You have a digital platform on which people initiate a vast array of activities. To initiate your own activity to the fullest extend possible, it is advised to purchase an allotment of this digital platform to utilize as you wish.
Comparison:
The internet is a digital platform on which people initiate many activities.
Through websites people engage in virtual sex, purchase of products, games in many shapes and form and purely for informational purposes. Should you ever want to initiate any of these activities for yourself instead of just consuming, it is advised to purchase web-space for yourself. Although the hard-drive on which your web-space resides is quite real, your website is virtual. Depending on your activities, many aspects of it will be regarded as virtual.
Back to Second Life:
There are consumers there with demands, most demands revolve around their avatar, their representation within the social environment of a virtual platform.
If you are able to design clothes and/or accessories that are of interest, you can sell it for a competitive price. If you sell enough, you can run a profit while also renting land. Just like if you can rent a web-server and make a profit from advertisements.
However, thanks to badly informed media reports, virtual is now compared to fake. And even though the story describes about ACTUAL wealth being generated, instead of accepting it as proof virtual does not mean fake, the story is instead ridiculed and claims about scams and fraud are made.
I own no land in Second Life but I have made scripts that aid product seller in offering products to their customers, and in exchange receive a percentage of the income. My expenses are only the time I've spend programming the scripts, which ended a while ago. I've started making a profit years ago.
TL;DR
Virtual Land = Webspace
Virtual Demands = Real Demands
Virtual Profit = Real Profit
270 virtual dollars = 1 real dollar