I'm doing 1 thing
Create a feedback mechanism, so that when you give me advice toward my goal, I can rank your advice as good/bad. That way, over time, if you tend to give good advice on a particular goal, the site can identify you as an “expert” on it. This alone would add a lot of value to the site. But, the site could make some $ off of it too, by allowing experts to sell their advice/services through the site, with a % of each sale going to 43things.com to support the site.
For example, say my goal is “improve my business plan”. If you are an experienced business person who enjoys tweaking business plans, you can give me advice. Then, if I like your advice, the site should let me rank your advice as good. Immediately, every other user who has the goal “improve my business plan”? should have your username pop up next to their goal as someone who has been identified as able to give good advice on that goal, so those users can ask you for advice, too.
Over time, as many people give advice, and many are ranked, whole lists of “experts”? will be connected to particular goals. And, since experts will choose to give advice related to goals that they know the most about, while ignoring other goals, they will tend to specialize. For example, some users will emerge as being good at business plans with tags like “marketing”? and others with tags like “supply chain management”? and so on. Eventually each expert will collect a unique slew of good rankings that correlates with demonstrated expertise on particular goals (with particular tags). So, the site could tap this pool of identified expertise by allowing experts to SELL their advice/services through the site, with a % of sales going to support 43things.com.
As eBay has shown, this kind of reputation system dissuades gaming/exploitation, since each “expert” depends entirely on other users. The difference being that eBay’s reputation system only answers the question, “how trust-worthy is this user regarding selling/buying?” Whereas, the 43things “expertise system”? would answer “how much of an expert is this user on goal X?” where “X” can be any goal imaginable.
What holes do you see in this idea?
What would be the best way to let users sell their advice/services? Through bidding?
Would you use this kind of service, if it were available?
Do you think it would add value to 43things.com?
Do you think it could bring in some revenue to the site?
Do you think it could be gamed or otherwise exploited?
