in spending some time working in SL on flexi-time.

All the best either way.

Lucky chairs- a chair that sits in a shop it annoucences a random letter and there is a timer on it. It will give away it's prize to anyone who sits in the chair who's first name starts with that random letter.

Why is this any better then freebies? Simple - the chairs main purpose is to entice folks to come into the shop, win the prize and be dazzled by the other items in the shop, making folks stop and shop after winning the prize. So the items in the chairs to be won are high quality items. (they have to be if the shop owners wants to keep a good reputation and traffic to their shop.)

The coolest part about the chairs are the groups created to help folks find chairs with thier Initials! That's right! All day long you hear on these chat IM's X12@ABC shop, G4@ XYZ shop - new blue dress - very nice!!!!, W10@BBB shop I'll TP you! I want this outfit!!! (the number is how many minutes till the letter changes) Now that might drive you crazy- but if you addicted to free high quality items - it's pure gold to your ears- it's also pure gold to the owners of the shops ears too as they are getting FREE ADVERTISING.

I've gotten many wonderful outfits, hair, accessories, items from these chairs. I have one in my shop. I've found some amazing shops - with some amazing deals and amazing items because of this group. Type in lucky chiar in both "places" and "groups" on your search tabs to see just how big this is. (hint - tons of places have them and 3 or 4 groups some with 300+ members in them.)

Also - it's free to join the groups, it's free to sit in the Chairs.

It's a win/win for both shoppers and shop owners alike. I can't say enough good things about them.

My partner and I need a cyber pet, contact me ingame and we'll hook you up.

I've never spent one single cent USD on SL (aside from the 10bux to sign up back in the day when it wasn't free). I learned how to build in my first week and have been doing so ever since. Yes, I was poor for several months before my friends convinced me to make a store, but I really haven't been ever since then. I'm not rolling in it, but I have enough to go out and buy stuff if I want to. And I don't even have that many items for sale, really.

If you want to make money in SL and you have some creativity in you, try making clothing! If you think you have no creativity, try building! If you want to keep being poor, try scripting! (That was a joke, sort of.) Other things include PR for companies looking for a PR person, Event-hosting (Is this one still going on? I know it used to be big, but I haven't looked at the Events listing in more than a year..), etc. My first job here was taking pictures of land parcels for a land baron to put on their website. It didn't pay great, but for a newbie, any income is good income.

If you really don't want to spend any RL money on SL, first of all, congratulations! And second of all, learn to build and/or texture, because that is where the money is. Also, make connections. At one point, my shop had three different locations, and I didn't pay rent for any of them. :P Also, connections will get you free stuff, because your designer friends will hook you up. (In return, make stuff and hook -them- up!)

The only other piece of wisdom I have to impart is: DO NOT BEG/ASK/THREATEN PEOPLE FOR MONEY. Hopefully your dignity level is such that you won't anyway, but holy crap, I hate beggars. And so does everyone else. Someone MIGHT be nice and give you some money, but the other 10 people you will have just asked will now hope you get nuked from space, and will remember you later when you are trying to make a name for yourself. Just don't do it.

And that's about it. Okay, then. Good luck!

Dko, as others here have said, you're much better off spending time working at real job and spending an hour of your pay to buy Linden's than you ever will be trying to spend the same amount of time in SL trying to earn money in-world.

I run a lot of businesses in SL. I create clothes, ranging from simple T-shirts to designer dress lines. I make and sell custom textures. I even design and build whole sims. But I do all that because I am an artistic person who loves to create things, and while what I earn now does cover all my in-world expenses, and even makes some real money that I can cash out once in a while, it's nowhere near as profitable as a real world job. To put it in perspective, 'working' all month in SL, spending almost as many hours per week as I would work at a real world job, gets me enough Lindens that if I cash them all out, I could take my family to dinner at a nice restaurant maybe once or twice more that month.

Over time, if you have creative skills, you'll learn how to do things that will make more of an income in-world than it costs you to have fun in SL. But it doesn't happen over night, and it doesn't happen without effort and talent on your part. And even if you have talent and make lots of Lindens, it is still unlikely that you'll make enough money working in SL to make any real cash profits. Very few people do.

So, take the time to find a real world job, even at just minimum wage. Spend some of your salary and buy Lindens. And have fun playing and relaxing in SL. Until then, use the Search feature and go to every place that says "free", and collect free items. You can get tons of clothes, vehicles, buildings, avatar upgrades, and all sorts of things you never imagined, just by picking up free stuff. One particularly good place is the GNUbie Store, in the Maroon sim. Tons of free or nearly free items for new people, including some nice hair and skins.

If all you are concerned about is making money then yeah you should just leave. It's really too bad that people can't see that there is much more to SL than 'makin' them dollas'

Yeah what she said, if you concerned about making money leave and then have a huge smapbanner sig to prove your point

I believe if you hang around the Shelter long enough you can get money just for being a nice person and hanging out with the friends you make there, one day I got 200 l$ at once cause they liked me
also there are several free to join games hosted there that pay you money or sponsored prizes if you win

even if money isn't your main concern, they have a table people put free things on, and if you aren't even interested in "material posetions" the people over there are amazing, a great place for newbies and oldies to hang out