In the virtual world Second Life many people talk about owning land and starting a business. Most likely the two go hand in hand because nobody really wants to start a business if they are renting property. The reason for that is if they don’t own any land and need a place to sell their products or services then they are going to have to rent the land from the owner or they are going to have to share their proceeds with the land owner. Now renting doesn’t seem so bad when you are first getting started, but eventually you are going to want to have your own place to run your business.
Difficulty rating: Easy
Step one:
The first thing that you are going to need to do is to create a Second Life account. But something that you need to keep in mind is that in order to own land you are going to need to sign up for a premium account, which will cost you about $9.95 a month.
Step two:
Now that you have created your premium account you can move on to the actual steps you are going to need to take to get land. In Second Life there are a few different ways that you can go about getting land. You can buy land from other Residents, you can buy land in an auction or you can buy a private island. The method that works best for you will depend on how much land you want to buy and how much money you have to spend on land.
Step three:
The first way to get land is to buy it from other residents; this is actually a popular option because residents are always putting land up for sale. The first thing you need to do is to see what land is up for sale, to do this you are going to need to check out Second Life’s in world map to see what’s up for sale. Once you find what you are looking for you need to approach that resident and make an offer.
Step four:
You can also bid on land that is up for auction. To do this you need to go to the auction part of the Second Life website and choose which land you want to bid on. Once you have chosen the piece of land you want to bid on you need to place your maximum bid. The auction will continue to bid for you until it reaches the maximum bid you have allowed. You will be notified if you win the auction and everything will be handled automatically.
Step five:
If you want to purchase an island then you are going to need to go to the land store to either reserve your island or buy it outright. You can choose from six islands that Second Life has to offer or you can create and submit your own.
Step six:
Now that you own land you are ready to start a business, but you have no idea how to go about starting a business in Second Life. The first thing that you are going to need to do to start a business in Second Life is to create a product that you are going to be selling to the other residents. Remember that when creating your product you are going to want to create something that the other residents are going to want to buy and that other people are not currently selling.
Step seven:
Once you have designed your product and gotten the land for your store you are ready to sell to the public. Now that you are ready to go you are going to need to attract your potential customers to your store.
Step eight:
Basically what you need to keep in mind is that once you have gotten your business started you might want to get a scripter to keep on hand helping you figure out the glitches in your virtual business.