Second Life is a virtual world, which is a computer-based simulated environment intended for its users to inhabit and interact via avatars.The virtual world typically appears similar to the real world, with real world rules such as gravity, topography, locomotion, real-time actions, and communication.

The environment is loosely defined and all that is provided is the virtual landscape and the means by which to create almost any virtual item imaginable. These types of worlds are often described as 'sandbox games' and players can build anything from real estate (homes, shops, discos, movie theatres, gardens, arenas), to personal items (clothing, body parts, furniture, pictures, vehicles, airplanes, fireworks, art), to recreation items (thunderstorms, pets, magic fountains, toys) to animation routines that make avatars do things like dance, skip, make faces, or simulate sex.

Players who want to fight can also do that and can build weapons and shields. Players can also make more overtly and traditional expressive products, like movies, sculptures, magazines, or dances.

Make real money in a virtual world. That's right, real money.

Here's how it works:
Second Life has a fully-integrated economy architected to reward risk, innovation, and craftsmanship.

Residents create their own virtual goods and services. Because residents retain the IP rights of their creations, they are able to sell them at various in-world venues.

Businesses succeed by the ingenuity, artistic ability, entrepreneurial acumen, and good reputation of their owners.

Residents who have amassed lots of Linden Dollars are matched with residents who want to buy Linden Dollars at LindeX (our official Linden Dollar exchange), or at other unaffiliated third-party exchanges.

Second Life's real estate market provides opportunities for Residents to establish their own communities and business locations.

In Second Life residents can create and trade in almost anything. Specialisation evolves because being; say a weapon crafter involves learning a skill which requires an investment of time, talent, and effort. It also helps that production costs are low and you can make infinite copies of an item to sell. The current value of In World Transactions in Second Life is staggering; in July 2007 alone there were 12,511,949 separate in world transactions generated by 312,970 residents.

The ability to truly create within Second Life and the rapid commoditization of this content has provided real opportunity to profit for those who learn the skills required to create, have the drive to spend time working and marketing and the vision to come up with new ideas. Second Life is unique among virtual worlds in that its powerful scripting language and creation tools can be used to provide goods features and behaviours which are only limited by the players' imaginations, and Linden Labs approach to intellectual property also means that budding entrepreneurs actually own their creations, whether in the digital or real worlds.

Creators of fashion, real estate developers, event organisers and builders have all gone on to establish real world businesses after starting out from nothing in Second Life, while many residents are now working full time within the world itself.

In Second life, virtual land can be "owned" within the game context by players. Linden Labs sells land in blocks starting at 512 virtual square meters and going up to 65536m² for a full region or simulator which takes up one server processor. Players also pay a monthly "property tax" (called a "land use fee or tier") which covers the running costs of running the server. Once a Resident buys land he or she may resell it freely and use it for any purpose within the Second Life Terms of Service and some players act as virtual real estate developers, buying land and then, after making landscaping or other improvements, subdividing it and re-selling or renting it out at a profit.

Once you are able to purchase goods such as furniture, art and gadgets then you need somewhere to store and display them. And of course it is human nature even in the virtual to want to have your own space and have ownership of it. So if people are willing to incur large time and money costs to live in a virtual world, then space in that world develops value and value is economically tradable.

Clothing and avatar stores were the first businesses within Second Life. Because the built-in avatar creation and customization tools are the first skills learned upon entering the world, virtually all residents learn that they are able to create clothing and avatars. This allowed members to create and sell their own self-branded avatar clothing products and other items. For many of these digital entrepreneurs, the ability to make money doing something that they enjoy is an incredible experience and motivation to be in the world. Residents often discover that they possess unrealised creative skills or business acumen to make and sell digital items, and quickly learn that the realities of a digital world, such as no marginal cost of reproduction and no need to keep inventory on hand, allow them to be flexible and experimental and opens up possibilities that are not available to them in real life.

Marketing, branding, and good business practices are just as important as a good product. One major difference is that things quicker in SL. And the customer base is always new

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All rights reserved. No infringement is intended.