Premium Membership is FREE!

Hi, newcomers. I thought that might get your attention.

Did you know that when you have a Premium account, you get a $L300 per week stipend?

And you get to own up to 512 m2 of land, tier-free?

Consider this: You can "rent out" your unused tier for about another $L75 per week.

So...your Premium membership is paying you the equivalent of $L300+75 = $L375 per week. Annually, that's $L375 x 52 = $L19,500.

Now, $265L = $US 1, so $L19,500/265 = $US73.58

But, if you pay annually, a Premium account only costs $US72.00!!

With those numbers, anyone who spends their time in SL camping to earn money for a dress isn't thinking straight.

So...the obligatory Forum Question: Why aren't you a Premium member, huh? And why doesn't Linden Lab promote this a lot more strongly in their advertising?

Still haven't found that car?

just one thought, most free members may not have the 72$usd or the way to make a payment without additional fees or accounts with other companies to perform the transaction.

Lindal, you have a point there. I'm not even interested in the land aspect, since I'm living with my BF but, I'm easily spending $4-8 a month in RL money to be inworld, just on sundries. It's beginning to make sense to just pay the $72 and be done with it, plus I'll be getting extra to spend inworld to boot. Thanks for pointing this out, and knocking it into my head a bit harder.

Of course, the only real benefit to just buying $72 worth of Lindens is access to the customer support, right? Any other reason to go through the hassle of renting out land? Which you had to pay for. Using more cash?

No, finding a good used car isn't as easy as you might think. I did find a couple of nice Doms this weekend, though. CARP is sooooo much fun!

Isn't that the way? You look and look, but get nowhere. As soon as you stop trying, they drop into your lap! Or perhaps you into theirs.

I forgot the Support aspect. As poor as LL support is, that's still a plus over a free account.

But you misunderstood...you can rent your TIER to people. You don't actually have to buy land and rent it out.

I'm not saying that anyone should actually do it this way. Most people will probably want to buy some land, and use their free tier allowance toward paying their own tier on their land. I just wanted to point out that a Premium membership is very, very cost effective, especially if you pay annually.

Ah!

So if you forgot about support, what were the advantages you were thinking about? I see very little value in premium, other than support and the 512 tier free.

Do people even rent 512m2 plots? Why? There's a whole mainland sim full of "pls rent me now" plots next to my land. They've been 90% empty for two months now.

My premium account pays L$500 a week.
..but I have more than one...

<blows raspberry>

I really hate old-timers...

I forgot to say, Europeans have to pay VAT, so even if this projection is accurate, it's not "free" for them. Anybody outside the US also has to pay currency fee conversion charges, so not free for them. Finally, this whole calculation is based on the assumption that the value of the $L will remain stable for an entire 12 month period. Dangerous economics.

How much do you suppose the typical avid SL player spends in-world, Hate? I know that I've been spending about $10 per week, excluding rent. It was more initially, but has dropped off recently as I finished acquiring the "stuff" I needed/wanted.

Having that stipend come in each week is very nice. Heck, just look at what happens when it's an hour late! "Where's my stipend" threads all over the place!

Sure...you could get the same result, dollar-wise, by just buying $72 of $L. But then, you wouldn't have the support option, and you wouldn't have the free tier to put against land, if you decided to purchase some.

I say, Premium's worth it. In fact, I say it's FREE!

There really isn't much more than that. maybe you can say your money is going toward developing the game, or that it gives you an extra entitlement to bitch maybe. I occasionally contemplate going basic, the 300 Lindens is a drop in the bucket. But my tier is donated to the Cartel so I keep it going. I pay monthly, I'm not committing to any online entertainment for a year at a time.

So, you spend $72 upfront, and get back $73.58? Apart from possible benefits of customer support, that sounds like a tough way of making $1.58 in a year (maybe L$418?). Also (sorry to bring this up yet again) the dreaded VAT can add up to 25% to that yearly fee depending on where you are in the world.

Premium membership can, effectively, be free, but at the the end of the day (or year) you probably haven't got any more out of it than not being premium.

Not that I'm entirely knocking the idea... I have *two* premium accounts, although mine are grandfathered at L$400 per week. I think this is still, for me, the cheapest way to own land (1120 sq metres, including the 10% group bonus). There also might be some people out there who want to buy just a little more land (up to 563 sq m), but doing so would put them into a higher tier bracket. For them, another Premium account might well be cheaper than taking the extra tier.

When LL actually comes with certain guarantees to its residents, then and only then, will having a "premium" account make much sense for the average Joe. And, as discussed in another thread, the value of a Linden $ is purely illusory. The stipend you get is actually worth less than you think, if you try and cash them out of the game. In addition, premium welfare payments have only been DECREASING over time...not increasing.
So...aside from support and the 512m2 free tier...there are no other benefits to premium memberships.

yes...i have two premium accounts too, and pay annually, and im in at the $500L a week stipend, so it actually comes out i get MORE in lindens than if i were buying them, and i have 1024 of teir free land...

its a valid stance to have, but not really anything new, and anyone who is capable of doing the math themselves can decide if it is worth it or not for them.

Other than mainland land possibility.. Its a more guaranteed version than islands since the sim owner won't just decide they don't like you at some point or vanish. Plus I love my mainland property.. even though I can't landscape it to the degree I wanted...

And.. I honestly don't know of many people who would cash out only their stipends, since that is essentially slightly more than a dollar a week... most people who cash out L$ at all are cashing out much larger amounts than the stipend (Which btw is L$300 only for the newest batch, goes up to I think 500 L$), as they are doing work in-world and so are making real money basically playing a game (Thats the idea anyway, even though jobs can be just as serious in SL)

You're quite right, Ash...it's nothing new. But a lot of people who CAN do the math, DON'T do the math...so I thought I'd do it for them.

Yes people rent 512M plots, I have seven of them and they're all rented out. Some people only want to use 117 prims I guess.

Often someone just needs a small space to do some building, or a little retreat to call home and bring friends or whatnot... ^^

its not worth it for me... yet.. independence, space and freedom from commitment cost money, i want all three.. i pay.. i have independence.. the space i have on SL is mine to use, as and when i want, i have freedom.. to build.. to script, and just leave stuff until i am ready to use it again.. its exactly in the space i made it.. the scripts running just as i left them.. on what i built... ive no commitment, no one to disturb.. to sell to.. to buy from..

sure it could disappear instantly.. just like a beer i buy from the supermarket.. i could just look at the beer.. i prefer to drink it.. i could just wander SL and not pay to use it.. but i like to use it.. i want to see it grow... i will continue to fund that.. its my choice.

And THAT is truly the only "benefit" to premium membership...the continued funding of LL who maintain and develop this playground. Your membership helps support the work that keeps the lights on and servers running in SL.
LL created this platform, and laid it out for the public, solely for the purposes of a long-term beta test. The merger of the test grid with the main grid the "het grid" is further proof of that. This entire platform is a product in development, that you help fund with your membership. The entire SL economy is really nothing more than a grand experiment to see how such things grow and evolve...and there is no guarantee of either its solvency or its continuation.

Er, the rather frightening amount of L$ I purchase every month from LL more than covers my share of the costs. And I feed it all back into the SL economy, which keeps busnesses afloat, which provides incentive to new users to join and spend their $L, which they buy from LL...

I don't disagree, that being said, if we are all default beta testers, and Premium members are venture capitalisits of a sort, you'd think LL would pay a bit more attention to us when we are "concerned".