Earn2Life: Make Free, Easy Lindens Completing Offers, Surveys and Visiting in-world locations

In this post we are going to be focusing on a free and easy lindens program called Earn2Life. Earn2Life offers you a number of different ways to make free and easy lindens in second life. You can make easy lindens from completing surveys or even just visiting an area. This is a great way of making easy lindens whilst exploring the wonderful virtual world of second life.

Here's what Earn2Life say about themselves...

ABOUT EARN2LIFE.COM
Your timing couldn’t be better! By joining Earn2Life now, you will be one of the first to receive the unique chance of getting into brand new, interesting and really hot programs

LINDEN-MAKING PROGRAMS
Earn2Life.com offers several ways to make money in Second Life, starting from simple offers up to a real in-world job.

LINDEN-MAKING OFFERS

• Web Offers - earn lindens by completing online surveys!
• Pay4Visit Offers - earn lindens by visiting places in Second Life
• Pay4Picks Offers - earn lindens by adding picks to your profile

IN-WORLD ACTIVITY
E2L Support Chairs - sit on the chair, help people, earn easy lindens!

OPEN JOBS IN SECOND LIFE
Job: Support Manager - We are looking for support managers for our projects. See details inside.
Job: Wiki Editor - Earn2Life.com need editors and translators to create and update E2L wiki content! (also see the Article Requests)

EARNING POTENTIAL
We have hundreds of offers available and you will be able to complete as many offers per day as you wish. There are no limits!

Additionally, you can earn more money by referring other people to E2L. This is described in greater detail in the Apprentice Commission section.

STILL HAVE ANY QUESTIONS?
Read the FAQ Section if you still have a question. Browse Earn2Life.com support forum if you would like to ask questions to other members.

Last, but not at least: feel free to contact us!

JOIN EARN2LIFE.COM NOW!
Sign up now - click here!
Join us now to become a part of our growing company!
Earn L$1,000 and more every day!

Good luck on your path to making free and easy Second Life Lindens! Here's a quick video so you can preview it in action...

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Winning Easy, Free Lindens in Second Life Contests..

In Second Life some of the most frequented places are clubs. Clubs are very sociable places where people usually come to hang out, chat and listen to music. They can be a great place to network and build your contact list, which is important if you are e.g. running an events business, or marketing a product. Clubs are a good source of income for a lot of Second Life residents, there are various roles within a club from owner to host, DJ to dancer.

But, you don't have to be employed at a club to make easy lindens from them. You can potential make easy lindens whilst building your contact list and chilling out.

What I'm talking about is Contests Boards. You have probably seen or even used them on your travels in Second Life. Usually a competition will be a 'best in...' event e.g. Best in Steam Punk, where residents will come dressed in steam punk. They would then join the contest board and once voting is open people will vote for their favourite. Prize money varies from club to club, competition to competition but you can make easy lindens by just hanging out. I've seen prize money ranging from 200 lindens all the way up to 3000 Lindens.

You can easily find attachments and costumes for events and competitions for free on  the Second Life Marketplace or even in world at one of the many Freebies Islands.

A little tip to help you on your way...
When you have joined a competition and your up on the contest board teleport your friends in to vote  for you once voting is open. The more friends you have online that can teleport for just 30 secs, the more chance you will have of winning
; )

Good Luck to everyone

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Easy Lindens: Getting A Second Life Job Using Work Experience

As you probably already know, there are various ways of making free and easy lindens in Second Life. Some who are skilled at scripting or using Photoshop will go onto selling there own products/creations, but for the majority of residents in Second Life that is not a option as they don't possess the skills. That's why most average residents will seek a job or some kind of employment.

This post was originally going to be about finding a job in Second Life, but as I sat thinking I remembered how much like real life Second Life is and how most things that apply in the real world should still apply online. I then remembered back to when I first started, and remembered my friend going into a club and asking for 1 days experience as a dancer and if they could train her. They were more than happy to help her out and took her under their wing. After 3 days she was still there with them learning the ropes, doing 2hrs a night for free. She was enjoying herself so it was easy for her to hang out and learn for free. The next evening she logged on and instantly received an IM, it was from the club owner. One of his usual dancers couldn't make it to work that evening so he asked her if she could stand in for them. Of course she said yes, and happily went to work as a dancer at the club. She continued to dance at the club and was receiving regular pay. After a while they promoted her to hostess.

This is an example of how you could gain a regular Second Life job and a decent Linden income through work experience.

Have a go, see if this can work for you. What have you got to lose?Here are some of the most common jobs available on Second Life

Clubs/Events:
Dancer
Host/Hostess
Manager
DJ

Stores:
Assistant
Model
Manager

Adult:
Esscort/Cyber Hoe
Stripper
Sex Chat/Cam (I dont advise this, unless you already do that kind of stuff and your age verified)

Wages vary from job to job, place to place and a lot of jobs are commission based. Wages are paid out as percentages of Linden takings eg. a dancer could expect to work on commission and be paid 70-90% of Tips taken. A DJ could earn 100% tips or easily up to 1000 Lindens per event (if your good), events usually last around 2hrs.

Here's a tip: If you want to be successful in the entertainment scene you need to network and build up a good contact list. Even start your own personal group. The more people you can get to your events, the more Linden Dollars you will make ; )

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How to sell items in the Second Life Marketplace

Well, there is a lot of info to cover so instead of writing it all here im posting a link directly to the Second Life knowledge base. They will be able to explain the process to you much quicker and in more depth.

