Olila’s Second Life - Tutorials & Diary Diary & Tutorials

Most likely one of your first priorities in Second Life ( SL ) is getting your personal appearance together. The possibilities are almost unlimited. Do you want to be a dragon? Or maybe a cat? Or even a BUG? 

Yes you can!

But let’s start with a descent human look - male or female - and try to get it together without spending any money - or at least maximum a couple of lindens. And try to find some free “special avatars” after that!

There are tons of free stuff out there but the quality vary a LOT. And the best stuff is often for residents less than 30 days old… So I sent my Newbie Male Alt around to find the best deals!

Freebie-Hunt from the Horses Mouth

Hi, Knight Shining here!

First of all: In Second Life there is two kind of freebies 0L$-Freebies & 1L$-Freebies. I have been looking for 1L$-Freebies, too - but my first priority was to concentrate on what’s out there TOTALLY free for new residents! And I’m going to be really subjective about it - showing you the things I think is the best…

First stop: Olila’s Yardsale

My first stop was Olila’s Yardsale. SLurl: Philereme 244/87/56. And that is what I would recommend - at least if you are a guy. Its really hard to find nice free male stuff but here is a LOT!

Since my last post Olila updated the place with a totally free unisex hair with flexi parts that I think look great!

So I picked up the ‘Free Hair’, the ‘Free complete male avatar’, the ‘Primshoes & Accessories and Olila’s ‘Free Male Skins’ - and got myself this look. There are three different skintones to choose from and lots of outfits.

The avatar box also includes an Animation Overrider-HUD (AO) ready to wear (Right-Click/Wear). The HUD will override the default animations for Walking, Sitting etc. and that’s an important thing if you want to improve your appearance!

If you are a Female you have the same deal! A complete avatar with 4 skins, accessories, hair and a female AO. The ‘Free Hair’ is kind of unisex and works for females, too!

There is a box with Goth-styled skins (some might work for males too - if you don’t have stripping plans…) and one with ‘normal-looking’ free female skins. And in that one… There is like twenty of them! In the male one - only a couple… See? It’s hard to be a male in Second Life!

Other good stuff to pick up here is the “Smiley Emoter HUD” and the “Workspace-Buster”- might come in handy later!

And remember! At this place everything is free - you don’t have to spend any lindens!

At this point you might find that some things you got doesn’t fit…
At the fashion-blog: Linden Lifestyle / Ultimate Salon Guide you can find an excellent tutorial on how to ‘Edit’ your hair - and it works the same way for other prim-attachments like shoes, necklaces, watches etc!

Ok! I got my first appearance together, moving on!

Next stop: The Free Dove

The Free Dove is really great for finding totally free stuff when it comes to ones appearance! Stuff you will NOT find in other ‘Freebie Shops’!

To find it you can use ‘Search’ and the ‘Places’ tab.

Type ‘Free Dove”, highlight it and click ‘Teleport’ and you will be on your way.

If you are lacy… Here is a SLurl: Free Dove, Gallii 113/53/33.

This place can be really crowded! So it might be smart to turn off your AO… Also note that there is No Weapons & No Nudity allowed!

Outfits

If you are a female you can spend hours and hours here finding clothes, jewellery, shapes and so on… Have a look around - the tables are labelled so it’s easy to find what you are looking for. And don’t walk by the free prim-shoes!

If you are a guy its much more limited! But I found some male clothing… What you shouldn’t miss is the prim-shoes. And the hair-deals! Read on…

Free Hair

At ‘The Free Dove’ you can find Free Hair and the best ‘Hair-Deals for New Residents’. If you are a female - have a look at the Hair-Wall and choose from a LOT of different free hair-styles.

If you are male there is not that many to choose from… I tried on a couple - but I think I’m going to stay with the one I got - for now…

Best New Resident Hair-Deal!

Now have a look at these vendors at the Hair-Wall! They don’t include actual hair - but instructions on how to ORDER a completely free hair from that particular hairdesigner if you are under 30 days old. The deal goes for both male and female avatars

This is a really great since you may choose from many hairstyles and create a look of your own. Instructions and landmarks are in the vendor - just buy it for 0L$.

I think the best deal here is the one in the middle from ‘Diversity Hair’ by ‘Aleri Darkes’ since the DEMO-hairs in that store is totally free!

But if you want to take a chance and order a hair without testing a demo in one of the other two stores - that will be free too.

Hair Styles by Tami McCoy SLurl: Dixie/87/90/23
.:GuRL 6:. SLurl: GuRLyWood/110/111/21

To get the hair: Follow the instructions in the free vendors. All three deals work pretty much the same.

