After seeing "Avatar," the movie, I wondered whether the record-breaking intake at the box office might spur more entrepreneurial activity in places populated by, er, real avatars like Second Life, the best-known and largest of the 3-D virtual-world platforms. Could Avatar do for avatars what Titanic did for Leonardo DiCaprio?

An avatar is a digital, simulated representation of a person. On sites like Second Life, There and ActiveWorlds, you can engage your avatar alter ego in all sorts of escapist fantasies, like designing and dancing in your own underwater disco. When Second Life and its peers came out in 2003, companies rushed in to build outposts and sell products to the hoards of consumers rushing in to play. Attire companies like American Apparel and Giorgio Armani and tech giants like IBM and Dell set up virtual stores, using the build-it-and-they-will-come approach. Problem is, nobody came. The supposed consumers used the site to attend concerts or become unicorns, not to buy a computer. And what did they want to buy? White hair and goth outfits for their avatars. Which is not to say entrepreneurs should dismiss the immersive reality trip. In the past few years, much has changed, and many companies are doing virtual business just not the kind they originally envisioned.

Two years ago Second Life, the largest of the virtual sites, with 1 million monthly visitors, created an enterprise group, to better cater to businesses. Companies like Dell shut storefronts and retooled their virtual-world platforms for meetings and training. A whole flock of specialized sites now provide business services, such as hosting conventions. Companies learned they didn t need to have a shop on Main Street, says Gartner analyst Jeff Mann.

It turns out, these virtual worlds may be especially well suited to new companies. In these simulated realities, one s avatar can attend a trade show, keep up with technology, show off a new product and network with a very global reach. The sites cut costs both to budgets and the planet by reducing travel, and they lend companies an undeniable cool factor. Software engineering firm Agile Dimensions had 35 avatars attending its recent conference on Second Life; the firm says the conference cost $8,567, mostly in software expenses, as opposed to the $35,695 it would have cost to host a face-to-face meeting. It saved 27 tons of CO2, to say nothing of the ham sandwiches.

With many new technologies, there s a period of hype-fueled growth, followed by disillusionment. Only later does stable growth arrive. Virtual worlds have reached a stage where new users continue to build, even though the media has moved on to fan the fires of Facebook and Twitter, says Douglas Thompson, CEO of Remedy Communications, a Toronto marketing firm. Second Life says the time spent on the site by users increased 21 percent in 2009. Most paying customers on Second Life are purely social, but it still boasts 1,400 business-related organizations as users. Thompson says traffic on Metanomics, his company s Second Life video presence, has picked up in the past year, with 50 percent of new users coming from small or medium-size companies. People no longer ask what an avatar is, says Thompson. We can thank Jim Cameron for that.

There is a learning curve, however, especially if you didn t spend your youth on video games. When I first visited Second Life, my avatar walked like a drunk, bumping into other avatars who were kind enough to show me around. I also noted something strange: A hundred virtual yards away, avatars were leaping 20 feet in the air. Newbies, my guides pointed out. When you first learn to navigate, it s hard to resist making your avatar fly like a jet-fueled pigeon. It s like the hero in Cameron s movie: When he is first able to control his avatar, he sends it bursting out of a laboratory, running full blast. Bouncing newcomers are such a problem at a Second Life business-orientation site called Beta Business Park, it s considering creating a roof to discourage overexuberance, says Barbara Dozetos, who helps run the park. Registration is free on Second Life, and you automatically get your own badly dressed avatar another way that folks in world can tell that you are new. I was a girl with a brown ponytail in a pink polka dot dress when I was being shown around. A few of the more nicely dressed female avatars politely giggled and offered to take me wardrobe shopping. Most everything like a better hairstyle and good shoes costs money. For me, it was about hair, says Thompson.

The ability to meet colleagues face-to virtual face isn t the only draw. Robert Curet, of Little Wonder Studio, creates toys, breathing life into flat images to make action figures, such as Spider-Man and Shrek, based on characters in movies from major studios. I put the character into the characters, says Curet. When he started his business in Burbank, Calif., in 2004, funds were sparse, and he learned you could build objects on Second Life. He opened a free account, found a library of parts on the site and by stacking shapes together created the 3-D model for his own windup robot, Noggin Bops. His design engineer could log on to Second Life from London and, using an avatar, was able to help him prepare the design for manufacturing in China.

Second Life says it has seen increases in virtual conferences since the downturn began in 2008 and adds that it has also seen a spike in new registrations since Avatar came out. We are starting to have big winds, says Chris Collins, director of the enterprise group for Linden Lab, Second Life s creator. Acknowledging that it could have done more to help businesses get their feet wet, Second Life is testing seven templates, with prices starting at $55,000, that include auditoriums, meeting spaces, extra security and avatars from a variety of ethnic backgrounds.

But if that s too steep, there are other ways to get started. Once on a site, your avatar can generally use the search function to find business happenings or resources. On Second Life, for example, you are offered a selection of communities you may want to join. Beta Business Park has an open-air auditorium you can rent that seats up to 50 avatars. There are also classes on doing business in virtual reality. If you want to hold a meeting, you can hire avatars from the park to act as concierges and hosts.

Should you want your own space for your business within a virtual world, you can pay a firm to develop it or do it yourself. Linden Lab will sell you an island, or real estate on which you can build. Islands start at $1,000 and have a monthly maintenance fee. There are plenty of merchants, all independent of the site, available to sell you your own conference table and chairs. (You can create a similar environment more cheaply, by the way, on a platform called Reaction Grid.)

All in all, it s an odd world, where the most successful merchants are mostly selling imaginary objects and cyber space. Still, give it time. After all, DiCaprio wasn t the talk of Oscar parties this year, but he s still making movies and perfecting his craft. As he becomes a more mature actor, he s turning out to be worthy of respect. Same goes for the ever-improving simulated realities.