ChaCha Cofounder Describes How the Company Is Making Money

Response to Asking for Clarity

Just off the top of my head, knowing the difference between its and it's is something that would affect one's performance :)

Ari Kovair of PA @ Nov 08, 2008 13:37:27 PM

ChaCha is great!

The new pay system has achieved what QC could not. Although there are still some poor answers out there, the numbers had been drastically cut with the new pay for performance system. As with any growing company, tweaks need to be made along the way. ChaCha is operating much better than it used to which allows me to make more money than ever before. I make $7-$12 an hour and have remained a top guide. The people who believe in ChaCha, like I do, will stand behind whatever decisions they make. Some people do not see the big picture and find it easier to complain then to take a wait and see attitude. Jumping to conclusions, without knowing what's going on behind the scenes, is irresponsible at best. To voice your negative opinions because "you" are not happy not only huts ChaCha but the people who continue to make money and possibly their living being a guide. Maybe being a guide is not for you and if that's the case, I welcome you to leave. Constant negativity will not win you any awards from us ChaCha loyalist. In fact, we would rather have you leave if you are so unhappy with the way ChaCha treats you.

LAS of TN @ Oct 27, 2008 13:57:38 PM

Quality control team?

I think ChaCha made a good move. Why spend more resourecs on a quality control team, when you could just adjust the compensation plan to attract better guides?

If ChaCha isn't compensating you enough for your time, then go find another way to create value in the marketplace. Everyone benefits from that kind of attitude

Tim Harper of UT @ Sep 11, 2008 17:37:20 PM

I'm a Guide

I am a ChaCha guide and I can tell you the pay cut has nothing to do with quality. They are going broke and want to save money. The QC team is finding ways to avoid paying for good answers and the feedback team won't respond to Guide issues. ChaCha is imploding.

CutiePatootie of TX @ Sep 11, 2008 02:27:29 AM

Flawed Biz Model - SMS Text Ads @ $100+ CPMs?

With companies like 4INFO getting $40 CPMs for contextual SMS/Text ads, there is no way ChaCha can make money in advertising with a cost of $.10/$.20 per answer ($100-200 CPM being their cost, over 2x what 4INFO is being paid by advertisers) unless they end up gaming the system they have built with their guides.

No intelligent media buyer is going to pay television ad CPMs for a line of text in an SMS message.

I feel bad that people keep dogging on their company, but there seems to be an arrogance with them about how they're going to make money and be profitable while it's obvious that they're trying to do so by upsetting their guides who are going to get sick of being treated poorly for $3-6/hr.

Charles of MO @ Sep 05, 2008 20:37:14 PM

Cha Cha New Guide program No Good!!

The new guide program today Cha Cha brought out a search program that makes you click on Google linksand search Google so they make money. Now 10,000 guides isnt that fruadelent? Now why when using my websites if I click my google ad sense like 2 X, Google shuts me down. Does Google know about this? This new software makes you wait until you click google search. It took me like 4 minutes per search, because they are trying to make money from us searching and clicking.

Cha Cha Guide Employee of AK @ Aug 27, 2008 16:52:41 PM

Clear Dichotomy Among Guides & Redefining Work Ethic

Originally ChaCha advertised its job opportunity as a great way for college students, who are generally driven, smart, and good with computers and the internet. While courting such college students, ChaCha maintained that students could work on their own time, answering questions whenever they found themselves with a free moment. This, of course, has all changed with the new pay-per-performance system. ChaCha's new requirements for making $0.20 per question (the only amount for which I'm willing to work) demand a mere seven hours from guides (to answer the 200 questions required, assuming accuracy is on point), an ostensibly short period of time, one which *still* fits the 'part-time' job description.

However, to the mercurial schedules of college students, a seven hour weekly requirement is impossible. Students cannot devote 7 hours during finals or midterms, and when assignments start piling up, we all know that academics will come before the nearly meaningless income ChaCha provides, especially when the tradeoff is good GPA ==> high paying job OR ***TWENTY CENTS PER QUESTION**** regarding generally picayune subjects. Not only will ChaCha generally not enrich our understanding of the world (though, rarely, I have run into some interesting question) , but a commitment to it may hinder our future and more lucrative and certainly intellectually stimulating prospects.

Frankly, I'm offended by DaniOR's depiction of crazed, lunatic, and lazy ChaCha guides upset about the pay decrease. Unfortunately, such a group may well exist, but please do not pigeonhole those who are unhappy with the pay decrease into one category. I, thankfully, have not encountered any such appalling answers. Those who are sticking with ChaCha seem sanctimoniously pleased that the rif-raf no longer curse the magic they so adroitly attach to each response. Such members should keep in mind that it isn't the intellectual elite who become ChaCha guides. In fact, such professionals laugh at this operation and the 'abuses' ChaCha guides so eagerly endure.

ITanalyst also has it wrong. They say, "If there are "many thousands of other guides" will leave the service, they will be the same ones who were gaming the system for fast cash and don't have desire to provide accurate, concise answers." It seems our star ChaCha guide hasn't learned anything from their tenure there as they so smugly generalize on a topic about which they know little, without even citing a reputable source.

ChaCha needs to present the way in which they evaluate guides to bring more equity to the process. Furthermore, ChaCha needs to more accurately advertise its Guide positions. While I have no source, personal experience leads me to believe that no one has ever made ten dollars in an hour. Although I can usually answer questions on name etymology, dictionary definitions, and other fact bits under a minute (sometimes 30 seconds), there are some questions that actually require time (2-3 minutes) to complete meaningful research.

We must remember the demographic to whom ChaCha advertised the job opportunity: part-timers. We don't mean part-time in the 20-hour-a-week traditional sense; we mean it in the sit-down-for-fifteen-minutes-/-whenever-you-have-time definition. ChaCha was NEVER advertised to the long-term guides about which ITanalyst writes; ChaCha was advertised to those with protean schedules who were looking to make a bit of extra cash. For these guides, the workers for whom the ChaCha 'servitude' was outwardly intended, the new pay-for-performance system is incompatible with the premise on which they became excited to work.

collegedu3 of MN @ Aug 17, 2008 01:06:40 AM

Incentives my Aunt Fanny

The funny thing is ChaCha presented this change in pay to their guides as a performance incentive. I'm sorry, but where is the incentive to work harder when they were already paying $.20... why not offer $.25 as an incentive to these top guides? Instead of giving away thousands of dollars every weekend to weekend guides who plug in for the contests, why not provide a full time incentive. ChaCha is just one of many in the recent internet sweatshop trend taking advantage of desperate families longing for a way to work from home while having a solid hand in the raising of their children.

Aunt Fanny of RI @ Aug 13, 2008 17:48:36 PM