Can Expert Advices Service Break Free From Schlock?

In the pay-for-expertise category, services range from frivolous to professional. The same goes for the free services. We argue that recently released Yahoo! Experts leans toward the frivolous side… not that there\’s anything wrong with that.

In the pay-for-expertise category, services range from frivolous to professional. The same goes for the free services. We argue that recently released Yahoo! Experts leans toward the frivolous side… not that there\’s anything wrong with that.

There is now considerable interest in the pay expert service category. EXP and Keen.com emphasize pay-for answers. The fact that money is changing hands may attract more qualified consultants, especially in categories more suited to the quasi-hiring of consultants to sniff out a valuable answer to a practical business, professional, or home repair problem.

Keen has attracted significant investment capital, including an arrangement with Microsoft. The most recent (third) round put $42 million more into Keen\’s coffers, as reported by Brett Mendel in Dot Com Winners and Losers. Three probable reasons for the investor interest: Keen has a compelling platform for exchange of expert advice; its technology addresses the need for live, pay-per-minute telephone advice; and finally, it has moved away from the broad-based consumer market and into the business of providing its service to partners, in line with the vertical/corporate shift that has taken place at many so-called \”B2C dot coms.\”

Personally, as a sometime consultant, I still don\’t like the atmosphere at Keen. The economics just don\’t make enough sense. Being pulled away from the rhythm of other work for a few cents a minute just doesn\’t make it worthwhile. Most consultants are comfortable with the combination of totally free advice and negotiated and often substantial sums for initial consultations and projects. The jury\’s still out as to whether enough advice-givers and advice-takers will find an economic fit at Keen. You can find innumerable experts here willing to help you fix your problems with Windows 98 for pennies a minute. It still boggles my mind that they\’d want to spend their time in this fashion, but then again, when I was 14, I made 6 cents an hour delivering newspapers in the snow.