In case you haven’t heard of Silkfair, they pitch themselves as a friendlier alternative to eBay and Etsy, though they do allow sellers to integrate their listings from both of those sites. “SILKFAIR makes buying and selling fun and easy.”

The Silkfair Twitter Party

In order to get the word out about their online marketplace, Silkfair hired Amy Lupold Bair – the inventor of the Twitter Party, aka ResourcefulMommy – to host a sitewarming party for them. Amy created a lot of buzz for them. She held an hour-long hashtag party, during which time partygoers were given the opportunity to win prizes. Silkfair was offering free custom stores to the prize winners. There were no qualifiers to this when I found myself a prize recipient. I was getting a free custom store on Silkfair!

My “FREE” Custom Store

It took forever for Silkfair to set up the free stores for all of us winners. And by the time it happened, our free custom stores turned into three free months of having a custom store. Custom stores generally cost $24.99 per month.

With my store set up, I decided I should list all of my old Tupperware from my Tupperware lady days… but life got in the way, and I only listed three things. One of them sold in December. I forgot about Silkfair. I thought my store would revert to a free membership once my prize ran out.

The Catch

Imagine my surprise when I was printing out all of my financial information to prepare for tax season, and I discovered that there were THREE separate charges – $24.99 each – to my credit card from Silkfair in December. When my prize period expired. I thought it might be a glitch. After all, I’d gotten an email from them stating that I owed them nothing for the month of December. It didn’t occur to me that the email also didn’t mention the 24 cent transaction fee for the Tupperware colander I’d sold.

So I checked it out this morning while looking for Silkfair’s contact form on their Web site. By the way, they don’t have a contact form, and their email addresses listed are not clickable. Not very user-friendly. It took me about 10 minutes to find where on the site my invoice for December was even located. And this is what I found:

So not only were they acknowledging by invoice that I was a winner from the Resourceful Mommy party, but they were indeed charging me for the three months that were supposed to be my free membership.

Much to my chagrin, I learned that my account also did not default to a free membership…I was charged another $24.99 – only a week after the other charges – for my continued membership.

I admit that I did not read the part on their site where it said it would bill me automatically each month… but it was NOT easy to find. I only found it after hunting for where  in the world I could cancel this subscription I didn’t want. Unfortunately, I didn’t think to screenshot the location when I found it, since it has now been replaced by a giant “UPGRADE YOUR ACCOUNT” graphic. Hint: It was NOT on the Fees/Billing page, where one would intuitively think to find how to cancel the recurring subscription fees.

I have canceled my subscription as of this morning, and I’ve sent them a sternly but politely worded email requesting that the charges be reversed. If the nearly $75 in charges from December are not reversed, my next step is to contact the Better Business Bureau and the Attorney General. In no communication was I ever told that I would be retroactively billed for my FREE 3-MONTH MEMBERSHIP. I have also requested that the charges from January be reversed as a gesture of good faith, since I was also not made expressly aware that I would be charged automatically if I did not cancel. (Who knew I should have hunted and clicked on every tab and sub-tab on the navigation menu to find this out?)

I will happily post an update about this Silkfair FAIL if and when they contact me to resolve this matter.This was a massive fail of communication, ease to find information on the Web site, use of social media to get good buzz, and just business practices in general.

How  Silkfair Could Have Avoided This Mess

• Emailing all prize winners to let them know expressly that this was not a free membership, but that we would be charged for the full amount if we  did not cancel our memberships prior to the end of the three-month period.
• Emailing all prize winners to let them know that they would be charged automatically on a recurring basis for the membership, and that it did not default to a free membership after the trial period had ended.
• Itemizing all charges – not just amount outstanding – on email invoice notifications to account holders. An actual detailed receipt of charges made to our credit cards. Account holders should be able to trust that email notifications concerning money are complete and accurate.
• Following good business practices and not trying to pull a bait and switch on active social media users who can – and will – easily expose shady business dealings when they could have been cheerleaders of the business instead.

