Making Money (Legally)

Well, as of yet I don't "know" how to build anything worthwhile, and due to me being in the navy, I am not available most of the time for a job in SL. Does anyone have any reccomendations on how to make money without spending my RL paycheck on the market? Thanks for all the help,

Joshua

Oh yeah, and if anyone dosen't mind explaning some of the things in game over either YAHOO MSG or VENTRILLO, just let me know at [email]newomegahess@yahoo.com[/email]. I am underway right now, and will pull into port on Sunday around noon PST. Thanks again,

Joshua

If you have a full time wage the most cost effective way to obtain $Ls is to buy them with your credit card. If you require skills, New Citizens Plaza and The Ivory Tower Library of Primitives would be good places to start. Acquiring skills is actually a lot of fun when starting out in SL.

That's the point though. Not to get into my personal life, but i am over 17 thousand dollars in debt, yet still enjoy my games. I want to get some of the nice things in SL, but I technically don't have the extra cash to just buy SL funds. Therefore, I am hoping for some "lessons" on the finer points of making SL money. I'll check out those places for the skills, although at this point in time i'm not quite sure what you mean. Thanks for the place names though.

Joshua

Oh to be only 17,000USD in debt.

I just meant that if you don't want to buy $Ls then you will require skills in order to earn them. I pointed you to a couple of places which should help you obtain them. The New Ivory Tower is probably the most important starting point for any wannabe builder. As for New Citizens Plaza, instructor led courses offered include building, designing clothes and scripting. I think an NCP course on making money in SL is also available.

Working for others in SL isn't generally worthwhile unless you're prepared to settle for a third world wage (Search button * Classifieds * select Employment from the combobox to give it a go). That's why it's more cost effective to spend one hour of RL earnings on the Lindex.

Good luck.

You technically don't need any money at all to enjoy SL. There are thousands of freebie items at Yadni's Junkyard and you can spend as little as $5 US to buy 1200L if there is something that you simply must have. It does take time to learn to make things and sell them but it is generally the most rewarding way to make $$ in SL.

Yeah, sounds good. After i check these out, i may still want to actually talk to someone experienced in scripting/building and the such. Thanks for all the responses, and hope to see you in SL. Have a good day.

Theres those camping chairs(Which I think are pretty lame) or some clubs have money exploders; ive won some pretty big bucks with those(exploders) back when I used to go to the clubs. You may want to try this. Some clubs give out random money from an orb too but thats only like $3L or something from my experiences.

Extreme casino has freeplay- people make a few hundred a day on those (If you have all day to attend every session)


But technically if you have a skill and would like to sell things you need some money to open a shop. Or theres always slboutique.com or slexchange.com to sell at.

Yeah i agree that the camping chairs are pretty lame. I have done that before for about 30min to an hour waiting on a friend, but overall it's a waste of time. Thanks for the links though.

Don't forget that after being an amateur builder and an amateur scripter, you follow it up with being an amateur salesman. Only go down this road if those things sound like fun. And they can be. Most players will never make enough in sales to break even selling things. Few will be able to point to 10 cents US in Profit per hour of work. This is OK, as long as you only have hours of play invested in the first place.

Otherwise your best bet is to sell your presence in game. People want to see people. What if they threw a party and no one came? That's what those exploders are, a bribe to stick around. Everyone throws in 25 cents US, the owner throws in a dollar, and everyone wins 35 cents US or so (except the club owner, who is out that dollar. He might spend $5 an hour this way, making the club look busy and happy.) Other places, like stores, will have stuff given away randomly, but normally not straight up cash. Good money, but again only if you are having fun. And it’s not steady work, you need to find out when the party is getting started and be ready to mingle. Ideally, you should be earning you cash, by helping the party seem alive and happy. Camping is another way to get cash, its steady work, but I question if you can really pull a profit if you factor in electrical costs and wear-and-tear on your equipment. Then again, it’s always a good time to upgrade.

you won"t find my comment nice but...

Shouldn't you work to clear your debth instead of wasting your time in an online game?
Problems doesn't go away if you ignore them.

Joshua,

I'm going to be blunt as well... There is no get rich quick scheme in SL.. just as there is none in RL. If you haven't figured out how to make money in RL, and you're $17,000 in debt, you're not going to find some quick easy way to recoupe that in SL. Plus, you're basically asking, "can someone tell me how to make money by not doing anything because I don't have time to figure it out myself"

If your skill is asking people how to make money... try using that skill in RL first.

