3 ms·

Mostly it's about delivering updates to people, who want to participate. Email notifications, IM, cell... Also it'd bring a spirit of a challenge, and so you'

by white 19y ago

Mostly it's about delivering updates to people, who want to participate. Email notifications, IM, cell... Also it'd bring a spirit of a challenge, and so you'll have to hurry up and use your chance to answer the question and get some money. So this will motivate subscribers to check the site often (when they have spare time) or even have it a a home page or keep it sticky all the time.

SwellJoe 19y ago
Unless you're offering Jeopardy style prizes (or at least something worth paying attention to), I don't see how you'd get particularly well qualified answers in a short time period. Expertise isn't cheap, and expertise on call is downright expensive (when I was a consultant I charged an annual service fee just for the privilege of calling my cell phone number outside of business hours)...so if someone can make $100+/hour consulting with their expertise, or make $10 every few hours via your service, they're obviously going to spend more time consulting than sitting in front of their mailbox waiting for questions that match their expertise. I'm not saying it can't be done effectively and profitably--it probably can. We used SitePoint for a logo contest recently and had a half dozen professional designers, and another couple dozen serious amateurs, who responded over the course of 10 days...the prize was $500, though, so not chump change. We were extremely happy with the resulting logo, and we all (designers included) had a lot of fun with the contest. But you might consider focusing on a few niches to get started, and actually line up experts on retainer just to prove to people that you have a working system (we've seen Google, Yahoo, and a dozen also-rans come and go in this field...most people are not going to believe that a startup can make something work that all of the big names in internet tech have failed to deliver). I believe you're going to have to prove it, but I might be wrong...maybe you can just let it run and gather momentum slowly. The other problem is that most of the high end questions and answers I've seen (the ones where you'll make your money) on similar services have been extremely vague and, in result, poorly answered. I got a strong feeling that the questioner probably wasn't going to be very satisfied with the answers. Quality is historically very low from these kinds of services, and it's hard for me to imagine how you'd solve that problem without a lot of (expensive) oversight.
- white 19y ago
  I wasn't very clear with my point. We're not about professional services, but with something, which doesn't need a degree or special skills. Like choice between red or black shirt, one nightclub or another, how good is some idea, the best gift for the girlfriend, etc.
  - SwellJoe 19y ago
    Ah. OK, then it's a terrible idea. ;-)
    - white 19y ago
      Can you tell me why? I'd really appreciate this kind of feedback.
      - joeguilmette 19y ago
        b/c if i want to ask those types of questions i can ask (in order). my friends on gtalk/yelp/google furthermore, i would never in a million years think of paying for the answer to a question such as "which color shirt do i wear" or "where do i shop for X". i have a brain, and the internet offers answers to those questions for free, and it doesn't take an hour.
        white 19y ago
        Well, #3 is not good choice. ;) That's even not a subject for discussion. Besides, our potential clients already gave up on Google when they are coming to us. #2 - well, maybe yes, maybe not. We make it easier. And #1 - not much people have hundred of friends on IM. And sometimes, it'd be nice to know 50 opinions, instead of 10 (someone's typical online IM active list). (And well sometimes you don't want you friend know that you're interested in SOME THINGS :P Don't forget that if you know where is the best retail store close by, some people don't, and they are not that happy to invest hours looking for it. Speaking about my example with shirt/club/etc, these are really bad examples, saying about paid questions; but they are good if they'd be free (and they would). However, just a silly example. I'd like to buy a gaming console, but I don't know which one. I have close to 100 of active contacts in my IM, but barely few of them know something about gaming consoles. So I'm about to spend several hundred dollars, and (me, personally) would be happy to spend $10 or $20 in advance to gather opinion of 50 or 100 people about the gaming consoles before making a purchase. And I want it now. Not tomorrow. Not after the week of gathering all pros and cons.

by white 19y ago

SwellJoe 19y ago

Unless you're offering Jeopardy style prizes (or at least something worth paying attention to), I don't see how you'd get particularly well qualified answers in a short time period. Expertise isn't cheap, and expertise on call is downright expensive (when I was a consultant I charged an annual service fee just for the privilege of calling my cell phone number outside of business hours)...so if someone can make $100+/hour consulting with their expertise, or make $10 every few hours via your service, they're obviously going to spend more time consulting than sitting in front of their mailbox waiting for questions that match their expertise. I'm not saying it can't be done effectively and profitably--it probably can. We used SitePoint for a logo contest recently and had a half dozen professional designers, and another couple dozen serious amateurs, who responded over the course of 10 days...the prize was $500, though, so not chump change. We were extremely happy with the resulting logo, and we all (designers included) had a lot of fun with the contest. But you might consider focusing on a few niches to get started, and actually line up experts on retainer just to prove to people that you have a working system (we've seen Google, Yahoo, and a dozen also-rans come and go in this field...most people are not going to believe that a startup can make something work that all of the big names in internet tech have failed to deliver). I believe you're going to have to prove it, but I might be wrong...maybe you can just let it run and gather momentum slowly. The other problem is that most of the high end questions and answers I've seen (the ones where you'll make your money) on similar services have been extremely vague and, in result, poorly answered. I got a strong feeling that the questioner probably wasn't going to be very satisfied with the answers. Quality is historically very low from these kinds of services, and it's hard for me to imagine how you'd solve that problem without a lot of (expensive) oversight.

white 19y ago
I wasn't very clear with my point. We're not about professional services, but with something, which doesn't need a degree or special skills. Like choice between red or black shirt, one nightclub or another, how good is some idea, the best gift for the girlfriend, etc.
- SwellJoe 19y ago
  Ah. OK, then it's a terrible idea. ;-)
  - white 19y ago
    Can you tell me why? I'd really appreciate this kind of feedback.
    - joeguilmette 19y ago
      b/c if i want to ask those types of questions i can ask (in order). my friends on gtalk/yelp/google furthermore, i would never in a million years think of paying for the answer to a question such as "which color shirt do i wear" or "where do i shop for X". i have a brain, and the internet offers answers to those questions for free, and it doesn't take an hour.
      - white 19y ago
        Well, #3 is not good choice. ;) That's even not a subject for discussion. Besides, our potential clients already gave up on Google when they are coming to us. #2 - well, maybe yes, maybe not. We make it easier. And #1 - not much people have hundred of friends on IM. And sometimes, it'd be nice to know 50 opinions, instead of 10 (someone's typical online IM active list). (And well sometimes you don't want you friend know that you're interested in SOME THINGS :P Don't forget that if you know where is the best retail store close by, some people don't, and they are not that happy to invest hours looking for it. Speaking about my example with shirt/club/etc, these are really bad examples, saying about paid questions; but they are good if they'd be free (and they would). However, just a silly example. I'd like to buy a gaming console, but I don't know which one. I have close to 100 of active contacts in my IM, but barely few of them know something about gaming consoles. So I'm about to spend several hundred dollars, and (me, personally) would be happy to spend $10 or $20 in advance to gather opinion of 50 or 100 people about the gaming consoles before making a purchase. And I want it now. Not tomorrow. Not after the week of gathering all pros and cons.