Introduction to Second Life and how to earn money by playing this fun video game

I've been playing Second Life for about ten years.  It's fun, and easy to make money with!

What is Second Life?

Imagine a video game where everything is created by the players.  Everything from the clothes the players wear, to the cars they drive around in.  In Second Life all of the content is made by the community of players.

There are no levels to pass, no big bosses to beat, in fact whether or not it's really a 'game' is still up for debate.  But it is fun and addictive just like a game.  It's also FREE to play, although there is a premium membership but that is completely optional.  Most people play Second Life for free.

What do you do in Second Life if there aren't any levels?

What you do in SL is entirely up to you.  And there are lot's of things you can do there.  Personally I use it as a workplace to make money with.  Some people like to explore the virtual world, some live out their fantasies there.  Anything is possible in SL, some people even have sexual relationships online in Second Life.  There's even Second Life adoption agencies.  Really, if you can imagine it you can do it in SL.

So, how do you make money in Second Life?

The currency in SL is called the Linden Dollar, and you can exchange your Linden Dollars for real money.  There are so many ways to make money in SL that I can't even list them all here.  I've been doing it by Scripting, which is basically like programming things in Second Life to be interactive.  There's an easy to use scripting language called LSL that anyone can use to make an object in Second Life move around, light up, change color, chat with folks, and so much more... anything you can think of really.  Other people make money by Animating, which is basically like posing virtual dolls and moving them around to save the movements and replay them in Second Life as the movements of their avatars.

There are different ways to find work in Second Life, but I like to join scripting groups so that I can find people who are looking to buy a script or to hire a scripter.  Today I logged in to Second Life and saw that someone was asking for a script that plays 2 animations.  I replied to their request and they explained what they needed in more detail, so I made it for them.  It only took about 5 or 10 minutes of typing, and then they paid me about 3 or 4 dollars.  That's not bad for 5 minutes of work.  And to be honest, most scripting jobs in SL pay a whole lot more than just 3 dollars, but the easy jobs take practically no time to do, and it all adds up over time.

You can also sell the things that you make on the Second Life Marketplace, it's a huge website with tons and tons of things in SL that players have made.  One of the things that I sell on the Marketplace is called an Applause Box, it's very simple, basically it plays a random sound (in this case sounds of applause) every time a player clicks on it.  And I make about 1 dollar every time someone buys it on the Marketplace.  It's so simple that I'd like to show you the script for it.  This script and the sound files (just some different sounds of people cheering and clapping) are the only things in it.

This is the script for my Applause Box, I'm releasing it here as open source:

integer max = 0;

default

{

    state_entry()

    {

        llSetText("Applause Box\nTouch To Cheer", <1,1,1>, 1);

        max = llGetInventoryNumber(INVENTORY_SOUND);

    }

    

    on_rez(integer num)

    {

        llResetScript();

    }

    

    changed(integer num)

    {

        if (num & CHANGED_INVENTORY)

            max = llGetInventoryNumber(INVENTORY_SOUND);

    }

    

    touch_start(integer num)

    {

        do

        { num = num - 1;

            integer rand = (integer)llFrand(max);

            string name = llGetInventoryName(INVENTORY_SOUND, rand);

            llTriggerSound(name, 1.0);

        } while (num > 0);

    }

}

As you can see it's only 30 lines of script.  And the scripting language is very easy to learn, they basically made it simple enough for anybody to learn and use.  If you would like to know more about the scripting language click here.  I'm planning to do a tutorial series here on SteemIt about the scripting language in Second Life.  If you're interested in learning how to script then please let me know in the comments here.  I might even do teaching session in Second Life if anyone's interested.

But, how much money can you make in Second Life?

It's really limitless.  One of Second Life's most famous millionaires, Anshe Chung, made her millions in the Real Estate business.  Virtual land in Second Life is a huge business.  Some people spend hundreds of dollars a month for entire regions of virtual land.  I actually met Anshe once in a Second Life group, she hired me to do a thing for her and she paid very well.

The amount of money you can make in Second Life is entirely up to you.  I've seen people pay over a thousand dollars just for one project.  I knew a guy once who paid a Virtual Lawyer 3 times more than they paid me so that the virtual lawyer would virtually copyright the script I wrote for him...  ProTip, there's no such thing as a Virtual lawyer or a Virtual copyright, that guy never listened to me and he's probably still getting scammed by that virtual lawyer.  (Scams exist in SL too, so be careful.)  So now I don't work with that guy anymore, lol, there's no reason to work for people like that.  Which brings me to the best parts of working in Second Life: You get to be your own boss, you can choose your work-load, and if you get fed up or frustrated with anything then you can just log out until you're ready to get back to it.