New widget could ignite global knowledge community by allowing bloggers to charge for advice
THREE-SIXTY Engaging and building communities, 18 November 2011 by Ian Whiteling
What if you got paid for answering questions from readers of your blog? Sound crazy? Well that may be the case, but like so many bizarre ideas before it, this one is now reality thanks to the AskMe widget by Mancx.
Rather than just another revenue generating opportunity, the initiative aims to establish and grow a global knowledge community and market. How will bloggers charging for advice achieve this? Well, currently many questions put to bloggers, who are generally seen as experts in their chosen fields, go unanswered due to time restraints. Mancx believes that introducing a payment system for blogger ‘consultation’ will result in more queries being answered and the creation of a more efficient and growing online knowledge community.
Mancx recently launched its AskMe widget, which of course will also help provide bloggers and online experts with a source of income. During a successful beta testing period, over 1,000 bloggers from over 20 different countries and working in a variety of industries signed up and used the AskMe widget.
The tool lets the visitor ask a question, indicate how much money they are willing to pay for the answer, and then sends on the question to the blogger. For the blogger, the AskMe widget provides a contact management tool, a negotiation and delivery interface, as well as the administrative back-end, including billing and payments, and if the blogger does not have a registered company set-up, Mancx can handle income tax administration across almost all countries in the world. It is an efficient tool for engaging in a profitable dialogue with blog visitors.
“The AskMe widget resolves a long-standing problem for bloggers: how to turn their knowledge and the effort they put into their blogs into cash,” said Mattias Guilotte, chief marketing officer and co-founder of Mancx.
“Finding high-quality information on the web is becoming increasingly difficult, and people often turn to bloggers as experts and trusted sources of quality information. However, a lot of questions tend to be put aside by bloggers as they’re are overwhelmed with requests for help which require time but that won’t help them pay the bills.
“The AskMe Widget is a world first and bridges the gap between sought-after bloggers and visitors willing to pay for their knowledge. During our beta testing period, over 1,000 bloggers installed and used the AskMe widget and have developed a new revenue stream from their blogs. The aim of Mancx is to create a thriving global knowledge market by empowering the individual to treat his or her own knowledge as a valuable commodity.
“The AskMe widget adds a great new dimension to the service Mancx provides, and by giving those in the knowledge business a cash register to go with their shop window (ie their blog or website) it’s another step on the path to a global knowledge market,” Guilotte continued.
The AskMe widget is aimed at any blogger or online expert with a certain level of traffic to their website.
Mancx, based in Sweden, has a patent pending for its solution to managing the trade in information.
Click here to find out more about how to make money from your blog from Mancx
Source: "New widget could ignite global knowledge community by allowing bloggers to charge for advice", 18 November 2011 by By Ian Whiteling
Tags: