# is this the perfect work-at-home opportunity for Dopers? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 10, 2010, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-the-perfect-work-at-home-opportunity-for-dopers/531932 "2010-03-10T00:33:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2010, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-the-perfect-work-at-home-opportunity-for-dopers/531932/1 "2010-03-10T00:33:57Z")
There are adverts on the TV here in the UK for a web and SMS text-based “we will answer any question” type service. It’s called [63336.com](http://63336.com) and they are apparently looking to recruit researchers in Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, USA and Canada (but not the UK). The recruitment launch page is [here](http://www.aqa.63336.com/vacancies.htm). I should say that I expect the financial rewards might be on the modest side, if my experience with other paid internet piecework schemes are anything to go by, but it might be worth a try. The expected standards of writing and quality of answering are actually quite well aligned with the ethic of this forum. I must stress that I have absolutely no personal connection to, or pecuniary interest in this scheme - I’m just posting it in case anyone fancies giving it a try. ---
**Author:** ![myskepticsight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cc9497/32.png) [@myskepticsight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/myskepticsight)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2010, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-the-perfect-work-at-home-opportunity-for-dopers/531932/2 "2010-03-10T00:41:41Z")
I heard KGB pays 15 cents an answer. ---
**Author:** ![dhkendall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9adbd/32.png) [@dhkendall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dhkendall)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2010, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-the-perfect-work-at-home-opportunity-for-dopers/531932/3 "2010-03-10T13:17:28Z")
> [@myskepticsight](#): > > I heard KGB pays 15 cents an answer. In Soviet Russia, answer pays you! ---
**Author:** ![fluiddruid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fluiddruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fluiddruid)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2010, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-the-perfect-work-at-home-opportunity-for-dopers/531932/4 "2010-03-10T13:36:11Z")
I tried working for ChaCha, a similar service (since renamed?) for awhile mostly as a lark in my spare time. Never made much money at it, and the funny thing was they kept dropping their rate of pay the longer I stayed. Finally, it got so that they did a massive paycut for anyone who wasn’t doing it more-than-full-time. If you did some ridiculous number of hours, you got the “benefit” of keeping the same rate that had been effective for everyone before the cut. They were also kind of douches about quality control - you’d get these nasty emails, but half the time the monitors were wrong about the question being asked, or it was a vague question that you tried to answer the best you could. There was no appeal, and a certain number and you got dropped. (I was rated top-quality enough to get an email from some executive at one point, but then a month later was getting threats, working to the same guidelines). Pretty much everyone working for them by the time they launched nationally was either financially completely desperate or from a country where the rate of pay might have been reasonable. Looked through some old emails – I had been getting 20 cents per question, and the pay-cut went to 10 cents. When I emailed a letter explaining why I wouldn’t continue, I did some math to show that, in ideal circumstances, I’d make $3 an hour pre-tax. ---
**Author:** ![Serenata67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/serenata67/32/10646_2.png) [@Serenata67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Serenata67)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2010, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-the-perfect-work-at-home-opportunity-for-dopers/531932/5 "2010-03-10T13:59:47Z")
> [@fluiddruid](#): > > \ > > Looked through some old emails – I had been getting 20 cents per question, and the pay-cut went to 10 cents. When I emailed a letter explaining why I wouldn’t continue, I did some math to show that, in ideal circumstances, I’d make $3 an hour pre-tax. I looked into doing something like this with KGB… but it’s too much work for too little pay. It would have been more than $3 per hour, but not a lot. ---
**Author:** ![Lunar\_Saltlick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/977dab/32.png) [@Lunar\_Saltlick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lunar_Saltlick)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2010, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-the-perfect-work-at-home-opportunity-for-dopers/531932/6 "2010-03-10T14:25:32Z")
Whatever the pay, if there are questions about belly fat, I’m screwed. I still don’t know how those single moms lose the 46 pounds! And the white teeth – baking soda, maybe? I’m in way over my head. Seriously though, I went to the Web site, and it looks very interesting. Good for a laugh, though I’m sure you won’t make a penny. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2010, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-the-perfect-work-at-home-opportunity-for-dopers/531932/7 "2010-03-10T16:42:41Z")
With more and more cell phones Internet-enabled, I don’t see why people will pay a buck a question when Google search apps are free. The business model assumes a dying technology. ---
**Author:** ![TheFaerie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c57346/32.png) [@TheFaerie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheFaerie)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2010, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-the-perfect-work-at-home-opportunity-for-dopers/531932/8 "2010-03-10T16:46:59Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > With more and more cell phones Internet-enabled, I don’t see why people will pay a buck a question when Google search apps are free. > > The business model assumes a dying technology. I agree. The KGB commercial where the guy is standing in the middle of his living room with brain freeze always makes me wonder “Why doesn’t he just Google it?” I find it hard to believe that a 30ish yo guy in an upper class neighborhood doesn’t have a PC. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2010, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-the-perfect-work-at-home-opportunity-for-dopers/531932/9 "2010-03-11T03:58:06Z")
Hmm, I see they expect you to sign up for the service, download an app to your phone, and ask a few questions first before you even attempt to sign on as an answerer. Asking a question requires that you send a text to a number in the UK or Ireland. This looks scammy to me.