Making RL$$$ in SL. Proof.

I have heard/read a few stories about the potential of this game. We all know about Anshe Chung (sp?). Can anyone point me to another source, blog, etc. of anyone else making RL$ in here? How about you? What is YOUR story about making money from this place? Thanks. AC.

I make and sell clothes and textures. I also design, build and manage large projects, including entire sims. I earn enough in-world that I haven't needed to spend RL money to purchase any L$ for more than the last 6 months. I spend thousands of L$ per month in-world on land maintenance and on clothes and other fun stuff, for my enjoyment and the enjoyment of my friends, and every month I still manage to withdraw at least enough real US Dollars from SL to be able to take my family out to dinner at a nice restaurant. Sometimes more than that, if the building work has been particularly active.

Am I making money? Yes. Am I making enough to quit my day job? Heck no! I'd make more per hour flipping hamburgers at a minimum wage job than I earn working in SL. I work in SL because I like what I do, and because it pays all my expenses for remaining in SL and having fun with my friends here. If I was only interested in earning money, I'd log off and do more work in RL.

I should have mentioned that I am most interested in the people who are making RL$ in the 3K-4K range ( of whom I have met a few...), not enough to quit the day job mind you, but enough to go "WOW...I made that much money off of my computer!!"

Actually, that amount is still unclear. $3000 a month is certainly enough to quit your day job, although you may not want to. Are you meaning 3K per year?

Check out the SL Economic Statistics under currency, monthly profit.

The number of people making the kind of money you mentioned are low, but I am sure they exist. And I can't think of any reason they would want to tell you about it on the forums.

I expect that the big name pose ball creators are making those kind of dollars. There was an internet article about one of them, PM Adult, some time back.

it is much appreciated. I can understand not being able to hear from those people directly...(they are probably inworld as we type, not hanging out here in the forums) I am hoping to find some blogs describing some of their stories.

Although I don't believe any of the false promo LL shovels out... yes people make money in SL.

But this is the thing.... you can make money at anything anywhere..... SL just uses this concept to their advantage. LL sorta gives off this vibe to new users that it's like a 'poof here's profits' or 'just log in and you'll be raking in the dough' .....

Just as in RL, making profits in SL is the same. You make money in SL just how you'd make money in RL (just with different ways to do it). Some people may not think they can run a RL biz, but for some reason they can run one in SL.... however I think most that don't or can't figure out how to make money in the RL would not get the concepts of the ways to make money in SL either.

To make money in SL, you're going to need to invest time and energy.

I pulled $100 USD out of the game like 2 days ago.. that represents about a month's worth of income from various sources in game.

Im always kind of paranoid about posting personal dealings concerning money in this game. But whatever. I make about $1.5K USD a month in second life (But that varies, give or take). Thats why I take this "game" pretty seriously. When I first started I was averaging $30 USD a day, i now average $70 USD a day.

So yes, its possible to make good earnings, if you`re good at what you do.


Im sure there are others, like skin designers, sex toys people, who make waay more than that.

My businesses generate enough income to cover tier for the property they sit on, plus property I'm using for a club, plus my annual membership. Since I continually reinvest in land, I haven't made a withdrawal from SL for over 2 years. So, at present, I'm not turning an RL profit, but expanding my SL holdings so that at some point in the future I will be able to (probably just in time to retire. LOL)

Kam

Caledon's full with a waiting list for most of the time since last February, I'll have 13 sims by Jan 2007 and my rates are listed in-world.

I use less than 10% of land for infrastructure - so there's your 'resident answer' with regard to 'proof'. No way to 'prove' anything about my West Trade Imports, but I can assure you that it's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

I've never cashed any RL USD out, but probably will in Jan or Feb.


I expect land prices will go screaming upward, what with the private island sim price hikes. Caledon's got more than enough reputation to sell at higher rates, but I'm not too keen on having to do so. I guess we'll all see.

I do scripting in SL for Real World businesses. I get payed in US$. If work were a bit less spotty (such is consulting), it wouldn't be a bad job to do exclusively.

SL is an interesting place, there is the potential for people to be hired from places where the cost of living is cheap. So consider that 10,000L$ may not be a hug amount in the US but in other places it may be a considerable chunk of income.

Rather than take money out, I bank it to cover cover future tier payments .

That way, if I need to take a month off from SL, I don't feel like I'm paying for something I'm not using.

If I bank up more than a year of tier in advance, I may just tier up for more land instead of withdrawing it.

I usually make enough to cover tier + a cheap hooker.

*claps*

You got any general tips for n00bs Jesse? (excluding the obvious descriptions LL already put up)

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You can turn land over (Land Baron) but to really make it pay you need to do it by the Sim and pay creation price in real US dollars to Linden Labs. Profit margins vary but it can be worthwhile. Business advantages are perhaps a reasonable profit from a trade and no longer-term commitments

Renting Island land may also pay, I agree with Desmond Chang the renewal income builds up but I would also say Caledon is the exception rather than the rule and that is all due credit to Desmond. Composite examples are perhaps Anshe Chung's Dreamland Sims, Otherworlds, or Azure Islands. That NEEDS longer term commitment and entering it as a hobby rather than a semi full time business risks failure. On the other hand success can mean real life becomes a hobby and Second Life becomes your main existence

Some of the Casino operators make money but unlike the first two options above where you can build up from an initial investment of a couple of thousand dollars, Casino games need to be reasonably high stakes to attract real money interest profit, and thus need to be well capitalised.