Heres a quick run down of what they will cover...

    Products and pricing

• What to sell
• Pricing your item

    Getting started

    Creating a store

• Preparing to create your store
• Creating your store

    Listing items for sale

• Setting up your item permissions
• Packaging your items in a box
• Adding a new item to your Marketplace listings
• Setting up your Magic Box inworld
• Adding the item on the Marketplace website

    Previewing your store

    Delivering items to the buyer

Selling items on secondlife is one of the easiest ways to make linden $ and real $.

Knowledge Base

Heres a lil tip...
Research the marketplace a little bit and find what sells. Create or 'aquire' around 100 products to sell. Rent a low rent shop for around  100l$, you need a place to put your Magic Box. The Magic box will deliver your market orders to your inworld customers so needs to be inworld at all times to allow delivery. List your items in the Second Life Marketplace and set up you  Marketplace Shop. Once done, you will have to wait a while for orders to start coming in. For better chances, make sure your titles are keyword rich, not to long, and descriptive, that your advert is indepth and precise, and that your ad image and logo are as good quality as possible.

In the waiting time you can decorate your shop.
Remember, you will need about 1000L$ to start off, to cover cost of rent and upload textures till you start making income. The lower the rent the better, you only need 1 prim for your Magic Box.
Once everything is set up, and you start getting orders, thats it. All you have to do is pay rent to keep your box inworld. Automated SL income. You could always add more stuff to make more money.

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Why is Second Life Real Estate such a Tough Business?

Second Life real estate was once prime earning potential. Everyone wanted land and relatively few people were supplying it outside of the Second Life mainland. Once the myth that you could only own land if you had a premium account was busted, residents were clamouring for private estate. Anshe Chung capitalised and hit real life headlines after declaring herself the first person to become a real life millionaire based on her Second Life assets and income.

Her success prompted others to try it for themselves. But with a price tag of $ 1675 USD up front and an additional $ 295 USD each month, a sim was not cheap. This meant that to some extent, becoming a land baron was reserved for the wealthy or the hardcore SL-ers prepared to make an investment. As of September 2007, you could expect to pay around L$17000 for a 2048sqm parcel in the form of an upfront fee! And then you'd have tier on top of that in the region of L$1200/week. For a 4096sqm parcel, an upfront fee of anything from L$ 20000 upwards and around L$ 2500/week. When you consider that these upfront fees would be paid every single time someone new bought a parcel, given the turnover rates of residents on private estate, the estate owners were laughing all the way to the bank.

In March 2008 the Lindens dropped a bombshell. Sims were dropping to $1000 USD. They had effectively just devalued estate owner's holdings by around 40% in the click of a finger. Of course, this did not go down too well with existing estate owners, though went down rather well with those who had always thought about the possibility of trying estate ownership for themselves and never gotten around to it. This led to immense market saturation in a very short period of time. At the same time, Linden Labs also announced that the openspace sim (as it was known at the time) was to improve. Once upon a time you would have had to buy at a time and would have gotten very few prims on it. Linden Lab announced that the prims were rising to 3750 and sims could be bought individually by those who already owned at least one full prim sim. This led to thousands of openspace sims being used as homes and businesses, massively denting the demand for parcels on full prim sims. Of course, this was shortly followed by an announcement that, because people were using the homestead sims as homes and businesses when they were intended as light use, the prices were rising to $125 with no grandfathered tier options for those who had held the sims for a certain length of time. The Lindens soon realised the idiocy of this decision following resident outcry and settled instead for Grandfathering certain 'homesteads' as they became known, at $95/month. The 'openspace' became an entirely different type of sim with just 750 prims, primarily used for sailing.

So the situation as it is today is a saturated market with more demand for homestead sims and proportionally fewer full prim parcels selling than two years back. Homestead offer fewer prims per parcel, but more space and 'privacy'. So consumers must weight up prims versus privacy in deciding where to buy and what type of land to buy.

But the bulk of the Second Life private estate companies now take no up front fee for land. This means that where it was once possible to make an initial investment of $1675 and recoup that very quickly at the same time as being able to expand rapidly, this is no longer possible. Therefore, anyone starting out with just one sim had an incredibly hard time even getting going. The yellow patches of "land for sale" on the private estate maps are excessive. It's a buyer's market. Older companies are selling up their sims and moving on and the newer ones are struggling to even make a mark on the world of virtual real estate. Disillusioned estate owners are trying their luck on alternative platforms like Openlife.

I managed a real estate company in Second Life from September 2007 to June 2009. I saw the major changes and the difficult transitions faced by estate owners and it saddens me to see the state of private estate in world today. The reality is that to start out in real estate in Second Life now, you face bleak prospects. You can either put in the $1000 and struggle to break even for months, while waiting months again to be able to afford a second sim from the income of the first or you need to put in $10000 plus. Either of those options still leaves you with the monumental task of filling your sims up.

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A story of Personal Life vs Business Life in Second Life

As funny as my title sounds, "Personal Life vs. Business Life in Second Life," it is a very accurate description of how distinct my Second Life experience has become.

When I began tripping around the virtual world of Second Life, it was my intention to be a business owner, however, I was unprepared for the social aspect of Second Life and the social activities that you can participate in and I became distracted from my business goals that I came into Second Life with and developed a wonderful personal life and then I was inspired to build a museum after realizing that everything in Second Life was art I had this yen to share it with others.

