
LinkedIn charges $250 a year to view users' full profiles. - hapless
http://www.linkedin.com/static?key=business_info_more&trk=acct_set_compare
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tjic
I've got a fairly extensive list of contacts, and I've put them all into
linked in ...

...and I never use it for anything.

Obviously some people have figured out how to use LI for their benefit, but I
haven't.

~~~
nw
I agree. Would anyone care to share how they DO benefit from LinkedIn?

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dkokelley
I use it as a personal resume archive. LinkedIn has a feature where your work
and school experience will download as a nice PDF, but I really just use it to
archive my work. Then, when I'm preparing a resume, I cherry pick the most
relevant parts and edit them to fit 1 page. I also provide it to employers so
they can take a look at other work (and more importantly, recommendations) I
have done (or received).

~~~
gaius
See this <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=754608>

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karzeem
What is with the top option being $500/month? It's ten times the price of the
second best account type but is only marginally more powerful. Are 15 extra
requests for introductions and 40 extra InMails that valuable?

~~~
padmapper
It looks like the only major distinguishing factor is daily rather than weekly
alerts for saved searches...

Perhaps it's useful for those recruiters who want to be the first to contact
people when they get on the market?

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Frocer
While this irks me because I use LI quite a bit, but this is the reason why
LinkedIn > Facebook. They know how to monetize really well.

I have always wondered why Facebook doesn't charge annual fee for their
service. They are at the point where if they charge me $20/year, I am too
dependent on it to not pay that fee. While you can argue another free service
may come along and take all that away from Facebook, but building a 250M user
base is not trivial...

~~~
ujjwalg
Personally speaking, I wont pay if facebook starts charging me $20/year.
Rather, it might improve my life because I wont waste anytime on it. However,
if google starts charging for gmail, I will totally pay an annual amount as
long as they open a customer service center.

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tptacek
Hasn't LinkedIn always worked like this?

I can clearly still view the full profiles of everyone in my network, hapless.

~~~
hapless
I used to be able to google names and view their profiles. Now I can't. I
think that's a change. (Maybe I just never found anyone I didn't have a 3rd
degree relationship with?)

Regardless, it's impressive that LinkedIn has found a way to monetize data
created by users, straight-up. Even if it's annoying. It won't actually stop
me from using LinkedIn, after all.

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ryanwaggoner
Is this a new change? I don't feel like I've ever had a problem viewing
someone's full profile, but maybe they define your network so broadly that if
you have several hundred connections, it includes almost everyone?

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jrockway
I read the title and detected a bit of outrage. But really, I think this is
great. If we want resources like this to exist, somehow they will eventually
have to make money. Ads aren't going to work here, but this might. So it seems
fine to me.

(Actually, I have no use for LinkedIn, so I don't even have a profile. If I
want to get a job or hire someone, I have other resources available. I believe
they are called "friends".)

~~~
Frocer
LinkedIn actually makes a lot of money from ads, their CPM is crazy... ~$75
last I read.

Think of their demographics

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oliveoil
And they also charge for 'inmail' (drastically, see the link) which means if
you accidentally stumble upon someone you'd actually like to talk to
(potential business partner, employer,..) you gotta pay, there's usually no
other way to talk to them.

~~~
gaius
That was the business model of Friends Reunited - Facebook ate them alive.

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gojomo
It's unclear what the comparison chart means for "Expanded LinkedIn Network
profile views". Could I see any more of my own connections' profiles than I
already do?

(Can anyone with this service provide a comparative screenshot?)

~~~
prakash
my understanding of the "Expanded LinkedIn Network profile views" is that you
can view the profiles of folks you are not connected to and the ones that are
typically a 3rd/4th/ no connection to your network.

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timmorgan
I suppose as long as LinkedIn doesn't become the next Classmates.com (in terms
of holding data and contact info ransom after years of collecting them), I
don't care too much. Glad to know they're paying the bills, and someone finds
value (they're willing to pay for) in the service.

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dzlobin
Would everybody be onboard if someone released a free/supercheap version?

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patio11
This is a situation where something being free or cheap creates _negative
value_. I get contacted through my LinkedIn account every once and a while
because someone was looking for a bilingual programmer and we're rare as hen's
teeth in my language pair and region. I have never actually been in the market
for a new job, but they're typically pitching jobs which would be fairly
attractive to me if I was.

I don't get spammed daily by someone who searched for "All programmers listing
Java experience" because LinkedIn's business model forces people to a) be
serious about hiring from it (or you wouldn't be spending a few hundred
dollars) and b) be selective about who you contact (rather than casting a
dragnet).

~~~
dzlobin
That's a very good point

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rwebb
monetizing data.

