Why Pay for Premium Account?

I pay $9.99 USD/mo for premium account. SL gives me $300 L/week. Now I find out that is not an even excange in value. So, all I'm doing is given Linden lots of free money for no reason. So, can someone explain to me why I should keep a paying account.

$150 USD = about 40,500 L.
but
I if I pay $150 USD through premium payments, SL only gives me about 18,000 L. That means I would have given SL over $75 USD for no reason at all.

You can... no, wait..

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Nevermind, I am stumped.

The premium account allows you to buy mainland and includes the first 512 sqm of tier as part of the membership. That is a $5/ month benifit IF you use it. Also, if you are going to be premium for a year, you can pay for the year in advance at a discount rate that brings the monthly cost closer to $6 per month.

you have the choice to go no premium if you don't like being one and see no advantage to it..
but you may not get access to alot of places that only allow payment info on thier accounts to get in thier sims and stores and malls ..
things are just easier for me ..i don't have to do workarounds to own land or have someone in a group with me or anything really..i click and buy and am out of there in seconds..
the year total is not that high..break it down to a day and you are at about 33cents a day..
i'll take less headaches for 33cents a day over free with headaches anytime hehehehe

I think you're mixing things up a bit. I have payment on file and I don't have a premium acct.
No one's denied me access to anything... Premium is only handy if you want to own land. In that case, it comes out to be not that expensive. It really is up to you and if you want to own some land.

you can have payment info on account and not be premium. therefore, a location can not know if you are premium or basic.

So there will be money to pay support staff, upgrade servers and pay the light bill at headquarters etc.

Thats a good point, but resently i don`t see much support these days. But I do see a few lindens puts out client UI that is so funny looking. That it makes you wonder who is really incharge of of the client building for offical builds. The state of Second Life look more unsettling then ever in my past history on SL. I am more worried then complaining these days. With some of the ways LLABS is handling clients builds ( like the first look client and al the bugs and issues). How long can we exist like this until we have other failures, data break-ins, data base meltdowns etc........

maybe the support staff is using their budget to support their wine habits?...

What would be the point if it was an even exchange in value?

If you pay for your premium account yearly, it costs US$75, which is US$6 a month.

You get L$1200 a month in stipend which would cost just over US$4.50 if bought from LindeX. So the extra is that you get 512 tier for US$1.50/month (ie, L$399/month). That's better than many in-world rentals.

The way I see it, LL offers (at the moment) people the chance to come into SL for free. This is a good thing for anyone who sells whatever it is they sell - more potential customers. If you would like more privileges, you pay a little bit more. That's it. Not rocket science. If LL was losing money doing this, they wouldn't offer free accounts. Who knows, they may stop doing this in the future. For the moment it's free.

Having only 'payment on file' accounts might be a better way to insure that those coming in are actual potential customers, but for whatever reason, they have chosen not to do this. I don't feel that SL is some sort of commune, to me it's a service/tool or whatever you'd like to call it, and it is offered for free. I also don't pay to have the privilege to shop in a mall (RL). The mall still has bills to pay (elec/ taxes/ heating/ clean-up crew), but it doesn't ask it's visitors to pay. If you would like to own land, just as in RL, be prepared to pay more per month. You will have less security (less control over your future) if you rent, but it will be cheaper, (just a wee bit).

Many creators don't make a profit, they may even lose $, but if you ask them, most will say they do so for the pure enjoyment of it, and they are willing to pay for this hobby. Even they are not forced to own land or have prem acct's, it just makes it easier. We are all guests, if you like, going premium is up to you. There are advantages and disadvantages to both types of accounts.

My answer to "why pay for a premium account"?

Staffing costs money. Bandwidth costs money. Therefore your presence here is costing Linden Lab money, which means in effect those who do pay are paying for those who don't.

Perhaps you (and others) should be grateful that free accounts are allowed in the first place.

Never a wiser set of words spoken......................

People who buy from those who sell ARE paying. Renters make it possible for some land owners to pay tier, shoppers make it possible for store owners to set up shop. My presence in SL is making it possible for sellers to pay for tier and such. If I am grateful (which I am), it is to LL, not to those who pay for premium. Everyone is given the same choice. It all depends on why you're here. Whether my money goes to other residents directly, or is filtered down to you, the amount is the same.