Then my personal life became very frenetic with activity of business and the business of building. Those in my personal life in the early days very happily and generously supported my endeavors and pulled me away from the stress of building when I needed a break.

Then the opening of the Museum happened and my personal life become non-existent as my personal involvements with my Second Life family ended due to many different reasons. I buried myself in my Museum and kept in touch with two or three of my friends from my previous life, and then I discovered a wonderful night club called Lady Killerz.

Lady Killerz is a lady's only club where male strippers entertain the guests, the VIPs in turn dance, flirt, and had a fabulous time with the staff. I then began setting about with making new friends from the club and meeting new people, and enjoying single life in Second Life and redefining who Atlantis Jewell really was during the months of September and October, they were lonely months, but busy ones however the loneliness was about to end for it was destiny that I was to meet a very compelling figure at Lady Killerz.

It was a Sunday afternoon in Real Life, just before Halloween and I was busy working as usual in my Museum and I get a group IM from Lady Killerz and a couple of the guys were on the conference inviting the beautiful ladies who were VIPs to come on down for an afternoon of fun and entertainment. I had a particularly stressful day trying to set up artwork at the Museum and getting an IM from someone who made a teleporter that I bought, that never worked, and refusing to fix or replace it and additionally, this was the second day in a row that I was too busy working to go down right away to the Club. Now on Saturday, the day before, I was working and when I got done with work I went to the Club after reading all the bantering fun on the group conference and no one was there so today I was jonesing to get to the Club.

I teleported into the Club and again no one was there! I decided that after two days in a row of reading the steamy conference IMs that not having anyone there after all that bragging I wrote some of my own IMs demanding to know where everyone one was...they all left again! I informed the two guys who had been talking it up in IMs that I wanted one or the other to show up and both would be better!!

In strolls a long, haired tanned, tattooed guy who would eventually rock my Second Life, Papo Lungu. We scrapped a bit before he decided to get to the business of dancing and entertainment! Real Life called me shortly thereafter and I logged.

As a Rule in Second Life, I try to be a more generous and much more understanding, and polite then I am in First Life, and I was mortified that I had been so rude and demanding to the new guy from Killerz. The month of November was a month of decisions and change in my personal life as well as acquiring property in Second Life, I was hiring Mr. Lungu as a companion to accompany me to different events that I needed to attend and attending with someone at my side was much more fun.

The very first thing that I discovered about him that he was taken in Second Life, which left me and sixes and sevens as I had never hired anyone to accompany me anywhere, I got over it. Then I learned he was a BDSM Master and I spent several weeks contemplating whether or not to take a chance and ask him to accept me as his sub. I asked and He said yes.

Slowly, I fell behind in my work at the Museum scrambling at the last minute so I would not let anyone down, I barely made some deadlines; it was then that I realized that my business life was being sandwiched between my personal life and I had to discipline myself get the work done and my Second Life became as much of a juggle as my First Life so that my personal life and my business life would mesh and did not clash; the struggle to juggle is real, but the effort worth it.

Recently, I have learned that lots of business people in Second Life have something called an Alternate or Alt. This is an Alternate Avatar that they use to create, so they will not get interrupted from the well-meaning people on their friends list.

Do I have an Alt? Yes, however, she was developed so that I could have a second group member for Elven Enchantment Property Group so that I hold exclusively my property in Second Life. I created her in November and left her on Basic Island, (which has improved and changed so much since I was born!) In December 07 I then needed an extra woman for a photo shoot I was working on and so I brought her to the mainland and took the photo shoot and left her in the caverns of Bliss.

I have chosen not to use my Alt as a workhorse, because she's a grouch, dislikes Humans, and prefers to be underground where She rules supreme! If you have not guessed it, yes, She is an Elf, but a Dark Elf, also known as a Drow.

So how does one balance a personal life and a professional life in Second Life? Work hard at it, compromise, and enjoy each moment to the fullest no matter which moment that is and Seize Second Life and make it yours!

Atlantis Jewell

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Fashion Design tips for Second Life - Where To Get Started

Designing fashion for Second Life can be a daunting prospects. Lots of residents spend lots of lindens on Second Life clothes, and a sure way to make money is to do the same. The great thing about designing SL fashion is that you can sell the same item multiple times. In fact, you can sell it as many times as you want.

The only tough part is getting started. If you are not a programmer, designer or familiar with photo-editing, you aren't going to feel comfortable, and you won't know where to get started. But don't worry, we've come up with three easy steps you can take to start you on your way to becoming a true fashionista.

STEP 1: MASTER THE IN-GAME FASHION DESIGNER: The first step in becoming a fashion designer in SL is to get used to the in-game fashion designer. Open the appearance tool (either through the top-menu or by right-clicking on your avatar) and you can edit a multitude of different factors of your avatar's appearance. To change clothing, or design new ones, you'll need to get familiar with the texture and color menu's. Once you get comfortable with the in-game designer, you can move on to the next step.

STEP 2: GET PHOTO-EDITING: To move past the simple designs you can make through the appearance editor, you'll need to get some photo-editing software. Though many of these programs can run $300 or more, we've found an alternative that is just as good. If you want to start designing fashion seriously, you'll need The GIMP. (http://www.gimp.org/). This freeware is just as good as the commercial software out there, and there is a very active and helpful community of Gimp users that can help you. Download Gimp and learn how to use some of the features. After you do this, you are ready to move on

STEP 3: GET TEMPLATES: To use Gimp (or other photo-editing software) to design clothes for SL, you'll need some templates. A template is simply a 3-D rendering that can be laid over an avatar. With a template, you can design skins, tattoo's and clothes. To start off with, you should download Robin Wood's t-shirt template. (http://www.robinwood.com/Catalog/Technical/SL-Tuts/SLTutSet.html) This will allow you to create your very first template design: a t-shirt. The template itself is very well done, and by using layers and masks, Robin Wood has created one of the best SL Fashion aides around. Use it.

