6 ways to make a living in Second Life

There are between 500 and and 800 people making over $1000 a month in Second Life. However, this post is not the holy grail to become number 801. I will show the 6 most common, and best practised ways people in Second Life are making a living for their time spend online. This means your income will be near or over your expenses. The list is ordered by popularity.

1. Create stuff - The obvious. If you enjoy building, start doing it. It is really simple and one of the best parts of SL. The interface is easy to understand and once you get trough the build tutorials at the Ivory Tower you can pick up some big free texture packs and just start making shoes, houses, hatchets or UFOs. Once you have your first 4 products, rent a mall spot at 150L$ somewhere and advertise a little amongst friends. Word to mouth is everything in Second life, so tell people about what you make.


2. Rent stuff out - The calculations for making a rent service are easy. You pay X to get started, and want to get Y money back over a period of time. So if you have a 6000 sqm. land, paying roughly 12.000L$ a month on tier, you want 12.000L$ + profit back a month. There are several ways to get your money trough renting. Malls, commercial and residential area's, pay per hour for 'love nests' or advertising space are all common practise.


3. Provide a business service - I think this is the most promising of all three. Scripters and animators find relatively easy work if they want to, but copywriters, marketers and managers can add a lot of value to SL as well. Most SL businesses are just 1 person doing what they like best. As all these little businesses are usually pretty easy to approach, think of what you can do for them, consider what that might be worth and offer your service.


4. Sell your body - Any article about making money in SL without mentioning hookers and escorts is not really in touch with whats going on in Second Life at the moment. They are everywhere. Advertising in a large percentage of clubs, malls, or just harassing people with their notecards. The 'work' is usually 'easy' if not enjoyable to some, and the pay is good, I was amazed when i heard what people are willing to pay for 30 minutes of cybering.


5. Hosting at clubs - I think this is one of the more common and most accessible jobs in SL, that's why i mention it separately. There are so many clubs looking for hostesses, dancers, managers, and if you are a fun and outgoing person, why not get payed for what you would be doing anyhow. Good hostesses and dancers can make up to 7000L$ a night at the 'hot spots', smaller clubs it varies between 500L$ and 1000L$.


6. Being the 'middle man' - This is another widely used method to make some cash, and includes the most successful category of 6 months ago, the landlords. The simple principle of buying low, selling high applies in SL as well. If you know where to look for good stuff, that could be worth money to other people.

But whatever you do, I really hope you are not in Second Life because of that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, because the chances are you will never reach it. To get started in ANY business i think you have to 'work' twice as hard for every $ online as you would have in real life, and its the long tail of a successful business that brings in the money. Don't forget SL is still mainly entertainment, for most anyhow.