We have 4 main easy ways to become premium. You don't have to pay to join.
1 Get rep by helping members and submitting things. Once you get 100 rep you get premium.
2 Submit things you find in the game or other sites. If just one gets approved you get premium. This is extremely easy with games like diablo 3 when they first come out. Check other sites for things we don't have and share.
3 Enter our contests we have all the time, we have one ending in June that gives a free cash and premium to members. All you have to do is rep that post, on top of that you can get extra entries by submitting a link to something you created
4 You can just joint he site by paying. This is an option however we have 3 other options. So the argument that you MUST pay is null and void. We just want all members who join to contribute to making the site better.
PS on top of that you get access to MMOViper which is another great perk.