What is the most reliable web hosting company?

I’m need to set up a web site for my boss.

thank you in advance,

-Carol

If you are interested, you can contact me: hqwebdesign (AT) gmail (DOT) com

Their “upfront” payment scheme requires at least one “rating” and one “writing” star, (I suppose, Ms. Whitlock’s intended meaning of the intentionally deceptive phrase “minimal community participation”), in order to recieve $0.50/article. For each additional writing star, you get an additional $0.50/article. The trick is that the also claim the ” Upfront Payments are based on the number of new articles you submit in a month and the number of stars you have on calculation day”–which means you must post a lot of articles each month in order to earn. And, NONE of them can be creative writing–those simply do not count anymore. Each of these articles, mind you will then no longer be your intellectual property–you will simply retain a copyright to the extent that you can seek parallel publication.

If you maintain 5 stars for rating, (a thing which is “calculated” according to a mysterious algorhythm, such that sometimes, people LOSE stars for rating carefully, consistently, and constantly), you get a big, fat $3 bonus for your countless hours of careful consideration.

Blogs, also, offer “a wide open publishing platform for non-exclusive content.” Just like Helium, any content that isn’t illegal is posted, but unlike Helium, any google ad revenue you generate will be yours, and you lose no editorial control over your writing. Nor do you give someone unilateral, perpetual permission to do WHATEVER they want with your work, without reasonable remuneration.

Because you must have a minimum of $25 owed in order to get paid, if you fall ONCE CENT short, and then don’t post an equal number of articles, or rate as much, all your work is for naught. Your stars are gone, and so are your payments. I think their payment system is probably downright illegal, to be honest. Whether or not somebody “agrees” to it or not, a user’s license is not binding if it contains illegal portions. To agree to forfite previously earned income based upon future work sounds like a labor law being violated somewhere, but I’m, admittedly, not a labor lawyer.

According to their user’s agreement, if they wanted to, they could have someone write a screenplay from the creative writing (”derivative work”) that recieves NO PAYMENT, sell the “license” to use it for millions, and not give the original author either credit, or a cut (”without attribution”).

Yeah, some benign and user-friendly little community, that is.

Helium’s Freelance Marketplace http://www.helium.com/marketplace?placement=JP13060 pays $32-$100 plus per article, with new kill fees. No limits on submissions and no registration fees.

We also offer a wide open publishing platform for non-exclusive content, with new upfront payments plus improved ad revenue share on informative articles, with minimal community participation.

Helium also offers a supportive writing community and highly responsive and accessible staff.

Over 10,000 web writers are making Helium a daily stop in their freelance writing efforts. Join for free and get informed directly. Also email me for any comments or information: bwhitlock@helium.com.

Barbara Whitlock
Community Development Manager
Helium.com

And, God forbid you should decide a piece is an embarrassment, or that your artistic vision would be best suited by changing it across genres. Tough. Helium will not allow anybody to delete anything, at any time, unless they deem it to be of inappropriate content, or plagiarism. They won’t risk losing an ounce of revenue from your work, (not a dime of which you’ll see, unless you post myriads Pulitzer-worthy articles, and rate like a fiend). You see, they claim (in bold-face print): “After publishing content on the Site, you (or a third party who permitted you to publish their content on the Site) continue to retain all ownership to the content, subject to the license terms described herein, and you continue to have the right to use the content in any way you choose.” The right to use the content in any way you choose” would seem to imply that an author could alter or even delete a piece “(a)fter publishing (said) content on the Site.” Nope.

The “license terms” are scary, and as follows:
“By submitting your content to Helium, you grant Helium (and any Helium successors-in-interest, subsidiaries, or parent companies), a worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, transferable, non-exclusive, sub-licensable right and license to, in whole or in part, with or without attribution to you, use, copy, modify, edit, adapt, publish, publicly display/perform, translate, display, create derivative works from and/or license and/or distribute content posted to the Site. Helium’s rights to content you submit include the right to make editorial revisions to your content; to use in any way the materials you submit on the Helium website or in other Helium media, whether now or hereafter created; to use for our own internal business purposes; and/or to reproduce and distribute the materials for Helium’s marketing and publicity purposes.”

So, WITHOUT attribution to the author even (read: plagiarism), Helium is claiming perpetual publication rights, along with absolute and irrevocable editorial powers, and the ability to distribute that work outside the site.

When I signed up, I naively believed the wording of those terms was a catchall to protect Helium from frivolous lawsuits. After all, the boldface font implies a respect for the author’s intellectual property rights, no? When I wanted to delete a piece because I couldn’t radically edit it, and I found it woefully different than the voice I’ve found as an artist, I found out the hard way: the wording is so Helium can use it’s new vanity publishing scheme to grab and hold the works of it’s authors hostage, to allow for perpetual possible ad revenue.

I am a professional photographer, as well as a writer. When I began my formal education, digital photography was in it’s infancy. It was crude and rather primitive by todays standard. The most advanced cameras on the market at the time had less resolution than an average camera phone has now. Needless to say, I was educated with a film SLR and a darkroom. Within a year of completing my Bachelors, digital was in full swing and the internet was off and running as well.

This had a huge effect on my profession. Not only was the weekend warrior able to produce images at a rapid rate with very little cost, there was a market online for them as well. Anyone who could afford a camera that shot over 4 mp, was now calling him or herself a photographer. We entered the age of royalty free and rights negotiable images. Getting the average person to understand there is more to being a photographer than having the latest camera gear is a neverending prospect.

My concern, is that markets such as Helium will have the same effect on writers. I think it is a wonderful concept to allow emerging writers an opportunity to be seen. I do worry that it will devalue the work of the dedicated professional, as publishers opt for the less adept writer who is willing to practically give away their work just to get noticed, versus the seasoned writer who knows their value and enforces minimum prices.

I am one of the ones who did not take the easy path and am happy in my decision. Marketing is harder, but my work is respected and compensated fairly. The ones who opted for selling their work for pennies to anyone who would take it, have stated to the world “This is what I am worth”. Placing a competitive value on your work after that is not easily done.

Does anyone have any further input on this? I am not sure if there is a parallel or not and would welcome other viewpoints.

I can assure you there are NO “hidden” fees on Helium. It is completely FREE to join, and there are NO administrative fees whatsoever. Helium makes its money from Google Adsense ads, and from a percentage of the contributor articles it sells in its Marketplace.

As to the forum, I am in complete agreement with Stacia; her reasons are some of the reasons that I don’t hang out on the board. It’s gets very silly (childish) at times.

As to being unkind to new writers, I (as a Site Steward) am not, but I am honest. If I feel a new writer needs a heads-up, then I send a note their way.

But I (as well as many other Site Stewards) are very supportive of new writers, that is new writers who really care about honing their craft. It’s the pikers and the fly-by-nighters that receive our “snippy” attitude.

As to payouts, Helium has always been honorable. As soon as a writer reaches the $25 level, they may elect to be paid; the payment is put directly into their PayPal account, but only once a pay period. It does not happen immediately.

I would like to encourage the two ladies who have had bad experiences with Helium, to go to my About me page, and contact me directly. I will be happy to answer your questions. And look into any troubles you may be experiencing.

http://www.helium.com/user/show/93811

I assure you I make no money from stewarding; I do it because I care both about Helium, its contributors, and the craft of writing, in general.

And who knows…we might even become friends.

Cheers,
Sheree Zielke
Site Steward for Photography & Camera Channels