SL Membership

[MissOlaOfficial]

To get a membership it is $6 month if I'm not mistaken, but what does it come with? I know you can buy land, but that's all I know. Can anyone explain the full membership benefits?

[Kelli May]

https://secondlife.com/premium/

Also, it's $9.95 a month unless you pay for a year up front at $72.

[Bobbie Faulds]

It's 6USD if you pay yearly. For that you get a stipend of 300L per week. You also get your first 512 sq m mainland land tier free. Paying yearly, if you can afford it, is a good deal, actually. After allowing for the stipend, at 240L per usd, your net cost per year is 7 USD. You also get live chat support for any problems. 

It depends on what you plan to do. If you're going to want mainland land, it depends on the level of support you want. Live chat is nice to have if you're going to want mainland or own a shop on mainland, you'll want a premium membership.

 

[Velk Kerang]

Just my opinion it's only worth it if you want a direct line to support. For me though my past experiance with sl support has been so bad they'd have to work really hard just for me to have a low opinion about it. Just starting out I'd say buy only enough lindens that you think you will need or want that way if you decide to quit on the spot your not out any extra money then what you already spent.

[Bobbie Faulds]

And I've had great response with Support. I've called them several times for griefers and gotten very quick response. But, yes, more if you need or may need support, as in a merchant or in management/admin status for sims. 

[Velk Kerang]

I think alot of that has to do with also what they are being contacted for. For simple mindless issues I had great help from support. For major issues for example if your account get's broken into and banned due to it. Let's just say it took me 6 months of back and forth with support to get mine fixed and mine wasn't even the account that got hacked. That person still doesn't have thier account. They quit all together due to support being so poor and getting no help at all. Here is the pro's and con's of it. If your either a subscriber or a sim owner directly from LL you will get a tad bit better support. So of course alot of those people will more then likely tell you support is better. If your a free player even if you spend thousands of dollars in SL on lindens regularly your still not going to get the same attention or level of service. I think it's jacked personally, but 99% of the people I personally speak with ingame can not stand LL support. The other 1% are mostly sim owners. I have even had friends get so disgusted with how poor the service was they moved to other grids. So you really got to kinda gage what your going to do in SL and base it off that really. Me I am at a stage I never have to spend another dime in SL and for the most part I don't. I log in and rp and talk to friends and then log right back out. So my days of giving LL money are pretty much over for me. lol

[Bobbie Faulds]

Thought it's not a lot, it does help keep SL around. As a free member, even if you do spend a lot of L inworld, that goes to other players, not LL. LL ultimately gets a small amount if someone rents/buys land since some of the rent ultimately gets to LL through the landowner paying for the land. If a seller only has an MP store, then LL gets a very small percentage of those sales. That's a part of what keeps LL going. So, those that have a Premium account or own/rent land help keep the doors open. It only follows that the Premium members and those that pay LL directly for their sims get a higher level of service since they are the ones that help keep the doors open.  

I have multiple alts but I also have 2 avies that are premium members.

[Velk Kerang]

LL get's their money when you buy the lindens from them. Your giving them rl cash for their game cash. That's where they make their money. So I am not really understanding your logic behind that one. If I spend 150 bucks on L's for the month vs someone paying for a mothly premium account only LL still gets that money directly. That's how they get paid and keep the grid. How it transacts in world really doesn't matter. They get better support for their premium account with a small monthly fee compared to a freeium one that buys large amounts of cash. Regardless if you pay rent to a player with your lindens another player owns that land directly from LL anyway. So the ingame cash flow flows in a circle anyway. Lindens makes their main cash off the amount of money people buy on a day to day basis. Because the reality is everyone isn't going to or can aford to pay the crazy lands prices directly from LL. People that got that type of cash do it and set it up can generate money from people who don't, but still manage to spend a nice amount in the game. All the while everytime someone clicks purchase on those lindens then LL is raking in the cash. That's how I am seeing it. You see what I am saying?

[Kelli May]

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Velk Kerang wrote:

LL get's their money when you buy the lindens from them. Your giving them rl cash for their game cash. That's where they make their money. So I am not really understanding your logic behind that one. If I spend 150 bucks on L's for the month vs someone paying for a mothly premium account only LL still gets that money directly. That's how they get paid and keep the grid. How it transacts in world really doesn't matter. They get better support for their premium account with a small monthly fee compared to a freeium one that buys large amounts of cash. Regardless if you pay rent to a player with your lindens another player owns that land directly from LL anyway. So the ingame cash flow flows in a circle anyway. Lindens makes their main cash off the amount of money people buy on a day to day basis. Because the reality is everyone isn't going to or can aford to pay the crazy lands prices directly from LL. People that got that type of cash do it and set it up can generate money from people who don't, but still manage to spend a nice amount in the game. All the while everytime someone clicks purchase on those lindens then LL is raking in the cash. That's how I am seeing it. You see what I am saying?