Updated January 27: The  Silkfair Twitter account has told me that “We personally want to apologize to you for incorrect billing, & refunds were applied to your acct.” As of 5:17 pm, nearly 27 hours after that tweet, my Silkfair account reflects no refund, and my bank account has not received any refunded money. Also, despite the fact that I canceled my custom store subscription, the Fees/Billing page still tells me that I am going to be auto billed for $24.99 on February 5.

The Silkfair Social Media FAIL is a post from: Christina Gleason - Founder of Phenomenal Content LLC

Last night, I attended a networking mixer for the Southern Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce, of which I am a member. (I got my plaque last night, too, although I have no storefront in which to display it!) I brought a job-seeking friend with me for company and to hopefully help her get some leads for work. I am so glad that she came along, because it would have been completely insufferable otherwise.

I write because I’m not good talking to people, especially people I don’t know very well. And strangers? Forget it. I can’t walk up to someone I don’t know and strike up a conversation. I’ll talk to someone who approaches me, but I’m like a seventh grade girl at a middle school dance, standing at the punch bowl waiting for a boy to talk to me. I’m going to make a generalization and say that many of us who are writers – and many of us who are into social media – are much better off socializing through text than we are through speech. I know there are exceptions. I’ve met some of the exceptions. But going to the Type-A Mom Conference taught me that many bloggers are a lot like me… although a little bit of alcohol, an adult toy giveaway, and some Guitar Hero karaoke can loosen us up.

But at that Type-A Mom Conference, at Social Media Breakfast Tech Valley, and at the local mom networking nights I’ve been to (one of those is being held again tonight) – it’s been easier to talk to people because I have “met” at least a handful of the other attendees online. We’ve chatted. We’re not complete strangers. Saying, “Hi, I’m Christina Gayle on Twitter” or “I blog at Cutest Kid Ever” is quite the ice breaker. The usual response is, “Oh! I’m [insert Twitter or blog name here]! Nice to meet you in person!”

The Chamber of Commerce event last night had no such ice breaker. I didn’t know anyone other than my friend and one or two staff members from the Chamber. The event was held in a banquet room of a restaurant that was too small for the crowd. There weren’t enough chairs for everyone, so once people sat down, they didn’t move so as not to lose their seats. People conversed in packs, and it seemed as if they already knew each other anyways. There were so many people standing that you had to say “excuse me” at every step, even when up at the hors d’oeuvres tables. It was not conducive to meeting new people and, well, networking. At the networking mixer.

My friend and I ended up talking to the other people who had managed to grab seats at the same table as us, though none of us had skills that really benefited each other. I did talk to a guy near the bar who runs a local business journal and may suggest that people who send him press releases hire me to write them. There are a lot of bad press releases out there. (Don’t we all know it?) I talked with someone else who may want to send me some of his excess blogging  work. My friend didn’t find anyone there who was hiring, but the former Chamber president gave her a lead and told her to use his name, so that was pretty awesome for her.

But mostly? It was a very painful experience. Much like that middle school dance, I was hanging out with my best friend, waiting for someone to notice me. She’s far more outgoing  than me, so she did strike up a few conversations on her own, which was great. But me? It’s really not my thing. I wish they were all on Twitter so we’d know at least something about each other going in.

I’ve committed to doing the next Chamber mixer, though, since they forgot to call me up to give my “30 second pitch” when giving me my plaque. She found me at my table and gave me my plaque there. Everyone else had been called up to the podium. It’s probably just as well she didn’t, though, because it was  too loud in there, and the microphone did not amplify throughout the whole room. Next time, everyone should be able to hear me, since I’m hoping it will be a more suitable location.

Tonight, I’m going to an event where I get to bring my son along for a pizza party and play time at Tumbling Tykes while the moms chat in the other room. I’ve met a few of these ladies previously, and several of us are Twitter friends. This will be a fun mixer.

Networking Events with People who aren’t Online is a post from: Christina Gleason - Founder of Phenomenal Content LLC

My political leanings are far to the left, and I am very passionate about workers’ right. I am disgusted when employers provide water for their farm workers because they legally have to, but then they intimidate those workers not to drink the water or take bathroom breaks. Farm workers die in the California heat every year due to exploitation by their employers. It’s despicable when employers lure foreign workers here with the promise of a good job, only to perform the bait and switch with low pay, no vacation, and simple theft of wages and tips. And don’t get me started about Wal-Mart’s “labor relations” – forcing employees to work off-the-clock, violating the FMLA, and not allowing their employees to take federally mandated breaks.