Totally Free Designer Hair!

Getting FREE great-looking designer hair is really easy!

I used the landmark that was in the folder I bought for 0 L$ at ‘The Free Dove’ and got my nice-looking butt over to: ‘Diversity Hair’ SLurl: Addictive/106/135/22

I had a look around the store! Lots of hairstyles to choose from - both male and female styles.

All instructions are in the folder you got at ‘Free Dove’ - but you can pick that up in the store too! And this is how I got my free hair:

1. I tried out some free demos and decided I should go for a hairstyle called: “Trace”.
2. I joined the ‘Diversity Hair VIP’ Group.
3. Filled out the notecard with some dates, my name and the hair I wanted.
4. Looked up ‘Aleri Darkes’ in Search/People.
5. Dropped the notecard in ‘Give Inventory’ (drag & drop). Done!

In the information it’s stated that you will get your hair within 48 hours - but two hours later I had my hair! Five natural colours.

[12:48] Me: Thank u for the free hair! This is so generous of you! I look great Best Regards & Hugs

[12:48] Aleri Darkes: aww yw

[12:49] Me: :)))

NOTE! Olila did actually PAY ‘Aleri’ for this hair - once I got it - because Olila doesn’t think I am a REAL New Resident…

And if you ever get “SL-Rich” you can always pay this nice gal back - since one can assume she is spending A LOT of time with this great offer!

And visit her blog for updates!
Diversity Hair Blog

Free Hair-Hunting

Update Post: Free Male/Unisex Hair!

You can find this great freebie in Second Life: SLurl: Uncleweb Studio @ Yamashita/252/246/22

Free Skin-Hunting

Free Female Skins

For Female avatars there is a lot of skins out there totally free or for a low price. The quality of skins vary a lot so let’s have a look at the best unique free ones!

At Nyte’n’ Day SLurl: Couture Isle 119/252/22 there is a Newbie-Box with a lot of nice stuff in it - like hair, shoes, outfits and a skin.

I also found myself a really nice bikini!

At this point I decided to have a look at the free female ‘Another Skin’ at ‘Another Shop’ SLurl: Lippert 75/183/179. And Ladies…

Look no further! Four skintones with like 20 different makeups each. And this is the only free female skin with a really dark skintone in all of SL.

Update Post: Free Female skins: Splendor!

You can find this great freebie in Second Life: SLurl: Splendor! @ TwentyOne/185/81/38/

Last but not least! A nice free skin for AV’s not older than 30 days:

Freebie skin by TaP Shepherd of Tête á Pied SLurl: Fleur Viviant Skins, Fleur 58/123/27

Several skintones! Really nice! And one for Males, too! Read on!

Free Male Skins

Looking for free male skins in SL is really frustrating. You find the same free skins over and over again in different looking packages… But you already picked those up at Olila’s Yardsale!

Sometimes you even find them for sale - and not that cheap either… So get to know them!

Here they are:

This is the only ‘Free Unique Male Skin’ I found worth mentioning: The Freebie from Tête á Pied SLurl: Fleur 58/123/27 - for AV’s not older than 30 days.

Several skintones! If you like a skin with a “clean shave” this is the one!

Free Male Outfits

If you are male - don’t miss Boulevard Mystique SLurl: Boulevard Mystique 167/87/25 for some great outfits and cool boots!

And next door you can find great stuff if you are a female!

Camping for some Lindens

Many new residents want to try out ‘Second Life’ for a while before using their ‘Credit Card’ - spending REAL money. But there are a lot of 1L$-Freebies out there. Many great designers sell their Freebies for 1L$. Getting your hand on a few lindens isn’t that hard. But you have to go CAMPING!

This is how camping works: You spend a certain amount of time in one place, camping - and in return you get a certain amount of Lindens. Landowners provide this to residents because they want to increase the number of visitors - that will give the place a higher ranking in ‘Search’.

A camping-spot can be a chair you have to sit in or maybe you have to dance, swab the floor, play the guitar or paint a picture.

Open up Search/Places and type in: camping. You will get a trillion hits! But remember: Camping-spots are really popular so the hardest thing might be finding one that pays allright and isn’t occupied.

I teleported to a place with many chairs that pays 3 L$ /15 minutes: D&A Designs SLurl: Someone/132/175/531 . For camping that is kind of good money so that place is always crowded.

But I found a free chair! I sat down for 15 minutes… So now I have 3 L$ that I’m going to spend really well!

1 L$ Shopping

When it comes to skins I didn’t find any permanent 1L$ deals…

But for hair! Almost every Hair-Designer have some 1 L$ - freebies at their store. But most of the time not that many styles for guys… As usual…

Getting around having a look in different designers stores is a great thing because you can really find your own style.

