First thanks, did get this to work multiple times after many failed attempts. 
The "simple Instructions . . ." should clearly state that the "vests" field should just be left all zeros. This one step left out left me scratching my head and attempting to use the "Advanced Instructions . . ." which no matter how I tried could not create an account with, error this, error that. . .
As a last ditch effort I decided to try the "Simple Instructions. . ." and just leave the "vests" field populated with zeros.  The cost was 6 STEEM (currently @ $1.56USD so $9.36USD) and it worked every time.
Well worth the $9.36 to avoid the headaches, hardest part of this was that I had to learn to deposit steem into my account to pay for it with, but I figured this out too. Using Changelly I just swapped some ETH (could be anything really) to STEEM and when asked for deposit address just put Steemit user name in "user name" field, memo address (to get this click on your wallet, then click on "permissions" and scroll down) in "memo" field, and finish the transaction. Within a few minutes you will have Steem in your steemit wallet and can use it to create accounts for others. 
So to recap if possible to edit this post it would be really awesome to add "leave vests field populated with zeros" to the simple instructions. 
Thanks again for a great post. Now to learn how to upvote it. . .