Second Life is a 3-D virtual world created by its Residents. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by millions of Residents from around the globe.
At the end of March 2008, approximately 13 million accounts were registered. In January 2008, residents spent 28,274,505 hours there, so on average about 38,000 residents were logged on at any particular moment.
Second Life has its own economy and a currency referred to as Linden Dollars (L$). Residents regularly create new products and services which they can then buy and sell in the Second Life virtual world. There are also currency exchanges where Residents can exchange real world currencies for L$. Though the exchange rate fluctuates, as of February 2007 it is reasonably stable at around L$ 266 to one US dollar. These exchanges are open markets, except that Linden Lab sometimes changes in world Linden Dollar “sinks” or sells Linden dollars to attempt to keep the exchange rate relatively stable.
A small percentage of Residents derive net incomes from this economy, ranging from a few hundred to several thousand US$ per month, while a larger percentage derive a gross income large enough to offset most of their expenditures in L$. The currency has become the subject of concern in economic circles in regard to possible taxation.
To see how the L$ compares to the US dollar on average you can visit the LindeX Market Data.
How do you make money with SecondLife? Kabalyero recently put together a list of easy ways to ear L$. On the list included:
Get a Job
One of the best way to earn L$ is by getting a job. There are thousands of businesses in Second Life. Examples are banks, clubs, whore houses, stock exchanges, malls, and shops but these are just some of it. These businesses needs manpower to function and business owners are always looking to hire people with the necessary skills to fill up various positions like dancers, greeters, promoters, managers, security guards, escorts, writers, graphic artists, programmers, builders, scripters, texturers and many, many more. If you’ve the skills then find the matching job and apply for it. Remember, not all jobs pay with tips. There are many jobs that pays from 500L$ to 10,000L$ per hour but you have to find them and to help you find these jobs visit Second Life Jobs.
Camp
There are many residents in Second Life who doesn’t want to get a job because of various reasons. Maybe they don’t like working for someone, maybe they don’t have the time for it or maybe they are just plain lazy but whatever their reasons may be they still can earn L$ and that is by camping.
Join Research Panels or Groups
Research Panels or Groups conducts research studies through surveys and the results of these studies are used by businesses both in Second Life and in Real Life. Earning potential from these groups ranges from 250L$ to 10,000L$ per completed survey and sometimes bonuses are awarded depending on the survey.
Do you play SecondLife? Have you managed to make money from it?
You can also sell products. I heard that a person sold virtual roller skates for $0.05 USD and made over $2,000.
I’m still a little sketchy on the details but this definitely looks like something worth checking out. Even if for nothing more than education purposes. It’s good to keep up with all they ways people are making money. I becomes more apparent everyday that the possibilities for making money are endless.
Hi,
this article is s interesting. I play 3-D games, I like it very much, but they never give me any favor actually (except the joy when playing). Is Second Life played like any other 3-D games (such like The Sims, Simcity, Singles, and so forth)?
How to play? How the money grows? Do we do some kind of work (like banking, designing graphics, etc) just like we do in real life? How we turn the L$ into real money?
“Selling Products” definately needs to be part of this article or another article by itselt. I recently watched an interview with people who make really good money by selling something(apparel for avatars, furniture, etc) on SecondLife
In World of Warcraft you can also sell the games currency (gold) for actual USD. And there are people who make a living farming it.
Just to clarify for a couple of confused people, unlike world of warcraft, and some mmorpg’s where ingame currency’s are sold, the comapny who run second life, will actually transfer your ingame money (linden dollars i think) to real dollars. Whereas the other mmorpg’s terms and conditions forbid it.
Forget the Money tree surveys. Page after page and then a ‘free’ offer that costs money, ripoff, forget it.
Thanks for the reference to my blog post. I post easy ways to earn linden dollars in Second Life when I find them. Right now, I’m earning some linden dollars from fishing. Yes, from fishing in Second Life.
How do I get the money from second life transferred to US$ cash? That’s the part I haven’t figured out… How do I get the money OUT of the game and into my hand?
I am so lost. My second day of playing the game. All I know is how to fly and teleport. L$0.00 money and nothing to sell. How do I look for a job, were do I go for camping,and were do I find clear instructions for this game.
all I have to say is zyngo . I made 400 dollars today in zyngo alone . camp somewhere for some lindens buy some lindens or work for them and try zyngo halls . Also yes you can make items to sell , skins hair houses anything .
you have to have a good looking avatar to get a job dancing ,
you can dj if you have the know how .
check all the freebie blogs on google for places to get great free things to look good .
Hope you have had better luck in the 5 months since you started. Jobs are hard to come by, especially if you are using the base avatar skins. Try looking around the many malls in Second Life for freebie hair, skins, clothes, etc. That will help improve your job chances.
For quick lindens, try looking at Kabalyero’s blog. I think there is a link on this page. Chinoyray (http://www.chinoyray.com) also runs a pretty good SL blog, There’s also a Second Life Camping List at (http://sites.google.com/site/SLfreelindens) although I don’t know how long that will last. Good luck!
Been playing for 1 day. I gave in and paid about $14 USD for a little over $2,500 L. Spent most of it making myself look good buying skin, hair, clothes and even some interesting body parts, lol. I maybe know about 2% of what this game has to it and it is overwhelming. I met a SL stripper who “does alright for herself” according to her. At the time she had around $19,000L in her tip jar which last time I looked was around $75 USD. I can see someone being ok with letting their digital avatar dance on a pole a few hours for $75.
If you can make things like clothes, or hair. I paid $199L for some hair and in a matter of 5min 2 other people bought the hair too. They put a lot of limits on your money trading until you have been a member over certain amount of time to keep fruad down. Just go to the main second life website and click the “Buy/Sell” picture and you will see a menu on the left. The best way to learn is play around.
Hint: After I spent all that $ I found out there’s a lot of free malls on SL.
I have been a resident of Second Life since October of 2006. When I started Second Life I spent 20.00 USD to buy 5000 linden dollars. After being in Second Life for a month I opened a strip club. I went on to sell this club two times. The first time was for $1500.00 USD. The second time was for $1000.00 USD.
I am the current owner of another bigger club. When my dancers are tipped i get 30 percent of all tips. This money than is converted to real money. After paying bills I owe in Second Life and cash out my money each month, I yield about 600.00 USD. When this club is successful and it will be, I than will sell this club as I did the other. Than I will open another, get it running profitable and sell it too.
Stashman, how do i find out when your club is up for sale? i am new to SL. is there a classified area to buy clubs, etc….
thanks