Make Money Playing Second Life Online

Introduction To Second Life

Second Life is an immensely popular internet based virtual-world, which was launched in 2003 by Linden Research, and which currently has around 20 million users all over the world. The game provides a virtual world for all of its users (who are known as residents), and pretty much anything is possible in the game. Second Life is a very social-oriented community site, where many people meet and communicate with each other in the game.

Second Life is completely free to join and use, you simply need to visit the website and create your own account. You can create and customize your own character so that it simulates your own appearance, or you can just create any random character. This will be the 1 character that you will be able to control throughout the Second Life world.

In Second life there is unlimited possibilities as to what you can do. It is a little bit like the virtual computer game The Sims, yet there are no restrictions. You can go out and get a virtual job, you can purchase land and build a property, you can communicate with other characters, you can buy clothing, you can set up your own shop, you can go to music concerts, etc. There is pretty much an endless amount of tasks to be doing in Second Life. This is because the game is created using open source software, and this enables people to make changes and upload their own creations into the game. This has also made some software programmers a lot of money, as Second Life allows its users to gain copyright for any of their own virtual creations.

Making Money Playing Second Life

In Second Life there is a virtual currency, named Linden Dollars. Linden Dollars can be received in the game for performing certain tasks or jobs, or they can also be purchased using real money. 1 Linden Dollar is about equal to half a cent in real money.

To make real money from playing Second Life you will have to try and gain a lot of virtual money, or Linden Dollars, in the game. Earning money from Second Life can be done by doing various different tasks. For example, you could find someone looking to hire someone to help with some simple in-game work - such as dancing in a club. To do this you simply have to press a few buttons on your mouse and keyboard, and you will be earning virtual money. Or you could get a job cleaning up someone�s work or property, simply pushing a broom around. There are people willing to pay you to do this work because they want to make their location seem popular. Second Life is based around people chatting to each other on the virtual world, so if there is some people in one location then there are sure to be other people who will come to chat to those people. Second Life has a radar which shows wherever the people of Second Life are located. If there are lots of people in one place, it is likely that more people will go to that place in the hope of being able to talk and have fun communicating with other people. This is why virtual business and property owners are willing to pay people a few Linden Dollars just to hang around their area, performing simple jobs. The minimum wage in Second Life is around 2 or 3 Linden Dollars per 10 minutes of work, and this is the kind of money you would probably get by doing some of the simple jobs as mentioned briefly above.

Another typical type of job is a club worker, or club manager. If you are a very chatty person and have an outgoing nature, you would probably be able to earn more money by working at a club. If you have a good looking character then you might even get the chance to work as an exotic dancer in the club too!

An exciting and highly profitable job in Second Life is that of a real estate manager. In the game you can purchase land and build property, just as you could do in real life. As you can expect, you can also rent out property and sell it on as well. You can make a lot of virtual money in Second Life by managing property, and if you can make a lot of virtual money then you will also be able to make a lot of real money when it comes to transferring your Linden Dollars into real money. A few years ago a Second Life property developer named Anshe Chung became the games very first real-life millionaire with income earned completely from virtual profits. She had built up property and holdings woth over $250 million Linden Dollars, which translates into $1 million real dollars. The secret to succeeding with property in Second Life is very similar to that of the real life property world. You need to buy land and subdivide it into plots, developing these plots with a good mix of residential and commercial property. Renting these plots out will gain the most lucrative and ongoing income, and also selling the developments would gain a large amount of funds too.

Another highly lucrative way of making money from Second Life is by cashing in on your 3D modelling, photoshop or computer programming skills. As mentioned earlier in this article, Second Life is an open source project and anyone can contribute with their own programs. We also mentioned that in Second Life you will own copyright for any virtual items, so if you code and create something popular you will easily be able to cash in on its success.
3D modelling is a highly regarded skill because you can bring it to the virtual world of Second Life and create pretty much anything you like; vehicles, buildings, character bodies, etc, and then can sell these items on in Second life.
Photoshop is another important skill to have because Second Life is made up of various different textures. You can create textures such as clothing, flooring for properties, etc, and again you can then sell these items on in Second Life.
Computer programming skills are another very important and highly regarded skill to have. Second Life has its own script that enables much of a functionality of the game, from moving around to running small, in game devices and machinery. If you can program a script which will bring animation or functionality to Second Life in some way or another, you will be able to cash in on this skill and sell your services to other people.

How Much Money Can I Make Playing Second Life?

The amount of money that you can expect to earn from playing Second Life will ultimately depend on the skills that you have at your disposal. The most lucrative virtual jobs will probably involve the use of good real-life skills, such as computer programming or 3D modelling. So if you are good at programming or can use Photoshop to a good standard then you should be able to make good money playing Second Life, as many people will require you to help them out creating certain things.
However there is also the opportunity to earn money for other unskilled people too, as long as you are intelligent and business minded. Second Life brings endless opportunities to budding entrepreneurs, even if you join the game and have a go at building up a property portfolio you will probably come close to making a lot of money from the game. All it takes is to visit the site, install the free game and then to spend some of your time living in the virtual world. There are so many opportunities to profit in the virtual world of Second Life, and if you manage to create some kind of in-game success, you are sure to be able to cash in on this success, and trade your virtual Linden Dollars for real life, American Dollars.