Of course, there is a lot more to fashion design than what we've told you about. (We've created an excellent fashion design guide which you can find on our website. Just click on the link below.) You can spend a lot of time learning how to create fashions, but in the end, what you want is up to you. Designing clothes for SL residents is not difficult, but it does take knowledge and practice. If you can get as far as step three, you will be ahead of 90% of everyone else in the game.

GO FORTH AND CONQUER!

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The Pros and Cons of Age Verification in Second Life

Age verification was introduced to residents of Second Life during 2009 as an optional means of confirming that you are old enough to play Second Life and thus access the adult regions. It remains to this day entirely optional.

The process works by allowing a resident of Second Life to login to their account and enter either their passport number, social security number or other type of identity card number (many European ID cards are now accepted too). This information is sent instantly to a third party that checks that the holder of that particular identity means is above the age of 18. Linden Lab (Second Life's creators and owners) do not keep the number itself on file. What they get is a code that confirms the user is old enough, or confirms that they are not. This was set up to increase security and lower concerns about the amount of data that Linden Lab has on file about any individual. But what are the pros and cons of Second Life age verification?

Well, to start with the positives, this is a means of filtering out, to some extent, the problem of underage users. While a registrant must be 18 years of age or older to use the main Second Life grid, it's common knowledge that people younger than that lie during registration in order to access it. This is also, in part, owing to the fact that the teen grid for 13 - 18 year olds, is somewhat under populated and neglected by Linden Lab to some extent. The main grid therefore holds much more appeal to youngsters seeking to experience the virtual world. With age verification came the introduction of "adult" regions. All adult content was moved into these regions and only age verified accounts (or those with payment info on file stating that they are above 18) were able to access the regions. This, again, goes some way to dealing with the issue. Another major benefit of any form of identity verification in a virtual world like Second Life is in business. There are a huge number of very real financial business transactions taking place on a day to day basis in Second Life. In dealing with someone who has proven an element of their identity, you often feel safer. This can add a level of trust to business in Second Life.

However, there are downsides too. As well as concerns over how the data is held, there are those who worry about underage teenagers stealing identity cards (from family, strangers or friends) in order to use the number and 'verify' their age. But the major downside of age verification is that it remains optional. While this remains optional, there are those who will access the grid under the age of 18 without encountering any challenge to it all. Of course, there are always ways for people to flout the rules, but I firmly believe that Linden Lab should be making it as difficult as possible for people to do this. Compulsory age verification is one such way in which that can be achieved.

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Affiliate Marketing in Second Life's virtual world

A mash-up is taking two different ideas and combining them to create something new.  In doing research there appears to be only a little documented information about affiliate marketing being done on second life.  Second Life is a social media site that provides a nearly three dimensional view of the Internet.

2nd Life was founded in 2003.  It already boasts millions of users.  There is some argument about the number of distinct users that utilize the site because of some people having duplicate Second Life avatars.  2nd Life provides users the ability to move around in a cyber world.  You can interact with other people, own land, buy clothes, buy and rent transportation, and buy entertainment among other things.  The site has its own currency in the form of Linden dollars which recently had a conversion rate of 256 Lindens = 1 US Dollar.

Given the number of users in the 2nd Life site, it didn't long for commercial concerns like car companies, clothing manufacturers, compute companies and others to make their presence known.  Non-Commercial concerns like colleges and Universities are also starting to hold classes in the virtual world.  Given this activity, there appears to be openings for affiliate marketing concerns to make money.

Basically there are two ways that money can be made with affiliate marketing  on Second Life.  One way would be to market materials to educate and advance your customers experience within the world itself.  There are tricks to getting money and spending it in a way such that you can be successful in the world.  Just like World of Warcraft, people like to take shortcuts if possible and will buy the information to help them advance in the game.  Affiliate marketing an eBook would be the most logical route to monetize traffic for 2nd Life.

The other, more interesting way of monetizing the virtual world would be to affiliate market within Second Life itself.  One possibility would be to create a storefront and sell services, products or information.  The large companies I spoke of earlier are currently making their presence known in the virtual world, why can't affiliate marketers also do the same?

The general plan would be the same as done for people doing searches in Google, Yahoo, or MSN.  Affiliates would find people with needs and fulfill those needs.  There would be an issue of adaptability to actually attract the users in the virtual environment.  The difference between the search engines most of us are familiar with and 2nd Life is that in the latter, the users are typically doing more of a random walk around their virtual world.  Those in the affiliate marketing industry would need to figure out the habits and tendencies in the new world.  They would need to figure out which peoples habits led to actual sales as opposed to just looking.  They would need to see if it made more sense to sell the product in the actual Second Life environment using Linden dollars or move the consumer out to the more traditional web interface to get the transaction done with a more normal currency.

For those wanting to attempt to affiliate market to the 2nd Life users, it is highly suggested that a coaching program is used to get the basics of affiliate marketing mastered.  Doing this kind of marketing is difficult enough.  Moving into the virtual world is a great opportunity but probably shouldn't be attempted without having a solid foundation.  Some of the more well known coaching programs can be found easily on google.

