There are many ways to begin your SL journey. As I am from an investment background, I took interest in the SL Capex and have invested bit of spare money into it. I returned 40% at one stage on capital growth. The dividends are generally around 1% per month on a 'good' company.
The returns from this covers any business development costs and allow me to grow my SL account.
Several factors led me to invest a bit of money to SL, they include:
Computing improvements in many countries allowing the use of SL platforms as previously many general computers would not run SL. This will allow the SL user base to grow.
With the economy changing and over time it will be a growth phase again, people will have money to blow and some may take interest in SL, driving the online economy higher.
High risk often brings high returns when used right and the monthly dividend is great.
As for other ways of making money in SL, I have not ventured this way yet, but will consider using my dividends to grow a business over my spare time.