Weekly Stipend

Hi everyone, I have a basic account in secondlife and I was reading up about this weekly stipend on secondlife under the premium account. Is this a worthwhile thing or a good thing rather? Do you receive this stipend like a salary every single week? If anyone knows about this I would be grateful for any assistance. Many thanks. Andrew

Hi Andrew, welcome to SL and the forums.

Curently, residents with premium accounts receive 300 L$ stipend per week. Usually paid on a Tuesday. Premium account holders can also buy a 512 sq m parcel of mainland and not pay any monthly tier for the server hosting - more than 512, and monthly tier has to be paid on a sliding scale according to the amount of land owned.

If you pay anually for your premium account, then it is very good value beause the stipend is equivalent to more than 50 US$, which effectively reduces the account cost by more than two thirds. Even if you do not take advantage of the 512 sq m of mainland, you can still donate that tier to a group and share it with others in that way.

You get stipends in Second Life by buying a premium membership, which costs $9.95/month, $22.50/quarter, or $72/year. (You get a better rate with the longer terms, at the cost of making a longer commitment.) New premium members get L$300/week. Some people who have been premium members for a long time get L$400 or L$500/week.

Over the course of a year you get L$15600, which at this moment would cost US$60.54 to buy if you bought them all at once. (If you bought in smaller increments the cost would be higher because there is a US$0.30 fee per purchase.) The cost of a premium membership cannot currently be justified if all you want to do is get L$; it's cheaper to buy them on LindeX. But people with annual memberships that pay stipends at the L$500 rate should keep them - the L$26,000 you get would cost US$100.69 to buy. The exchange rate fluctuates a bit from day to day but the rates would have to change drastically to alter the basic conclusion.

If you are interested in owning mainland you have to have a premium membership, and tier (maintenance costs) for the first 512 sq.m. of land are included with the membership. (Premium membership is NOT required to own land on private estates.) Because of the way the tier brackets work (they go in half-sim increments once you own a half sim or more), there are some cases where it is cost-effective to buy a second membership and have the new avatar own some of your land rather than having your main avatar own it, especially after you subtract the value of the stipends from the cost of the membership. (There are also costs for selling L$, but even counting those the net cost of an annual premium membership is only about US$15/year.)

Finally, premium members get access to some additional support resources. The real bump in support quality, though, comes to those who qualify for Concierge support; for that you have to own one or more private islands, or at least half a sim of mainland. And even then, LL's support could be better!

If you live in the EU, your costs will be altered by the fact that you have to pay VAT.

If you work out the numbers you'll see that you get MORE money by buying Lindens through the secondlife.com website than you will get by paying for a premium membership.

Even without membership, you can rent all the space you can afford and buy lindens whenever you like.

The one thing that you get as a premium member is the ability to OWN land. If you want to buy land you MUST be a premium member.

You will have to pay monthly fees on the land you own. These fees are called "tier." As a premium member you do not pay tier on the first 512 sq. meters of land you own.

In other words, if you buy a 512 sq. meter plot of land, it is yours and you won't have to pay anything for it ever again. You DO have to make tier payments for any land over the 512 allotment.

You can also donate your 512 allowance to a group, and that is often a very noble thing to do. (I'm not joking -- I donate my tier.)

/me hugs her tier free 512M parcel.... "I LOVE this thing!" XD

You can also rent out your unused tier. People say that by doing that along with paying fo a year upfront, you can actualy come out on the plus side.

I got the quarterly premium last night. At today's exchange rate, I'm losing about 15 or so lindens by doing it.

Wondering if the rate fluctuates a lot, I thought I'd be gaining by doing when I checked last week.

You can rent your unused tier to Elanthius for 0.15 per sm per month, which comes to an extra US$3.55 per year, bringing you to a total of $64.09 for your $72.00.

Alternatively, what this means is that for $7.91 per year, or around 75c a month, you get actual account support from Linden Labs. And, yes, support tickets really do get answered.

If you play a lot it's really worth it. You get free tier on a tiny plot of land but it's enough to put a low prim house on and enjoy privacy and the feeling of 'ownership'. You have to buy the lot, but after that it's free (no upkeep fee - tier - paid to LL for it) as long as you keep your account with Linden labs.

Also the $300L spending money each week is enough for a lot of people to get by on, and it kind of equals out to the dollar amount you paid for the membership. So, yeah it's worth it.

Actually, you can form a group and rent tier from someone like Elanthius Flagstaff (Landninjas=good rep in this regard). A premium alt will be placed in your group to donate the tier. Then you can buy main land for group even if you are not a premium member. Also groups get a 10% bonus on land that can be held.

Example: 512 donated + 51 bonus for total of 553. This makes more sense with larger parcels.

When buying for group, be sure to:

Donate sufficient tier (don't forget the 10% bonus!)
Open the parcel description window.
Click on buy for group.

^ Jannae would you explain that in more detail? I didn't understand some of it - premium alt? ^

Are you saying people can form groups with alts and buy land and donate to their alts? What does E. Flagstaff have to do with it? (Oh okay. Someone *like* him. But whose "premium alt"? One of the landlord's? Why?)

Also what does the land group formed by the tenant save 10 percent on? Donate tier, why and to whom?

I am also confused by renting/buying in the same equation. Which would it be?

Trying not to be an ad for Ninjaland (I work for them sometimes), but renting tier is a great way to get more bang for your Linden buck. Check out this link for more info:



Also you can im Elanthius Flagstaff or Skye Whitcroft in world. They are very helpful in regards to any concievable situation regarding land ownership or rental. Also they are trustworthy.

One more thing about premium support:

On the few times that I have royally f'd up or had a problem with ghost prims or whatever, I was able to pretty please a good outcome via live chat.

Live Chat is the best of premium as far as Im concerned. Not only has it saved me when I have been ghosted but it also has given me the truth when rumors occur.

Hi Deira, many thanks for your help and information

I suspect Jannae writing about the kind of thing I do. Currently I have two premium accounts, both in the same group. Both accounts donate their land allowance (512m each) to the group. The group then gets a 10% land bonus, for a total of 1024m * 1.1 = 1126m allowance, tier free. I could just pay the extra 512m tier at $5/month, but the 2nd account only costs me $6/month. That extra dollar a month buys me L$20800 a year in stipend (I'm on L$400 a week, newer accounts get L$300), well worth it.

The 'rental' side of the equation comes from groups like Ninjaland (other tier rental groups are available!). They work by forming a group and having people "rent" unused tier to the group, then renting it out in turn to other people who need it. I don't do this, although I'd certainly consider it if I needed more tier.

There is also a one time payment for opening a premium account paid after the firts 45 days (I think). I believe it was L$1250.