Making 30k-50k A Year Selling On Second Life, Is It Possible?

[MaximusBellus]

I met this guy on the Internet in 2009, he is a shut in who has no friends that he knows in person. He claims that if he dedicated more time to developing 3d models for his store then he can easily make 30,000-50,000$ a year. He said he would work 4-6 hours a day creating 3d items for his store to achieve that goal.

Is this possible? Or do very few people ever achieve profits like this? I have no background in 3d design nor do I plan on getting into this, I am just curious.

 

[Sassy Romano]

Yes it's possible.  The majority don't make that.  When LL used to post the statistics, that amount would put them in around the > 0.5% of top earners.

[Qie Niangao]

How much do you think the average SL user is willing to spend on user generated content in a year -- not land or anything, just items bought in-world or on Marketplace? How many hundreds (thousands?) of those average people need to exist to support just one of the "30k-50k A Year" earners?

In an earlier version of this thread, you'd linked a creator's Marketplace site. Just between us, that was a pretty sorry assortment of dreck, so if he's making that kind of money, he's a heck of a lot better at sales than "developing 3d models."

[Phil Deakins]

Yes it's still possible, imo, but very few ever achieved it.

[irihapeti]

assuming that you made hair (which is the biggest selling item in SL according to Ebbe Linden) and most hair goes for about 250-300L then would need to sell about 500-580 hair each week to gross $US30k +

[Parrish Ashbourne]

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Sassy Romano wrote:

Yes it's possible.  The majority don't make that.  When LL used to post the statistics, that amount would put them in around the > 0.5% of top earners.

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And that included all types of income in SL, I imagine most 0.5% are estate owners.

The other statistic on income that I though did a good job telling how many people make it in SL was that some thing like <85% made over 100$ a month.

[KarenMichelle Lane]

Let's see.  When I owned 6 full regions I was collecting a gross income about $1800 USD per month. After expenses which included $295 USD per month per region and my advertising costs, I was able to save into my rainy day fund [the pad i used when summer vacancies kept me in the red income wise] my net income of $30 USD.  Yup I was rolling in dough.

[Parrish Ashbourne]

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KarenMichelle Lane wrote:

Let's see.  When I owned 6 full regions I was collecting a gross income about $1800 USD per month. After expenses which included $295 USD per month per region and my advertising costs, I was able to save into my rainy day fund [the pad i used when summer vacancies kept me in the red income wise] my net income of $30 USD.  Yup I was rolling in dough.

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It's hard to compete with the large estates that have hundreds of grand fathered sims.  In you case, if your 6 sims had been grandfathered, that would have been an extra 600$ a month. 

[Phil Deakins]

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Phil Deakins wrote:

Yes it's still possible, imo, but very few ever achieved it.

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I'm replying to my own post because I've had a change of mind since I wrote it.

I'm no longer of the opinion that such large profits can be made by selling stuff, because of the marketplace. Before the marketplace, stuff was sold in inworld stores, and that's where those of us who made that sort of money sold our stuff. These days, the marketplace offers a place where I think most people shop, and where a vast number of people try to sell, and it's that vast number of sellers that has probably put paid to making large amounts of money by making and selling stuff. They don't have to pay for land any more, which is why a vast number of people sell in the marketplace, as compared to pre-marketplace selling

I'm unclear whether or not the OP is talking about selling in the marketplace, or about selling in the SL market, which is both inworld and the marketplace. If he is talking about both, then making money from land hasn't changed. If a person can put enough money into it, they can get plenty of money out of it. Years ago, I remember a land baron stating that the most you can make by rentals on a sim is about US$200 a month, which agrees with a post in this thread. Put enough money in, and lots of US$200 adds up.

[MaximusBellus]

Alright, so if a person was selling in game and from the market place then could they make 30,000-50,000$ a year? Or is it still very hard to do that and only 0.5-1% of sellers actually make that much or more?

[Perrie Juran]

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MaximusBellus wrote:

Alright, so if a person was selling in game and from the market place then could they make 30,000-50,000$ a year? Or is it still very hard to do that and only 0.5-1% of sellers actually make that much or more?

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It could be done but you have to have things people really want.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/oliverchiang/2010/10/27/creating-a-1m-virtual-goods-brand-in-second-life/

As to how many people make that much money today, there is no way for us to know.  LL does not post those numbers.  So it could be more or it could be less. 

[Bobbie Faulds]

That's a very old article. Stiletto Moody is actually no longer in SL or on the MP. The shoes were overly scripted and they were either unable or unwiling to change in the face of the Slink mesh feet that have become the newest thing and left SL.

[Perrie Juran]

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Bobbie Faulds wrote:

That's a very old article. Stiletto Moody is actually no longer in SL or on the MP. The shoes were overly scripted and they were either unable or unwiling to change in the face of the Slink mesh feet that have become the newest thing and left SL.

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I was aware it was an old article. I only posted it as an illustration of my point. 

I know girls who still wear their Moody's on occasion and at least IMHO still some of the prettiest shoes to grace a woman's foot in SL.  Prettier than anything currently on the Market.

And if he made as much as claimed, well, I could retire very easily on that. 

[Phil Deakins]

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MaximusBellus wrote:

Alright, so if a person was selling in game and from the market place then could they make 30,000-50,000$ a year? Or is it still very hard to do that and only 0.5-1% of sellers actually make that much or more?

