Free is always a great place to start. Yet, when you’re on your free LinkedIn profile page, the nagging boxes pop up inviting you to try out the LinkedIn premium version for free. If only for a few days, you’ll get a glimpse of the features and benefits of having a paid account if you try it.
This video article can help you quickly access if paid is for you as you go through the trial phase. My goal is to share the pros and cons of paid vs. free accounts.
According to LinkedIn, the free account allows you to use most of LinkedIn’s most popular features, including:
- Building a network of connections with no limits on size or numbers.
- Reconnecting with any member of the LinkedIn network, provided that he/she knows you and agrees to connect to you.
- Creating a professional and detailed LinkedIn profile.
- Giving and receiving an unlimited number of recommendations.
- Joining or creating up to 50 different LinkedIn Groups.
- Requesting up to five introductions at one time. As a hint, after someone accepts an introduction, you can request a new introduction in its place.
- Seeing the last five people who viewed your profile.
- Performing an unlimited number of searches for LinkedIn members in your extended network.
If you want to step up to a paid account, which by the way is the only major “con,” currently there are three: Job Seekers at $30 per month; the Business Plus at $50 per month; and the Executive at $100 per month. As you can see LinkedIn’s premium plans don’t come cheap, yet there are masses of people who pay for extra services on a monthly basis.
Let’s see, so the challenge, (or ‘punch-line’ is,) how else could you spend the $30-$100 a month? Would you jump up to premium, pesticide-free strawberries and apples, -known to be carcinogenic otherwise? How about buying a nice leather fob for your iPad and a subscription to HBR? … No wonder they sold out to Microsoft!