What Is The Metaverse?
Before we learn how to make money in the metaverse, we must know what it is. The word “metaverse” has become a buzzword in technological circles. Some describe it as an entirely digital world you can enter and interact in. Others think of it as simply a different kind of internet experience that merges reality and virtual reality. However, most folks remain bewildered by the concept because it’s so new and elusive. Unfortunately, while the metaverse does have a few key elements, there’s no clear definition for it as of the moment. That’s because its very essence is still evolving and changing even today. Moreover, its pioneers are still in the process of fine-tuning and defining it. Nonetheless, while the metaverse is still taking shape, we can explain its current components and vision for the future. Mark Zuckerberg defines the metaverse as something like an “embodied internet.” You can both jump into an entirely digital reality or bring the digital world into the physical realm. In essence, it’s a “universe” you can experience through both virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). With that said, think of the metaverse as humanity’s attempt at overlapping the virtual and physical world. It’s like how an iPhone’s LiDAR scanner can bring IKEA furniture into your room with proper scaling. Alternatively, you can consider purchasing digital art through NFTs and blockchain technology as a peek into the metaverse economy. However, those are still only a fraction of what the metaverse is. That’s because it is ideally a parallel virtual universe where you can spend time in. Think of an entirely virtual reality or space you jump into once you put on a pair of VR/AR glasses. It has shops, malls, and everything the real world has – but virtual.
How To Make Money In The Metaverse: 11 Ways
Perhaps you’re looking to monetize this new technology and capitalize on becoming one of the early adopters. However, there’s still no clear handbook for “7 ways to profit from the Metaverse” right now. Thankfully, even though the technology it makes up is new, there are ways you can earn money through its components. Here are the 11 best ways you can do so today.
1. Create Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs)
Perhaps you’re a creative professional or hobbyist looking to break into the metaverse for profit. In this case, the most straightforward method of how to make something in the metaverse is by utilizing NFTs. Think of this as creating digital art and selling it to collectors around the world in a digital “art gallery.” Don’t understand how to make money with NFTs? It’s simple. All you must do is create any kind of digital art (or make scanned traditional art). You can even create other types of art or check out online tutorials about how to make NFT artwork. In the metaverse, all of your creations can automatically become NFTs you can put up in open marketplaces. If you’re not adept in creative work, you may also dive into the world of NFTs by opening art galleries. You can even become a “broker” of sorts and sell other people’s NFTs for a commission. Regardless of what role you take, the potential for NFTs is astronomical. There have even been auctions and bids for over $69 million at times. Of course, those kinds of sales come very rarely. Nonetheless, there’s certainly a ripe market for digital art ownership. It’s one of the most obvious ways how to make money in the metaverse.
2. Engage In Play-To-Earn Games
Can you work in Metaverse? If you want to learn how to make money in the Metaverse now, one of the “jobs” with the lowest barriers to entry is gaming. There are already several play-to-earn, blockchain-based games on the market that are growing rapidly like Axie Infinity. If you play more often, you’re more likely to earn assets that you can trade for real-world money. Regardless of what you decide to do, gaming is one of the more lucrative and concrete ways to reach the metaverse and make money in the virtual realm.
3. Trade Virtual Property
Buying and selling virtual property is another decent way how to make real money in the metaverse. Now, this may sound a little ridiculous at first. After all, you can’t live in a virtual space. However, despite this limitation, virtual real estate has a real market. Metaverse marketplaces like those in Decentraland or Axie Infinity are booming right now. With that in mind, you might desire to understand how to make money in the metaverse this way. There are several paths you can take. Firstly, you can engage in flipping real estate. This essentially means buying digital property and reselling them for a higher price when the demands are higher. You can also become a virtual broker and make commissions by connecting virtual merchants to potential customers. Moreover, you can become a sort of advisor to customers if you have more experience in this field. Apart from these, you can also manage real estate other people own. This is a great way to earn a bit of money as you oversee digital venues like concert halls. If you’re a bit more creative, you can also design and conceptualize real estate in the digital space. You can design any kind of virtual location like shopping malls, stadiums, or even homes. Finally, you can adopt a more classic approach to real estate and rent the land you purchase. You can even build establishments and infrastructure on the land you buy and rent it out later. Companies can rent these out for events or other purposes.
