Premium Perks Suggestions

[Blaze Nielsen]

Ok Linden Lab, you want members to sign up for premium accounts? The perks you've come up with won't go far with older residents, maybe they are for noobs. Here's my suggestion, If I am truly a "premium" account, then give me instant access to my funds on Paypal transfers. As a merchant here for several years, I still have to wait up to a week for funds transferred to my Paypal account. I don't really feel like a "premium" account when you treat me that way. I guarantee if you give instant access of funds to merchants, they will ALL become premium.  

[Lyra Blackthorne]

Improved customer service staffed by people expert in SL.  As often as not the person on live chat or even the Linden's have spoken with do not understand the issue...I think they are people who have visited SL but not lived here. 

Expand what Live Chat can do...so far they only thing they have not told me to file a ticket on is a password reset.  They need to be empowered to do more

[Chelsea Malibu]

I've always felt that a Merchant Account would also be something of value.  Charge me a premium or perhaps a bit more, give me some store space, discounts on classifieds and MP enhancements, etc. as well as expedited funds transfers.

[Inspiration Darkwatch]

How about a reduction in land tier costs instead of freebies - afterall - there are enough freebies already to make it difficult to establish yourself as a new merchant.

Think maybe its time the Lindens thought of inviting long term members to have some input, rather than making the environment less attractive and certainly less economically viable - especially in a day and age where people are watching the pennies (cent) more than the pounds (dollars).

 

[Rabid Cheetah]

This assumes they are targeting the general public, as opposed to trying to appeal to the higher-end income brackets that can afford to plunk a thousand bucks down for a server.  I think they're doing the latter, not the former.

[Knowl Paine]

The shortest duration of time I could see would be 24 hours after the transaction. After all the checks and processes have been completed. The product redelivery 24 hour policy could be reduced to 12 hours, that might speed up the process. Assigning two processing teams, one working days and the other nights would quicken transfers in all time zones.

A merchant payment processing status page like the indicators at the Support system may help. I can think of some basic info that wouldn't jeopardize security.

Improving the payment transfer system is not a perk, it is something that LL should do automatically

 

 

 

Edit : typo

Other people's typos are fine, it's mine I cannot stand.

 

[Persephone Emerald]

We all want more perks & cheaper tier, but here are some suggestions that won't cost Linden Lab much money.

 

1, Provide Moderate/Mature sandboxes for premium members. These sandboxes are being aimed at new Premium members, many of whom have Linden Homes with such a small prim limit that they can barely rez some low-prim furniture & a few packages they just bought. Since the Linden Homes are on Moderate/Mature land, their sandboxes should be too.

2. Develop some of the abandoned land to make it more usable to all residents. Widen the public road parcels, so vehicles don't get stuck on the boarders so easily. Reclaim water land so boats can sail & coastlines aren't blocked by ugly malls sitting on top of water. Make sure all abandoned land is set to auto-return objects left on it after no longer than 10 minutes. Drop some Linden plants on the abandoned land to make it look nicer. Developing some of this abandoned land will make mainland more appealing to Premium members. Taking some of it off the market will drive up the value of available mainland parcels, which would in turn stimulate the SL economy.

3.. Increase the "free" tier to 1024m. Currently there are vast areas of unused mainland from which Linden Lab is not getting any money. 512m lots are hard to use effectively, especially for newbies who don't know how to get the best look for their prims. If they could have a 1024 m lot instead of a 512m lot, they could have a little space around their house, furniture inside & maybe some plants outside. The resulting lots would look nicer & improve the look of the mainland.  For those who are already paying tier for more than 1024 m, they can buy up small parcels to add to their current holdings.

4. Don't offer any freebies directly to residents. There are enough freebies in SL. Instead offer a small increase to the current stipend.  If the lowest stipend given to new Premium members is $L 200/ week, bump it up to $L 300/ week. ( I don't know what the current stipend is, but I get $L 300, & I don't think it's fair for new Premium members to get any less than that.)  Increasing the stipend will stimulate the SL economy, which will in turn keep merchants & landlords paying more tier to LL.

