For those of you that don't know, there are a vast number of ways of making real money in the virtual world of Second Life.
Rather than me explaining it to you, you really need to have a look at the website, and maybe download and try it. It is 100% free to start with. You can choose to pay money into it, once you've seen what it has to offer.
Second Life: Your World. Your Imagination.
Don't get me wrong, there is no real Get rich quick scheme here, you still have to work pretty hard for many weeks to see a good result, mainly because it takes a long time to get used to the environment, interface, and business models involved. But the real beauty of Second Life is that there are many opportunities for "build once, sell forever". (That's going to become my catchphrase, I can see it).
The bottom line with Second Life is that it allows you to make money from your creative side. The 3D modeller is really easy for anyone to use so if you have ANY experience in designing clothing, furniture, jewellery, buildings, or you just have an artistic side to you, you may find that Second Life is a really enjoyable pasttime for you. It really is about enjoying the experience, the money is a byproduct. The more you put into it, the more you get out.
You can also transfer other skills into the game, such as event organisation, scripting, DJing, or even just talking dirty. Yes, there is a massive sex industry in Second Life, well, come on, it is just an evolution of the web itself, what did you expect?
For those of you who can't understand how or why a virtual world can pull in real cash, check out the figures on the main website. It might be a pyramid scheme in essence, but I would say it does offer some true value to the bottom of the pyramid. I have personally made several very good friends through Second Life and would fully recommend it as a way of meeting people. A woman buying a beautiful virtual dress is going to be just as effective as buying a real one, and for the same reasons. As well as the bottom rung, many businesses that run in Second Life need other people to help their business run, for example a furniture designer may hire a scripter to make their piece of furniture do something, and an animator will also be involved to ensure when someone sits on the furniture their character will look as if they are "lounging".
My Experiences
I played Second Life for many months and investigated many of the money making opportunities. I went to real life meetings with people who play the game, and met a lot of very talented people who make their entire livings from this game. (There were professional animators, artists, and even writers!)
I had a casino, a sex club, and I traded "real estate". Then I started building. I made money from every one of these ventures.
The real estate was a good way of doubling my money overnight, as I could see what was cheap and managed to sell it for more by doing nothing simply because the prices varied so much for no apparent reason...so I wouldn't say this was a particularly stable method, but if you mess about with 50 quid you should be able to make a good profit within a week.
The club and casino require a bit more research. The casino just consisted of free machines I managed to find by doing a search for "freebies" and I had to buy the land, but people just came. The land was 512sqm for about US$30 but when you've finished with it you can just sell it off anyway, you're unlikely to lose anything unless some idiot decides to build walls all around it. It took about 2 weeks to make that $30 back, but that will depend on your advertising, and Second Life has strict rules about advertising casinos now so this is harder than it used to be. However, if you're happy to leave the $30 investment in there, you can just leave it to earn cash while you sleep!
The sex club involved buying a bed which had sexual animations programmed into it for about US$20 (again, it was a one-off sale so I can sell this again in a "Yard Sale" to make my money back). I then built a "sky box", a secret room in the sky, where I put the bed. I then bought a teleporter which charged people to teleport to this secret room. It was an attraction just like the casino, only easier to advertise and got "noobs" in their droves.
These exercises bored me, despite being profitable, so eventually I became an actual Second Life Builder. I don't know if it's just me, but I found it extremely easy and very satisfying creatively, so I became a "Builder for Hire". I also did a bit of scripting too, but then I've always been pretty good at programming and that kind of thing so it may or may not be for you.
I had to offer my services for free to start with in order to prove myself but it didn't take long to get working on some big jobs. It really helps if you chat to people, make friends, and join Groups. As in real life, social interaction is a great business boost.
Now I have a shop in a store that I pay nothing to rent because I helped build the store! And in that store I sell hoverboards that I built. Another "build once, sell forever" opportunity! I hope to add more stuff to the store when I get a bit more time to build stuff.