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5 Good Reasons why you should Sign Up For Second Life

Whether you're a techie or not, a geek or super cool, whether you're 18 or 68, you should sign up for Second Life. No, I don't work for Linden Lab, but I'm a huge fan of the virtual world and I believe it is hugely underrated.

Here are five reasons why you, (YES, YOU) should sign up.

1. Education, education, education. There are so many educational institutions in Second Life, including Harvard Law School, Washington State University, the Open University to name but a few. Aside from the official institutions, there are countless organisations who offer classes for free in almost anything in Second Life. Where else can you learn a language taught by locals, practiced with native speakers and without even leaving your own home? And yes, it's free too.

2. Creativity. Second Life is a blank canvas. It really is. Yes, there are art galleries for you to upload and display real art in world or to go see the work of others, but the world in itself really is all art too. The content in Second Life is created by the users. Just take a walk around some of the amazing buildings in world to really appreciate what I say about SL being art.

3. Business. Not everyone will make a real life living from Second Life, but some people do. And even if you're not in there to make money, the business concept is the same. Second Life offers an amazing platform for business 'practice.' You can set up a business, run it, market it and so on without risking your house, your child's college fund and your wife's engagement ring!

4. Networking. Second Life, like all social media platforms, has great networking potential. Admittedly, its user base is smaller than that of Facebook. But it continues to grow and you can interact with people in a whole different way. There are even real life recruitment companies hiring staff for real life jobs from within Second Life.

5. Socialising. For single parents, those who cannot get out and about so easily, those on a tight budget, Second Life offers a social life. For people who cannot, for whatever reason, get out and enjoy social time in real life, this offers a really viable alternative. And even for those, like me, who have a perfectly great circle of friends in real life, you will connect with people in world who you'll truly come to consider your close friends.

Second Life is, in my opinion, the best of the virtual worlds out there at the moment. Its economy is unrivalled by any other virtual world and its building and content creation tools far exceed the internal tools of any other platform.

So for fun, business or random creativity, go check it out.

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Second Life Virtual World Tricks and Tips

Second Life is as complex as any Internet phenomenon goes and it's often the case that you feel lost when entering this virtual world, especially if you're new to the whole massively multiplayer idea. In order to help you out a bit, I've decided to make up a set of tips and tricks that will probably make your life easier in Second Life and allow you to achieve your goals faster. Let's get to work!

Your Avatar
Let's face it, in the real world, looks get you a long way and to that there's no denying. Of course, if you're not so good looking, you can make up through dedication, compassion and hard work, but since you CAN choose how you look in your Second Life, why not take advantage of this feat?

Many new players simply rush in and go past the avatar screen quickly as they think that their looks in-world won't really matter. Well, take into account that the ones you'll be playing with are still people, and people react differently to what they see. If your avatar is plain, or simply ugly, I guarantee it will have less success than if you spend some time and tweak your appearance to look at least slightly good looking.

Clothing
You can go around clothing from two points of view: wearing it and selling it. In order to look good in-world, you will have to get a set of clothing that not only fits your avatar, but also your character (and what you do in-game). For example, if you're a real estate owner in Second Life, a suit will be far better fitted than a pair of jeans and some silly t-shirt. If you want to create and sell clothing, take into account that it's the number 1 product sold in game, so there will be stiff competition up ahead.

Interaction
Your interaction with others determines your standing in the world of Second Life. If you go about spamming "ha-ha noobs all of you" then you start a shop, people will remember you and avoid your shop. Make sure you keep a quality social factor constant throughout your Second Life time as it can bring you many benefits, besides winning you friends.

Spotting a Niche
If you want to make some money in Second Life, you will have to either A. find a niche to work on, or B. create a business on an already developed sector. With A, it's easier to start the business and make it work, but it's harder to find the niche and make sure it's worth investing in it. If you go by B, it will be an arduous process to grow your business with all the competition around, but you'll have the knowledge that there's never a lack of need for your items from the other residents.

Simply following these tips and tricks won't automatically bring you success in Second Life, but they are a good way to start your adventure in this virtual world. If you keep close to these rules and give your avatar and your business a bit of hard work, you're bound for success.

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3 Things You Should Know to Make Easy Lindens/Money in Second Life

People make money in Second Life and that's a FACT.

There was recently a Fox News special recently that stated 1.5 MILLION DOLLARS is reportedly spent on Second life EVERY DAY. A lot of people will work and spend money inside Second Life, and a big chunk of that - million and a half dollars.

So I went exploring and found out what people are spending money on in Second Life.

KITTING OUT THEIR AVATAR
The most recurring sales in Second Life are for kitting out a person's avatar. In fact, the first things I ever purchased myself were hair and eyes. This is especially true for people who do not have a premium account.

People are making money in Second Life selling hair, eyes, skins, clothes, shoes and other accessories. Some of these will be big purchase, such as skin for example, but some will be regular smaller purchases such as clothes, shoes and accessories.

GETTING A HOME
After the person has established themselves in Second Life, the next big expenditure will be a home. Unless they started with a premium account, these lucky boys and girls often buy land very quickly. But for the rest of us, it means renting.

Buying or renting a home in Second Life is very high in a lot of people's priority list. These is because of two reasons, one is that we all like somewhere to call home and to land on that's not a public space, and it gives us somewhere to rez and or create our stuff in peace and safety. Sandboxes are all very well, but they are always griefers to spoil the fun. And then there is also the fact that it gives one a space to bring visitors over to and perhaps set up a shop.