SL is pretty much like RL, albeit without sickness and death. There's no way to make quick and easy money. Absolutely none. The only "unskilled" way of making money in SL is by becoming a model or an escort, but these jobs do require a significant expenditure so that you'll get the necessary appearance, outfits, animations, poses and other equipment. Hmm, you'll also have to throw in boatloads of imagination, narrative skills and fast typing. But then again, there's tons of competition in these professions, so that it makes absolutely no sense for new people to enter these markets, because they're already oversaturated. After all, content creators don't really need models anymore, as they only have to wear a shape they and use the animations they want - and then it's easy for them to make great photos of their products.

The best way to make money on SL is content creation and scripting. Yes, the HARD way. Learn to do it, create something that's well-made, bug-free and good-looking, price it appropriately and people will buy it, provided there is a market for it.

Yeah so I don't know where all this flaming is coming from, but you all can just back off. I did not make this post to discuss my financial RL problems, i just stated that number to say that my money is better spent in RL on my debts instead of paying for SL money. Also, I did not ask for a "quick money" solution, I asked on advice for making it with legitimate means, therefore getting the responses about skills and the beginning of my own product line / business. To that effect, thank you for the people that responded about the things that I might want to look into in SL, and to the rest of you who think you know what to do about my life....back off. I do not want, nor appreciate your suggestions on how I should handle my life or finances.

Agreed. Sorry, but I hear people say 'should you be wasting your time playing games?' in response to so many things, and I can't stand it. Are you not allowed to kick back in the evenings if you're not in a wonderful financial state? Are you supposed to spend every waking second of your life earning and any time spent on something so trivial as pleasure is money not earned? That attitude implies that the person does nothing *but* sit playing computer games - which is a HUGE assumption based on no information at all, and pretty offensive to boot.

I am in considerable debt from my years at uni (as pretty much every ex-student will be) - I work weekdays and earn enough to survive and crawl back out of the red (until I land my dream job and become unutterably rich, that is). I play computer games - so? I also find time to go running, explore on the momobike, go to the pub, do my laundry, read books... just because my bank balance is for the most part laughable does that mean I should stop all these things because I'm wasting my time and not working to clear my debt?

This is in no way a personal attack - but statements like that are plain rude and don't make any sense, and it bothers me so much. It'd be lovely if people here were more inclined to read the actual question before jumping right into the accusations of being lazy, and took a second to consider whether their argument is at least rational before saying things that could be offensive.

I have been in debt when i was younger and you can be sure i wasn't playing online games or had kewl internet connection during this time.

Dude, I'm more in debt than that and I certainly have an internet connection. It's called student loans. Besides, what difference does one hour make? He's not going to pay off his loans by spending his free time getting a second job flipping burgers, and that's probably not an option for him anyway, what with the whole navy thing and all.

Josh, other people have already answered your question. There's no completely free money source other than people just handing you money randomly (which actually does happen in SL; some people when they meet a newbie will just hand you a couple hundred to help you get on your feet.) You have to put in time, or talent, or both. Basically, you have to contribute something of value.

You'd be hard pushed to find a student house round here that doesn't have an internet connection. I would never have taken one either because it's invaluable for research and job hunting - it's not a pure luxury and to me falls into the category of 'affordable and useful enough to justify'. Kinda like a telephone (no longer in student digs for the record).

Do you mean to say that when you got home from work, you didn't have a cup of tea or read a book, you went right out to work again? I find it hard to believe you didn't relax in any way, and consider playing online games such a reprehensible activity and impossible to do without disrupting the search for financial stability.

But this person isn't in a student house, he's in the Navy. But 17,000 in debt is nothing if you have a family (that's 2 cars), unless it was gained being stupid, in which case, yes, you should be working to pay it off and if you are in the military, you sure as hell better not be spreading that around loudly, as it is cause for discharge under 'financial irresponsibility'. Also, it's not student loans. The military sponsors and pays for any and all costs related to education. You can do many jobs being in the military as long as you find an employer willing to work with you (and quite a few do). Also, he's asking when he returns which means he's either in quarters, dorms, or living off base with a family (and if he's living off base, not a smart idea anyways if debt is a worry.) Anyways, that's besides the point.

A cup of tea is substance. It's a drink, it has a purpose. You can live off tea as a drink, and frankly, tea is so damn cheap anyways, it's not a deal breaker when you can buy enough to make 50 gallons worth for 3 bucks at Wal-Mart. Can you drink the internet? Can you eat it? A book? Local library - free. For an average 1 month's sub to cable internet, you can buy enough to drink 650+ gallons of tea.

I've hit hard times before, did I have internet? Nope. When I was growing up and money was tight, did we even have a comp? Nope. We had to at one point sell off some things to pay off some debt that was worse trying to get out of than have a few nice things.