5. Maybe have a Premium members tech support forum & put some of the tech support people on it to answer questions. We all know people ask the same questions over & over again, but they also don't like looking for answers on a FAQs page. If they see the question they have has recently been answered in a thread, they may not bother the tech support person with it.  When one person asks a question, a couple others may join the existing thread to say "me too", so the tech guy can answer all of them at once. (I don't know if this idea would work or not, but I'm thowing it out here as an example.)

6. Offer some RL gifts to Premium members who pay annually. For instance, when someone pays for an annual membership, send them a bumper sticker that says "My other life is in Second Life". When they renew for a second year, maybe offer them a T-shirt, cap or coffee much that also advertises SL. When they renew for a 3rd year, maybe offer them a toy chew-toy that looks like a generic noob or a small Torley plushy toy. Users who stay in SL year after year are you biggest asset because they love SL & want to bring more people in with them. Give them some tools to help them advertise for you.

[Void Singer]

I do agree that it's silly to have to wait so long for PP withdrawals.... and I know from experience that the limit isn't being imposed on the PP side..... PP at worst even under high volume can process in 24hrs... which means the extra time is scheduled on LL's side... just how long does fraud checking take? =\

[Peewee Musytari]

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Chelsea Malibu wrote:

I've always felt that a Merchant Account would also be something of value.  Charge me a premium or perhaps a bit more, give me some store space, discounts on classifieds and MP enhancements, etc. as well as expedited funds transfers.

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I don`t really understand your suggestion, the only people that need store space, classified ads or MP listing enhancements are merchants, so its not like merchants can have a discount but everyone else pays the full amount, as there is no "everyone else".

What would be the point of charging more for a merchant account just to reduce the cost of those things? We would probably end up worse off, especially all those merchants that don`t use classifieds or enhancements.

[Jaylin Wytchwood]

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Persephone Emerald wrote:

We all want more perks & cheaper tier, but here are some suggestions that won't cost Linden Lab much money.

 

1, Provide Moderate/Mature sandboxes for premium members. These sandboxes are being aimed at new Premium members, many of whom have Linden Homes with such a small prim limit that they can barely rez some low-prim furniture & a few packages they just bought. Since the Linden Homes are on Moderate/Mature land, their sandboxes should be too.

2. Develop some of the abandoned land to make it more usable to all residents. Widen the public road parcels, so vehicles don't get stuck on the boarders so easily. Reclaim water land so boats can sail & coastlines aren't blocked by ugly malls sitting on top of water. Make sure all abandoned land is set to auto-return objects left on it after no longer than 10 minutes. Drop some Linden plants on the abandoned land to make it look nicer. Developing some of this abandoned land will make mainland more appealing to Premium members. Taking some of it off the market will drive up the value of available mainland parcels, which would in turn stimulate the SL economy.

3.. Increase the "free" tier to 1024m. Currently there are vast areas of unused mainland from which Linden Lab is not getting any money. 512m lots are hard to use effectively, especially for newbies who don't know how to get the best look for their prims. If they could have a 1024 m lot instead of a 512m lot, they could have a little space around their house, furniture inside & maybe some plants outside. The resulting lots would look nicer & improve the look of the mainland.  For those who are already paying tier for more than 1024 m, they can buy up small parcels to add to their current holdings.

4. Don't offer any freebies directly to residents. There are enough freebies in SL. Instead offer a small increase to the current stipend.  If the lowest stipend given to new Premium members is $L 200/ week, bump it up to $L 300/ week. ( I don't know what the current stipend is, but I get $L 300, & I don't think it's fair for new Premium members to get any less than that.)  Increasing the stipend will stimulate the SL economy, which will in turn keep merchants & landlords paying more tier to LL.

5. Maybe have a Premium members tech support forum & put some of the tech support people on it to answer questions. We all know people ask the same questions over & over again, but they also don't like looking for answers on a FAQs page. If they see the question they have has recently been answered in a thread, they may not bother the tech support person with it.  When one person asks a question, a couple others may join the existing thread to say "me too", so the tech guy can answer all of them at once. (I don't know if this idea would work or not, but I'm thowing it out here as an example.)

