Did I Beat LinkedIn to the Punch? Announcing the “New” LinkedIn Personal Plus Paid Account?!?
Would You Pay $5 a Month for a Paid LinkedIn Account?
LinkedIn has always fascinated me on if and how they release information on their new functionalities or services. On the one had, the LinkedIn Groups Product Forum LinkedIn Group, often moderated by LinkedIn employees, is very open with releasing information on future roadmaps as well as welcoming feedback from the LinkedIn community concerning LinkedIn Groups. On the other hand, LinkedIn releases a beta feature (like their new user interface, for instance) to only a small portion of their users but writes a blog post announcing it to everyone. There have been other beta features that have only been released to a portion of the LinkedIn population that were never publicly explained, one of which I detailed in my previous blog post on LinkedIn Features: Does Everyone Have Equal Access? But the best one of all is a paid service that I could find no public mention of but was able to recently sign up to. Have you heard of the new LinkedIn Personal Plus Account?
I was only able to find out about the new LinkedIn Personal Plus Account by random chance. It was in a response to a LinkedIn Status Update I wrote introducing my connections to my blog post on The New LinkedIn Profile Organizer: Worth the Upgrade? My good LinkedIn friend from The Netherlands, Ronny Lam, commented,
“At $60/yr for www.linkedin.com/personalplus I think it is worth the upgrade. I like the feature.”
What? A LinkedIn paid account for only $60 a year? I could not believe it. First, I went to where I always go to see how I can upgrade my account: the Account & Settings page in my LinkedIn account. Guess what I saw? The same thing that you probably see every time:
Where is the LinkedIn Personal Plus Account Option?
If there was an option for a Personal Plus account, why would it not show up here? I quickly went to the link that Ronny had provided me, and voila! the following screen appeared:
LinkedIn Personal Plus Account
If you know me and read my LinkedIn book, you will know that I have never subscribed to a LinkedIn paid account (although I do understand for some individuals and companies there is value). But this seemed to be too good to true: a “hidden” paid service that was only $5 a month and came with some benefits. Why not? To be honest with you, I still didn’t think that I would be able to subscribe to it, but the payment screen came on and now I am a paid LinkedIn member!
The interesting thing about this “new” LinkedIn Personal Plus account is that this is not a new service at all: LinkedIn announced the LinkedIn Personal Plus service in a press release I found dated November of 2005. So is this something that LinkedIn has kept on without advertising? Or is this something that they plan to re-release soon? Who knows, but it gets back to the point that I brought up in the first paragraph of this blog post in that LinkedIn is really strange in what information they release to who and what they keep “hidden.”
So is the “new” LinkedIn Personal Plus account worth the $60 a year? As implied by the above image, here are the benefits that you receive:
- Anyone can now send me a message without using up an InMail or an Introduction through the “OpenLink” feature. It makes me more accessible to anyone and everyone. Of course, I am already a LinkedIn LION so I am as accessible as they come, but this is a nice-to-have for those that are not LIONs.
- I received 5 more Introductions that I can use at a time bringing me to 10. To be honest with you, I really don’t use the Introduction feature, and if you read my book you will know why. So this is another nice-to-have.
- I am now an official “OpenLink” member, meaning that there is now an option to find and be found as an “OpenLink” member when doing Advanced People searches. What exactly is “OpenLink”? It is, in essence, an officially sanctioned “opt-in” network of those open to receiving communications from other “OpenLink” members. But what happens if an “OpenLink” member sends me an IDK? Only time will tell… However, if I was looking to begin a conversation with someone that I had never met before and wasn’t connected, I would tend to contact someone with the “OpenLink” logo (the one next to my LinkedIn Profile Name) first…of course if you are the one initiating the contact, you don’t need to be an “OpenLink” member yourself to see this and contact them. So the value of “OpenLink” with the existence of LIONs is questionable.
- I finally get to see all of the people who have viewed my profile, but it doesn’t add much more meaning to the five people that I have already seen. Lots of confidential names. I don’t see any value in this unless everyone displays their name.
- I do get “priority” customer service and other fringe benefits of membership, but unsure as to what the value is here.
- The interesting thing is, as my friend Ronny implies, I also do get access to the new LinkedIn Profile Organizer. Yes, I did write recently that with some exceptions I did NOT think that this feature was worth the $25 a month upgrade. But, at $5 a month, I would consider the upgrade. Why? If any of you are starting to use the new Twitter Lists, you can already see the value of lumping contacts together into “lists.” The Profile Organizer lets me organize my contacts by location and type of contact. If you network a lot like I do, the feature is actually pretty handy.
