May 13, 2016 at 3:54 pm

@peachpurple Copyright is automatically assigned to you as creator of any work, when you create it. This is an international concept that is accepted in a multitude of countries around the world. If the terns of us for any paid to write or work for hire site do not mention copyright, then you retain full rights under the law.

I have just reread the Literacy Base terms and conditions. There is no direct mention at all of copyright for our contributions to the site, and therefore we retain full rights. There is also no stipulation that we cannot delete content, or that content must remain active on the site for any specific period of time. So if for any reason you ever wanted or needed to delete content, support would be legally obliged to help you do this.

Some sites will hold people’s content hostage, but that only gets them a bad reputation. Sometimes you do have to be prepared to fight with a site that is doing that. It always pays to have dated screen captures of the TOS, and to have proof of when your content was written and submitted to a site. This can be used if you ever need to file a DMCA takedown notice or ask Google to deindex content that is being displayed in violation of your copyright.

Google is very quick to deindex any content for which a copyright violation has been filed, so if the owner of any paid to write site decided to hold users’ content hostage, it would just take a few users reporting the violation to get most of the site removed from Google. No commercial site can survive if their pages aren’t visible in the search results.

I’m not suggesting that LB would do such a thing, but there is recourse for those who need it should a previously trusted site take a turn for the worse.

May 13, 2016 at 3:28 pm

@morgoodie I think the worst thing a site can do is to panic about the imbalance between revenues and user earnings that must be paid. Whenever a paid to site ends up in trouble, it’s because the owner has overestimated revenues and underestimated how much users will earn in points for writing, page views, tasks, etc. Inevitably, instead of restructuring the earnings program in order to increase productivity and ad revenue, penny sites will end up taking away or capping earnings for the most important activities (e.g. referring new users, posting quality content, etc.)

I really appreciate that LB has not only opted not to cap earnings, but has also designed an algorithm that rewards longer posts and comments. This encourages more thoughtful writing that will naturally contain more keywords, and will tend to rank better in search results because of it. The whole site benefits, and those of us who dislike reading the “nice post” comments and potato posts are happy too!

May 13, 2016 at 2:52 pm

Something we might want to think about is to define what kind of traffic is desired, and how much traffic it takes to accomplish our goals. If it takes 2,500 unique visitors a month in order to get a decent return from an advertising program, then counting return visits from subscribers isn’t helpful.

One of the reasons I finally decided to take the focus back to writing for my own blogs is that I need to be producing new content once or even twice a day. I need to get back to a point where I have an editorial calendar for myself again, and where I have content ready to go in case I am ever unable to blog on a given day or days. I also need to amp up my social media presence, and to return to using tools like HootSuite or Buffer that will automate a lot of the work for me.

May 13, 2016 at 2:46 pm

I have always preferred WordPress to Blogger for everything – except monetizing a free blog. I like that WP is less WYSIWYG, and that there is a greater sense of community among WP bloggers. There is also more of an emphasis on quality of content.

The very best way to experience WordPress is through a self-hosted blog, which you can monetize. This allows for plugins as well

May 13, 2016 at 2:42 pm

Oh no, my dear @swalia and @kaka135, I meant visitor referrals! To date I have only two signup referrals. These are much more difficult to come by, as everyone wants to share their link and have friends sign up under them. I have to work at finding a group of strangers to recruit for the site, I guess! LOL!

May 13, 2016 at 2:30 pm

@kaka135 I used OpenOffice for years before LibreOffice became available. I have always loved this app, and could never figure out why more people don’t just ditch MS Word, especially with Microsoft charging so much for it.

As OpenOffice is no longer being updated (at least, not to my knowledge) I stick with LibreOffice now. It’s essentially the same app. They just renamed it when the two groups split off from one another.