4. Make Use Of Advertisements
How do you make passive income in the Metaverse? Through attracting advertisers and companies who want to market their offerings to consumers. Anything that generates high traffic is bound to attract companies that want to put up ads. This is also the case for the virtual and digital spaces. We already see these ads in digital spaces like on our apps and social media websites. Now, those companies are flocking to the metaverse to maintain their virtual presence. How does this work? Firstly, like in the physical world, virtual malls and stores crop up everywhere in the metaverse. This means there are many spots brands can advertise their goods and offerings. If you happen to own or buy land in the metaverse, you can lease or sell VR ad space. It’s certainly one of the easiest ways to learn how to make money in the metaverse.
5. Create And Promote Events
During the pandemic, you might have heard about online concerts and events in unconventional places. Some Kpop groups or musical acts have even hosted concerts in places like Fortnite or the Sensorium Galaxy. With that said, creating and promoting events like these will certainly generate job opportunities for the general public. If you want to learn how to make money in the metaverse without technical skills, this is it. You can participate and earn money by being part of the promoters or hosts. If you have the skills and resources, you can even become an event organizer and earn through ticket revenue.
6. Engage In Virtual Travel And Tourism
Virtual tourism might not sound impressive at first glance. However, the technology within the VR landscape has developed quickly in the past few years. Virtual tourism is one of the up-and-coming ways how to make money in the metaverse. With that said, you can be part of the development team that creates these virtual tours. Of course, you’ll have to have some programming experience to enter the workforce. You can also become a concept or visual effects artist if you have the skills. Alternatively, you can get a less technical position as a virtual reality tour guide or travel agent. In this case, you’ll be the one hosting these VR travel experiences and guiding others during the journey. You can also connect potential clients to the best VR tours if you’re more inclined to be an agent.
7. Become A Metaverse Product Tester
If you want to learn how to make money in the metaverse, then becoming a part of its development is an obvious way to do so. As with any new product or service, companies developing products for the metaverse will need testers. This should ensure the quality of these products and help developers fine-tune their offerings. Your role as a tester is simple: use these products and provide feedback to the companies. It’s a fairly straightforward ordeal and shouldn’t require too much knowledge or experience. Moreover, the market for testers should increase soon as more companies invest in the virtual realm.
8. Get Into Education
Our education system took a hit when the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools to shut down operations around the world. In the absence of physical classes, our institutions had to turn to digital platforms as a substitute. Now that we’re slowly emerging from the pandemic’s aftermath, more and more people are seeing the potential of online schooling. It wouldn’t be surprising that the metaverse will become a more immersive and conducive space for virtual learning. There are benefits to this in that classes can become more customized and interactive. Moreover, more students can connect with those who don’t live in the same country or even continent. You’ll likely see more job opportunities for virtual lecturers and curriculum creators in the metaverse soon.
9. Create Digital Assets
Are you craving to learn how to make money in the metaverse? If you have any experience in creating 3D or VR assets and architecture, companies will want to hire you for their metaverse projects. That’s because the metaverse relies heavily on the sense of sight. After all, you can’t jump into a virtual world or bring it to our reality without 3D environments or assets. Whether that company is Meta, Microsoft, or some other virtual developer, your skills will certainly be useful. Even fashion designers have a place in this because fashion companies have also dipped their feet into the metaverse. High-end fashion brands like Louis Vuitton and Gucci are already working with virtual clothing. They even have potential NFT fashion items that are exclusive to the metaverse. These companies distribute their virtual clothing online – mostly through games – selling them as exclusive collectibles. Finally, you can also simply create virtual accessories for metaverse users. That’s because users within this universe will have to rely on an avatar to project themselves virtually. Of course, this means people will also want to “dress themselves up” in the digital realm for their peers. As a result, many people will want exclusive clothing, accessories, or even costumes to make themselves stand out. Having experience in 3D modeling will give you an edge in this as you can easily sell your work.
