Money grows on trees in Second Life and helps new residents develop and customize their avatars, businesses and homes. Wolfhaven Money Tree creator, Traven Sachs, (see second photo above) a three month long resident of SL at the time, responded to Linden Labs doing away with free account stipends in December 2005 ($L50/week) by creating a money tree different from the trees available at the time. The Wolfhaven tree accepts donations from anyone and does not deplete the tree's owner's cash automatically. The trees also expose newbies to locations and help the new resident learn avatar movement and camera movement skills as the Linden Dollars are plucked from among leaves and branches that can obscure them from view. His trees have settings that the owners can use, to restrict who can get money and how much. Generally, an avatar's account must be younger than 30, 45 or 60 days. Tree owners stock trees with cash amounts between $L200 and $L1,000 a week. There are over 400 Wolfhaven Money trees in Second Life and other brands of trees are still in world as well.

While the cash from the trees is intended for new residents, older residents have been known to make new accounts to take advantage. Aja Larnia, 7/10/2008 originally started in SL August of 2007 and has had 10 accounts, but only Aja is young enough to pick from the trees.  She says, "There will be no more new accounts after Aja.  There are too many of us using alternative avs to "rob" (as I call it) the trees and the true newbies are really suffering for it. I've used quite a bit of the money to replenish good trees that are in a financial slump, but because of the alt robber problem, have taken to gifting real newbies L$100 or more." Tree harvesters report netting between $L20 to as much as $L200 in two hours.

Sonrisa Shelman shared the following tips for cash collection, "I pick the cash a lot quicker now that I've got the hang of the camera controls and the co-ordinate system on the maps. I usually visit the trees where I have picked before, because they are more likely to have money in them. I keep those in a separate folder in my landmarks. My skills with the camera and map have improved tremendously and I can effectively use the search too. There are new money trees every day so you need to keep searching for the new ones."

What will you do with the money? Aja, "I've used it to buy and furnish my home and wardrobe and to buy the textures and other supplies for my business.  Doris Mubble (see third picture above) declined to reveal when she really started in SL and how many accounts she has had, "I am already giving it away in charity to SL residents that need it, i.e. people I have met that want to start a business, or artists that need money to upload." Moss Magic, 6/14/08, started their first account in April 2008, I want to "Outfit myself so i don't look like a newbie for my whole SLife.  And yes, I plan to go back to my MT (money tree) landmarks to buy stuff."

Tree plucker, Sonrisa's complaints may be a feature of future versions of the trees, "It is really annoying when money trees only allow picking by people with payment info on file. It seems to me that it would be better to give preference to those who cannot afford to have a premium account. After all, if they can afford to pay to sign up, they can afford to buy lindens! I've never seen a money tree that only allows picking by those without payment info." Tree creator, Traven Sachs says, "I had a request from one tree owner asking if the trees could be made so she could 'exclude' premium accounts from picking since they already received (still) a weekly stipend from Linden Labs of at least L$300."

Some Tree pickers have had met with challenges, like Doris. "I meet a lot of people near trees. Some are nice and we speak a bit, but others are really nasty: They arrive behind your back, hide to you, and take all the money while you have been there for a while trying to use the camera controls to pick it. It is quite frustrating, and an awful example of how people have no respect and are driven by money matters only. It's even worse if you consider that my ava is that of an old lady. So sad... A community should be founded on sharing. That's what I do when someone arrives after me, I share what I have found. And if I get to a tree and someone is already there, I just leave without picking. I believe that is quite discriminating. Not all people are aware of their skills or need time to get acquainted with SL tools to build or so. Free money helps people enter the community. Developing skills comes afterwards."

Owners of money trees reap few benefits other than the pleasure of helping new residents. Victor1st Mornington of NASSAU SHORES, "No benefit for me, infact the tree costs me to run, but it does help the new folks :). Traffic won't mean anything once the new SL search goes out of beta." Zoha Boa of ZoHa Islands, "It generates some trafic and sales on long term." Grace Selene of San Placide, "It might boost traffic a hair, i'm not sure  about that and immedate sales probably not. Most newbies cant imagine throwing away their hard picked Linden so easy, but I think as time goes on, when they do go to buy, your store name is in mind already and maybe a LM in their inventory. Early advertisment. Not so much the traffic it registers but a way to give back to beginners what was given us when we started out in SL. A helping hand." Xander Alexander of Torva: No benefit for me. It was put there as a courtesy for new people. It is on a dedicated land area, and any traffic is not reflected in the business land.

How do new residents find the trees? Braunworth Station, a home landing point, has a Money Tree.  A tp to the now defunct Master Money Tree location at Bravo Bravo was part of that tree.  Search is used, friends give new locations and offworld lists are available as well. Others report that luck helped them. Wolfhaven HQ has a list of about 10 on the board. Wolfhaven's website has a list of golden apple trees, which can be found at the Silla sim.

Money trees continue to be a source of revenue for new residents, but the money tree owners benefit little.  Why not send them a word of thanks? Get their name from the tree, and open their profile. Create a notecard saying thank you, then drop it on the profile. Owners IM's are capped most times and probably will miss an IM, unless they are online. If you are an experienced Second Lifer in a new account, use the cash to help true new residents. Teach them how to get the cash themselves. There is much more to Money simply growing on Second Life trees. Hopefully, we can claim that Money isn't the only thing!

Editor: Mavourneen Montreal.