I was home, listening to the TV sound and something caught my attention: a lady from Germany has just made her first 1 million USD by selling virtual land in Second Life.
I've opened my old PC and started looking for Second Life, downloaded the EXE, and tried to jump in. I soon realized I had to do a PC defragmentation for it to run smoothly.
That same day I was completely fascinated by the whole metaverse. My avatar could teleport itself, could fly, could visit any place possible in that environment, and talk to real people.
Maybe if you were or still are in SL, you know that first time you experienced the whole thing and how it made you feel.
▶️ Allow me to tell you a few things before I continue with my experiences and talk about their financial aspects.
Projects that do not develop, companies that are not successful and do not enter new areas can easily go unnoticed. Unlike MySpace or the Ello social network, Second Life was something else. It has never been for everyone and even now it is not. However, it still has more than 2 million users and its own economy, which produces money for players.
From 2003 until the popularization of smartphones, Second Life was a hot topic. It was an environment where you lived virtually and you could, if you did well enough, make money as in life. In 2006, BusinessWeek published the story "Virtual World, Real Money" about the first millionaire in Second Life. Currently, $ 65 million a month circulates through this virtual world and the creators of the world can be seen as visionaries.
More SL Economics
The monetization of the virtual product came through the introduction of goods that you can buy with real money. Currently, 15 people control 30% of the land in Second Life. But shopping doesn't stop at the field, you can have clothes, furniture, with which to equip your avatar (which doesn't have to be human-like).
I remember I got some packs with what we call now "airdrops". Those packs had clothes, tools to build a house, planes or jets, cars, accessories, etc. And this makes me think I should go back now and sell them and see how much I can take for them.
I also used to teach and this is how I made my first Second Life money. It happened in the Academy of Second Learning, which now has around 2365 members. We needed to make a proposal for teaching within a deadline, send the whole teaching plan to someone from their academy for feedback and once accepted, we established a deadline for the course to begin. I once taught in a form, in "open SL air'.It was amazing that they even have a virtual flipchart where I had introduced my PPTs. It was funny how the avatars of my students were moving around, eating, or whatever, and still interacting.
I made some good money there that I have reinvested in SL assets.
What do I have now?
Just this:
Linden Exchange
You currently have: L$31
But I am sure my SL assets will bring much more.
That's the name of my avatar. If it happens that you see her around...with a tail or naked it means my laptop or PC has frozen while I was using the Second Life application. 😅
Not having some of the restrictions in the real world, some users have also made ambitious projects that can be turned into money. One of them involved the creation of a Berlin-like in the 1920s that you can visit and for which you have to dress like at that time. The future for Second Life is set to move this world to where virtual reality has come: on wearable gadgets.
Linden Lab is experimenting with a version for the Oculus Rift. However, in the next version, everything will be about easier navigation through the virtual world and easy participation in the events in it. New ways to make money are also being explored. The hardware is starting to come, whether it's from HTC and Valve, or whether it's from Samsung, I hope we will see better and better applications.
Here is a 12-hours contest they are having today for L50 USD...yes, that's in Linden $
$50Lindens are not much at all. Here is where you can see their value https://ld.currencyrate.today/
But, no worries, besides fashion, teaching, accessories, and owning land, or being a dancer, you can make money as a virtual entrepreneur and making your own business in any field you'd like in there. Just step into the "magic circle", loop your avatar for a few days around, here and there, and see what you can use to your advantage. If you need me and my advice, just let me know.
