An IKain's Service Provider (Provider for short) is a user who provides services to other Service Recipients (Recipients for short) through IKain's web-based platform at http://www.IKain.com.

1. After logging into your IKain account, click the My Account link at the top right corner.

2. While on your IKain account page, click the "Advertisement" menu item on the left panel and select the “Post A Service" submenu item.

3. Choose an appropriate category for your service. If you cannot find a suitable category, please contact our Customer Support. We may be able to add a new category that specifically fits your service.

4. Provide Service Detail.

(1) "Title" should be objective, accurate, and attractive to users. Many viewers may not look into the detail of your advertisement if the "Title" field does not catch their attention.

(2) "Currency" means how you would like to be paid for your service. It can be either "US Dollar" or "Chinese RMB". You will get paid according to the currency type you specify for your service. For example, if you select "US Dollar" as the currency type and you provide a "$20/hr" service, the actual service charge will be $20/hr regardless of the recipient's preferred currency. In this case, the recipient will pay a total of $20 multiplied exchange rate at the moment the service is provided.

(3) "Payment Type".

There are two payment types:

Pay by hour: the system will compute the payment based on the number of hours in which your service has been provided. Fractional hours are prorated by the number of minutes.

Pay by project: your payment is project-based, regardless of how many hours the service may entail.

(4) You can set the "Number of Recipients" parameters (minimum and maximum numbers of recipients.) The default is 1-to-1 service (minimum = maximum =1). Each recipient will be charged separately based on your listed price (per hour or per project). If the number of recipients is smaller than your "minimum recipient number" by the "Reservation End Time", the service will be cancelled automatically by the system and no penalty will be imposed against you.

(5) "Reservation End Time" defines in number of hours when the reservation ends before the service starts.

(6) In the "Website" field, you can provide a relevant website. The default website is the link to your IKain virtual office.

(7) In the "Description" field, you can provide detailed information about your service.

5. Click "Continue" and make sure everything looks ok before you publish your service advertisement.

After publishing your service advertisement, you can publish a service schedule using one of the following two methods:

(1) Click the Posted Services menu item to find the service for which you want to publish a schedule and click the "Publishing schedule" button.

(2) Click the Schedule menu item to enter into the Calendar page and publish your schedule from that page.

If you have multiple services, make sure you select the correct service advertisement to go with the schedule you are publishing.

1. Using your mouse to select a specific time period, this will trigger a popup window titled "Create Schedule". Within this browser window, you can set and modify your schedule. If you select a time that has expired, you will get an error message.

2. IKain supports multiple time zones. Your time zone is the one you selected when you registered your IKain account. Go to My Account -> Personal Settings to change it.

3. If your work schedule is periodic, you can select "Repeats" to publish multiple working hours. "Repeats" can be "By Day" or "By Week".

For a "Pay by project" service, all the schedules published are considered as a part of duration for that project.

For a "Pay by hour" service, you can specify the option of "Confirmation Required" or "Confirmation Not Required". These options define whether a recipient needs to wait upon your confirmation (Confirmation Required) or not (Confirmation Not Required).

For a service that can be paid on an hourly basis, you can publish some "Pay by hour" schedules initially. New recipients of this service can use these schedules to try out your service without long-term commitments. Once a recipient is set to take your service at a regular basis, you can come up with a "Pay by project" schedule that is specifically designed and published for him/her. You can then inform the recipient to reserve that project.

After a service advertisement and its associated schedules are published, a recipient can find your advertisement using different searching methods listed below:

1. "Navigation Menu Bar" is a blue-colored bar located on the top of each page, containing a list of major menu items. Click the Marketplace menu item on the Navigation Menu Bar will bring you to the categorized advertisements.

2. A recipient can select the Browse Categories link next to the search box located under the Navigation Menu Bar).

3. Recipient can search “By Service" or “By User" using the search box.

If the number of existing reservations for a service is less than the maximum "Number of Recipients", a recipient can make his reservation(s) for that service on your calendar.

For a service with the "Confirmation Not Required" option, after a recipient makes a reservation, a trade-agreement is automatically put in place by the system between you and the recipient.

For a service with the "Confirmation Required" option, after a recipient makes a reservation, you need to confirm his reservation. You can make the confirmation by following the link within the email sent to you from IKain after a new reservation is made. You can either "Accept" or "Reject" a reservation. You can also confirm or reject reservations for your services by going to My Account -> Trade -> Trade List.

Even after a confirmation is made either automatically (for "Confirmation Not Required" services) or manually (for "Confirmation Required" services), you can still cancel your service. On the Trade List page, select the trade and click the "Cancel" button to cancel it. Please note that there is a cancellation fee (5% of the total amount). So it's recommended to plan your schedules ahead and cancel your service(s) only if it's necessary.

At the scheduled time, you will deliver your service by following the steps below:

1. Log into your IKain account and enter into your "Virtual Office" (“VOffice" in short). The recipient should also come to your VOffice at the same scheduled time.

2. Depending on the network connections between you and the recipient(s), sometimes better audio/video quality may be achieved by using a third-party online chatting tool, such as Skype, MSN, or QQ. Although some IKain users list their instant messaging account(s) in their profiles, those may have been outdated. So the best way is to communicate to your recipients directly on how to set this up.

After a service is delivered, you can provide a feedback using the "Feedback" link on the Trade List page. You can offer a discount at the same time if you would like to do that. After you provide the feedback, the payment to your service will be deposited into your virtual IKain Bank immediately. If you do not provide a feedback, the payment will automatically show up in your IKain Bank after 7 days.