If one more person tells me that employment is voluntary and that if you don’t like the work you don’t have to do it – I’m going to scream.

Let’s take a look at the unemployment levels in the United States right now. The economy has claimed the jobs of highly skilled, intelligent, hard-working individuals everywhere.  Those workers are now fighting for unskilled jobs that they are quite overqualified for just to pay for food and shelter. What happens to the unskilled workers who need those jobs, too? That’s right – they’re forced into the even less desirable jobs. Unsavory employers take advantage of this, knowing that they can treat their employees poorly because the workers need the money too badly to leave the only job they could get.

The sad truth is that many people are ignorant of workers rights for a variety of reasons, whether it’s a lack of education or active spreading of disinformation by previous employers. It is not the employee’s fault when they are taken advantage of by their employers.

The Exploitation of Independent Contractors

Last week, I wrote ranted about Matt Cutts and his approval of using Amazon Mechanical Turk to hire exploit linkbait researchers. Some people claimed that I blew the video all out of proportion and accused me of manufacturing controversy for self-promotion. They were very wrong.

I worked as an independent contractor for many years. And it is absolutely unbelievable that I ever put up with some of the terms I accepted in exchange for my pay.

I was a mystery shopper for a few years – never as a full-time gig, but for extra money. I made $8 (total, not per hour) for spending a minimum of 30 minutes inside a fast food restaurant and filling out a 15 page multiple choice survey that included a narrative of the experience. I was not reimbursed for my gas or my driving time. By the time I’d submit the shopping survey, it had been an hour and a half… not to mention taking the time beforehand to memorize all the details I wasn’t allowed to write down during my evaluation. Not even minimum wage. I’d get invitations to perform shops that paid $5, even though I’d have to drive 30 minutes each way to get there! I didn’t take those, but someone did.

I worked as a Cha Cha guide for about a week. Having already worked as a quality rater, my search skills were fantastic. I was fast and efficient… and I still wasn’t making even $4 an hour. After I quit working for them, I read that they lowered the pay rates for their guides. Unbelievable.

And of course, there’s my stint as a Google Quality Rater. While I can’t tell you what I did for them, I can tell you how the job was structured. I worked for 12 months before I was forced to take a  three-month hiatus. I was then hired back to work another 12 months… never to work for them again. The pay wasn’t bad, at least I didn’t think so at the time. But the effective layoff in the middle of my two terms? Let me refer you to the Microsoft permatemps lawsuit.

Back in 1996, a class action lawsuit was brought against Microsoft by temporary workers who had been working for Microsoft for an extended period of time without being granted employee status. You see, employees earn benefits, while temps do not. These “permatemps” were denied the benefits they should have received because of the length of their service with the company. The court ruled in favor of the temps, saying they should have received the same benefits as the employees who were only different from them on paper.

So Google, in its multi-billion dollar wisdom, decided that they’d save money on benefits and potential lawsuits by precluding any chance of their temps to claim employee status. It always seemed a stupid decision to me, considering all of the confidential information covered by the Quality Rater NDA. I mean, I’ve never broken mine, but other disgruntled ex-temps certainly have, or a previous version of the Quality Rater Guidelines would never have been leaked.

I was not exploited by Google, but I was certainly unhappy about the fact that I couldn’t continue  working for them. As the end of my second term with them drew closer, I remember thinking I would happily sign whatever they wanted me to sign to keep working for them and be able to stay home with my son.

That is exactly the  sort of thing that unscrupulous employers prey on. Women who want to work at home so they can stay with their kids. People who don’t understand their rights as workers. People who don’t read contracts before they sign them. (Yeah, not a smart move, but not everyone out there is smart. And that’s not their fault.)

Companies hire independent contractors or freelancers to avoid paying benefits. I’m not talking about intermittent work that doesn’t require a dedicated employee – I’m talking about ongoing work that should constitute employment. Instead of paying their independent contractors a higher wage because of the money they save on benefits, some unscrupulous companies pay these workers less than they pay employees who perform similar tasks. Too often, the independent contractor won’t argue because they feel “lucky” to have the job in the first place.