10. Create A Virtual Business
Creating and running a business used to be a difficult task with high barriers to entry. In the past, you had to put up a physical store in a busy location to see any success. However, the marketplace has shifted more and more to the digital landscape over time. More and more businesses open up online shops and set up delivery services as an alternative. ECommerce has grown so much that online shops can even surpass physical stores in sales. The same will be true for metaverse businesses. As more people engage with the metaverse, entrepreneurs will likely dive into the landscape as well. That’s especially true because you can more easily jumpstart a business in the digital landscape than in the physical world. With that said, you can make almost any enterprise you can think of. You can sell virtual fashion items or sports collectibles through your virtual shop. Moreover, you can even host entertainment hubs and build real estate agencies. It’s one of the easiest ways to learn how to make money in the metaverse as it’s not as technical.
11. Create Metaverse Games
One way for you to learn how to make money in the metaverse is by creating VR games. If you have grit and the will to learn, you can design and release end-to-end VR games. It doesn’t take too much technical skill to do so. You can even simply make virtual stories and use VR design platforms to make your game come to life. Of course, more advanced games might be more popular as people could be more willing to spend on them. Nonetheless, creating and monetizing simple games is a good start. Eventually, you might even be able to build more complex games with in-game currencies and transactions.
How To Access The Metaverse?
The metaverse might be an elusive concept, especially if you’ve never had experience with the technology. That’s understandable considering there’s no real infrastructure that houses the metaverse yet. As a result, learning how to get into the metaverse might be tricky and not exactly what you expect. The vision of the metaverse is sort of what you see in science fiction movies like Tron or Ready Player One. It consists of an entirely different world people populate, full of people’s avatars accessed via VR or AR. There are endless supplies of games, activities, shops, and facilities inside. Through it, you’ll ideally be able to mingle with friends and family and even go to work in a virtual space. However, that vision is far from what we have in reality. So far, all we have are experiences that sort of emulate the metaverse. Take, for example, the metaverse-like event Roblox hosted for Gucci’s 100th anniversary. Fortnite also attempted to host a similar event by conducting concerts by Ariana Grande or Travis Scott. Non-gaming platforms also host metaverse-like experiences like Meta’s Horizon Workrooms. With that said, we can only access the metaverse in separate chunks. For the most part, people can only access these experiences through their smartphones or computers. In the future, we’ll all hopefully have affordable sets of VR and AR glasses for a more immersive experience. Ideally, these will be as ubiquitous and essential as smartphones, becoming a central part of our everyday life. However, the hardware just isn’t there yet. Moreover, the infrastructure for it – including advanced blockchain technology or uninterrupted and universal internet access – is still underway.
Why Should You Invest In The Metaverse?
Is metaverse a good investment? The metaverse became a fixation for Silicon Valley and big-name companies in 2021. Many prominent individuals and corporations in tech are starting to invest in the metaverse and building its infrastructure. However, with everything in the virtual space being digital, does it truly make sense to invest in it? Moreover, how do I invest in metaverse if I find it a profitable investment? Let’s tackle all that you must know about investing in the metaverse. Firstly, there are already tons of money-making metaverse opportunities even now that the concept hasn’t taken shape yet. One of the biggest investments that are happening right now is in the virtual property space. The value of these virtual lands has increased by as much as 500%. This is, in part, thanks to big names believing in the technology. For example, Snoop Dogg invested in land, prompting an investor to purchase land in the same neighborhood for $450,000. This is only the start of the boom in virtual properties. In addition, Meta Platforms and Microsoft are also investing in the new technology as early as now. Hence, it’s unsurprising that Bloomberg analysts estimate that the metaverse will be worth $800 billion in two years. However, do note that the metaverse business model is still shaky and unstable as of right now. That’s because, apart from buying and selling NFTs, digital property, or engaging in virtual activities, the main way how to invest in the metaverse currently is through cryptocurrency. If you’re unfamiliar, the cryptocurrency market is exceptionally volatile and unpredictable. It’s only good for investors with a high tolerance for risk. Be sure you’re ready to see losses or little returns on your investment, especially in the short term.
Conclusion
Perhaps fueled by our science fiction fantasies, the metaverse is on its way to becoming a reality. It’s still a concept for now, with different iterations or expressions of the idea popping up mostly in games. Nonetheless, it seems that our technological efforts are headed toward this dreamlike, ever-present virtual reality. It wouldn’t be surprising that our lives and livelihoods will center around this digital platform one day. There are already multiple methods to learn how to make money in the metaverse. All it takes is a little research and a bit of effort to get started as early as now.