Visit this Web-Blog! It covers Hair-designers with ‘free’ hair offers:
Savoir Hair: The Second Life Hair Journal

Or go to ‘Hairspray’ SLurl: Hairspray 9/8/26/ - a ‘Hair-Sim’ where many of the biggest designers are represented.

And don’t miss Hairsprays ‘Freebie Store’!

Ahhh! There is camping going on here, too!

ETD’s 1 L$ Hair

My choice of 1 L$ hair is ‘Elika Tiramisu Designs’ (ETD).

Why? For the ladies there are very many styles to choose from and they are REALLY wellmade! Best of all: You get each hairstyle in more than 20 colours. And the textures… Wow!

For the guys - only two styles - but they look good!

I spent one of my “Camping-Lindens” on this one called: ‘Sleek’ - because I like being able to change my haircolour to almost anything once in a while!

Olila gave me 1 linden so I could show you her favourite 1 L$ Female hairstyle from ETD: Phoebe!

Her favourite colour: Blonde Burnt. Hmmm… Shouldn’t her favourite be black?

Later when you have some Lindens to spend: Remember to visit the ETDblog for updates and buy the real thing!

Final Stop: Enkythings 1L$ Shop

I’m going to spend some of my Camping-Lindens at ‘Enkythings 1L$ Shop’: SLurl: Orbiuna 230/25/362 .

I’m choosing this place because I’ve heard one can find a lot of ‘Special Avatars’ there. And because while you are looking around this huge place you might get payed 1 $L - just for spending time at the shop… This is a kind of ‘Advanced Camping’ I really like!

I’m starting this journey with two lindens… Let’s see what I can find…

I looked around - and for guys outfits I didn’t find anything I liked…

But for females… A lot more stuff!

And if I was looking for an helicopter or a house or garden things… I could easily have spent my camping-lindens!

Actually I spent 1 L$ on a tattoo! Guys need tattoos, right?

The Camo tank-top is one I picked up at ‘Free Dove’.

At this point I got a message that ‘Enktan’ gave me 1 L$ for spending time in the shop!

Soo… I still have two lindens AND my tattoo!

Special Avatar Department

At ‘Avatar Equipment’ you can find a lot of ‘Special Avatars’ if that’s what you are looking for!

I found this little fellow I liked.

And… Oops! All the ‘Special Avatars’ are free!

I STILL have my two lindens…

But… Oh my God! Now I’m really tired of this Freebie-Hunt!

Final Words & Freebie Places

That’s it for my Freebie-Hunt this time around.

It has been a lot about ‘Skins’ and ‘Hair’… But that’s because the hair and skins you can find at most freebie-places are not any good… You shouldn’t spend your time on them. At least that’s what I think!

Now - since you already have your choice of free skin and hair - you can concentrate on accessories and clothes… And that saves a LOT of time and inventory-space!

It can be really tiresome looking for Freebies because when you get around you will find the same stuff - over - and over - and over - again. But it’s a great way to learn about SL and make some new friends. So get yourself out there!

Don’t get cheated!!

Another good thing about a ‘Freebie-Hunt-Tour’ is that once you’ve done it - you know what the free stuff look like - so that you don’t get cheated later!! Because some stores around SL is trying to sell stuff you can find for free at the freebie-stores…

Freebie Places

To find Freebie-places: Open ‘Search/Places’ and type in ‘Freebie’ or ‘Freebies’. You will find a LOT!

But remember: You often get the nicest stuff visiting a ‘Designer Store’ picking up freebies you can’t find anywhere else. And that’s the absolute best way to start if you are looking for something specific. Use ‘Search’ and search for the ’specific item’ in ‘Places’. And when you find a shop you like - join the “Update Group”. Many shop-owners release Freebies and Bargains to members!

Also read the “Freebie Web-Blogs”! Here is a couple:
SL Free*Style
FabFree
Anna Zwiers Freebie Blog

And FINALLY: Here are some SLurls to BIG Freebie places in SL. But LOOK AT THE PRICE before you buy - not everything is free!

SLurl: Free Dove
SLurl: Enkythings 1L$ Shop
SLurl: Sarah Nerd’s Freebie Paradise
SLurl: Freebie Planet
SLurl: Freebie Store ForoU
SLurl: Freebie Dungeon
SLurl: Freebie Warehouse

Tired yet?

SLurl: Freebie Island

Happy Hunting!

And please leave a comment if you find really nice stuff so others can benefit. But no advertising, please…

Bye, Bye!

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Updated: March 2008