Ask HN: Would You Use This? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Would You Use This?

2 pointsdownandout11 comments

I'm looking for a new business to build, and I'd like to get feedback before I spend resources on it. Here's the basic idea:

If you have a strong resume, whether you are looking for a job or not, you will wind up with a ton of recruiter spam, and maybe people asking you for advice etc depending on your situation. Basically I was thinking of creating a site where you just enter your email and a price that you want to receive for each email someone wants to send to you. We give you an email address that you can post publicly. When someone sends email to it, an autoresponder lets the sender know that they must pay for delivery - whatever the price you asked for. There is a link, the user pays, and the email is sent upon payment.

Would anyone use this - on either side? It has applications beyond the basics - for example business luminaries, celebrities, etc. could also use one of these addresses and get paid. It could work, but my barometer is so far off on these things I would love any feedback before I build it.

Thoughts as they come to me:

1. If I'm spamming for a job, I'm basically just throwing darts. Why would I pay to contact one particular person? Surely there are still plenty of people who aren't using your system that I can spam for free.

2. If the person in question is someone you actually respect (and are not just spamming), then the question is whether your offer is truly interesting and how good you are at pitching it, not how much you're willing to pay to be heard. I mean, if I wanted to contact Bret Victor, I would ask myself whether I actually had something worth saying to him, not whether he'd take $10 or $50 or $100. If I actually had something worth saying, I'd imagine his response would depend on my ability to make the value clear, not a bribe.

3. Celebrities asking for money directly from the public is just bad PR. I can't see any celebrity doing this.

4. Business luminaries selling conversations is already a thriving business: it's called consulting.

Some celebrities charge money for autographs; I can imagine them charging money to personally respond to an email.

We've already seen some well-known business people auction off a lunch meeting for charity; something similar might be plausible with email conversations.

Which is why I ask these things; I come up with ideas and see no downsides. Now I see plenty of them. Although, you are uncharacteristic this as a bribe. It's a way to reduce the number of spammy emails that in-demand people receive. Also, a third party service that charges and has the ability to get emails to celebrities isn't exactly "a celebrity asking the public for money".

Facebook do it but it doesn't seem to have any traction:

http://money.cnn.com/2012/12/21/technology/social/facebook-m...

Study the offline market, and see what online needs they have. Then cater those needs.

I give my contact email to a resume site marketed to recruiters and it will reduce spam?

That ain't the way I'm placing my bet.

The site wouldn't be marketed to recruiters.

Recruiters are the chickens. Without them, what's the point of building an egg warehouse?

Yes, I know the metaphor is confused.

send me $7, and i'll answer your question. ;+)

-bowerbird

I'll answer it for $5.

well, sure. but i'd bet $9 he wants the _right_ answer... ;+)

-bowerbird

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