Making Your Mark in Second Life: Business, Land, and Money

Researching Your Business Strategy Within Second Life

Ultimately, if you want to start a business, you have to create things that people want. This should be no surprise. The market of Second Life is as varied as a metropolis, yet certain things leap out. If you simply wander around, you'll notice patterns: commonalities and differences in what people purchase. Some people will never change their clothing, reveling in the virtual convenience of not having to do laundry. Still others spend lots of time purchasing different clothing and styles of hair.

Just as in any other type of business, you have to know your market. This means research, but research does not have to be a studious activity. An easy way to do research is to float around and find places and things you enjoy—and get to know the people who enjoy them as well.

More disciplined research could mean parking your avatar in a busy store and watching what sort of avatars come and go—and more importantly, which items they purchase. You can learn a lot from simply standing around if you pay attention.

Perhaps the most important thing needed to design products to sell is to find products which you can not only create with good quality, but enjoy creating.

For instance, if you don't really like working on graphics, it is unlikely you will be successful at creating clothing or textures. If you don't like building or simply do not have the aptitude, you will not do well at that either. If you do not enjoy writing scripts, it is unlikely ...