So is it worth the $60 upgrade fee? At $5 a month, if you are a heavy LinkedIn user, it may be worth it just for the Profile Organizer as well as the additional 5 Introductions (if you use them) and the “OpenLink” status if you are an open networker. Ronny actually wrote a blog post that went into more detail on the advantages of the Personal Plus account, so please read it here.
I never thought that 1) I would become a paid LinkedIn user and 2) I would be recommending the new Profile Organizer, but then again I never imagined I would find about this “secret” Personal Plus Account for only $5 a month! So there you have it!
Did you know about this option? Are you also a Personal Plus Account holder? Would love to hear from you!
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Neal Schaffer is recognized as a leader in helping businesses and professionals embrace and strategically leverage the potential of social media. An award-winning published author, frequent speaker at social media events, and an avid blogger, Neal is President of 
Comments
LI is resurrecting Personal Plus? I was a Personal Plus account holder for years – since 2004 or 5, whenever they first monetized the site. I signed on for all the benefits you mention above, agreeing $5/month was well worth it. But at some point I noticed the Personal Plus option had disappeared. I was able to renew my membership automatically but I got the feeling that as the site developed, I was “grandfathered in” as a Personal Plus member. Anyway, in recent months I have found the limitations to a Personal Plus account frustrating – no InMails, only 100 search results, limited profile views, etc. So I upgraded to Business. It's more than I need, but Personal Plus is too little. I've already made some valuable connections that otherwise would have been out of reach.
RT @NealSchaffer: Did I Beat LinkedIn to the Punch? Announcing the "New" LinkedIn Personal Plus Paid Account?!? http://ping.fm/B74IA
Did I Beat LinkedIn to the Punch? Announcing the “New” LinkedIn Personal Plus Paid Acc.. http://bit.ly/1CgzBR
#SocialMedia
Thanks so much for the comment and sharing your experience with us. Indeed, after doing some research as I mentioned in the article, Personal Plus is not new. But it does not show up in the user interface of the site unless you enter that URL that Ronny Lam provided me. Awhile ago LinkedIn also gave you the ability to purchase InMails, but when I contacted them they said they no longer offer that. That's why I jumped on the opportunity to sign up for Personal Plus. I do agree, when compared to the other upgrade options, it is limiting, which is why LinkedIn should be advertising it in that it could “ease” a lot of free account holders into signing up for more expensive services just like you have. You have to wonder why LinkedIn hides the Personal Plus Account information…
RT @NealSchaffer: Did I Beat LinkedIn to the Punch? Announcing the "New" LinkedIn Personal Plus Paid Account?!? http://ping.fm/B74IA
Hi Neal,
Now that you are a member of the Personal Plus Accounts Program I noticed you have access to “Insider Access” where you can ask questions to the Executive Forum where users questions are answered by Linkedin's “executive team”. I think many of your readers would be very interested in hearing what the “executive team's” answers to the questions posed on your above blog. Just an idea.
RT @NealSchaffer:Heard of the "New" LinkedIn Personal Plus Paid Account? For only $5 a month u may want 2 consider. http://budurl.com/neal96
RT @nealschaffer Did I Beat LinkedIn to the Punch? Announcing the “New” LinkedIn Personal Plus Paid Account?!? http://bit.ly/fOHRd
RT @NealSchaffer: Heard of the "New" LinkedIn Personal Plus Paid Account? For only $5 a month u may want 2 consider http://budurl.com/neal96
Hi Ron,
Thanks for this information! The “Insider Access” was one of the promised fringe benefits but I can't figure it out where it is located in the User Interface…please guide me! Thanks!
- Neal
[...] year vs. the previously lowest price paid version of about $300 per year. Read about this on the WindMill Networking [...]
"New" LinkedIn Personal Plus Account: For only $5/mon. u may want 2 consider. http://budurl.com/neal96 (via @NealSchaffer @PRSAPugetSound)
Announcing the “New” LinkedIn Personal Plus Paid Account?!? http://bit.ly/eI3Uh
Announcing the “New” LinkedIn Personal Plus Paid Account?!? http://bit.ly/eI3Uh
up to $99 now
Ouch! That's a 66% increase in price! Still cheaper than the lowest tier on LinkedIn's official price list, though.
- Neal
Price is up to $99/year (2/2010)… I wish that I could try it for a month first…
Yes, I heard about that recently…I must have sent them a lot of business after that blog post so they probably realized that they could raise the price
My contract at $5 a month was also an annual one…but even for $99 a year it may not be a bad deal if you utilize LinkedIn enough.
Yes, I heard about that recently…I must have sent them a lot of business after that blog post so they probably realized that they could raise the price
My contract at $5 a month was also an annual one…but even for $99 a year it may not be a bad deal if you utilize LinkedIn enough.
[...] year vs. the previously lowest price paid version of about $300 per year. Read about this on the WindMill Networking [...]