May 13, 2016 at 6:01 am

@morgoodie Oh my gosh, no I meant visitor referrals! I have only two signup referrals to date, but will keep trying to add more. I now have I think 329 visitor referrals, and that number climbs whether or not I’m active on the site. I just keep sharing the links 🙂

I am grateful that LiteracyBase has no limits on how many posts we can publish in a day, nor does the site cap earnings from any one activity such as referrals. I think that sites that offer higher rewards but cap the amount a user can earn in one day, are actually doing themselves a disservice. People will generally tend to only do the bare minimum to obtain a reward. If they hit a ceiling on earnings, or if the site removes an incentive, people stop the behaviour. And right now we can see the results of that on other sites.

By offering a lower incentive per task, but having no ceiling, LiteracyBase is encouraging us to be consistent in our efforts. I think that will pay off for everyone concerned.

May 12, 2016 at 9:43 am

@kaka135 From what I understand, LibreOffice is just the updated version of OpenOffice. My FIL told me some years ago there had been some creative differences in the development team. I guess some left the original company to continue working on the app, but they changed the name to LibreOffice.

May 12, 2016 at 9:39 am

No, I would think you’d still have to include the mentions. @grecy095. I think it’s usually supposed to be a moderator/admin function. That may be why you don’t see it now.

May 11, 2016 at 10:49 pm

This is a really interesting question. Honestly, I’m the type that would likely take advantage of the situation as long as nobody was hurt, and there was no need to be working on a survival plan. I don’t generally carry a quiet grudge. I like to let the person know exactly how I feel and why. If I had an hour of their undivided attention, you bet, I’d use the time!

May 11, 2016 at 10:31 pm

I think it’s really interesting that you mention first that spanking doesn’t work, and then go on to say that if other means aren’t effective a parent “just has to” spank. I think that’s how the majority of parents who do spank would probably see it: as a last resort, and often a measure used in frustration, exasperation, and extreme anger.

That exactly when not to spank.

My kids are all teens and tweens, so we’ve been past the spanking stage for a while now. And I can say that when we did resort to spanking, although we had hoped it would help the kids learn and would improve behaviour and keep them safe, it probably never did any of those things.

What has worked best with our kids at any age is talking things out with them. And by that, I mean explaining things rather than dictating to them. I mean setting a positive example, and treating them with the same respect I would show an adult. When I feel they need correcting, the only means I use now is to tell them that I’m disappointed with their behaviour (and why, and how to fix it) and to use natural consequences if a negative behaviour continues.

They aren’t angels, but my kids are some of the safest, best-behaved kids I know. They have many friends who take big risks with their behaviour, and who cause their parents a lot of grief. For the most part, my kids are respectful, loving, and helpful around the home. They look after one another, and they take care that we always know where they are and what they’re doing if plans change. I have very little to worry about 🙂

May 11, 2016 at 10:19 pm

@morgoodie If you get stuck on anything specific, just give me a shout! And if I don’t know, there are plenty of resources if you just Google whatever you’re trying to do.

This page is where you’ll find documentation for LibreOffice. Remember that you also have the option to install a help module, so you can look for info right in the app 🙂

https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/documentation/

May 11, 2016 at 10:08 pm

I tried this in a forum on another site, and it allows for a conversation to be split into two separate threads. It would be handy when a discussion starts to veer off onto another topic. Splitting the conversation allows both topics to be accessed individually, and makes readers aware there is really a second discussion going on 🙂

May 11, 2016 at 1:57 pm

@swalia Don’t be discouraged by the lack of earnings for likes on posts and such. You can easily earn from referrals instead. I have only three active posts on the site, and already more than 200 referrals. It adds up very quickly!

May 11, 2016 at 12:36 pm

I share on Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, and StumbleUpon. So far, StumbleUpon is the easiest of this group to use, and produces the best results.

I also share on my Facebook author page, nd in my writing groups. I do get a fair bit of traffic from that.

@peachpurple I’ve never been really sure how I feel about articles and sharing on LinkedIn. Do you have any advice for getting good returns on that site?

@swalia So far I don’t think I’m getting great results with G+. What are you doing to maximize your results there? Do you do anything special to gain followers, or use any of the groups to share your links?