Arguably, the lead innovation models come not from real world companies hoping to import their services into the virtual environment but from the in-world eco-system where virtual start-ups have sprung up to support residents. Though profits may be tiny in real worldterms20, (L$275 = approx US$1), Linden surveys have determined that 90% of such businesses have a ‘Positive Monthly Linden Dollar Flow’ (PMFL) relative to the cost incurred in participating.

Virtual-to-virtual businesses commonly re-invest in-world rather than transfer any gains into real world currency, and instead are experimenting with new business models such as building incentive structures for scouting, and introducing reward systems for producer-users. These ideas may point the way ahead for virtual world business models over time - with likely flow-on effects to real world business needy of new ways to monetise services which ‘pull’ consumers demand, when and how they want it.

Goods can be purchased on site or through virtual trading posts such as SLXchange and SLBoutique.

Popular items include building components, in-world games, avatar apparel,furniture, weaponry, animation such as dance moves, mouth movement, even interactive body parts. As in the real world, users love to have their avatars meander through retail precincts and try demo’s of animations, hairstyles or clothing, even entire avatar skins.

Many malls are equipped with ATM amenities where users can top up their Linden accounts. The name of the creator hovers above the object. Clicking on it involves a debit of Lindens from the purchasers account and unlike ordering online, the goods, albeit virtual, arrive the instant a payment is made.

The wild card for small scale developers is that ‘cool’ designs are much in demand. A small idea can catch on and spread rapidly, with its creator having the right to fabricate and exploit it in the real world.

Content creation drives innovation. Entrepreneurs abound, developing in-world services to enhance resident life.

Virtual newspapers can be picked up at newsstands. One click and they lodge in your inventory. Graphically luscious magazines, dedicated to SL business, fashion, design and arts/culture are strategically located at popular shopping areas.

One intriguing business tool is the ‘Sales Droid’, a fully customisable sales assistant which seeks out avatars, starts a conversation with them and gives out the items related to a product/business. The Droid then emails its owner with an inventory of contacts for follow-up business.

Residents can also put their avatars to work. They can become employed as mannequins, or ‘campers’, unmanned avatars who rest at an appointed site to make it appear more populated. Club owners or events with promotional tie-ins are likely employers. The campers may have animations assigned to them such as browsing a shop, cleaning windows or dancing in a night club. This adds appeal to a location and boosts traffic to the site, as avatars flying overhead see groups assembled and presume there is something interesting going on. Like Google, higher traffic also raises a site’s profile on the events and locations menus.

Savvy corporate early-adopters therefore see Second Life as a lightning rod to identify the habits and needs of participants within 3D collaborative social worlds.

There are as many opportunities for innovation and profit in the Second Life world as in the Real World. Open a nightclub, sell jewelry, become a land speculator; the choice is yours to make. Thousands of residents are making part or all of their real life income from their Second Life Businesses.