The next digital revolution is upon us, with plenty of opportunities for early-bird users to earn. The virtual realm known as the Metaverse opens doors to exciting income-generation opportunities. Individuals and some big tech giants are already betting on their metaverse projects being the next big thing. If you know very little about it, you are still in time because an estimated 99 percent of the world’s population doesn’t even know it exists. There’s a lot of attention that this niche has already attracted, and startups keep springing up in this space because of what it has to offer. Some entrepreneurs who got in head-first before the current boom has made a killing from what the rest of the world is just beginning to discover. It’s why over 400 million dollars has been spent on the Metaverse’s preferred currency – non-fungible tokens (NFTs). With the prices of digital assets in the Metaverse, such as virtual real estate, increasing rapidly, this alternate reality has become an excellent investment option generating a good return on investment (ROI). Thankfully, there is more for interested individuals to invest in than digital assets – you can offer numerous metaverse-related services and make money. This article provides a guideline on how to make money in the Metaverse and what skills you need to acquire to become a part of this revolution.
What is Metaverse?
A metaverse is a graphical application or a virtual place where individuals can hang out and socialize in an immersive way that goes beyond what you experience in your traditional social media. You can create avatars and work, shop, meet, relax in the gaming sections, buy and sell virtual land, etc., as you enjoy the 3D spaces therein. The Metaverse is an amalgamation of the blockchain, virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality (AR), where users donning virtual reality headsets can enjoy super-fast broadband speeds in the online world. This extraordinary convergence of our physical and digital that combines digital identity and decentralized governance is the culmination of all our science fiction fantasies and is starting to happen right now.
Reasons to Join Metaverse
Joining the Metaverse means you become a part of users already using virtual reality to experience immersive borderless connectivity. Numerous companies are already burning the midnight oil to reshape the future of the Metaverse and transform how users interact online. With several opportunities for individuals and businesses to make money, several big brands like Nike, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Adidas, and Prada are already playing a leading role in harnessing the Metaverse’s full potential. Using avatars, companies are discovering a new incredible way to connect with their potential customers within the virtual worlds. Some metaverses are offering 3D tools that enable users to create digital assets for personal use or for listing within in-game marketplaces to sell and make money. Investors in the Metaverse can generate income, and the sky is the limit as far as earning potential is concerned. Despite the usual attendant risks associated with any investment, there is no cap regarding the amount of money anyone can make from the Metaverse. As long as you have some skills and are quick to learn and adapt, you could benefit from different ways of making money with the Metaverse. ZipRecruiter estimates that game designers make between $60,000 and $80,000 annually, while AR/VR engineers take home about $114,000 annually working on the Metaverse. For example, Nikki Fuego is a digital apparel creator who uses software to design accessories for avatars and takes home at least $40,000 monthly in return. Now that you have a rough idea about the Metaverse and its potential to generate income let’s investigate its advantages and disadvantages. Now that you have an idea of what the Metaverse is all about, let us dive straight into the advantages and disadvantages that come with Metaverse.
Pros of Metaverse 👍
Immersive Work Experiences
The true potential of the Metaverse came to the fore in 2020 when the world was gripped by the ravages of the Covid-19 pandemic that saw the world shift to online or remote working. Online communication tools have grown exponentially, and virtual workplaces will soon become the norm. Metaverse technology enhances the use of virtual tools as it offers attendees an immersive experience using 3D virtually designed classrooms where students can engage as if they were in a real-life classroom. Several educational institutions have already adapted the distance learning mode in the event of on-person restrictions.
Promotes the Power of Blockchain
Metaverse backs the power of blockchain, the technology that underpins cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), besides facilitating the development of NFTs. The Metaverse promotes the thriving NFT-based gaming industry by providing a suitable environment for most games.
Advances Virtual Economies
As the concept of the virtual economy grows in popularity, the Metaverse has become an exchange ground for digital assets offering the same economic value. Moreover, Metaverse is leading in introducing new possibilities to amalgamate the real and virtual worlds.
Cons of Metaverse 👎
Cutting-Edge Technical Requirements
Metaverse’s biggest down-turn is due to its technical requirements since dalliance with metaverses requires the blockchain, VR headsets, and many more. Also, it would help if you had a stable high-speed connection to run the advanced technologies that run the Metaverse.
Privacy Concerns
Online privacy and security are real concerns with most digital technologies worldwide since people joining metaverses have to fill in their data, creating worries for organizers and attendees about maintaining data privacy. Since the Metaverse is still a developing concept, developers and investors know that security or privacy breaches could create irreversible blunders and ruin their reputations.
Diminishing the Gap between Real and Virtual Worlds
The Metaverse may have been intended to bring the real and virtual worlds closer, but it has blurred their differences. Also, some people could become addicted to technology, affecting how they perceive real-life relationships.
How to Make Money in the Metaverse
Whether you have developed coding and design skills, there are numerous ways to make money in the Metaverse, from copywriting to designing, product sales, and customer care roles. The following are some of the more lucrative ways:
Become a Real Estate Agent
As the Metaverse’s popularity grows, buying and selling digital real estate in the Metaverse is likely to become a booming business. The value of the virtual real estate is expected to grow by a whopping $5.37 billion by 2026. Plots of virtual land sell for as much as $4.3 million on popular metaverse platforms like The Sandbox, Decentraland, and Otherside. Like in the real world, you need the help of experienced agents to learn the requisite skills for quickly buying, selling, and transferring land on the Metaverse. Apart from buying and selling digital land, you can also design or rent out your land and begin earning rental income.
Invest in Play-to-Earn Games
Blockchain games are now the buzzword, meaning there’s an increased demand for play-to-earn games where people can earn digital assets and cryptocurrency. The cryptocurrency you earn can be used to purchase in-game items or exchange for other digital currencies or cash. If you enjoy video games, you could start making money in crypto by playing and completing quests in metaverse-based games. For game developers, you can’t find a more incredible niche to make from building and selling games or creating games for other companies.
