Creating a virtual world often means putting money into development for months or years. We need to earn from the virtual world after deployment in production to cover the cost. There are several common ways to earn money from the virtual world.
Google AdSense is the advertising system for web publishers. AdSense for Content will display advertising on the website of the virtual world. We earn money when the players visit the virtual world website and click on the advertisement.
Instead of advertising on the website, we can put ads inside the game. It can be a billboard on some advertisement painting on the wall of the buildings. It can also be a virtual item. Imagine that drinking a Coke can recharge the health point quicker than drinking water. Then we find a Coke company to pay some advertising fee to put their logo on the item.
The following screenshot shows the Sony BMG in-game advertisement from Second Life:
We can charge the players monthly for playing in the virtual world. Normally the virtual world would let players try the virtual world free for a certain time and then limit the features until the players subscribe to the monthly plan to unlock all features.
We can use the Paypal subscription or ClickBank Recurring Billing to charge the players monthly.
The mechanism of point-based subscript is like the pre-paid SIM card. Players buy a card that contains points. The points reduce while the players play in the virtual world. The advantage of point-based compared to the monthly subscription is that players pay more to play more and pay less to play less. It is not bounded by a time period. It is the players' freedom to pay the playing time in the virtual world.
MyCard (http://mall.fujiya-mit.com/index.php?app=goods&id=7) is a point-based card system and the buyer can refill their account with the value inside the card and convert the point into virtual currency. The virtual currency can then be used in several virtual worlds and online services including the virtual items inside Facebook.
The biggest earning business model currently in the online game industry is selling virtual items.
Many online games and virtual worlds now provide free game play without any subscription. The low cost entry points attract players playing in the virtual world and then the company charges the players for buying advanced virtual items. People are willing to pay for virtual clothes to decorate their avatars inside the virtual world. The following screenshot from WeRule for iPhone, virtual items shop requires players to pay virtual gold, which can trade with real money, to build extra buildings:
