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How is a geographic area
determined?
Areas are defined by the physical
boundaries of state county lines. Communities my cross the
boundaries of a county line, in such cases, the location of the
communities government buildings will determine which partnership
(county) the community lies within.
Is partnership area protected?
Yes. Partners have exclusive
rights to all directory listings within the geographic area.
We will revoke any partnership if they provide FREE Directory
Listings outside of their partnership area on a Hometown-Network or
any other web site.
What does a Hometown-Network
partner own?
Partners own intellectual rights
to all content that they create for their Community Directory webs
for as long as they remain in good standing with Hometown-Network.
The partner's intellectual property may consist of Homesite,
Spotlight, Real Estate Preview and other sections of their web site,
where they create custom content. Therefore partners may
choose to sell the intellectual content of their efforts at any time
to a 3rd party. Hometown-Network will regard the purchaser as
a partner in good standing as long as they observe all of the
covenants of Hometown-Network.
What does Hometown-Network own?
The domain, trade and copyright
names of Hometown-Network, Hometown-Network.net, Hometown-Net.com,
and other custom domains are the exclusive rights of Accoutre
Systems and Hometown-Network. All FREE or paid listings and
web pages shall default to Hometown-Network in the event a partner
defaults or is no longer in good standing with the
Hometown-Network. Should a partner at any time fail to be able
to update their directory, Hometown-Networks will takeover the
administration of the Community Directory and/or may delegate a new
partner to administration the Community Directory until such time as
the Partner is able to resume administration.
What does the customer own?
Whenever the customer purchases a
service, such as a Community Directory listing or web page, the
customer has rights to expect that service to be available for the
duration of the listing period. Should a partner default or
fail to be in good standing, Hometown-Network shall assume the
responsibility for providing the balance of the service period and
the partner looses all intellectual content rights. A customer
may never export content from Hometown-Network to another web site.
May someone own more than one
partnership?
Yes. Webmasters may purchase
as many partnerships as you feel that you can adequately service.
As your business grows, they may choose to sell and transfer the
partnership to another person.
How much is a partnership?
Partnerships cost $100 annually.
Currently there is no monthly payment option available. The
partnership fee includes use of one or more custom domain names, web
hosting service, templates and support forums.
What is not covered in a
Partnership?
Partnerships do not include the
hardware or software required to create or upload content to the
hosting server of the Community Directory.
Will my partnership fee go up?
No. Your partnership fee
will stay the same as long as you maintain it.
What fee will my buyer pay
should I choose to sell my partnership at a later time?
Simply stated, the current
partnership price. At this time, we do not see any
circumstances which would make this fee change from the current
annual fee of $100.
Which partnership area is best
for me?
The area that you live in.
Obviously counties can range in size from tens to hundreds of square
miles and populations from a thousand to a million. However
the concept is provide a local community service. While the
market is smaller in a rural area, there is also a greater need for
local directory and hosting services. We recommend that if you
are in a rural area, you consider purchasing a partnership for one
or more surrounding counties to broaden your economic base.
Is this opportunity right for
me?
If you are currently hosting a web
site on a paid service for only $5 per month, you are currently
spending $60 per year for a hosting service. For an additional
$40 per year you host your site as a HomeSite and produce a revenue
stream from directory and hosting other websites in your community.
Note, if you need a dedicated IP
address or database for your web site, you will need to purchase a
HomeWeb at an additional fee.
What do a partner get when they
pay the fee?
Hometown-Network will setup the
directory structure for your community website, create your custom
edit permissions and load the blank template pages for your
Community Directory. In addition to the Hometown-Network URL,
a community specific URL is also provided.
Example:
Hometown-Network:
http://hall.ga.hometown-net.com
Community Domain:
http://accessgainesville.com
How does a partner start
building their directory?
We recommend that you create your
links table using a search engine. This will take a few hours.
We also recommend that you create a sample Spotlight and HomeSite so
that your first visitors will have a sample. If you are
currently hosting a web site of your own, we recommend that you move
it to your Community Directory. Hometown-Network can help with
setting up the DNS for your domain if you don't know how to make
these changes yourself. Finally, you will want to spread the
word by making business cards and meeting with people in the
community. Once a few people find your web site, the word will
spread.
