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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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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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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