Let's Have Fun on Empire Avenue !

I joined the social media exchange Empire Avenue and immediately got hooked. It's free & fun plus there is a fairly large Second Life presence so you can quickly and easily meet new friends. The basic idea behind Empire Avenue is to act as a virtual exchange where people and businesses can buy and sell "shares" in each other. You earn a virtual currency and use it to invest in others you think might do well. That's fun and it's especially fun to see your own stock rise but there's lots more to it than that.

Part of your "value" on the Empire Avenue Exchange is based upon your use of various social media. Your followers, tweets, views, subscribers, etc. on sites like Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Youtube, and your own blogs count toward your net worth on Empire Avenue. What this means is that active members of Empire Avenue tend to be active on social media sites. This means your activity on Empire Avenue translates more easily into social media connections with those who invest in you and those you invest in. Although I have not yet tried it, there is a way to "buy" ad space and promote yourself/business. Empire Avenue may be a good way to promote your SL business.

I'm creating more followers and following more people who I interact with on Empire Avenue at a much faster rate than any other online activity. So, my first take-away from Empire Avenue is that they have really hit upon a great way to promote social media connections. Plus, it is just fun.

If you do join or are already a member, my Empire Avenue profile is at http://www.empireavenue.com/PAND where you can research my connections, portfolio, and invest in me. If you are not yet a member of Empire Avenue, use http://empireavenue.com/?t=tr90uak to join and after you connect a Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, or Youtube account we both get 2,000e (the currency).

Tips for investing:

• Look for people with several active social media sites and good scores for those connections
• Check the Recent Arrivals tab in Search for newly registered people with good social media connections
• When investing in "blue chips" try to find a valued stock with a high dividend per share (0.25e or better) or, even better if you care to calculate it, dividend per dollar invested (see below)
• When investing in growth stocks buy new users at a low price and don't be afraid to sell when they plateau out after a few days
• I prefer people with nice profile pics and an interesting bio
• Look for people who are active on Empire Avenue
• Check out their blogs and other sites for number of followers and quality of content
• Invest your e-bucks as soon as you get em - usually when you invest in someone they invest back or people who invest in them invest in you - it's a sorta chain reaction
• Promote people in your portfolio - follow them on twitter, flickr, etc; subscribe on youtube, endorse any blog listed in their connections, and so on. This is how Empire Avenue fosters social media interaction!
• Invest in other Second Life residents! Think Global, Shop Local
• Invest in me :)

To calculate dividend per dollar start with the dividend per share figure you can get on the person's profile page. Simply divide this number by the share price. This gives you a better way to judge the value of a stock. For instance, a stock trading at 25e with a dividend per share of 0.2 will pay better dividends on a 5000e investment than a stock trading at 50e with a dividend per share of 0.3. Your 5000e buys you 200 shares of the first one and, at 0.2 div per share, would get you 40e in dividends while the same investment in the higher dividend per share stock would buy you 100 shares which, at 0.3 div per share, would pay you 30e in dividends. Of course, you still have to monitor your investments - everyday things change.

Have fun!

Pandorabot & Actorbot Add-On

Disclaimer: I am reviewing my own products in this post. They're cool relatively inexpensive products though so I forgive myself :)

The Pandorabot from Restless Studio is not your typical chat bot. Yes, it chats with you in local chat using an artificial intelligence programmed at pandorabots.com in the AIML programming dialect. However, the Pandorabot will also query Wikipedia for appropriate responses, check your spelling, send email, greet new arrivals, and deliver a notecard, landmark, and user guide. All for L$245 and consisting of only a single prim (the perched 3D sculpted parrot Pandorabot is 12 prims). If you don't have a place to rez objects there is a wearable 3D sculpted parrot Pandorabot (11 prims).

For an additional L$150 the Pandorabot can be integrated into an Actorbot to create a realistic 3D animated avatar bot that includes all the Pandorabot features as well as the programmability  of the Actorbot from Sine Wave. The Pandorabot Actorbot Add-On kit consists of a Pandorabot V4, an Actorbot integration script, and a script that can be used to position your Actorbot on a prim and animate it according to what is in that prim. Watch a demonstration Pandorabot Actorbot in this short YouTube video and visit the Restless Studio demonstration Pandorabot Actorbot.

Both the Pandorabot and Actorbot Add-On come with extensive documentation available in PDF online and plain text inworld. Here's a few photos to give you a sense of the Pandorabot look:

Pandorabots are available on the Second Life Marketplace (search for "Pandorabot Missy Restless" or just "Pandorabot"). The Pandorabot Actorbot Add-On is also available on the Second Life Marketplace (search for "Pandorabot Actorbot").

The PDF documentation for the Pandorabot and Actorbot Add-On is available online at http://www.scribd.com/missyrestless . There is also a Pandorabots Blog with lots of How-To's, many more pics, and updated info/links.