The sex Industry’s profitable but for personal reasons I do not get involved in that, but mean no personal disrespect to those who do providing it does not involve activity that is unacceptable in broad American/European real life

There is a lot of competition in the fashion industry but some designers have acquired a reputation and make money

If you script or are a graphic designer you can make a wage

Finally some other types of first life business can port quite well across into Second Life. For example I am such a person although I do not promote my business on BBs. See me at Caledon Cay if you are interested. Another example of a first life business that fits very well with Second Life is Dell Island where you can buy their real life computers AND perhaps debate merits/demerits and performance of computers with other people

Just my own thoughts, I am sure there are many other ways of making a few shekels

Regards

John

Wow. Thanks John, very informative. Never even heard of Dell Island until now.

"Who earns good money in SL, I'd like to copy a business idea" ?

Ishtara- haha!

Xio- Im not good at answering that type of question. If I had to say anything it would be to really try not to put any RL money into the game. Only use what you make inworld. I guess depending on what you want to do you may have to invest at first.....

What I did was refer 2 people into the game, and got 2K. I used that for my uploads and to rent small shop space, I paid for the shop space with the sales I was making...and went from there.

Til this day i never put RL money into the game, I use what I make inworld, if youre not making anything then work harder or get better at what you`re trying to do

But like i said, im sure there are other times when you probably would need to invest, but I guess its like a gamble.

That's a bit harder to do now - you don't get referral bonuses any more. By all means try to be self-sufficient but it never hurts to get yourself a little to start with. And "getting better" isn't just as simple as that

Besides, if you have an RL job, you need to bear in mind that many of the most successful businesses are run by people who are students or stay-at-home partners and have much more time than you. Having an RL job your balancing advantage is that you have more money available, but if you don't ever buy L$, you're giving up that advantage.

By and large I agree with that. In short if you intend to run a business generating sufficient real life profit to make your time worthwhile you have to invest to accumulate. I know that may not have been the case a couple of years ago but since the ending of dwell and other bonus schemes, it is very hard without some capital to obtain a worthwhile start, unless of course you are prepared to endure years of work for what amounts to real life pennies or dimes to build up a stake.

Its like the stock market in real life, even if you want to take a gamble on a penny share you STILL have to buy some to participate, even if you just play with options or contracts for difference

I think the only exceptions to this are good scripters or graphic artists.

Also I think some Second Life business ventures fail to plan ahead, this includes cash flow, capital input, and the targeting of a stop loss point.

What I would say though is that if you just want to use the Second Life platform as a hobby rather than a profitable business, determine an amount of money you are prepared to spend each month and stick to it. On that point premium membership is still a worthwhile option even if you do not really want to get into the land business, the reasons why is the almost free ownership of 512 square meters via first land and a Linden Dollar stipend that is fairly close to the real life cost of $22.50 per quarter or $72 per annum.

Again just my own thoughts

Regards

John

Is this true? I just recieved a referral bonus today.... has this changed in the last month?

Although I don't make any real profit from it, I've found I'm doing quite well with apartments. ie building a nice, friendly apartments complex which offers people things they want, we're almost always full and making enough money to cover the chunk of land they take up. I may raise prices soon (they're almost double what they were to start with as it is!) because demand is high and we need the money.

I haven't invested any real-life money either except to go premium and to get the land on which I originally bought my store, it's turning a modest income of mb L$1000 a week, nothing phenomenal, but then it still doesn't have a huge amount on sale yet.

I would like to work up to a simulator and build apartments on that though, with some of the newer scripting features it could be cool and profitable. I was originally going to go straight for a fun sim with some business stuff, but that's not going to happen now with the price-hike. Guess I'll have to start with some mainland holdings somewhere nice and work up to it in steps instead.

So I guess my advice is start small, concentrate on that small start, focus on it and make it as good as you can; e.g an apartments business make it fun, make it friendly, or a shop; make the products as robust and useful as possible. Then from a small start you can identify what you need to do to make it work for you, and from there expand. Starting small entails little risk which is the important part here.

To make a long story short, if you are willing to invest the time, such a plan will work very well, but with a few notable issues.

Once you get fairly well known to your customers, it won't take much to say: hey, I'm getting a sim! They will likely be *very* supportive.

Relatively small parcels of land (and apartments?) are in very high demand, and the more people per sim you have, the more likely you'll have a community form. Which is great for stable business.

Only big trouble with small lots / lots of avatars in a sim: your customer service will skyrocket.

Most people with small lots either 'move up' to larger parcels or 'downgrade' - leaving second life. So the smaller the lot, the more resident turnover, which means more customer service to replace/educate new folk. It will keep you hopping!

I'd say: if you pull off a sim, make it known there will be a second one with larger lots for the more established people if they are interested. People get frustrated with me because I don't open new sims fast enough! Sounds like you are on your way to a great business.