Would you use BlurtIt more if you were getting paid to ask and answer questions? If so, how do you think BlurtIt could implement this to help you?

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4 Answers

Arthur Wright Profile
Arthur Wright answered

Basically it sounds great on paper but wont work in reality as you would have people asking anything to make money and people answering any old way for the same reason,  so then you would have even a bigger problem and would chase most people away


thanked the writer.
Andrew Neal
Andrew Neal commented
What about sites like Webanswers?
Arthur Wright
Arthur Wright commented
Most of these websites have great ideas but don't ever seem to stick around long though, unlike Blurtit, Yahoo, Answerbag who do not pay for questions or answers
Andrew Neal Profile
Andrew Neal answered

Imagine getting paid by BlurtIt for participating in the community by asking and answering questions. Nice thought, right? Most would say that it would fail but some might see monetization in a different scope than I would.

It is quite easy to make money from BlurtIt. It's just finding the initiative to bring the idea to life.

For example, I have used an app on my iPhone called AppTrailers. You'll get points for watching videos, commenting, sharing advice, ect. After so many points have been gathered, I would trade those points for a gift card or something. Same idea has been used in Swagbucks.

Both BlurtIt and their users would make money. There are several other options to consider, but that is for another time.

1 Person thanked the writer.
Yo Kass
Yo Kass commented
I really like the idea.
It'd be interesting to see how it was managed on these other platforms. I've heard of a few sites that incentivized users in this way, and none of them seemed to be long term projects.

I was preparing this month's newsletter earlier today, and i actually mentioned this question. Hopefully more people will share their thoughts too.

Also, we tested out a Halloween competition (which didn't go too well) and I'll be trying out another competition this month. If that is successful, there'll be a stronger argument for some sort of reward/gamification system.

I think where it fails on other sites is that the focus is on quantity: people churning out as many answers as possible, plagiarising etc...

I'd love to reward quality and engagement though.
Perhaps using a metric like upvotes and page views to determine it fairly..

Anyway, definitely a possibility. Let's discuss this further!
Andrew Neal
Andrew Neal commented
I'm glad that you like the idea.

Swagbucks has seemed to have gotten some kind of idea with their platform, but I don't know if that direct path would help BlurtIt. WebAnswers has a nice idea, but they limit their users on a lot. I cannot help but like the idea of Teckler's (http://teckler.com) blogging platform. It reminds me of Bubblews, but without the Likes and Commenting to earn money.

Also, I don't know if somebody "upvoting" on Blurtit would bring honesty. People would spam the heck out of this site and have others upvote, just to scam the system.

Either way, I want to look into this more. I'm thinking the Discover page with the Pinterest looking questions and images might make things interesting.

For example:

The images that are posted could come from everyday people with cameras or photographers. The images could be used like the app, Casty (http://casty.me), or stock photos.
Andrew Neal
Andrew Neal commented
Images could come from advertisers and we find the perfect question and answer for the image.
Example: Someone on BlurtIt asks about the calories of sandwich at local food restaurant.
Subway could advertise their restaurant with an image of one of their sandwiches with the calories posted below it.
When people want to know the answer to this question then it would draw attention, which helps everyone. Subway is happy because people noticed. BlurtIt is happy because of the revenue from their advertiser. The user is happy because they get 30% of whatever revenue.

I kinda had a feeling that the Halloween contest wouldn't go too well. People hate to ask friends for help on contests. Oh well, it was a learning experience, right?
David Shabazi Profile
David Shabazi answered

I already use blurtit.com just to willingly help out students who need assistance in mathematics questions (mostly), but to get paid to ask and answer questions? Blurtit would be my homepage! Haha

Though that would mean lots and lots of other people around the world would start using this site too, which may make the site run slower since so many people are accessing it at once. I could see a few problems that would occur if this was implemented, but I definitely see alot more good events that will happen if this actually happened. I could get assistance in paying expenses for college, or even save up for a new, hi-tech Windows computer (which I'm still trying to do. I've had this Macbook Pro for about 4-5 years.)

Anonymous Profile
Anonymous answered

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