What tools will a partner need?
We highly recommend
Microsoft FrontPage as the HTML editor. Our web servers
run Microsoft Windows for maximum compatibility to FrontPage and MS
Office applications. All Hometown-Network directory templates
are created using Microsoft FrontPage 2002.
Can a partner change style of
their Community web?
No. The directories must
remain consistent in style. However, Hometown-Network has many
ideas for additions and changes to the network as it grows. We
encourage partners to input their ideas through the forum section
and contribute to make Hometown-Network better in the future.
Can someone become a partner,
even if they are not skilled in HTML or using FrontPage?
Hometown-Network templates are
designed so that someone with basic word processing skills can add
and update Directory Listings. We offer a Hometown-Network
support forum for web masters so that partners can share their
knowledge.
What if a partner don't want or
have time to design and build homepages and websites?
Partners may always subcontract
web design out to someone in their community, however we recommend
that you use the Hometown-Network forums to collaborate on projects
within the network. This will give talented people in smaller
communities an opportunity to make extra money and you will be
contributing to the overall growth of the network.
Can I become a partner if I'm
already building an hosting websites?
Yes. We do require that
partners host all Hometown-Net content on the Hometown-Network
servers. If you choose you may continue to maintain a separate
customer base on your your own servers. However, we feel that
the Hometown-Network is designed from the ground up to be a very
economical. Windows domain hosting with dedicated IP is
available for $5 per month with no setup fee.
Why should I become a partner
if I can build a Directory myself?
Most of the partnership fee goes
to the cost of hosting servers. In addition to hosting cost,
it would take a non-partner, hundreds of hours man hours to create a
100+ page web site similar to our Community Directory. But no
single Community Directory will never be able to develop name
recognition and traffic that a 2,000 directory network is capable of
creating.
Will partner get rich?
No, this is not a get rich quick
scheme. Everyone should be able to recover their annually fee
by simply hosting one or two business websites a year. The key
to making money is building web traffic. Hometown-Network goal
is to provide a better alternative to indexing local community
website content than what national search engines can provide
themselves. We believe that partners will provide a badly
needed service and traffic will allow partners to develop a
significant revenue streams through hosting, content creation and
advertising revenue.
How do I get started as a
partner?
First, check the State and County
to see if there is an active directory. If you have questions
that are not answered in this FAQ, send us an
email. If you want to lock-in your Community Directory and
get started right away, go to our Partner Signup page.
What is not allowed on
Hometown-Network?
You may only post content that is
intended for general audiences. We do not allow our servers to
be used for bulk storage of data, music or multimedia files.
We will revoke partnerships if they post illegal or pornographic
content. We take down customer sites that violate our content
guidelines. We do not refund any partnership moneys if our
content guidelines are violated.
Sounds good. What's the
catch?
None. Our goal is to provide
a national directory service through over 2,000 community
directories. Hometown-Network is not designed to make the
founders or any partner wildly rich. We believe that the current
search engine method of ranking sites has prohibited small
businesses from being able to fairly compete for business on the
Internet. Hometown-Network is designed to add some structure,
name recognition and exposure through a national network.
Hometown-Network hopes to create a community of like-minded
individuals who would like to contribute something to their
community while they build their skills and reputation. Our
goal is to keep your investment modest while you build your revenue
stream.
How long can I remain a
partner?
We hope that you will stay with us
by simply renewing your annual fee. Building a Community
Directory will provide you with a modest income but more importantly
great exposure in your community. Hometown-Networks is about
building both virtual and real relationships within your community
and the network for a lifetime.
What is planned for the future?
Hometown-Network is just in the
startup stages. In many communities, Hometown-Network will be
the new guy against established community web sites operated by
local media companies. This is the pioneering days of
Hometown-Network, however as the network grows, it will be possible
to negotiate directory and display advertising on a regional or even
national level. This will provide income for partnerships.
We also see the development of global search tools within the
network that will be more powerful than those currently available
through search engines. The potentials of a locally edited,
national directory service are truly unlimited.
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