It has been quite some time since I wandered into Second Life. When last I opened up Linden Lab’s virtual world my biggest problem was there was just “too much” to do. I got tired of flying through strange techno night clubs, and avoiding spammers tossing gray goo at my avatar. Thus, after about a week of experimentation I put Second Life away, and vowed never to return again.

OK, so I lied.

After spending some more time exploring my Second Life, I’ve come across some tips to help you get the most out of your virtual existence.

Beginners Tips

First and foremost, I suggest that you start slow. When you first enter Second Life, you will end up on an island with other new avatars. Take this time to really get a feel for the controls. Explore the clothing and avatar design features and make your way through all the tutorials.

The glowing hands are your friends. Each of them will present you with a note card, these note cards will give you some really great advice on how to put together your first avatar. For those of you without the patience to read. Take a look at this video, it’ll give you some more hints on character creation.

Tip: One of the biggest things people ask when they’re first starting out in Second Life is, “can I run this on Linux?” The answer is, sort of, they currently have an ALPHA version of the client for Linux, use at your own risk.

Things To Do

The next thing you might be wondering is now that you have a cool avatar, what should you do? Second Life has just about anything that you could want, all in virtual form. It’s easy to get a bit overwhelmed. Here are a few locations that should amuse you while you’re trying to get your bearings.

The Great Outdoors

Second Life is known for it’s beautiful vistas and amazing virtual landscapes, why not take some time out of your day to explore them? One of the most interesting is Neo-Realms Fishing camp. It provides all of the joy of sitting around doing nothing with a couple of friends, without forcing you to leave the comforts of your living room. If you want to take a peek, here is your one way pass.

The Nightlife

This is where Second Life becomes a little strange. Visiting a club or two is a nice diversion, but know what you’re getting yourself into. Many of these places take a hedonistic nod from everything from Amsterdam’s Red Light District to the raunchiest college town night club. The point is that viewer discretion is advised.

For those with slightly more refined tastes, check out The High Society. It’s a really cool little locale, and if you’re lucky you might catch some live music.

The Future

I think the absolutely best part of Second Life is what researchers are doing with it. Here are a few projects that you just have to check out while you are there.

The Crooked House of Seifert Surface

Inspired by Robert A. Heinlein’s short story about hypercube’s, The Crooked House will have you bouncing around for hours.

The Port

The Port is the art museum of the future. If you are in the mood to see some incredible, exciting and otherworldly sculptures this is the place to go. I hear that some of the artists there are sponsored by the Swedish government.

International Spaceflight Museum

A timeline from the beginning of the Space Age to the present, complete with lectures and a planetarium, a must see.

In no particular order, here is a list of other ways you can use your Second Life.

  • Explore
  • Make Friends
  • “Gank some newbs” in the Outlands
  • Create your masterpiece with the prim tools
  • Upload sounds and other creations into the world to use
  • Collaborate with others on large projects
  • Start a business

Starting A Business

You’ve probably heard that there is “gold in ‘dem darn hills”. In this case, the hills I am referring to are Second Life’s and the gold is cold, hard cash. It’s true, you can indeed make money within the halls of Second Life. One of the best ways to do so is to start your own business. In order to start a business, the first thing you will need to do is to upgrade to a premium account at the cost of $9.95 per month.

If you want to see what a huge construction project in Second Life looks like, take a look at this video from the Center of Digitial Media.

How can you make something like this? Well, might I suggest hiring a developer or co-opting a few design extremely talented design students. You might not be able to create something quite of this scale, bu purchase a bit of land and you can at least start working on your virtual presence. In time, who knows?

Land Prices

For as little as $5 a month, you can purchase a few acres of land to start building your Web 2.0 enabled, virtual business empire (a complete list of land prices can be found here).

The Business

Now that you have your parcel of land, what should you do? Well, here are a few business ideas that work well in this virtual world. The point is, use your strengths. If you are an audiophile, maybe you should be a live musician. If you are a graphic artist, you could design avatars for others. If you are a coder, someone probably needs some scripting help. Here are a few more ideas to whet your appetite.

  • Game developer
  • Real estate agent
  • Tattoo Artist
  • Automotive designer
  • Fashion designer
  • Architect
  • Tour guide
  • Publicist

There are a host of other ideas for business’ available to you. It’s just like the real world, all you have to do is find your niche and let the world be your oyster.

Web 2.0 Roundup

Business Week had a great article on starting a business in Second Life, I think there is a lot of good information there. Here are some tips that I found to be particularly interesting.

Define your brand experience. Some companies make the mistake of turning to virtual worlds for incremental revenue. Even though there is real money moving through Second Life, it does not yet produce a meaningful revenue stream for companies. Instead, focus on defining the core aspects of your brand and translating your products into virtual ones.

Measure real-world results at regular intervals. Think of Second Life as a complement to, not a replacement for, a standard Web site or real-world presence. Even though only about 40 avatars attended a press conference with Mark Warner, former tech entrepreneur and Democratic Governor of Virginia, it was covered more widely by bloggers and the mainstream media than just another flesh-and-blood town hall meeting.

Here’s one from me.

Love your new world. Like anything else, real success will come if you truly enjoy what you do. Starting a business in Second Life should be a pleasant adjunct to your real world enterprise. If you find yourself frustrated by the system, then maybe Second Life is not for you. There is just not enough money in it yet to waste valuable time trying to squeeze something of productive value out of a world you’re simply not interested in.

Hopefully these tips have given you more reason to give Second Life a look, if you have stories, tips, or additional information, drop me a line or comment here.

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