SpikeTheLobster

Honestly? None, You're far better off finding a decent writer through direct contact and stalking them on forums. If you want to go the site route, I'd suggest the bidding sites - at least you get a load of offers. Sort through them, choose potentially good candidates in your price range, pay out a dollar or two per writer for a short original sample as a test (NEVER ask for unpaid original samples - oldest scam in the book) and pick the one(s) you work best with. Ah, the "other" approach. I do this sometimes, too, because I can write just fine, but I'm not very good at coming up with original ideas/titles. Pay out a small amount for junk content and convert it into proper articles by rewriting around the idea. Basically, paying for title ideas rather than actual content.

Nonsense. The first article I sold online went for $60. Prices have come down a bit since then, but I would still expect at least $15-$20 for 500-700 words (depending on subject)... but then I don't produce boring regurgitated crap. You get what you pay for. Believe me, I've seen content produced by people at both ends of the spectrum (and most of the middle) and unless you're phenomenally lucky, you won't get anything good for low prices. iWriter is not a site I would recommend for content: the prices are not indicative of quality, especially since users can now buy their way to a better rating. I once paid ~$20 a pop for two articles from there, and had to spend an hour editing them to make them publishable (by my standards). Again, it depends on who you get, I suppose. Like any job, it's not something you can just pick up and expect to get paid well, If you're good at it, you can target well-paid gigs, but if you're average or not-so-good, you're going to be fighting for cheap-ass jobs where the competition is fierce. Despite what all those lovely ads selling work-from-home courses say, "anyone can write" is a fallacy. Sites also (generally) pay less than direct clients, because they offer simplicity: you log in, you pick a job or write something, you post it, you get paid. No hassle, no stress, no customer relations, no big money!

I don't think it's necessarily one or the other. I've been looking at this a bit recently and there's such a huge range of possibilities that it's mind-boggling. A micro-niche is generally considered to be a site that gets 1,000 keyword searches a month. That's tiny. But then, they're competing against maybe 300,000 pages, each of which only has 10-30 backlinks. A bigger niche might target 350,000 searches a month but be up against 3,000,000 Google results, each with a hundred backlinks. That's *significantly* harder to make a dent in! Ideally, of course, you want a niche with a million searches a month and two competitors, both of whom are running a single non-SEO'd web page on a free provider. Personally - failing the ideal setup - I'd go for something a bit bigger than a micro-niche but not as big as a highly-competitive subject. I'd want something I know I can make a dent in without spending ridiculous amounts of cash on advertising and SEO services but which would bring in a fair return.

Absolutely. It's almost impossible to set up any kind of reliable security without knowing what you're securing your system against. That's why building security consultants are frequently ex-military, ex-cons and so on (or taught by them). No you're not. You're a programmer. Unless, of course, you're using the term "hacker" to define someone in the free software subculture, which is unlikely. A hacker is someone who circumvents security systems - whether they're a white or black hat. It doesn't have to be malicious - and that's where the "controversy" lies in the definition. Traditionally, hackers were always assumed to have evil intent, which just isn't the case. But when it comes down to it, hackers break security no matter which side of the fence they're on.

Definitely interested in that kind of information - very useful for less involved sites where the bounce rate's high!

Smart move. Never, ever trust anyone with your AdSense account - that's like giving them the keys to your new car and not being able to check they have a license.

Standard BIOS message: unless you switch off keyboard error detection it will say that - it's intended to get you to plug in a keyboard, since just about all machines need one. Just unplug your keyboard, reboot and you'll see it. But it's always made me smile, too.

Simple enough: the minimum fee and the bidding process. Freelancer (.com, Nathan) is one of the bidding sites, which means it's not designed for micro-jobs like Microworkers (MTruk, Minifreelance, et al). At Freelancer, you'll have to fork out a minimum amount and no one will go through all the bidding hassle just for a 10c job. At Microworkers, they'll pick it off the list and do it as one of their daily run because they just have to do it, not go through the whole interview process.

The same as with any paid service, you have to manage Postloopers. You have to go back and re-rate people regularly (or even irregularly) and keep them under control, especially if their quality drops off significantly. That happens? You throw them out, simple enough.

You know I'm joking. At least, I hope you do... everyone seems to be taking that far too seriously.

Of course you can: that's the advantage of being the forum owner, not the moderator. You can do whatever you like.

I'm old and wrinkly. I don't really have the reactions for multiplayer, unless it's backgammon or something.

Well, you see... that's the funny thing. I love science. I'm a total geek (despite being a writer, which is ostensibly an art) and my favourite subject was IT - I loved all the techie details of building tables, databases, moving pointers, calculating data locations in files and all that stuff. Absolutely loved it. Of course, 99% of people thought it was boring. Such is life.

Daily tasks? Oh dear God... I grind through 150-250 non-spam emails a day from various sources, then go through a list of over twenty of my sites to check for comments, updates, post new things, etc. My backups are automated so I don't need to worry about those. After that, I check every post on my own forum and reply wherever I feel like it. I moderate all the new articles on my article directory. I do the rounds of a few "source" sites for ideas and stuff to post on my own blogs or whatever. If I'm lucky, I'll have enough time to schedule a post or two ahead of time. Once a month, I go through several of my automated blogs (in the sense of automated posting schedule) and set up another month's worth of articles to publish. Thank goodness for the WP editorial calendar plugin. I also have a list of half a dozen (or more) other sites I visit daily for fun.

It's multiplayer.