My understanding was that the Marketplace is basically open to anyone. Any user who has bought RL software like iClone can open an store (account) in the Marketplace and sell content. The Marketplace has 3 levels (I don't recall the names of the levels at the moment). A user of the initial level has basically no requirements for the content he/she creates (yes, the content still needs to meet some requirements such as suitable content, no stealing the content from someone else, and so on but there is no real quality requirement). As the lowest level user, you can only use DA point (that you gain from selling your content) to buy other content (i.e. you cannot cash out). The second level (Certified Content Developer) requires the content developer to submit a few samples of created content to RL for approval. Assuming the approval is passed, the user becomes a Certified Content Developer for one year. As a CCD you get access to some templates/whitepapers and you gain the right to Cash Out (at this level you need to have at least 15000 points in your account to cash out. Cashing out causes 10000 points to be removed from your account and a payment of $100US will be sent out on the 15th of the month. This level requires a minimal remaining 5000 DA point balance in your account for things like refunds). I have not read the requirements for the last level of the Marketplace but I believe this last level entitles the user, among other benefits, to start Theme Stores and to not require a minimum 5000 point balance in order to Cash Out.

The Content Store, on the other hand, seems to be a professional level only store. Only RL vetted content designers contribute to the Content Store and the quality of items sold there is basically guaranteed to be high quality.


"We often compare ourselves to the U.S. and often they come out the best, but they only have the right to bear arms while we have the right to bare breasts"
Bowser and Blue, Busting The Breast