This means there is a marker it land sales and rental as well as all house building trades.

LOVE
People are making a Second Life income in the relationship industry. This doesn't just mean sex. couple animations, furniture, wearable animations, dance animations, romantic locations, sex locations and clubs, hug and kiss animations and more!

So if you are after making your first Second Life million or try your hand at a Second Life business, then I suggest you explore the above markets and see which one you enjoy the best. Because, after all, Second Life is somewhere you can have your own dream job. And if you are successful, then you can turn to your boss and say, "here is my notice, I am off to make money playing video games"!

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Second Life, Get Rich Quick Or Disconnect Trying?

Second Life is perhaps the most controversial MMO I think I've ever come across. It's hardly even a game, as there is even less plot in Second Life than that which exists in most online games of the genre. However, Second Life's popularity approaches the absurd, and there is a very good reason: Second Life pays players real cash to exist in the game world.

Okay, so it's not THAT simple, but Second Life is perhaps the only legitimate MMO in which players can profit from playing, without breaking the EULA Terms of Service. Being an avid gamer and a veteran of several MMORPGs myself, this concept of making the game (which is invariably a tremendous time dump) worth my while intrigues me. We all want money to some extent, and the gamers who spend lots of time in virtual worlds are drawn to Second Life's promise of wealth - and the hype can be pretty intense. This article, though dated, is the pinnacle of money frenzy - people have really succeeded in real life by playing a game! How do they do it? Can you do it? Maybe, Maybe not.

Second life's methods of earning are split into three major disciplines. The first, and the easiest and lowest-paid, is that of the part time job. You guessed it - there are wage jobs in Second Life just as there are in the real world, and companies will pay players to act as hosts and hostesses in their virtual environments. Players who get hired will end up entertaining visitors to a company's virtual space, and perhaps doing some human advertising on the part of the employer. The Second Life conversion rate is about 240 Linden Dollars for $1, meaning at the rate of one or two L$ a minute, you'll be getting paid a small amount just to chat. No-one's getting rich this way, but for the social butterflies of the Internet, the appeal is easy to see.

The second, more profitable (and much more difficult method) to earn money in Second Life is by offering goods and services to avatars by means of shops. If you can code a hat, or a chic pair of shoes, then you may just a livelihood in the virtual world. On the surface, this method is very appealing to the skilled computer artists and coders, as they can leverage their unique skills to generate income (by selling bits of cosmetic computer code no less). However, anyone who's ever made a model in Maya or Mudbox will be quick to tell you the process is involved, and any computer programmer that you meet will tell you the job is difficult and filled with pitfalls. Second Life has tools that help facilitate the process of creation, but be prepared to spend long hours creating something that people will wish to spend their hard earned Linden Dollars on.

The third, final, and vastly profitable method of reaping wealth in Second Life is, surprisingly, the real estate business. Buy your own piece of virtual earth, whether it be an island, a block on a street, or some other geographical nugget, and you might just sell it for thousands of real dollars! That is the crux of our Second Life millionaire's business plan: real estate in a virtual world. The practice is far older than online gaming, of course, and there's a science and discipline to it that most gamers don't possess from day one, but with some starting capital (perhaps earned from easier jobs within Second Life) and an eye for future demand, and this is where prospective earners will make their bacon.

I've been tempted to pursue the last method more than once, but a lack of funds to invest has so far prevented me. If any of you aspiring moguls find wealth in Second Life, be sure to tell your success stories here!

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The basics of Second Life's virtual world

Ever since Internet became a widely available tool, people always imagined and used it as a virtual universe for chatting, buying and selling or simply socializing. Whether we like it or not, the Internet has become a secondary, virtual life, for many and on this premise the concept of the metaverse was born. The metaverse is a virtual universe that copies, more or less, the real life Universe and one of the clearest ways to express a metaverse is through what is known today as a MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) game. Some of these MMO's create a fantasy world of their own (take for example World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online or Everquest) whereas some simply offer a real-world alternative universe, as is the case of Second Life, one of the most popular such phenomenons on the Internet.

Second Life - Basic Premises
The Second Life metaverse is based on an Earth-like world, known as the Grid. This grid consists of land masses and "free" areas and the world is divided into 256x256 areas of "grid" called Regions. Each of these regions, powered by their own servers, has its own name and a content rating (either Mature or PG), some being more stable than others. The land masses in Second Life are controlled by Linden Research (called Linden Labs in the "game") and each of the program's users are called Residents.

Residents of Second Life have an avatar that can be of either sex, wear different clothing, or have different physical attributes, simulating the "real life" universe entirely. Residents can communicate in this environment by several means, including local chat, which is further divided into normal chat (which can be "heard" in a 25m area), yelling (heard in a 96m area) and whispering (18m area) but Second Life also offers a form of instant messaging for private conversations, regardless of the chatting residents' position in the Grid.

Residents can also buy, sell and manage property and items in Second Life for a currency called the "Linden Dollars" (or simply L$). There's a virtual exchange rate in this metaverse, that fluctuates slightly, but a stable rate seems to be revolving around the 270 Linden Dollars to one US Dollar ratio. You're probably anticipating what I'm going to say next: you can actually make real life US Dollars, using Second Life Linden Dollars. Either by selling land or items, you can cash in some nice income, given the fact that you put some dedication into your Second Life avatar and you can read the virtual economy of its world.

