Micro-managing land for the newbie

I'm new in this world. I've bought a starter plot, have put up a small house on it, and tricked it out with a few plants and the essential furniture a girl needs to get by on.
And now I'm bumping up against some limits: maximum number of prims per plot; and a statement that the maximum amount of land I can own is the basic 520 sq metres plot. (I have a premium account for which I pay quarterly.)
Can any kind soul let me know where I might basic information in a single, convenient place, to check out this kind of thing?
The obvious place would be if there were a central, key-word-searchable, alphabetical list of all the notecards in L2.
Another would be a good manual to this fascinating but complex world. Something like the 'Guides for Dummies' computer books. Though, really, it should be immediately accessible on L2 for preference.
I've had lots of very valuable help from the live help people, but I've had so much that I'm reluctant to approach them too much!
Kind regards
Anima Graff

I don't know where to find exactly what you want but you should find some answers here

http://secondlife.com/tiki/tiki-index.php?page=Land+FAQ

Basically you can only own 512 m2 at no additional charge, but if you want to you can own more, you just have to pay a tier charge.

Also you can click on the land tab at the top of the forum and it will list some other choices on the side to get more information.

If you click on "your account" at the top of the community pages and then click on "land use fees" on the right side it will explain the tier system. Good luck! If you don't want to pay land tiers you can get a nice house and some furniture within your prim limit by doing a search in-world under "find" for low prim furniture or houses.

Good luck!

You can buy more land, but you will have to pay for it. I believe you can double your land allotment for an additional $5 / month.
A whole sim just for you would cost $195 / month

*sigh* Okay, okay, I'll start running Land 101 classes again!

Another Wiki entry that is useful is http://secondlife.com/tiki/tiki-index.php?page=Land+Ownership+Guide which started out as a notecard created by Stoneself Karuna, and which I updated recently and still use as a handout in my classes.

Eggy is correct, you can go from 512 m2 to 1024 m2 of land for twice the prims and twice the area for just an extra US$5/month. Many people do this by buying out their neighbors next to their First Land - but if you don't care for your current neighborhood, the Find/Land Sales list is packed full of 1024 m2 parcels waiting for a new owner.

Still feeling cramped? Spend $8 instead of $5 per month, and get an amazing 1536 m2! Three times to space and three times the prims! Now you can furnish upstairs too!!!

(Okay, see why they say land is like crack cocaine now? )

Many thanks to everyone who replied: v. helpful.

What's a 'whole sim', please?
Devi

Land is put into regions. When you look at the top of your screen there should be a name and rating listed for the region. It will say something like Ess(Mature). Ess is the region name, Mature means that you are not restricted to doing PG things. Each region is also called a sim or simulator by people. It contains 65,536 meters2 of land, which is 128 first land plots if all land is available to residents.