Create Art
NFTs are used around the Metaverse to represent numerous things, including art, virtual land, etc. If you’re a creative designer, you can create and sell NFTs in metaverses like Decentraland for its native cryptocurrency MANA. What’s more, NFT owners on Decentraland have the power to vote on the direction it heads. NFTs can be anything from songs to paintings or animation where you showcase any one-of-a-kind work of art for money. Once you’ve sold your NFTs, you can decide whether or not you’ll allow others to mint from your work. Minting involves allowing buyers to copy your design so that you get a percentage of income every time someone else buys that design.
Operate e-Commerce Business
Anyone familiar with the Metaverse can earn money by promoting and selling products, services, and planned events for various companies. You could also make money by creating and marketing sale materials to the Metaverse residents, including e-books, tutorials, and other templates. More businesses are now looking to hire marketing specialists to help them reach wider audiences through different forms of media. The best thing about running an e-commerce site on the Metaverse is that you can control your business directly and decide on prices or where to sell. Metaverse platforms have additional functions and features that allow users to create virtual stores that they can fill with all products. You could specialize in accessories, clothes, furniture or weapons, etc. You can also buy items from one shop before flipping them to sell at a higher price.
Create and Monetize VR Games
There are many opportunities for users who can create and monetize VR games, a new frontier for most recent entrants into the Metaverse. Create user-generated content (UGC) sites where users can sell their goods or license their games to companies to use on their platforms and receive royalties. Another option would be creating games where users can place bets or buy credit to earn a percentage to act as security.
Sell Data Online
Data is the hottest commodity today in a world where businesses are data-driven. Developers and business owners in the Metaverse need data to create products while advertising agents need it to develop tailor-made advertising based on consumer behavior. You can make a living by scraping data and selling it online before laws are enacted to limit or prohibit the sale of users’ data.
Trade Metaverse Token
Trading metaverse tokens is already a popular way to make money in the Metaverse. For example, Warner Music has partnered with The Sandbox metaverse to develop a virtual concert hall. Guests get attracted to live concerts where human artists perform, and organizers charge entry fees using paid tickets. Snoop Dog also bought Death Row Records and created a next-gen NFT label after the artist purchased a large block of digital land to create an additional income generation stream.
Become Metaverse Architecture and Designer
Are you an architect? If you answered yes, there’s an opportunity to create designs in the permissive utopia, the Metaverse, where you can create irresistible designs for people and organizations planning to build on their digital plots. As brands rush to outdo each other in making their metaverse presence, architects and designers can develop 3D models of buildings.
Conduct Virtual Travel and Tours
People can take three types of travel and tours– domestic, inbound, and outbound. Guests can visit while traveling from their homes to a different city (outbound) or take a trip to a nearby tourist attraction (domestic). Also, some inbound tourists visit other countries for any given reason. Similarly, the Metaverse offers travel opportunities, hotel bookings, or paying for selected tourism services. You can earn an income by becoming a broker between hotels and travel agencies or, better still, create a metaverse travel agency and let tourists buy your services directly.
Host Virtual Events
If you have enough money to buy digital land on the Metaverse, you can build a platform to host events or charge others to hold their corporate events. Some investors today host live concerts with real bands or invite attendees to attend seminars and workshops on topics they’re familiar with. Moreover, you don’t need to own land to host virtual events all the time since you can consider renting from people who already own land.
Trade Metaverse Token
Learn how to make money by trading tokens on crypto exchanges for other cryptocurrencies or fiat. Metaverse tokens are open-sourced digital assets mostly built on and issued by Ethereum (ETH) and whose value is determined by the demand and supply principle. Buying metaverse tokens is similar to buying stocks, but in this case, the outcome is determined by the future of metaverse events. Should things go as planned and the Metaverse performs well, you will gain profits when your token’s value increases accordingly.
Teach Others About the Metaverse
Since the Metaverse is still in its nascent stage, billions of people still need to hear about and understand what role they can play in the emerging space. Once you become more familiar with the mechanics of the Metaverse, you could make money by creating tutorials on YouTube videos or any other video service provider and teaching novices how to understand and make their way through the Metaverse. You could also create written content in terms of brief user guides to help people navigate through without a hassle.
The Future of the Metaverse
We live at a significant period in the history of the world where the evolution of the internet over the years has led to the birth of the Metaverse, and our lives are bound to be affected by it. Developments in virtual reality and augmented reality have transformed the concept of social connections, thanks to a vision in a 1992 science fiction novel by Neal Stephenson, “Snow Crash,” where the term metaverse was first mentioned. Stephenson envisioned life-like avatars meeting in realistic 3D buildings and other VR environments. However, the virtual world gathered speed when social media giant Facebook adopted the moniker “Meta” in 2021 to describe the desire to traverse the virtual world. With major brands like Facebook and others entering the space, it’s the clearest signal yet that it’s only a matter of time before we see the exponential expansion of the Metaverse’s boundaries and possibly increased adoption. We could soon see more brands opening their metaverse outlets as the technology rue the idea of running an open metaverse devoid of interruptions or dominance by singular entities.
Final Words
If you’re serious about making money in the Metaverse, you don’t have to be a professional designer – all you need is a burning passion, self-drive, and a little diligence. It’s only a matter of time before most skills that people in the real world have a place in the virtual. The Metaverse is still a new frontier, and you want to do more research to learn the best ways to make money in the Metaverse. We’ve only started scratching the surface on the subject, and, as such, more opportunities will come your way. Nonetheless, like all matters of investment, you need to take your time to understand the concept well before you invest. Next, you can check out top metaverse companies.
