I’ve long felt that Linden Lab don’t do enough with premium memberships to sell them. Indeed I feel they should follow a lead from Mobile Phone companies and offer different deals. There are many people for whom the prospect of a weekly stipend and 512M of tier isn’t appealing, others would like a larger amount of tier.
There are those who would prefer a larger stipend and would forsake the 512M of tier as they don’t use it and have no intention of using it. Giving people choice is generally good. creating a premium package that appeals to different demographics is good, how about no free tier but advertising upto a certain Linden dollar value inworld or on the marketplace? How about a discount on marketplace advertising for premium members? How about different price points for premium membership where for more US dollars you get tier, the stipend and the marketplace or inworld advertising upto a certain value?
Then we get to partnerships, LL so far haven’t been that good on partnerships but their deal with GlamAdapt regarding Second Life Avertising Beta shows that they can do partnerships, unfortunately it also shows a flaw in Linden Lab’s own advertising.
Here’s a thought, why on earth isn’t Second Life Advertising Beta being promoted in the Second Life forums? Certainly in the merchants forums, at the very least it should be being advertised in the hidden and super secret handshake Merchants Round Table (you’re not missing anything, trust me). Why aren’t they advertising premium memberships in the land forums? Linden Lab seem to shy away from promoting their own features on their own website, it’s a bizarre situation.
SL Universe has a better events forum than Linden Lab, they also have a new product listings forum, something I don’t see on the Second Life Forums. I’m going off on a bit of a tangent here but LL could restrict posting in an Events and Product listing forum to …… premium members and estate owners!
Where’s the Machnima or photography sections within the forums? In short, where the heck is user created promotion of user created content on the Second Life forums to promote the Second Life experience?
Where was I? Oh yes, partnerships, many people would like a dabble at some sort of web hosting, I’d pay extra for a premium membership if it included a decent amount of web hosting, LL don’t have the resources for this? Well partner with someone who does have the resources, LL could get a cut as a partner and introduce another revenue stream, the same with looking to advertise packages that people who use Second Life create content with, why aren’t they talking to Adobe about promoting Adobe Photoshop with a discount for Second Life users? Adobe use Second Life. When I buy a 3D design magazine, it’s full of advertising, content creators use software for their creations, how about Linden Lab offer advertising to the people who make the software in the forums where it’s relevant?
Hey none of this may work, or it may not be a revenue stream, but I’d never heard of GlamAdapt before I was informed about Second Life Advertising Beta, now I do know about them and surely Linden Lab can work with other brands to raise awareness and increase their income.