Second Life...Just Like First Life! Sort Of

I just recently heard about Second Life, I was told that it was possible to make money on Second Life. Before I gave an opinion on it however I decided to take a look at it for myself.

One of the things I learned early on in Second Life was that it is just like first life. You can shop, work, and network with people. There are casinos, real estate agents, stock trading, banks, resorts, malls and more. Everything that you do is dependant on what you want to do. You don't like your real life job? You can go into Second Life and get the job of your dreams. Say you have always wanted to be an artist. You can import your own art, photos, whatever your medium may be, and feature them in a gallery for others to enjoy, and perhaps purchase.

The currency you use in game is called Linden Dollars. Linden Dollars can be traded for real US currency, and vice versa. The current going rate at the time of this article is 277 linden/ $1 US dollar to buy and 277L/ $1 US dollar for sell. You could potentially buy and sell lindens like you would on the FOREX platform. I however would not suggest this as lindens have been losing value recently according to the website.

Just like in real life, land is an important commodity to have. Second Life land can be sold for both lindens and US currency. The more land you own, the more stuff you can put on it. The building blocks in Second Life are known as primitives (or prims). The number of prims you get depends on the size of land you have. Everything in second life is made of prims, houses, slots, games etc. You can have a huge house if you want to, as long as you stay within your prim limit. You can also rent and sell land that you own, or build apartments and rent them out. The possibilities are endless.

Prims can be made into any shape you want them to be. You can build anything you can imagine. You can make sculptures, houses, furniture, anything that you can dream up. Then you apply textures to your creations to make them look however you want. You want to have a store and sell things? You can put any number of objects into a single box prim, apply a texture showing what's inside the box, and you are ready to go. Best of all you can sell 100 items and only take up one prim of space on your land. You simply take something you have created in Photoshop, or paint shop pro, import it and use it as a texture. It is the same concept with making art, you import it into Second Life, apply it as a texture to a flat prim, and Viola you have a piece of art.

Have you always wanted to be a clothing designer? In Second Life you can do that! You can start out with templates you download until you get the hang of it. You can make different clothing to sell to other people. After all you can't go running around naked. Just like anything else in game the skies the limit. You can make any kind of clothing you want to, from formal clothing, to lingerie. You can make accessories as well. If you think a bracelet with diamonds and colored stones are hot you can create it!

Are you good with making items in Photoshop and scripting? You can freelance yourself out as a consultant to a club or other business owner. Build them signs that flash, or perhaps some tip jars to use in their clubs. If you are good with music you can be a DJ for a club. If you are good with 3d programs such as poser or blender, you can build avatars for sale.

You don't have to be skilled to be able to perform jobs in Second Life. You can find places to camp to earn money, and if you want to learn how to build or script they have tutorials for that. You can learn to do anything you want to do. You can explore and meet people from all over the world. It is fun and addictive. It can defiantly become a Second life!