My Verdict on #Secondlife

17/07/09 04:34 Filed in: Secondlife

Well I’ve been an active participant in the online world known as secondlife for just shy of three years now and I’ve reached a few conclusions. I thought I would share them with you so that maybe those of you who are new to SL or thinking about starting a Secondlife business can get an idea of what might work in Secondlife. I hope this helps. Let me say something up front. IF you make a lot of money and you can easily afford to buy yourself land and play and that’s all you need to have happen that’s cool go for it. it’s fun! What I write here is for people who are looking for some sort of income from their Secondlife experience. This is, like most other posts on this blog, my opinion, and is based on my experiences.

1) Don’t spend any money in Secondlife. In other words don’t ever spend real money to buy Lindens (secondlife currency) or rent land unless you absolutely have to. If you make products for secondlife like hair, clothing, dances/ animations or scripted items you can sell them online on SL Exchange.com. This is a much better way to test what will sell or what won’t and you won’t pay a dime for land rentals or tier fees. For those of you who don’t know tier fees are like property taxes. Renting land is expensive and owning land is like a noose around your neck that creates a situation where if you don’t make money you lose money. Land ownership is a surefire way to put yourself in a situation where you’re throwing good money after bad. Don’t ever spend money in Secondlife that you’re not willing to lose, because I’m telling you right now, it’s gone!

2) Whatever you do in Secondlife always try to limit the complexity of it. Secondlife is extremely buggy. If your business plan requires Secondlife to work perfectly most of the time it’s time for a new business plan. One of the few business models that seems to work on a regular basis is giving away product to get someone to look at or be aware of something. This is assuming that creating awareness of a product outside of Secondlife is worthwhile and part of a business plan that makes money elsewhere so you can use Secondlife as a write off. If you’re looking for a place to lose money Secondlife is a literally a virtual gold-mine!

3) Don’t open a club. They don’t make money. Never did, never will. Not only that they are a pain in that ass to run and maintain. Ditto Art galleries. In order to run a live music venue you must own an entire simulator of 65535 square meters. This will cost you between $200 and $300 Us dollars per month. If you own any less than a full sim you will be limited to 40 people in your venue. So you’re $300 bucks in the hole before you even begin, now you have to pay DJ’s or Musicians or whatever. I’ve heard live music venue owners have spent $1000 plus a month on their venue and I’ve seldom heard any of them say they broke even on a given month let alone made any money.

4) Secondlife is great place for social networking and making people aware of your internet-based content. The opportunities to interact with people from all over the world are many. You can hook up with people who have the same interests or engage in the same sort of business as you do. It’s also great place for film-makers to make visual storyboards. I’ve seen quite a few print ads that use Secondlife avatars and scenery.

I don’t mean to sound negative but don’t ever put all your eggs in the Secondlife basket and then complain that there aren’t any eggs to eat to stay alive!

Tags: Secondlife