I have stumbled onto a different method of selling my photography and art work on
Second Life.
The way I C it,
This is a fun manner to bring in some spare cash or more if you're dedicated.
2 HALLOWEEN PHOTO CONTEST WINNERS BELOW
For which I got paid for
Second Life has an internal economy and internal currency, the Linden dollar (L$). L$ can be used to buy, sell, rent or trade land or goods and services with other users. Virtual goods include buildings, vehicles, devices of all kinds, animations, clothing, skin, hair, jewelry, flora and fauna, and works of art.
PEOPLE WHO EARN THEIR LIVING ON SECOND LIFE
Jennifer Grinnell, Michigan furniture delivery dispatcher turned fashion designer in cyber space, never imagined that she could make a living in a video game. Grinnell's shop, Mischief, is in Second Life, a virtual world whose users are responsible for creating all content. Grinnell's digital clothing and "skins" allow users to change the appearance of their avatars -- their online representations -- beyond their wildest Barbie dress-up dreams. Within a month, Grinnell was making more in Second Life than in her real-world job as a dispatcher. And after three months she realized she could quit her day job altogether.
Now Second Life is her primary source of income, and Grinnell, whose avatar answers to the name Janie Marlowe, claims she earns more than four times her previous salary.
Grinnell isn't alone. Artists and designers, landowners and currency speculators, are turning the virtual environment of Second Life into a real-world profit center. "It's not just a game anymore," said online artisan Kimberly Rufer-Bach. "There are businesses, nonprofits and universities" taking advantage of the online world.
With users now numbering over 130,000, game-maker Linden Lab estimates that nearly $5 million dollars, or about $38 per person, was exchanged between players in January 2006 alone. Working in Second Life is "the same as working in London and sending money home to pay the rent for your spouse," said company CEO Philip Rosedale.
How much would you pay for a piece of imaginary real estate? Anshe Chung has made millions renting it. Maybe your investment portfolio needs to include more fake property. A decade ago Ailin Graef was just another player in online games with a virtual avatar named Anshe Chung; now the young entrepreneur’s China-based company manages online video game property worth millions in US dollars. How?
In some online worlds, like Second Life, in-game currency (remember the currency is called, Linden Dollars or L$) can be sold for real money.
Ailin/Anshe started making virtual money by designing and selling virtual fashion items for her fellow avatars. She leveraged that into virtual real estate investments. Today, Anshe Chung Studios has 80+ employees managing thousands of rental properties, helping design new 3D virtual chat rooms, and making tons of money on virtual to real currency exchanges. Anshe was the first person whose virtual property exceeded a real world value of 1 million dollars, and Anshe Chung Studios is perhaps the single largest third party developer of virtual property ever. Hers is a model for a new kind of online mogul: not one who makes the games, but someone who works inside the system to make a killing. Anshe Chung is a digital life mogul. Who wants to be next?
Services include "camping", wage labor, business management, entertainment and custom content creation which can be broken up into the following 6 categories:
- building,
- texturing,
- scripting,
- animating,
- art direction,
- and the position of producer/project funder.
The Linden can be exchanged for US dollars or other currencies on market-based currency exchanges.
Linden Lab reports that the Second Life economy generated US$3,596,674 in economic activity during the month of September 2005, and as of September 2006.
Second Life was reported to have a GDP of $64 Million.
In 2009 the total size of the Second Life economy grew 65% to US$567 million, about 25% of the entire U.S. virtual goods market.
Gross Resident Earnings are $55 million US Dollars in 2009 - 11% growth over 2008.
**In March 2009, it was revealed that there exist a few Second Life entrepreneurs, who have grossed in excess of US$1 million per year.
Work solutions
Second Life gives companies the option to create virtual workplaces to allow employees to virtually meet, hold events, practice any kind of corporate communications, conduct training sessions in 3D immersive virtual learning environment, simulate business processes, and prototype new products.
Religion
Religious organizations have also begun to open virtual meeting places within Second Life. In early 2007, LifeChurch.TV, a Christian church headquartered in Edmond, Oklahoma, and with eleven campuses in the USA, created "Experience Island" and opened its twelfth campus in Second Life.
With more and more people cashing in on Second Life, the most pressing question may be, how many can benefit before the boom times end? Wharton professor Dan Hunter, an expert on law and virtual worlds, said Second Life's relatively small size makes its economic future hard to predict. But virtual worlds are becoming spaces where "globalization of services can occur," he said. "In SL, services are valued. 'Hey, I can provide something that someone else wants! And I can make money from it!' The expansion of the economy is almost certainly going to be dependent on expanding the service opportunities." This, said Hunter, "can be generalized to a range of services -- a tremendously important trend in employment in the 21st century?
Education
Here are a few Universities which hold classes on Second Life
Harvard Law School's Austin Hall - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Berkman/69/54/24/
Hong Kong Polytechnic University, School of Hotel & Tourism Management - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Polyusotel/114/158/26/
New Media Consortium Campus (private sim, Electric Sheep build, free sign up for access; overview movie) - http://slurl.com/secondlife/NMC%20Campus/142/223
Ohio University Second Life Campus - http://slurl.com/secondlife/ohio%20university/20/36/24/
Bowling Green State University Virtual Campus - http://slurl.com/secondlife/bowling%20green%20state/140/140/140/
Northern Illinois University, Glidden Campus - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Glidden/88/166/30/
Saint Leo University, St Leo Florida http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Saint%20Leo%20University/252/127/23
The Sistine Chapel (Vassar Island) - http://slurl.com/secondlife/vassar/165/91/24
Democracy Island (NYLS) - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Democracy%20Island/116/220/
Info Island (Incorporating SL & ICT Libraries, TechSoup) - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Info%20Island/52/193/
Virtual University of Edinburgh ( Vue ) - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Vue/205/53/30
Embry - Riddle Aeronautical University Daytona Beach Florida http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/ERAU%20Worldwide%20IDD2/30/125/28
Science and Health
Second life Health education (pbwiki) (Navid Tomlinson) - http://healtheducationsl.pbwiki.com/
UC Davis' Virtual Hallucinations (James Linden) - http://slurl.com/secondlife/sedig/27/45/22/
Heart Murmur Sim (medical assessment experiment, built 3/06) - http://slurl.com/secondlife/waterhead/130/37
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Second Life - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Juwangsan/218/223
Second Health - Imperial College, London - Local Hospital Polyclinic
Second Life Medical Library 2.0/Consumer Health Library/HealthInfo Island - SLurl 1 SLurl 2 . SLurl 3
Spaceport Alpha (incorporating International Spaceflight Museum and Second Life Planetarium by Chaac Amarula) - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Spaceport%20Alpha/23/51/22/
Solar Eclipse Planetarium (Aimee Webber) - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Midnight%20City/94/76/27/
Svarga (Laukosargas Svarog's virtual eco-system) - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Svarga/128.0/128.0
NOAA's Virtual Island - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Meteroa/177/161/27/
A Sexual Health SIM in Second Life (University of Plymouth) - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Education%20UK/33/63/22 ( info )
Genome (Biology, Genetics) - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Genome/130/130/48