A Cheap Way to Buy Land in Second Life

A friend asked me for advice on buying land in Second Life. My reply might constitute a jumping off point for discussion of ways to acquire land in Second Life without incurring prohibitive costs. Here's my fairly brief advice on buying land in Second Life:

There are lots of ways to get land - all complicated and a hassle. Also not cheap. You could rent from someone. That is cheaper in the short term. But, rentals vary wildly both in weekly rent and prim allotment/size/quality. Buying can be just as cheap as renting but is more complicated. There's two kinds of land - the mainland controlled by Linden Labs and private estates. I own a parcel on the mainland. [Ed. note I just don't even mention Homesteads]

What I did was get a Premium account for $72/year. You can read about the account plans at http://secondlife.com/whatis/plans.php A premium account gets you benefits one of which is 512 sq m of land you can buy "tier free" meaning you pay no monthly fees. You also get 1000L signup bonus and 300L per week stipend. So, it works out cheaper than the alternative which is free basic account and leasing private land. But private islands are way way nicer than the mainland.

Here's the cost breakdown of what I am doing:
(assuming 250L = $1.00)

Premium membership $72 per year = 18,000L per year
Signup bonus (first year only)              -  1,000L first year
Weekly stipend 300L/wk                     - 15,600L every year

Net cost of Premium account = 1400L/year or $5.60 the first year & $9.60 subsequent years.

That is a generous estimate. The actual exchange rate is more like 260L per $1 and then when you want to turn your Lindens into US dollars there is a fee. So, it works out to be a bit more. Still, under $10 per year for the right to buy 512 sq meters. Then you have to find the land you want either at auction or resale. I don't know how much 512 goes for now but probably a few more bucks like maybe $5 but that is a one time cost as long as you maintain your Premium account.

The other thing wrong with my cost analysis is it assumes you cash out your Lindens. Actually you end up spending them on clothes and cool gadgets :)

That's my intro to buying land in Second Life on the cheap. I might also add it is possible to find Premium account holders who are also private estate owners/renters - those folks don't need their 512 sq m mainland tier allotment. If a mutually beneficial agreement can be reached, private estate Premium accounts can join a group land purchase and deed their 512 sq m to the group thus increasing the amount of tier free mainland available for purchase. The key words in that last sentence are "mutually beneficial" and "tier free".

Comments ? 

How to Make Money in Second Life

Money, Money Everywhere & Not A Linden To Drink
There are a lot of sites out there that try to give you the lowdown on how to make money in Second Life. That is, how to get Lindens, the virtual currency used there. Most of the tips you will read are aimed at new users (noobs, newbies) and include things like camping and picking money trees. Rarely, if ever,  will you find a site that provides advice on how to actually make any real money beyond the maybe 50L a day you can make camping and picking. Working for tips as a dancer or host is hardly any better at somewhere between 300L and 1000L per day (that's like $1 - $4 per day, U.S.). Let's do a quick overview of the various money making activities a Second Life resident might engage in. The actual tips are at the end.

Camping & Picking Money Trees
New residents find themselves with a generic avatar, few clothes, no dances, no animation overrider, stiff hair, few accessories, and zero Lindens with which to purchase any of these. A common way to bootstrap up as a newbie is to camp and pick money trees. Camping is becoming more and more difficult to find as Sims mature - you basically get paid a small amount for registering with a camper board and being there for some length of time. Money trees are exactly what they sound like - trees with money in the branches. Young avatars can locate money trees and pick the bills from the branches. These activities can earn you enough to at least get started purchasing low priced items plus you get to explore looking for money trees or looking around the Sim where you are camped. It's kind of a neat way to start and I got a feeling of satisfaction having bootstrapped from nothing and finding cheap affordable fairly nice clothing, hair, animations, and skin. But you will never make anything appreciable camping and picking plus once you are over 30 days old the money trees are no longer available.

Dancing, Hosting, & Escorts
Clubs are all over SL, closing and opening frequently. If you've improved your avatar looks sufficiently and have an engaging personality or know how to "emote" then it is not difficult to find a job in a club either as a dancer or host. These jobs, as do most every job in SL, have no salary and you work for some percentage of your tips - usually around 80%. Escorts can make even more in tips if you are willing to provide those services. All of these activities can make enough per week to sustain a rental and buy higher end clothing, skin, etc. Escorts who are willing/able to provide voice and cam services can make significant hourly tips but once you are doing this you may as well be working in an RL webcam service making 10 times as much. Working as a dancer in a club can be a lot of fun. Pick a club where you enjoy hanging out with clientele whose company you do not find abhorrent. Club jobs make a subsistence level of Lindens in tips (if you're good at it) and afford you the opportunity to meet a lot of people, make friends, and have fun.