The reason people bring up these arguments, is because the posters ask about money, then 9 times out of 10 say 'Well, I don't have the money to buy L because of X.' A while back, one person even made the argument that they didn't know where next month's rent was coming from and they wanted to play to escape. Spending more money to avoid dealing with something is certainly not responsible and most everyone has been through hard times, and common sense and duty would tell them, that cutting extras (like the internet) helps out more, than avoiding dealing with it at all.

Joshua, If you have time on your hands while underway, get a graphics program that will allow you to make textures to upload to SL. In my experience people are avid texture hounds so if you can produce something interesting people will buy it. Plus working with a graphic arts program has payoff real life. Same is true for scripting. If you have time time underway, play with the LSL. Making objects do things or animations for people will also bring in $$. Those seem to me to be the best way to utilize the long stretches between when you can get online.

Since you are going to be in interesting ports of call take your digital camera out and get pictures of textures and other things that can be converted into a graphics format. What you have to sell are the things you are seeing while you are travelling. Again, learning the graphics program will aid in that conversion. It might also be the case that people deisgning textures and backgrounds and such would pay $L for your pictures to convert them themselves. So a photogallery might be worthwhile. You can set that up on your piece of newbie land and then run some specials to get people to your gallery. Do some nice land scapes, some city scenes, etc and folks might buy them for their homes in SL.

MN

This is some of the most thoughtful and helpful advice I have read.

Well done Michael, and kudos to you for being so willing to help out.

Best,

~Ari

Respectfully...
The guy came in here and asked a few simple questions. If the answer was "there is no way to do what you want to do and make any serious money", fine. Say that. Your opinions about his financial situation are, frankly, nothing that anyone wants to hear, least of all him. They are simply not part of the conversation. Save the preaching for those in your family or circle of friends who are willing to listen and benefit from what you have to say. Regardless of how much in debt someone has, an Internet connection has its benefits and can be as necessary as a phone line, nowadays, so your argument falls a bit short. And, finally, if he is looking to offset the costs of his SL membership by making a little money, that sounds like a smart move. At the very least, he can get a little R&R and have it not cost him anything.

And, before I wrap this up, I just want to say that he's in the military, and you have no idea what he might be dealing with right now, regardless of whether or not you have ever served before and have your own experiences. He may be young, or be supporting a family as well. He could simply have debt for legitimate reasons (financial hardship, taking care of a relative, etc.). Let him enjoy himself from time-to-time, as he sees fit, and either (1) answer his questions or (2) pass his post by, not bothering to comment.

Sorry I jumped on you before. Yeah, I mistook what you were asking and gave a rude response, my apologies.

Here's a tactic that may work for you, without learning much, and without spending much:

1) Come up with a unique idea for content... something new and something needed... something that people would definitely want to buy.

2) Hire someone to build your concept. Someone trustworthy, someone who will not take your money and your design.

3) Make copies of the new creation, then set those copies to no copy.

4) Set up a shop that sells at a high retail price, and good discounted wholesale price.

By doing this you will have a product that others will purchase in bulk and sell. By doing this, your expenses will be hiring the builder, and perhaps a small plot to sell your product... however, once the product is ready for sale, you may not have to put much continual time and effort into it... you may need to do some marketing at first, but that's about it.

Hope this post helped you more than my first one P

Click the link in my sig for more info on how to get L$.

With all due respect (seems you can type that then trash someone):

HE'S the one that mentioned financial situation. NOT me. So why don't you complain about people talking about thier monetary status? Do you prefer to pity them and hate on others who are simply stating that a sacrifice of luxury be made if you can't afford it? You are the highest of hypocrites. You complain on others preaching and spend 10 minutes typing out a post preaching about not preaching.

He isn't even speaking of HAVING a membership, but essentially ways to make money. Most people are on free memberships. I'm sure you have no experience with military or you would understand what I'm saying about the cautions of randomly posting your financial situation and how it can lead to discharge. Or ways to combat the debt, or that 17,000 is nothing to sneeze WITH a family and the support I was offering that it was merely 2 cars. Apparently you missed all that in the rush to type your snide comment.

Adding to that, some of the scenarios you listed, are covered by the military so it wouldn't be a debt situation. You can add family members to TriCare if you are taking care of them and they are in your home, not to mention the separate government help offered.

Also, most of my post is directed to someone else and not even him, so don't bother typing out a post so fast without reading what it's inferring to.

I advise you to take your own advice, in shorter words:

If you have nothing beneficial to say, shut up.

Or should I say that politely in your words?

(2) pass MY post by, not bothering to comment.