See the (Virtual) World for L$3 a Day

by Kavella Maa | September 23, 2009 | No comments

One of the first things a new Second Life player thinks, upon hearing that Lindens can be turned into Real Actual Money, is, “How do I get some of that without working too hard?” Except, of course, they soon realize they’ll need to keep all their L$ in game so they can buy or rent the stuff required to maintain their preferred standard of Second Living. But the sentiment remains. There’s free lunch to be had, by golly! Let’s grab a bite!

One of the free nibbles I’ve stumbled upon (being as easily tempted by free dough as anyone) is Earn2Life.com.  It’s pay-per-click advertising, SL style. You get paid for visiting places, adding places to your picks, and, if you’re not particularly proud, walking around with a sandwich board on your avatar trying to get people to click on you.

You start out at the Earn2Life headquarters, where you’ll acquire the all-important E2L HUD. Then you’ll wear it and teleport to the landmarks it gives you. With the Pay4Picks program, you’ll collect picks and leave them in your profile for a month or two. With Pay4Visit offers, you’ll hang around for the prescribed amount of time, shuffling your feet and occasionally clicking the pulsing red button on the HUD to prove you’re not away from keyboard.

Both programs accumulate L$ in your Earn2Life account–not the “$1000 per day” that they advertise in the SL Employment Classifieds, true, but a few Lindens here and a handful there. It’s not unusual to get L$3 for a one-minute Pay4Visit or L$20 for a two-month Pay4Pick, and a good bit more than that when sexually explicit wares and services are involved. If you were wondering why my Profile Picks read like a cross between Skymall and a skin mag’s table of contents, that would be why.

To get the dough out of E2L and into SL, you log in to the E2L website, click on “Earnings,” and then “Withdraw.” Four days later, your Lindens are available via E2L ATM. You’ll find the ATMs at the E2L HQ and at some of your favorite malls and casinos.

In the course of my daily E2L dabbling, I end up at some… interesting places. Clap your eyeballs on this blog twice a week or so and I’ll tell you about ‘em.