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True, LL get money when someone buys L$, but they don't necessarily get to keep it. L$ don't always circulate endlessly in the economy; they can be cashed out. There's no guarantee that LL will ever make profit based on L$ sales, other than any commission they take (and that is probably lost to administering the buy/sell process).

Money paid in tier goes straight into LL's coffers. The ideal situation for them is lots and lots of residents paying tier. As many people have pointed out over the years, the cost of providing the servers is much smaller than the price charged for tier.

Subscriptions fall somewhere between. It's a nice payment up front for LL, but current premium members get paid L$300 a week in stipend, and there used to be a sign-up bonus too (perhaps there still is). So they are potentially handing some of that money back. Depending on how the subscription was paid (yearly, quarterly, monthly) up to 80% of the value that payment goes back into the market as L$. And like any L$ in the system, they too can be cashed out.

That makes subscriptions somewhat less valuable than tier as direct income for LL, but they do improve the picture generally. Someone going premium is more likely to own land, and therefore pay that lovely high-earning tier. If they own land, they probably buy houses, furnishings, landscaping etc. That makes them more likely to buy L$ (or at least, not cash out the L$ they have). More money in the economy.

[Qie Niangao]

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Kelli May wrote:

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Velk Kerang wrote:

LL get's their money when you buy the lindens from them. Your giving them rl cash for their game cash. That's where they make their money. So I am not really understanding your logic behind that one. If I spend 150 bucks on L's for the month vs someone paying for a mothly premium account only LL still gets that money directly. That's how they get paid and keep the grid. How it transacts in world really doesn't matter. They get better support for their premium account with a small monthly fee compared to a freeium one that buys large amounts of cash. Regardless if you pay rent to a player with your lindens another player owns that land directly from LL anyway. So the ingame cash flow flows in a circle anyway. Lindens makes their main cash off the amount of money people buy on a day to day basis. Because the reality is everyone isn't going to or can aford to pay the crazy lands prices directly from LL. People that got that type of cash do it and set it up can generate money from people who don't, but still manage to spend a nice amount in the game. All the while everytime someone clicks purchase on those lindens then LL is raking in the cash. That's how I am seeing it. You see what I am saying?

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True, LL get money when someone buys L$, but they don't necessarily get to keep it. L$ don't always circulate endlessly in the economy; they can be cashed out. There's no guarantee that LL will ever make profit based on L$ sales, other than any commission they take (and that is probably lost to administering the buy/sell process). [...]

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Not sure if this is quite explicit enough to correct the confusion. The vast (vast) majority of L$s bought and sold are traded among users, with LL having no role other than broker, collecting only the commission on the L$ transactions and on any cashing-out by L$ sellers. In a tiny subset of cases, there are no user L$ offered at the target exchange rate or better, in which case Supply Linden's own standing offer satisfies the order at that price, lest the L$ become too dear.

The L$ exchange is only a very small part of LL's income, much, much less than the Land product.

[Kelli May]

Thanks for sharpening up my point

[Bobbie Faulds]

LL makes 30 cents per transaction whether you buy 1000L or 10,000L. That basically covers the cost of them getting your money from whatever source you use. They don't make any money on it. Those transaction fees, in RL is why you have an additional charge for credit or debit cards at some places, like your utility or insurance bills. Banks don't do that for free.

[Persephone Emerald]

If you can afford to pay $72/ year and if you can keep track of your payments so you don't forget to pay when this money is due each year, then this is the most cost effctive way to play in SL. When you figure in the $L 300 weekly stipend and the $L 1000 signing bonus you get after being Premium for one month, your net cost is about $ 6/month. 

For this cost you can either have a "free" Linden Home or 512 m of land. You can't put many prims on 512 m of land, but with low-prim mesh, you can have a small skybox with a little furniture and a place to dress - about the same as having a Linden home. You also get that $L 300/ week which is enough to live on if you shop for group gifts, hunt prizes and Marketplace freebies and cheapies. It's enough for tipping at clubs if you don't go very often. It's enough to pay weekly rent at some very low-rent places. For this cost you also get slightly better customer support, but that is generally more useful if you have land rented directly from Linden Lab.