LL doesn't need mini-managers second guessing there business decisions. This trial period of free accounts has been going on for quite awhile now. If it was hurting the business, they would have stopped it, maybe they're still studying the impact. If you are annoyed that some are getting free what you are paying for, then get yourself a free account. If you're just worried about the cost to Linden Lab itself, what can I say, you're a worry wart. You're not Linden Lab. If you think it's simply not fair, as in 'we are all part of this commune and must pay our fair share', in that case, all premium holders should share in the profits... Again, this is LL Business, with a capital B. You'll just have to accept the decisions they make.

i never knew this until now..i thought it was just us that payed..they should cal it info on file for those that don't..but thats just a silly little thing that will never happen lol..when i mentioned click and buy i was talking about land
still i would rather have all my options open to me ..9.95 is not much at all and i just don't understand why free acounts have been open for so long..
i came in with a free account but that day soon as i saw the things i could do i went premium..
i can see people that can't affoard 9.95 a month having to be on free accounts ..but lets face it ..the greedy are exploiting them and lagging the rest of us out with camping scripts and who knows how many accounts each they have..
why premium? someone has to pay the campers lol

No, not really. "Free accounts" all contribute to (a) increasing the number of people buying L$ and passing them on to creators and providers, and (b) adding to the general level of social and creative capital that is present in SL, which brings in more people who will do (a). Without free accounts SL might have already died, which wouldn't be good for anyone apart from competitors.

All removing free accounts would do is dramatically reduce the number of camping, search, land and traffic bots hammering & lagging the crap out of the grid.
Restricting free accounts abilities won't restrict bots at all, they already have limited building, communication and graphics.
I suppose perhaps they are trying to go for a business model where the owner of a sim is responsible for organising his finances from people entering, one day you may have to buy a pass to enter where the cool people with cool stuff are with customer service & staffing inworld.
I don't like how it is free to set up a 100 campbot farming accounts and only ever log into the accounts page from then on to transfer your money out of SL, those people aren't real residents just parasites.

And reduce the entry rate of real people by about 90% (a conservative estimate).

Let's not mix free accounts with camping bots, maybe you can debate having people on the grid with 'no-payment' on file... different subject, although related I suppose.

Many people have mentioned on this forum that they make enough money in SL to cover tier and a little extra for shopping - that they rarely bring in $ because they don't need to. How are they contributing? With their talent of course.

I put in about $30 a month. It's not a whole lot, but it IS money. My $ contributes to SL economy. It makes it possible for all those talented people inworld to continue to do what it is they're good at, without having to shell out as much money as they would have to if less people bought their stuff.

There are good reasons to go premium, just as there are good ones not to. I'm still on the fence right now, but I can tell you, if I do go premium, it won't be because some think I'm not paying my share.

I think it's wonderful how it's set up now. I also think it's a wise business decision on their part to offer free accounts. SL isn't much of a game (there's no goal - you don't need to reach a certain point or kill a monster), most who come here WILL spend. It's set up that way.

Yes, a few with no payment on file roam around and might not contribute much, but they don't usually stick around long. As for bots, that's something entirely different. I can assure you, I'm not a bot and have never camped. In any case, offering free accounts enables those that are willing to spend $ but not build/script/rent-out for the moment, to bring in more cash. Why the heck would you want LL to turn them away?

don't we already have the ability to do this in parcel settings?

Yes, but seeing so many people refuse to put cash inworld they won't pay to enter cool places, cool places are supposed to pay them to be there

Yes, many creators maybe free accounts, but they are a minority in the numbers, and seeing they create, tand earn and some take money out of SL, they may have to reinvest some to become premium.

Free accounts are great to pull people in world, but if they are staying only because it's free and they don't have to put cash in, we really are just a 3d chatroom.

Just to rub it in a little;

Because my premium account is from (way) before 06/06/06, I get a $L500 stipend.

I have 3 alts from prior to 06/06/06. They get a $L50 a week stipend. They do have to make sure to log in at least once a week to get it, but they make a party out of it.

$L500x52 weeks = $L26000
$L150x52 weeks = $L7800

Current rate of exchange: $L33800= @$118 USD

Soooooooooo..... Linden Lab gives me around $43 a year to play on their platform.

Plus 563 meters of land for free because me and my alts have a nice group for the land.

Thereby making my "free" accounts way better then yours.

Sucka.

**Ends Taunt**

Oh that's just cruel.

QFT!!!