Slave Market
There are actually slave auctions in Second Life. You can sell yourself for a fair market bid, pocket the Lindens, and do the bidding of your new Master. This, to me, seems like desperation but I am willing to entertain the possibility that for some it might actually be enjoyable. However, I would not recommend it. If you really do want to become a slave I recommend creating an alt for this. I subscribe to the philosophy of Kurt Vonnegut Jr. expressed in the opening of his novel "Mother Night" - you are what you pretend to be. I have known more than one friend who went from dancer to slave and none of these stories have turned out well. I would say the risk far outweighs any benefit and the benefit is meager unless slavery is your pleasure.

Virtual Real Estate Speculation & Event Planning
There are many ways to make money in Second Life. The primary big-time earners buy, develop, lease, and sell virtual real estate. This takes a significant investment and considerable effort but can potentially produce an excellent profit. Another highly profitable venture can be event planning but here we are not talking about the kinds of events most of you are familiar with (live music events, art gallery openings, rez day parties, weddings, ...). The money is in event planning and coordination for the Big Boys like IBM, Carnegie Mellon, University of Texas, etc.

DJ Premo Pop & I'm A Genius Skin Designer
For the overwhelming majority of us - those that do not have $50,000 laying around to invest in virtual real estate speculation and those of us who are not super-connected with Big Boy event planning - it's really very difficult to earn any appreciable amount of Lindens inworld. Perhaps you could become a really good DJ at a very popular club or design high-end skins but again, not something most of us will find ourselves doing.

Shopkeeper, Resell Vendor, Xstreet Products
One accessible route to money in Second Life is the sale of products. It really only takes a little time to learn how to create products in Second Life and the only limits are those of your imagination and SL scripting/building tools. Alternatively, you can simply resell other people's products for a hefty commission. Unfortunately, it seems most residents do not purchase what I have thus far created and the vendor reseller market has been over-saturated. Add to that the weekly cost of maintaining a storefront and you have a formula for Linden loss rather than profit.

I will say that the only SL activity that has created a steady profitable revenue stream for me personally is my Xstreet product sales. This requires some effort setting up but very little maintenance overhead and zero cost. Even though Xstreet sales may seem slow to zilch even one product selling infrequently can create a profitable revenue stream. Creating content is intrinsically worthwhile - you are contributing to both the evolution of Second Life and your own skills. It seems to me that content creation is the activity of choice in Second Life. However, unless you are creating high-end content like ultra beautiful skins, luxury vehicles, particle generators, battle huds, etc. then your revenue expectations are likely to be little more than that of a good dancer. Content creation, for me, is an end in itself and not a road to riches.

Photographic & Publishing Services, The Arts
Many residents with photo editing skills, desktop publishing backgrounds, or experience in the arts attempt to leverage these skills in Second Life. Competition in SL photography is fierce. It seems everyone thinks they are a photographer and the ease with which snapshots can be taken creates a fairly low barrier of entry. I managed to make about as much as a photographer as I made dancing but had to work a lot more at it. Turns out that photo editing skills in real life that pay upwards of $60 per hour make as little as 500L for a week's work in SL. Clients will contract for services then simply lose interest or not pay. I get a lot of kicks out of doing couples photo shoots, spending a few days editing the photos then by the time I return to the client with her beautiful partner photo spread they have broken up and she doesn't want the photos.

Publishing is even harder since most publications are distributed freely and the call for portfolios, catalogs, brochures, and other publications is thin. Generally publishing services can be considered an augmentation of a photography studio and not a source of revenue in and of itself but rather a way to offer your clients a full set of services. One way to utilize publishing expertise is in the creation of stand-alone books for sale on Xstreet which can potentially provide a long-term source of revenue.

Artists abound in Second Life and there is a wealth of fine art produced inworld. However, of all the activities reviewed here, being a Second Life artist probably provides the least revenue/worth ratio. It seems SL residents just do not support the arts to the extent that a valid business model can develop out of the arts. If you run a gallery don't count on making money.

The Tip
So, here is the tip. Don't try to make money in Second Life! Basically, it's a feudal economy with a few very rich land barons and a mass of peasants working for a percentage of tips at various menial jobs designed to draw traffic to a Sim in order to rank higher in search results in order to create traffic for the malls which generate revenue for the land barons.

The Real Tip
Here is the real tip - the best way to get Lindens in Second Life is to purchase them with money you earn in Real Life! I can spend 15 minutes finding loose change around my house and buy more Lindens with that than I could earn in Second Life in a day's work. The exchange rate is usually somewhere around 275-285 Lindens for $1 U.S. so maybe 2800 Lindens for $10 or approximately one hour's work at a San Francisco minimum wage job.

Second Life Premium Account
If you do end up deciding to purchase Lindens then you may want to consider the Premium Annual Second Life account. This is $72 per year and comes with a one-time first-time signup bonus, a 300L per week stipend, 512 sq meters tier free, a free Linden Home, and premium Support. That's about $56 per year of Lindens with a premium account. So, you are really paying about $16 per year for the other benefits. If you plan on owning or renting land and putting up a house this makes a premium account an excellent deal especially if you can manage to live on 512 sq meters since then you avoid all monthly tier fees.