Many independent contractors work for modern day slave wages – and it’s still perfectly legal because there is no hourly wage to meet the federal minimum wage regulations. Take my experience with Cha Cha for example. Or those low-paying mystery shops. On sites like Elance, writers bid $2 to write 500 word articles because that appears to be the going rate. No one’s researching and writing 3.5 of those articles each hour to reach the $7.15/hour federal minimum wage.

Writers and other independent contractors may not even realize how poorly they’re being paid for their work. Consider mystery shopping – some companies tout making over $100 an hour because they offer $8 for a “quick retail evaluation.” Sure, if you only count your time in the store, your hourly wage goes up. If you count the time it took to read over your instructions, drive to and from the location, and complete your report, you’re coming up quite short in the hourly pay. And if this is only part time work, the actual hourly wage is rarely considered. It’s extra cash for them, so they don’t scrutinize it.

If someone is working for “extra cash” and not a primary source of income, that is not an excuse for companies to exploit them.

Aside from the “no one’s putting a gun to your head to keep a job” excuse, the “pocket money” argument comes in a close second for people who think it’s acceptable to rip off independent contractors. Or because people enjoy doing the work. Umm, I like my job, but you still need to pay me for writing for you. Thanks. You like your job? Would you do it for free? I thought not. (If you’re independently wealthy, this does not apply to you. The other 99% of us are not, and we have to work for a living.)

And then, of course, there’s the “it’s not illegal” argument. Well you know what? Maybe it should be illegal. Independent contracting is being used as a loophole to sidestep federal minimum wage laws.It’s despicable.

Yeah, so independent copywriters and online workers – freelancers – are not toiling away in the strawberry fields (forever) or locked in a sweatshop making hoodies until their fingers bleed. The working conditions are better, but the exploitation still exists. People deserve to earn a living wage. I can hardly believe that $7.15/hour is considered a fair wage these days, but how can anyone be expected to live on less? Food, shelter, electricity, health care… It’s freaking expensive.

How Can You Help Independent Contractors?

If you’re a company who utilizes freelancers or independent contractors, take a minute to look at how you’re paying them. Are you paying a nickel for someone to complete a 10 minute task on Amazon Mechanical Turk? How generous of you to pay 30 cents an hour. Would you work for that? Would you let your spouse or kids work for that? I thought not. I urge you to pay your independent contractors a living wage – I do.

I’m looking for an organization to work with to create an action alert that would allow people to click and send letters to their elected officials encouraging legislation to support fair wages for independent contractors. I’ll draft the letter pro bono. Get in touch. I’m not playing here. I’m not kicking up a fake controversy for the fun of it. I mean business.

The Exploitation of Independent Contractors is a post from: Christina Gleason - Founder of Phenomenal Content LLC

If you’re recently self-employed like I am, you may have somehow forgotten that your quarterly estimated taxes are due tomorrow. And it’s not like when you file your tax return in April… this isn’t a postmark deadline. This is a “we need your check in our hand” deadline.

Oh snap.

If you’ve properly enrolled with the IRS to make your payments online at EFTPS.gov, you’re all set. (For your federal taxes, at least… You’re on your own for your state and local taxes.) Or if you’re like me, you enrolled with your EIN instead of your SSN, and you can’t make a 1040-ES payment as a business entity.

[insert angry noises here]

There’s still hope! You can pay your taxes RIGHT NOW at Pay1040.com, a service of H&R Block. I paid both my federal and my state taxes through their Web site. So they can’t penalize me for being late. [thumbs nose at IRS] I was charged a $3.95 convenience fee for both tax payments – the same amount for the hundreds I paid the state and the thousands I paid the IRS. It’s a better deal than you get when you e-file your tax return in April.

So pay your taxes NOW.

I have not been compensated for writing this post in any way, shape, or form. I am just very pleased that I could use this service to avoid getting a penalty for a late payment on my estimated taxes.

