subject: Will the market for Business Advice Question and Answer sites flourish in 2011-2012? [print this page] Will the market for Business Advice Question and Answer sites flourish in 2011-2012?
There are loads of Q&A services out there, nearly all of them rely on consumers to help answer questions. There are some very big and popular question and answer sites which cover a multitude of topics such as blurtit.com and Yahoo Answers .
There are also a growing number of niche Question and Answer sites which specialise in providing consumer driven help for certain areas. One such service is found on comparestoreprices where you will get questions ranging from washing machines to hair clippers.
The problem is with question and answer sites that are totally driven by the general public is they lack a clear expert opinion and when it comes to business advice there are very few free services to choose from.
If you get stuck on a tricky business issue you can contact trade bodies such as Chambers of Commerce or the Federation of Small Businesses, they provide free advice and are generall very helpful but what many small business owners would like is a simple way to find basic information online.
Over the next few years it is predicted that more and more niche Question adn Answer sites will spring up where the business model involves a small micro payment to get an answer from a genuine expert - for business, spending a few pounds getting mission-critical advice could be a sound investment.
People have got used to the idea that information online is free - and have also realised this means much of it will be rubbish and with the popularity of micro payment via paypal or reverse bill sms, it really will make economic sense to start providing high quality - premium - advice online to small business from accounting, tax advice through to mentoring and Human resources legal advice.
