Have any of you heard of Mahalo.com? It's a newish site, and is there mostly to answer questions. I discovered it via someone on Twitter. A lot of the questions are kind of silly, many of them could easily be Googled, but it seems there are people in the world who would rather pay someone else (or several someones who compete for the one payment) and then choose the best answer. Payment is typically very low for the time required on some of these questions, so it's best to answer the ones that are a slam dunk and avoid the research questions unless it is something you can research easily or would also like to know the answer to. People also offer tips of a few cents or sometimes a few dollars, if they like your answer, and sometimes even if you didn't have the best answer. Kind of odd, kind of cute.
I have been dabbling over there, observing the kinds of questions, the amount of work for the low pay, but interested in observing the dynamic of the place. It's taking baby steps and makes Mudcat look like the grandfather of all discussion threads. Having bounced around this place for 10 years or so means Mahalo is pretty easy to tolerate.
For some of us who seem always to be answering tech questions or gardening questions or other household maintenance kinds of questions, it's a place to earn a few bucks. Slowly but surely, and what I'm curious about are the "private questions," when someone can ask you and offer to pay if they like the answer. And you can set your minimum rate for a private answer. When you earn as much as $150 Mahalo dollars, you can cash in and get it via PayPal. If you're spending your Mahalo dollars on the site, they are at par, but if you cash in they keep 25% of what you earned. Slower than eBay, and if you answer a question you're not guaranteed the payment if someone else answers better or is simply voted higher by readers. So you have to learn to pick your subjects. But I bet a couple of our folks who have more energy for the computer and a little writing and research could run up a tab after a little while. And you can choose to write pages for a set amount. I'm working on one now, to see how it goes and how long it takes. You have 3 days to work on it or abandon it.