Making money in Second Life – some facts and figures

Aug 062008

My quest for further information about how to make money on Second Life continues.

This is a whole new area to me so I am threading very carefully as I don’t want to get my facts and figures wrong or indeed make some Second Life newbie mistake.

So here’s what I’ve learnt so far.

You can make a million real US dollars on Second life.

One user who goes by the avatar name of Anshe Chung has made a million real USD from her activities on Second Life. I found an interview with her from a few years back when her Second Life activities were worth a real 250,000 USD. This interview is very interesting as it comes from a person who is actually making serious money on Second Life. You can read the full interview here – Virtual Land, Real money.

There are two things I want to point out that I noticed in the interview.

The first is that back in 2006 when this interview happened, Anshe Chung had a whole team of people working for her. So my advice is not to think that she is making serious money on her own. In the interview she says that at that time she had a team of about seven freelancers working for her but that she had also just created a team of ten full time people in China to manage billing, accounting and development. This is a serious operation and not a one person show.

So straightaway it gives some idea of the effort involved in generating serious income in Second life. That said our aim is create a decent second income in Second Life and not to build an empire.

The second thing that struck me was that she gave an incredibly valuable piece of advice to anyone thinking of joining Second Life to generate an income. Here is the quote directly from the Business week piece.

“To what do you attribute your success?

One reason for my success here, I strongly believe, is that I am not only here for business. I am very deeply rooted in this world, like a real native person. Most people who just come here for money fail miserably. They are foreigners, act like foreigners, and lack deep understanding of this virtual country. Many of them are also lazybones who think you just need money to make more money. The truly successful people I know here all are deeply involved in life and society here too.”

The key thing to take away from her answer is “Most people who just come here for money fail miserably”.

To me this simple sentence speaks volumes. Unless you are prepared to make the effort to fully integrate and become part of the Second Life community and experience, it appears that your chances of successfully generating an income are limited.

The figures speak for themselves.

You can check the earnings statistics on the Second Life website here.

The statistic that we are interested in is about half way down the page with the header ‘Linden™ Dollars’ and the sub header ‘Unique Users with Positive Monthly Linden™ Dollars Flow’.

From what I can gather this statistic basically shows us the number of people who are making positive income in the Second Life and how much they are making.

I’m going to use a well worn cliché – but the figures really do speak for themselves. Of the 57,821 people that generated a positive income on Second Life in June of 2008 – the vast majority earned less than $500 – 55,732 users to be exact. Most of these people earned less than $50 – 47,546 users. That’s $50 for the whole month. Not exactly a decent second income.

This makes for slightly discouraging reading. If you thought that Second Life was a quick route to riches or even a quick route to a decent second income then you need to think again.

If you examine the figures closely they seem to be representative of nearly all businesses and markets – where the top five percent make the most money. This to me illustrates nicely that Second Life is acting just like any other competitive market where there is real money involved. The winners win big while everyone else struggles on.

But Second Life is different.

Er no not really. When it comes down to it the people who succeed are those who put in the effort or as Anshe Chung puts it ‘are deeply involved in life and society’. The same with any other business venture really.

So I’m still not convinced about generating a second income from Second Life. I’m sure it can be done – Anshe Chung as well as the other 2089 users who made over $500 in June have proved that its possible.

The question is what will it cost to get to the level of income that you are happy with? How long and how deeply integrate in Second Life do you have to become in order to start generating a second income?

That’s my next bit of research…

Can you generate a Second Income in Second Life?

Aug 052008

I’m currently investigating a very interesting way of making money online.

Second Life

Second Life according to PCmag.com is defined as

“A virtual world on the Internet from Linden Research, Inc., San Francisco, CA (www.lindenlab.com), in which “residents” create an identity, meet people, buy land and build their own environment or purchase an existing one. It is a “massively multiplayer online role playing game” (MMORPG), but one that offers users total freedom to create and interact as if they were living another life. Playing the game requires a client download for Windows, Mac or Linux.”

The definition goes further and you can read the rest of it here. But I thought the first paragraph was enough to give you a feel for what Second life is about. Second life is effectively a massive virtual world where users interact much in the same way they would interact in the real world.

Don’t ask me I’m a newbie.

If I’m honest I am completely new to Second life. I had read a few articles about it a few months back but didn’t look into it any further. However as I was researching ways to generate a second income online Second Life kept coming up so I decided that it warranted further investigation.

I’m still in the process of investigating Second Life and from what I’ve gathered so far there is a lot to learn and understand. That said I have also read that there is potential to make some real money by having a presence and interacting on Second Life.

I’m now focusing on learning more about Second Life. The key thing I am concerned about is whether or not it is feasible and realistic to generate a second income via Second Life.

As with any other method of generating a second income before I commit any serious time and resources to it I want to understand more.

For those of you who are interested in doing the same here are some very useful links to articles about Second Life.

A Second Income on Second Life

The truth about earning money in Second Life

How to earn Linden Dollars in Second Life

Economy of Second Life

From my reading and understanding of these articles my initial reaction is that it is possible to generate income in Second Life but not necessarily a huge amount of it. However I would imagine that you could have a great deal fun doing it and this could compensate for the low income. I will continue my research and keep you posted.

I now have an interesting way of possibly generating a second income to focus on. After yesterday’s trawl through the internet looking at dodgy “earn thousands using our plug in profits system” websites I was becoming a bit disillusioned. I was beginning to think that the web contained nothing but scams…anyway enough of my babbling. I’ve got a Second Life to consider.

Online Second Income success stories – not many

Aug 042008

I’m scratching my head as I search on the internet for success stories of people who have made a good second income online. Most of the stories I have come across are very fake and unbelievable. Most of these ‘success stories’ are on websites that are trying to sell something. Usually it is a miraculous new income generating profit system. Geez thanks for getting my hopes up. Again it’s that cheezy sales pitch that keeps putting me off.

So far I have had no success in locating a good and believable story about generating a second income online.

The reason I’m focusing on generating a second online is because it ticks all the boxes in terms of flexibility and start up costs for someone who is currently in a job. In previous articles I’ve discussed the factors that need to be considered before trying a method of generating a second income. You can read that post here: Debt elimination –the next leg. Generating a second income.

In that post I focused on getting a second job as a way of generating a second income. The reason for this was because it was determined that getting a second job was the quickest and most effective way of generating a second income. I wrote about the need for the logistics to make sense. Can you realistically do a second job all the while maintaining your current job?

Now for many people getting a second job simply isn’t an option. People with children may not be able to afford the additional childcare costs. Or there simply may not be any second jobs available in the surrounding area. As a viable alternative to this, generating a second income online offers the flexibility to allow someone to work from home in their spare time all the while meeting their current job and family commitments.

So far so good, working online from home in your spare time seems the ideal solution. Unfortunately the reality of trying to generate a second income is not so easy and straightforward. Given the low barriers to entry the competition on the internet can be intense. That said there are ways of generating a second income if you have the time and patience to do it.

Here is a very useful article from the The Times newspaper. This article is simply called ‘10 ways to make money online’ and offers valuable ideas and information on how to generate a second income online. I recommend that you take the time to have a read through this article as it will serve as food for thought.

In the meantime I will continue to look for believable online success stories. I know they are out there it’s just a case of finding them!

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