You scoffed when I said I could make real money in Second Life. Admit it, you scoffed. Well, here I am, just one day later, and I’ve already more than tripled my supply of Linden dollars. I now have 229 of them, or roughly 76 cents in United States currency.

Since I’m still US$99.24 short of my goal of earning a C-note without investing a penny, I’ve still got some work to do. And so I’ve come up with a brilliant two-stage plan.

The best way to earn money in Second Life is to be a builder. Every single thing in that world, from the loftiest spire to the smallest grain of sand, was created by one of the Second Life residents, using the game’s built-in building tools. Any player who wants to own anything must build it himself, or buy it from a builder. Most folks choose to buy stuff.

Since the game launched in 2003, a great many players have built a great many objects. The trick is to find something that hasn’t been built, that lots of players would want, and build it. That’s how I will make my Second Life fortune.

But here I am getting ahead of myself; I can’t do that part yet, silly! I’m still learning how to use the building tools, and even if I had an awesome object to sell, I have no money to promote it, and no land to put a storefront! So here’s what I’m doing first.

Stage One: Become a cause célèbre

Starting tomorrow, I will begin promoting Macon Hay as a Second Life celebrity, or at least a curiosity: “Macon Hay, the man who wants a hundred dollars,” or something. I’ll send out a press release, and I’ll sell buttons and posters and things. When I’m a celebrity, it will be cool to give me a few Lindens. “Have you given money to Macon Hay yet?” will be the question on everyone’s lips. “Oh, you simply must!”

If 300 players each gave me a hundred Linden dollars (which is really chump change), I would have my L$30,000 and could declare victory. But I don’t really expect that. I do think I could raise maybe a tenth of that, though, and that would be just enough seed money to launch Stage Two.

Stage Two: Build something awesome, and sell it!

While I’m earning seed money as a celebrity, I’ll be designing and building my cool, awesome thing. I already know what it will be; I’m sure there isn’t one already in the world; and I know that I can sell quite a few of them. No, I can’t tell you what it is yet. But if I sell 30 of them for L$1000 apiece, I’ll get my C-note.

Scoff at that, you scoffer.

NEXT: Kind of like gambling.