Second Life - Conclusion
So should Second Life be considered a game? Should it be put in the same category as other Massively Multiplayer Online worlds as the ones created by World of Warcraft and the likes? In principle, Second Life doesn't share the same premises that these fantasy worlds offer, for example it has no real objectives, no "levels" and no abilities, which makes many object to the fact that it's a "game" per say. Still, Second Life has the purpose of entertaining its Residents through its simulation of real life, so it's yet unclear whether we should watch it as a game or not. What is clear is that this is becoming a quickly increasing phenomenon that appeals to all genders, all ages and all religions, bringing us closer together in a virtual metaverse than we are in our real lives.

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Is it really that easy to earn money in Second Life?

There is a general rumbling in the internet world about Second Life, the so called Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMPORG). Let me give you the skinny right here and now: it is possible to earn a very good living by earning Linden Dollars ($L) in Second Life and turning them into real money. However, it is far from easy because as of this writing, the average ration of $L to US dollars is about 270 to 1 (that means that for every L$270 you earn in Second Life, you only earn $1 USD). Assuming that this has not dissuaded you from attempting to earn a real life living in a virtual world, there are four good ways to earn $L and ultimately real dollars:

•     Buy them directly on the LindeX,
•     Get a job in Second Life,
•     Start your own business in Second Life or...
•     Become a Real Estate Baron.

We'll explore each of these methods one by one.

Buying Linden Dollars on the LindeX
The LindeX is a Linden Dollar exchange offering residents of Second Life the ability to either buy or sell $L. This is by far the best way to get your $L, though it's not technically "earning" them. However, buy obtaining them this way, you have more resources to buy the things you want on Second Life. Besides, as the old saying goes, "you gotta spend money to make money," and this applies in Second Life as well as in real life. This definitely applies if you decide that you want to earn $L by getting a job in Second Life.

Getting a job in Second Life
One thing to understand about earning money in Second Life is that you will not earn much money ($L or otherwise) by working for someone else. Jobs in Second Life are just as hard to come by as in real life, and when you do secure a position, rarely do you earn more than a few hundred $L an hour. Also, for some jobs, you must have your own equipment. DJ's need their own music and software to stream music online, Security guards often need their own protective gear and armament to protect their employers interests. On the other hand, it can be useful for experience to have a Job in SL should you decide that you want to start your own business.

Starting a business in Second Life
Online experience isn't the only necessity for starting a business in Second Life. Sometimes, in fact a lot of the time your own real world experience can help you earn $L. For example, if you write in the real world, why not take that experience and apply it to a publishing house in Second Life? It's also easy to turn your dreams into reality on Second Life: say you've always wanted to be a Private Detective or an Exotic Dancer. In Second Life these are much easier dreams to obtain than in real life but one of the best dreams is to become a Real Estate Mogul.

Real Estate in Second Life
At the time of this writing, the riches person in Second Life is a virtual Real Estate Mogul. Buying and selling real estate in Second Life is fairly simple and straightforward, but it is far from easy. For example, Second Life used to have a program where the first 512 square meters of virtual land you bought was only $L1 per meter. Second Life has since dropped this program, making it harder to buy land at a reasonable price. However, by continually searching for land that you can either sell at a higher price than what you bought it for or using that land to set up a store, you can definitely earn a good amount of $L.

Conclusion
Well now, you've learned about four of the most popular ways of getting $L on Second Life. But these are just general topics and there are a myriad of ways within these four that you can use with a little creativity. I hope I haven't disappointed you from trying to earn $L, however it's best to realize that like any money making endeavor, it takes skill, luck and patience to succeed in SL or anywhere else. The purpose of this article was not to turn you away from earning money in SL and therefore in the real world, but to let you know what it takes to be a success in it.

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3 Top Tips to help you earn more Second Life Linden money!

Linden Lab has made a lot of changes this past year, I felt the need to redefine how to earn lindens in Second Life. Let's talk about some other ways we used to make money

Camping:
Before the new terms and services, landowners would pay you to just stand or sit at their location. This was called camping and is now illegal!

Gambling:
Another change Second Life made was the outlawing of casinos! You could own one and make a lot of money. But not anymore!

Escort:
This Isn't Illegal, but with all the new rules on the classified system and the changes to your land rating, this is extremely hard to be viable as a Linden earning alternative.

Sploder balls:
Was an event system where you would put money into an object and over time all residents that participated in placing money in would receive some money back. But one person would win a large part of the jackpot.

Oh the list could go on and on, but that won't help you! I'm not here to tell you how not to make money, I'm here to show you how to earn more lindens today.

So let's begin!

Due to the fluctuation of the Linden economy, developing new methods to earning lindens becomes important. As most of you know, those of you that have been here a few years, it is getting harder day by day to earn lindens. Why? With all the publicity that Second Life has attained over the past few years, it is brought more and more people into the virtual world, to earn lindens just like you.

So what are currently the three biggest ways to earn money in Second Life?

#3 Club:

After years of research, and after watching many businesses fail, the ones that are still here after a few years are clubs. My reasoning is simple, there are numerous ways for your club to become an asset.