6. Offer some RL gifts to Premium members who pay annually. For instance, when someone pays for an annual membership, send them a bumper sticker that says "My other life is in Second Life". When they renew for a second year, maybe offer them a T-shirt, cap or coffee much that also advertises SL. When they renew for a 3rd year, maybe offer them a toy chew-toy that looks like a generic noob or a small Torley plushy toy. Users who stay in SL year after year are you biggest asset because they love SL & want to bring more people in with them. Give them some tools to help them advertise for you.

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Perfect List!

[Penny Patton]

I like the idea of "vanity" items for Premium accounts.

Like a "Premium" badge in profiles replacing the "Resident" badge. Give Premium accounts the option to have more "Picks", more "Groups", longer biographies, etcetera. (If you downgrade you don't lose these things but if you're over the "Basic" maximum and you get rid of a group, you can't add any more until you're under the "Basic" group limit.)

I also really like the idea of the tier for Premium accounts being useable towards estates. There's a lot of unused Premium tier out there, imagine if those people could donate that tier to sims they enjoy? Or use it to rent land in private estates? A lot of people really have no interest in Linden Homes or mainland sims.

 How about if Premium accounts had no upload fees? That would be nice.

Maybe Premium accounts could have a second profile picture?

[Penny Patton]

Oh, and agree with the suggestions for merchant activities. Giving Premium accounts some free or discounted marketplace perks would be great incentive.

[Persephone Emerald]

More great ideas, Penny!  You've shown that there are many ways to increase the value of a Premium account without impacting the revenue Linden Lab recieves from users. They need to think like a resident to see these things, but I doubt the marketing people ever spend much time in SL or on these forums.

[Peewee Musytari]

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Penny Patton wrote:

There's a lot of unused Premium tier out there, imagine if those people could donate that tier to sims they enjoy? Or use it to rent land in private estates? A lot of people really have no interest in Linden Homes or mainland sims.

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I agree that sounds like a good idea for the premium resident, but how would that  work?

LL can make whatever rules they want to with their own land, like saying premium members can have a 512 without paying a tier fee, but they can`t really say you can have a 512 of someone else`s land free. Mainland all has a fixed tier rate too, private estates don`t & LL has no powers to tell estate owners how much they can charge for rent/tiers.

The only way I can think that it could be done, would be if LL was to actually pay you a rent allowance for you to use on a private estate instead of having your 512 of mainland, but not charging you a tier fee doesn`t cost LL anything, because it is not using up land that someone else might pay for (they can just make more land) whereas paying an allowance would be a real cost to LL & it wouldn`t be easy to monitor what people spent the money on.

[Money Wonder]

Yes yes yes to the PayPal instant access to funds .. waiting a week for LL to transfer and then paypal 3-4 days to transfer to your bank acct .. ech .... ridiculous in this day and age.  Going to cancel Premium and may come back if they offer this ...

 

-D

[Maelstrom Janus]

Chew toys ?? Badges?? Bumper stickers ?? Are you SERIOUS ??

I bet Rodvik is already considering this CHEAP JUNK to be made in the biggest chinese factory he can find... you have to be joking if you want that sort of rubbish...

How about a few serious suggestions which benefit all sl users who care to use its features..

1) Reduce tiers

2) Let overseas users pay in their own currencies at rates fixed for their currencies via pay pal. Some how the exchange rate I get quoted always seems to be less favourable so lets have rates fixed in Pounds, euros, yen, australia dollars etc.

3) An increase in tier free land with that amount increased for every year youre a paying customer. 1024 for 1 year, 1536 for 2 and so on....

4) New features to INWORLD building ...after 4 or 5 years something new added to the building menus would be a massive bonus to the builder who wants to do his building in world without mucking around with complex externally used software... Increasing  hollowing to 99% and sorting out the prism prim would be a good start...

 

 

 

[Maelstrom Janus]

For god sake impact the revenue its time long standing customers got something back from lindens !!

[161488303349]

i agree with Merchant accounts as an alternative revenue stream for linden

one of things that has frequently come up over the years is bundling of services and packs that we can purchase from linden based on our own needs

[Ceka Cianci]

touch and feel would be a good perk..

for those moments you want to touch and carress ..

or just bitch slap the crap out of someone  heheheh