One of the advices noobs get is: "You don't need money to have fun in second life." True enough. Money is not needed to ram the grid, see the world and do the first steps in exploring. But, after a month or so, noob will find out that money is a good thing to have. Money buys new skin, hair and clothes that gives the access to some new places, to some people. With money you tip the dancers and DJ's and hostesses. Money allows playing some areas of life. Money comes handy for building, you have to upload those textures somehow. Money is needed to start a shop. And for money, you need a credit card or a job.
I am not going to go into big jobs like land business or building for big profit. I am interested in what is usually called "game money". Money which allows decent living in virtual world without merging your first life and second life bank accounts. First couple of lindens for a nice hair, a thousand for a skin, some pocket money for tipping around. Where to get them?
- Camping and money trees are the first money source for the most of the residents. They are easy enough to find and to play. They don't pay much though. One needs days and weeks of standing on the pads to get the new hair. Skins are unreachable that way. But they are the way to make that little blue number something other than depressing zero. They are also the big swindle. The electricity to run your computer costs more than what you can get by camping. Not to mention your time even if you are actually doing something else in that time. Yes, we all know that so many residents runs second life in the background in their offices, maximizing the window every half and hour to reset idle counter. Average 12L$ per hour multiplied by eight hour shift is a nice addition from your real life employer. But, it is not enough. An, it is not a job.
- Then comes dancing and, probably, escorting. These are all around too. Noob might think that luck serves her when she sees the "hiring" sign. But those are all around. Most of the clubs cannot afford experienced professionals. And they don't need them. They cost too much, and most of the guests doesn't notice the difference. So they are after the every almost-a-noob they can get. Just don't show up with a hair like Philip Linden's and get an AO not to stand like you've just fell from the (money) tree. Some clubs will get one level up by instructing their noobs, maybe giving them some clothes from not-so-bad freebie collection. With a little of luck, noob will get some tips and start working on their look. What is even more important, noob will get the first experience of living the second life.
- There are other, not so common, jobs too. Even those that are in PG areas. One can work as a host or a greeter in the club. Or the salesman, or a custosdian in a gallery or museum. Those asks for a bit of eloquence, maybe even a bit of knowledge of art or whatever your new job is connected with. Problem with those is… you have a job. Most of those jobs requires that you are there on the spot in right time. Maybe you have something better to do in RL, maybe you are inworld but don't want to be on the job. "hell, "- you say, "this is supposed to be a world of my dreams. Now I am in the same capitalistic shit as in my first life." And it even doesn't pay much. Only difference is, your employer wouldn't complain if you bring your friends to make you a company.
- One of the ways of getting money I always loved is RPing and other make-a-story talk-to-people jobs. Like being a bartender. You get your ball, raise a tip jar and play your role. Depending of how you are good at it, you can make really good amount of lindens. Maybe 10% will go to the sim owner maybe not. But that is ok. And, maybe most important, you can have fun and you meet people while doing this. Bad side is there is not much of opportunities. I don't know why sim owners never got hooked on this. For them, it is cheaper than camping, they can even make some percent of those kind of jobs. Surely, people who do that are more interesting than dancing zombies on the pads. They actually do something for the atmosphere of the place.
This is where this list gets exhausted. maybe there are variants but most of the noob jobs are covered here. Or so I think. Have I missed something? What were your ways of getting your first lindens? Have you ever wanted a job in the second life?
I’ve only really done architecture work in SL. While tier is expensive enough that I have always spent more money than I made in-world, occasional USD 30 payments for building things have been nice, though definitely below market value.
Those kind of jobs are different story. And consequently, they brings different problems. Underpayment is the most important one. Architecture in SL is 3D modeling payed with peanuts. It requires knowledge, talent, time, confrontation with all the problems of the grid while working and fairly bad tools. And then, one just rarely can get the decent reward for it.