How to Pay Estimated Taxes – By Tomorrow is a post from: Christina Gleason - Founder of Phenomenal Content LLC

My best friend graduated from college over the weekend. It’s been a long haul for her, as she has been plagued with health  problems that prevented her from getting her degree earlier. I’m so proud of her!

To celebrate her accomplishment, several of us took her to dinner at our local Carrabba’s Italian Grill. My husband Tom and I had never been to Carrabba’s before, and it was nice to know that we had an overnight babysitter so we could enjoy a nice dinner out with adults and not worry about hurrying home to the little guy.

Story Time

Our cast of characters includes Jillian, the graduate; Steffany and Tara, the friends from NYC, and Tom and me. I don’t recall our server’s name, but I’ll give her a nickname shortly.

The food was delicious. We had no complaints about that. The dinner conversation was enjoyable. Our server was very attentive… but she made us very uncomfortable.

You see, our server appeared to be about 10 years younger than us; we were a table full of 30-somethings. Her manner could only be described as a cross between kindergarten teacher and Disney Princess. I have dubbed her Giselle in my head, after the heroine in my current Disney favorite, Enchanted.

Giselle arrived at our table with a sing-song voice. “How are you doing tonight? My name is [Giselle] and I’ll be taking care of anything you need tonight.” We could’ve let this pass after making a few comments amongst ourselves as to what “anything” would involve for us. A million dollars. A back massage. A new house.

On every return trip to our table, she called one or more of us “Sweetie” or “Sweetheart.” It was funny at  first, but it grew to be more and more irritating as the evening wore on. Especially when she said it to my husband.

Jillian noticed something I did not, as I was sitting on the inside of the booth. When Giselle walked away from our table at one point, she said, “You could stop touching my friend’s husband.” Giselle was getting touchy-feely with Tom, and my friends were as protective of him as I was. They joked about taking our chipper little server outside and beating her up. (Disclaimer: This never would have happened. We’re not a violent bunch.) But she got just as handsy with Tara, too, touching her arm on subsequent visits to the table as much as she did to Tom. We don’t think she was trying to be inappropriate… she just didn’t that she was making people uncomfortable.

She continued to appear as if she was flirting with Tom throughout the meal. When he placed his order, she said, “Oh I see, you’re a  meat and potatoes kind of a guy.” In a tone of voice suitable for responding to a guy’s story at the bar after he bought you a drink.

And then she offered him – I kid you not – a gold star for cleaning his plate. “I guess you didn’t like it,” she joked. “You should’ve told me and I could have brought you something different!” Tee hee. “But seriously, you get a gold star for cleaning your plate!” As the rest of us finished, she offered Jillian and me gold stars as well. “Sweetheart.” Jillian remarked that anyone who wants to call her sweetheart should probably buy her a drink first.

Giselle had some other faults, as well. She would sneak up on poor Tara and scare her half to death by asking if we needed anything – about 10 inches away from her shoulder. She would hover a few feet behind Steffany’s chair and interrupt intense conversations when someone was mid-sentence to ask if “everything is alright.”

At one point, we were discussing a television show, and Tara said, “She must have slept her way to the top!” Giselle appeared and said, “Stop that! You shouldn’t say that. It’s not very nice.” Tara was just shocked and didn’t know what to say. Jillian said, “Do you even know what we’re talking about?” Giselle admitted that she didn’t, and Jillian said something that served as a dismissal. Tara was offended that she had been scolded by our server. “She doesn’t know me!”

We ended up not getting charged for our desserts when we got the bill. I think she realized she’d handled us badly.

Reviewing the Situation

I think Giselle could be a very good server. She would be fantastic with children and with senior citizens. You can call kids and older people “sweetie” all you want and they’ll beam at you for being friendly. Grandfathers generally don’t mind having a  pretty young girl touch their shoulder when taking their order. And my son might actually try to clean his plate if the nice waitress offered him a gold star for doing so.

But take the same approach with a table full of four women and one man, who you obviously recognize as being in their 30s when you declined to ask them for ID when they ordered drinks? You’re risking the tips you’re working so hard to get. (We didn’t short Giselle, especially after the apologetic way she comped our desserts; we left over 20%.)

