We love Second Life for many reasons. It’s a wonderful creative outlet and social channel. Linden Lab has the balance just right which allows Second Life to be a social platform, support online gaming (role playing), and be a true virtual world (where you can create almost anything and engage in commerce).
The creation tools and land ownership combined with ecommerce make it a powerful platform that spans both personal and professional endeavors. This makes it viable for use as a personal social tool (such as Twitter and facebook – think of your Second Life home or favourite hang-out as a Facebook page), a collaborative tool (corporate meetings, college and university extensions), and a business opportunity (creating and selling items, buying and selling land, event planning, corporate branding and product demonstration, and so on).
These factors are what brought us into Second Life. The iliveisl estate is evolving into a wonderful group of collaborative people that understand the ups and downs of Second Life. Being an evolving platform, Second Life has its share of challenges – crashes, lagginess, service outages, and so on.
Those who understand this and can roll with it, tend to stay in Second Life and find success.
We have seen our share of n00bs that come in to start clubs, shops, and event planning with the thought that they will make serious money in the first few weeks. Just like in real life, making money takes a clear vision, a business plan, and persistence plus passion.
But . . . for those that persist; success often follows. Building a shop and having great products is a start, but you have to market yourself dilligently.
That’s why you see us talk about Twitter. Twitter has yielded the best results for us so far. We are in Facebook, LinkedIn, Ning social groups, Second Life forums, Flickr, YouTube, blip.tv, and even CraigsList. We have the standard necessities as well, with a website and this blog.
All of these “social tools” are what almost everyone needs to be successful in Second Life or other lives. You simply have to get the word out, yourself, about what you have to offer. There are over 32,000 sims in Second Life. What are you doing to be noticed?
So, as a business, where is the iliveisl estate going?
Continual growth is a given. We are looking at adding an Adult sim to Enercity.
Why adult? The changes in content rules by Linden Lab makes it almost difficult to not have everything rated as Adult.
Even the self-serve martinis in Enercity Park and in the Eville Atomic Lounge changes their sim’s ratings from PG to Mature.