One way that your club is an asset, is if you rent out shops. It's important to have a high traffic rating for your club. This means you will have to have events on a regular basis. I can't stress enough how important it is to have really good music, as well as a good performing DJ at your club. Once you get people to visit your club, and stay long periods of time, your traffic rating will be high. A tip for you, keep your shops close to your dance floor. This gives the residents that visit your club and easy way to purchase products. One fundamental mistake that I see club owners make, is not having the dance floor close enough to their shops. Most people are at your club to be social, so if they don't see your stores, then they won't purchase any products from your location.

Be sure that if your rental shops are close to the dance floor, to raise the price of the fee. The price should be higher here, because it is prime real estate. A large portion of your sales will be made here. You can also price your rental fees higher for stores close to your landing point. When a resident teleports to your location, the place where they arrive is considered the landing point.

I'll say again, this is a prime location!

The successful clubs use a mix of store rentals and affiliate marketing, capitalizing off of their high traffic to see a revenue explosion in their business.

#2 Affiliate Marketing:

The number two way that I feel you should be earning money in Second Life is affiliate marketing. In my heart I feel that affiliate marketing should be number one, but I know better than to put it there. Most people won't do this effectively, or just won't put in the effort. But if you gonna be making money in the future in Second Life this is really the best way to do it. Good common sense on how you choose locations and how you market them, will make you successful in affiliate marketing.

Here are two ways to earn lindens in affiliate marketing:

One way is as product creator, in which you create a product package it up into vendors, and give a percentage of your sales to other Second Life residents who sell your product.

The other way is to sell other people's products to earn your commission by finding good locations that sell well.

Again I honestly believe that they should be the number one way of earning revenue in Second Life. The problem is not everyone knows how to market, so this will have to reside at number two.

#1 Product Creator / Store Owner

The number one way of earning lindens in Second Life is product creation.

Let's say you have a hot pair of new sneakers, you've just made, and want to sell. As the creator of the product, as long as you market it well, that product becomes an instant asset for you. So if the shoes cost you 500 Linden's to upload the all the textures and all the box art, if you price those shoes at 250 lindens and sell 2 shoes, you've already recouped your investment.

Now that's what I call ROI!

I know I'm gonna get a lot of boos from the cheap seats, because real estate did make the chart. Fact is this year a lot of people that I know in real estate close their businesses. More of my friends who make products, are still in business. This makes product creation the best way of making lindens in Second Life.

As I said before I'm shaky on my number one and number two picks. The reason for this is there is a learning curve in creating products for Second Life. Not to mention, there's a lot of competition in the product creation field. So you have to make great products that can sell. This is a huge hurdle that some people can't get past. This was my main reason as to why I was leaning more towards affiliate marketing being my number one pick. This is because by selling other people's products, you don't have the same learning curve as you would by creating the product itself. You just buy the affiliate package, place it up at all locations you want and start earning money.

You will find numerous ways to earn revenue in Second Life, I'm just not gonna go into every single one of them. These here, are the best ones, that I have found to work.

I'll say again, real estate is not in my top three, since it's just not consistent.

In sales, the more products you add, the more chances to earn more revenue. Of course utilizing some good marketing strategies, this can be a slow building asset which can earn you lindens every month.

DON'T MOVE YOUR SHOP OR CLUB AROUND!!!
Once you complete your research and find a good location for your shop or club, stay at that location and don't move around. As people landmark your location you don't want to move and lose all the work that you've done so far. I'll say this again for those of you that cannot hear what I'm telling you! If you find a good location once you've completed your research, stay there! If they can't find you! Too late you've already lost the sale!

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Going From Linden To Real Dollars

Although many would argue that Second Life is not a game, but a social phenomenon, I believe it's a bit of both. You're still creating a virtual avatar, going around virtual environments and doing virtual stuff, although you're not alone, but rather part of a social phenomenon with thousand of other people. So how is it possible that something virtual, something from a "game", such as the Linden Dollars used in Second Life, be converted to real life dollars to spend? The game's economy allows this and the fact that you're playing up against other people that are willing to spend a few bucks in this virtual environment, answers your question. But in order to use the Second Life economy, we need to understand it.

Second Life - Virtual Economy
The entire Second Life economy is based on the game's currency, called the Linden Dollar, or simply L$. Around 270 Linden Dollars make one US dollar, and you can easily perform a transaction from Linden Dollars to US Dollars (or several other currencies) by using Second Life's currency exchanges.

With millions of Second Life residents buying and selling items, land and properties, it's not hard to understand how this economy comes to life. Actually, virtual economy analysts from the Metastat Statistics Bureau estimated that Second Life will have a GDP of over $550 million in 2007. $550 times 270 = Loads of Linden Dollars flowing freely in the Second Life economics.

Its easy to convert virtual money to real money in the world of Second Life and you have various options to do so. First, you could go from Linden to Real dollars by using the Linden Lab currency brokerage, which is closely monitored by the creators of Second Life. Or you could try out the LindeX Currency Exchange, which many residents prefer over the old currency exchange offered by Linden Labs. Last but not least, if you want better management of your transactions, you could use a third-party currency exchange program, but be advised that you're using them on your own risk.

As you can see, it's not very difficult to go from Linden to Real dollars and you have several options at hand. However, changing the money is not the hard part, but making them is! It's not easy to make money as a starter in Second Life, but if you work your way up and become "rich" in the virtual world, you can easily start cashing in on real dollars and actually make a living off it. Many skilled residents have built successful businesses inside Second Life that earn them real cash. As in real life, Second Life has its giants, with several real estate owners or venue owners generating thousands of real dollars each month, as they can basically live off their profit made in the virtual world of Second Life.

Fraser Wheaton

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