If you go Premium and want to pay an extra $5/ month, you can own 1024 m of land, which is just enough IMO, to have a small cottage (about the size of a Linden home) or a nice little skybox rezzer system from Grim Death Co. that allows you to change your room setting at the touch of a button.

If you add a free alt account and create a group with your alt to own land, you can get 10 % more land as group owned land without paying extra for it too.

 

On the other hand, if you can be happy in SL paying $ 5 / month or less for lindens, then you may not need a Premium account. There is plenty to do in SL without renting a home or spending alot of money on buying things. You can rez things in free sandboxes or find other places that let you rez for free.

[Rhonda Huntress]

If I swear off my Starbucks addiction I can get a premium membership (because I do like the litlles cotages that come with it) plus another L$5,000 a week in pocket change while also dropping well over 400 calories a day from my caloric intake.

 

It works for me

You milage may vary.

[Brises Ravenheart]

Lets say if you want to rent a place that's about 512 in size, most landlords are going to charge you about $2 per week. Now, if you are going to spend in SL anyway, and the L300 will be used, that is the same as getting real money back. If you keep within your 512 land tier, there will be no land usage fees, and the average of your premium is about 18 cents per week with the $72 per year. A little better than $2, right?

Also, if you want to share land with another person, if you both have premium and deed your land tiers to a group, then you have 1024 and still pay no land usage fees.

If you plan on using SL a lot and spending regularly, the premium is a pretty good deal.

[Madelaine McMasters]

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Persephone Emerald wrote:

If you can afford to pay $72/ year and if you can keep track of your payments so you don't forget to pay when this money is due each year, then this is the most cost effctive way to play in SL. When you figure in the $L 300 weekly stipend and the $L 1000 signing bonus you get after being Premium for one month, your net cost is about $ 6/month. 

 

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At $72/yr, it's your gross cost that's $6/month, not your net.

At a conversion rate of 250 L$ per US$, the signing bonus returns $4 and the stipend returns $1.20/week. Fifty two weeks of stipend is $62.40. Add in the bonus and an annual premium membership of $72 gives you $64.40 back in spending money. So the net cost of the Linden home/512m2 plot and additional benefits cost you $7.60/year or $0.63/month.

[Parhelion Palou]

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Madelaine McMasters wrote:

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Persephone Emerald wrote:

If you can afford to pay $72/ year and if you can keep track of your payments so you don't forget to pay when this money is due each year, then this is the most cost effctive way to play in SL. When you figure in the $L 300 weekly stipend and the $L 1000 signing bonus you get after being Premium for one month, your net cost is about $ 6/month. 

 

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At $72/yr, it's your gross cost that's $6/month, not your net.

At a conversion rate of 250 L$ per US$, the signing bonus returns $4 and the stipend returns $1.20/week. Fifty two weeks of stipend is $62.40. Add in the bonus and an annual premium membership of $72 gives you $64.40 back in spending money. So the net cost of the Linden home/512m2 plot and additional benefits cost you $7.60/year or $0.63/month.

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I'd like to add two corrections: $62.40 + $4.00 = $66.40, not $64.40. Second, you get the signing bonus once. The first year your cost after bonus & stipend is $5.60 or about $0.47/month. In subsequent years your cost goes to $9.60/year or $0.80/month. Note: Amounts are in U.S. dollars. The Linden-to-dollar conversion can (and does) change. Your results may vary. The child in me insists on adding: Maddy made an error! Maddy made an error!  :smileywink:

I started when the stipend was L$400 per week, so premium membership is a net gain for me.

[Madelaine McMasters]

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Parhelion Palou wrote:

The child in me insists on adding: Maddy made an error! Maddy made an error!  :smileywink:

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I'm quite fond of that chid in you, so.... plplplplplplplpl!

May I blame the errors on using my iPhone without my glasses while ogling the new fella who changed the oil in the car next to mine? Mike, my mechanic, is cute, but I get tired of ogling him sometimes.

Frankly, if I'd had my glasses it wouldn't have helped. Any improvement in seeing the phone would have been negated by the imrprovement in seeing the mechanic.

;-).

[Vania Chaplin]

One interesting thing that I just discovered:

Two months ago I “transferred” my premium membership from this account to an alt one (in fact canceled this premium, and made another for the alt). When LL asked me why I was cancelling I told the truth.

This month, the surprise, not only my alt received her signing bonus, but this account received a L$ 1000 “referral bonus”

:matte-motes-big-grin: