I’ve been working as a ChaCha guide from home for about a year and a half now. I tried it out while on maternity leave from work. I thought it might be a good way to supplement my income. After my 3rd child I went from working full-time outside the home to part-time.
ChaCha is a question answering service. People text or call in questions and you help answer them. This is not a good choice for you if you are easily offended though. You’ll get everyday questions like: What’s the state capital of Minnesota, What’s 554-35 equal?, what’s the boiling point of water?. Then you get crazy questions like: How many teaspoons of sugar would it take to reach the moon? (seriously I got that question once). Then you get rather offensive or colorful questions. I won’t bother to post them here.
There are several guide positions: Transcribers that take the phone and text questions sent in and transcibe them for the next guide that would be the Expediters. I’m actually an Expediter. They have a history of answer from the same or similar question that have been answered. There are a lot of resources to help you answer questions. I try to answer with a provided answer. If it is a question that requires some research or an appropriate quick answer is not available for me I sent it off to either a Generalist or Specialist. These guys do the work of researching and sending an answer.
You can work as little or as much as you want. You can choose to get paid per question OR use a points system where you are in a pool. I can explain that more to you if you are seriously considering.
I only maybe work ChaCha about 10 hours a week. Generally after the kids go to bed or while the baby naps if I feel like it. You are not required to work daily. You make your own hours. In fact, I hadn’t done it myself for several months then got back into it.
ChaCha is having a guide referral contest this month. If you’d like to join go to:
http://becomeaguide.chacha.com please use my email as the person who referred you:
Not only will I get credit for referring you but you’ll be placed on my team so I can help you if you have questions or need guidance.
Also please feel free to email me if you have further questions on becoming a guide.
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Wow! Thanks for the info. This could be something I am interested in. I’ve done telemarketing and customer service! Dealt with angry to the sweetest customers. I hope I have tough skin for this task too.