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I think it would be much more difficult these days than it was before the marketplace, and it was very difficult before the marketplace. There were external plces to shop back then but most shopping was done inworld. It doesn't hurt to try though.

[Rhys Goode]

Fitted mesh avatars are quite popular right now, and some of the popular brands have sold thousands of copies at $L3000 - $L4000 a pop.  Selling 3000 items at $L3000, gets you right to $36000.  I've talked to some of the creators, who claim to have sold them in such numbers, and I run into enough instances of people wearing them out and about in the world, that I have no reason to doubt the claims.

On the other hand, I do not know the size of the market for such toys, but it will surely saturate, so you had better have some other good ideas in the wings...  Oh, and who knows when the rumored SL2 will come along, effectively pulling the plug on any such enterprise.

So, my take is that with the right idea, good skills, and hard work you still make $30 - $50 k in *a particular* year, but doing it year after year would be very, very hard.  So, don't quit your day job.

[bebejee]

Why was my post removed?

[Pussycat Catnap]

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Rhys Goode wrote:

Fitted mesh avatars are quite popular right now, and some of the popular brands ...

On the other hand, I do not know the size of the market for such toys, but it will surely saturate, ...

So, my take is that with the right idea, good skills, and hard work you still make $30 - $50 k in *a particular* year, but doing it year after year would be very, very hard.  So, don't quit your day job.

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Basically you have to be the person(s) that turns something into a massive fad.

Anshe Chung for land

xCite for talking genitals

Meeroos for breedables

coldLogic for mesh clothing

Lolas for attachable boobies

TMP for mesh bodies

 

- everybody else gets your leftovers. If they're lucky or smarter and you are not, they take your place - which is potentially happening in the female mesh body field (and likely why TMP's male body came out when it did - to give them a new market to move into as they lose the old one).

Find the next fad, before it is such, and you can cash in.

 

[Bobbie Faulds]

Scion chickens actually started the breedables though Meeroos are cuter

Mesh hands and feet and then the body, that's all Slink. You can't look at any shoes now without them being Slink compatible. The first mesh body was actually Wowmeh, but the maker chose not to fight the DMCA filed. Same for the maker of Phat Azz. Slink made it more mainstream. Belleza and Maitreya have solidified mesh bodies as out of the fetish corner and into mainstream.

The price quoted for mesh bods are the range Maitreya, Belleza and TMP are in. I'm quite sure that those sales figures are correct, but remember, that's the rush when they are released. The item has to be something people will want that is more sustainable over the long haul. The actual range for mesh bodies is from 800-5000L for the initial body. Quality skin makers that make the appliers for the bodies as well as those that make clothing/shoe/hair will probably make more in the long run.

[Pussycat Catnap]

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Bobbie Faulds wrote:

Scion chickens actually started the breedables though Meeroos are cuter

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Scion chickens started it. But it went nuts all over SL and not just a smaller group with Meeroos.

- That's the key. Not to invent the thing, but to make it a fad.

Like the iPod and the iPad - not the first mp3 player, and not the first tablet. But most people cannot name the ones that came before...

 

If you want to "get rich in SL" (/rolleyes)... you need to find something and make it the next fad.

 

[Tari Landar]

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Pussycat Catnap wrote:

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Bobbie Faulds wrote:

Scion chickens actually started the breedables though Meeroos are cuter

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Scion chickens started it. But it went nuts all over SL and not just a smaller group with Meeroos.

- That's the key. Not to invent the thing, but to make it a fad.

 

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If you want to play the "who came first" game, Ozimals was massive before Meeroos were even a thought, much less popular. Ozimals is also stillquite popular among the breedables, far more popular than meeroos in reputation alone, but that probably depends on who you ask.

Ozimals made it a fad with their beta phases, and then brought it to the grid on a massive scale with their hunt and opening. In fact Ozimals took what was a dying market, due to the effects of Sion, and brought it to life. That paved the way for every other breedable on the market.

But, sion wasn't the first breedable, either, it was simply the first to be openly released to the entire grid(regardless of its popularity, which was actually larger than most want to admit, it just didn't last long due to the functionality).

Of course I'm a bit of a breedable nerd, so I probably follow the entire market, objectively, a lot closer than some might.

[bebejee]

Anyways regarding Stiletto Moody, they werent that great according to posters at the third party forum, SM had others designing things for them, paid them peanuts and that too not on time, then sold the stuff overpriced, their shoes were just for that time, when people though expensive meant status.

[chrismignon McDonnell]

Are you sure this is dollards? and not Linden L$

[Lexia Moonstone]

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chrismignon McDonnell wrote:

Are you sure this is dollards? and not Linden L$

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I'm pretty sure they meant Dollars, 50,000 L$ a year is only about 962 L$ a week, I've made that much just playing linden realms 2 hours a day.

[Perrie Juran]

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bebejee wrote:

Anyways regarding Stiletto Moody, they werent that great according to posters at the third party forum, SM had others designing things for them, paid them peanuts and that too not on time, then sold the stuff overpriced, their shoes were just for that time, when people though expensive meant status.

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Their business practices are a separate issue from the quality of the designs that they sold.

[Bobbie Faulds]

Fair enough. Scion was just the first one I heard about...as a complaint because of the scripting.