How This Applies to You

You’re probably not a waitress if you’re reading this post, but you can still take away a lesson from Giselle’s performance. You have to assess your customers – your audience – and adapt your approach accordingly. You can’t use the same copy for a Web site geared toward freelance digital artists as you would use for a Web site geared toward C-level officers of companies who employ digital artists.

Whether you’re designing a Web site, writing copy, designing graphics, or creating scripts for your customer support staff, you need to think about the end recipient of the information. You may need to design different landing pages for various target demographics who are interested in your product or service.

If you aren’t adapting for your audience, you risk alienating a large percentage of your customers or potential customers. Maybe you can save the relationship later on, like our server did with the free desserts, but that’s not the best use of your resources – and you won’t be able to make up with everyone. You’ll save yourself a lot of headaches (and money) by doing it right the first time. One size fits all rarely fits anyone properly, and it’s poor planning to assume that one way is “good enough” when you’re conducting business.

Can You Adapt for Your Audience? is a post from: Christina Gleason - Founder of Phenomenal Content LLC

After two months of preparations, it’s finally time for me to announce the launch of my new company – Phenomenal Content LLC. If you are looking for content creation services, you’re no longer hiring “just” an individual – no matter how talented this individual may be.

Any work that I cannot complete myself (due to workload or specialty) will be handled by one of my very capable hand-picked writers. I will serve as editor for anything I do not write before returning it to you. As far as I know, Phenomenal Content is the only content creation company being run by a former Google Quality Rater, so we’re in a class of our own!

If you are in the market for copywriting, blogging, or editing services, please consider using Phenomenal Content!

Announcing the Launch of Phenomenal Content LLC is a post from: Christina Gleason - Founder of Phenomenal Content LLC

I took the plunge and filed my paperwork to form an LLC yesterday. It appears that my business name is available, but I’m waiting on the official word from the Secretary of State of New York.

The domain name has been purchased, but I’m not making an official announcement until all of the paperwork is finalized. That gives me time to ask a question.

Should I redirect this Web site (christinagleason.com) to the new business Web site or should I maintain separate Web sites? I’d be very grateful if you could leave me a comment explaining your vote.

Personal Web Site vs Business Web Site is a post from: Christina Gleason - Founder of Phenomenal Content LLC

I’m learning a lesson as I build my business here, and I have a feeling I’m in good company. I’ve been making good progress on my client work, but my own sites have been… neglected.

It’s really a bit embarrassing. Here I am, promoting myself as a writer and a blogger, while my poor blogs sit there with just one post a week, in desperate need of a design facelift as well. This post you’re reading now? It’s been percolating in my mind since last Thursday, but I never sat here to write it until today. Tuesday.

I need to do something about this.

Schedule Time for Personal Projects

It’s time to take that handy little planner my husband made me get, and schedule time to write my own stuff, as if I was a client. I don’t want to short-change my clients, so I’ll be putting in “overtime” to get my own blog posts written.  It’s going to take a little while to get in the habit of thinking of my own projects as client work, but I realize that it has to be done. Otherwise, I’m a bit of a hypocrite for suggesting other people do the same.

Why bother with scheduling time for personal projects? I’m looking at it this way: I want to gain some more self-sufficiency.  My own blogs aren’t bringing in more than  a what my Grandpa used to call “pizza money,” but with a little time and effort, I think I can change that. I may be doing well with client work right now, but what happens if that work dries up? I need a back up plan.

It would be nice if my own projects eventually become successful enough to take the place of writing for clients. It’s a goal, but not one I’m pinning all of my hopes on. I am, after all, a writer and not a marketer. Oh, I know, I’ve worked for a marketing company, but I did what I do best, and other people did the actual marketing work. The Internet isn’t exactly a place where “If you build it, they will come” applies.  I suppose that learning about how this whole marketing thing works will be something like company-sponsored training, where I’m sponsoring myself!

Who else is in the same boat I’m in? If you’re great at working on client projects but not your own, join me in an effort to treat yourself like a client. Schedule some time every day – or several times a week – to work on projects for yourself.  Are you in? Let me know!

Schedule Yourself as a Client is a post from: Christina Gleason - Founder of Phenomenal Content LLC