How to make money in Second Life

How to make money in Second Life? I am sure if you have played Second Life for any amount of time you have heard the question "how do i earn money here?" uttered by someone. Maybe you have thought about it yourself? You want those new boots you have seen on sale but just dont have the money on your avatar so how do you go about getting that cash?

Find out some ways you can get cash for your Second Life after the jump


So as in most societies, money is important in Second Life as it enables you to get new outfits, have a vehicle, have somewhere to live etc just like in real life. How can you get your virtual hands on this virtual money? Here are some ways you can earn money in Second Life

1) Camping - There used to be a huge market for people camping in Second Life, basically this was you stood on a platform for an amount of time and then you got paid, usually something like 1L$ an hour or so but people used to do it, then they brought in animated camping where your avatar would look like it was completing some task like cleaning the floor or windows which while not earning you any more money faster, did at least give you something to look at. These days camping has moved on to fishing. There is a fishing game that you can play where you visit different places and fish to earn points you can then exchange for L$. It still does take a while to build up anything of any value but it is free to start playing and any money you get for free is good. This is a great way if you have just started SL and want some money to buy some different clothes than the ones you first rezzed in but not really anything for a long term career.

2) Working in a club - There are lots and lots of clubs now in Second Life and all of them need staff to run. Usually there is a host and a DJ at an event. The host or hostess keeps the crowd engaged while the DJ plays the music. Having a host or hostess job is a good one if you are very sociable and like chatting with all kinds of people. Usually you have to be over 30 days old as it takes about that long for you to get used to all the controls and to get a good avie along with use of groups and IM's etc. DJ's can earn a lot of money in Second Life if you are good and play the kind of music the crowd wants to hear. You need a music collection on your computer, something to stream them with like winamp or SAM broadcaster or virtual DJ and a shoutcast stream. Once you have these and understand how they work then you can get a job as a DJ. There are always new clubs opening all the time so keep a look out for one and if you have the right stuff, apply and work your way up the club ladder to the top ones.

3) Build or create things - This one will earn you a lot of money if you do it right but you will also have to put in some time and effort to get it right. You can create clothes if you know how to use photoshop or other comparable photo programs to create the fabrics and textures, you can start out by using templates and just texture them and sell them on the marketplace and then once you earn some money open a store in world so people can see them. You could also create mesh items if you know how to use programs like Blender. Also you can create buildings and other things out of the free prims that anyone can make, you could go to a sandbox and create a house, shed, garage, hanger, office, shop etc and texture it with your own textures and you can then resell those. You can also create poses and dances if you have the right equipment. If you are good with art you can create skins which will earn you even more. Everything in Second Life is user created so everything you look at has been created by someone at some point. Thats the beauty of it all, There is so much you can create and build in Second Life, the only limits are your own imagination

4) Playing games - This is kinda a new way to earn money in Second Life but still one that you can earn money at. There are skill game regions where you can play and earn money while playing games, this may be of interest to you but you can also lose money too so i would only recommend this if you know what you are doing.

5) Ok so probably the easiest way to earn money in Second Life is just to buy it from the Lindex. You can get 2000L$ for under $10 USD which is enough to pay your rent for a month on a small place or get you at least 2 full outfits or a new skin and hair. Basically buying $$$$$ is a much easier and quicker way of getting money in SL than any of the other methods. If you want to play Second Life to chat with your friends, go shopping, hang out, have fun, explore, all the other methods on this list will only suck time away from your enjoyment of the game and your time. True you can earn a lot if you put the time in but if you have a busy real life and use Second Life as a kinda escape from that then buying them could be the best option for you and the quickest. Its how i finance my avatar and keep them in the life they are accustom.

So there you have it, probably not really the kind of answer you want to hear, i guess if you came here you wanted to hear some easy way to get rich quick, but in reality there is no way to get rich quick in Second Life. Yes i did miss out buying and selling land or buying land and renting it out because you have to put a lot of money up front into SL to get anything out and thats more of a long term investment than a way to earn money for day to day stuff.

Let me know what you do to make money in Second Life, how did you earn it when you first started? Do you agree with me that buying money is the easiest way to earn it in Second Life? What are your thoughts?


Guest post by Thirza Bastin (Thirzabastin)