Ether, the Ebay for Services?
- By: Natasha Robinson [privmsg - website] On 3rd Mar 2006 In
Very few Web 2.0 projects excite me. However I saw this article Super-Stealth Ether to Launch Tonight today and said, "Good Idea" especially for the freelancers and consultants that frequent Threadwatch.
The Ether tagline is "Earn money selling what you say."
From the TechCrunch article:
The concept of Ether is straightforward, but it has a massive back end infrastructure (thankfully Ingenio already had it built). Any service that can be provided over the phone is a perfect match for Ether. “Sellers” set their price, from free to anything (on a per minute or per hour basis). They can tell Ether the hours they are willing to take calls. Every seller is issued a toll free phone number (with a dedicated extension), which forwards to their phone.
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They are currently in invite only beta. Any Threadwatchers out there beta testing?
Note: There seems to be a problem with that link working so go to the TechCrunch site Page 2
there is also IM live and a
there is also IM live and a few others, but I just don't like the concept.
I have 20 saved messages on my cell phone to reply to...not sure how many I will get around to doing, but am usually a bit better at responding to email.
I think whoever wants to take off with this service will also have to have some sort of a low cost or free offering for people who just want to communicate, not just a commercial database
Good lead generation possibilities
I think it could be valuable in certain industries with complex sales processes, especially if you have someone in house who's available and qualified to consult on different aspects of that industry somewhat objectively.
And just set your 'rates' low enough to recover your costs, hopefully by then end of it all, you have either converted the person into an educated, well targeted lead..or have lost nothing.
Found a "Hack"
http://www.ether.com/Registration/Registration.aspx?Subroutine=slogin&SubroutineParams=&ReturnUrl=%2fMyAccount%2fDefault.aspx&CancelUrl=
I was able to signup without needing an invite by navigating around the blog, then going to the my account... I am not able to add a listing or anything, but at least I was able to get werty there.
keen.com
Ingenio has been trying to do this for many years. Their backend has been too expensive; they don't share enough of the profits.
This looks like a web 2.0 face on keen.com or LiveAdvice!, but it's actually de-centralized now which might make a difference. Still, 15% off the top for connecting the phone call...
Services like this that are priced too high on the backend or controlled too tightly tend to slip into the dark cravass of 900 number phone sex and psychic hotlines, where the profit margins can support them and there is little need to establish a client-customer "relationship". With a half-dozen "touches" required before I am contracted to bill for my time as a consultant, I don't see the appeal of this.
As a small business I can keep 15% of my earnings in exchange for some two-way phone courtesy and a part-time receptionist or clever use of my VoIP system, with no dependency. As a larger business or for lead generation, I'd do a 1-800-Dentist marketing strategy and keep the brand assets for myself as well as the 15% skim, and be able to monetize the web traffic as I saw fit (or lease territories for local).
15% is normal.
Adsense charge (margin between PPC advertiser and Adsense advertiser) over 15% for connecting you. I charge 15% for making a hotel reservation. Hotels.com charge up to 40% and they are doing volume. I think 15% is normal.
15% once...
Point taken, but that's 15% once. Not 15% skim for every minute you talk to your client. When I buy leads it's either an upfront commission for the lead, or a small % of total revenues over time. Nothing near 15% of revenues.
If you could sign onto this service and set a $1/hr rate (so you share $0.15 for the initial contact hour- yeah, I exaggerate) and switch the caller to your own phone line afterwards for all future paid work, sure. But you can't.
Gotta love threadwatchers!
werty: you are the greatest - lol
Jonh: Great points, however as consultants and freelancers don't we make money off of doing things that people could really be doing themselves? Except they hire us because their time is better spent doing other things. 15% to manage billing, etc, I say yes! (BTW: I love your ideas)
However, I still can't find anyone who is actually beta testing the service - because I have so many questions about the actual benefits, that I think can only be answered via actual usage.
Natasha "That Girl From Marketing" Robinson