Tuesday, March 3, 2009

ChaCha Registration Has Now Closed

Thanks to all who signed up during that last very quick open registration. As of today, March 3, 2009, ChaCha has closed the doors for open registration.

The response was overwhelming and spots filled up quick.

If you want to be put on the waiting list, comment this Blog or email me and I'll make sure you are notified.

Laurie

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

ChaCha is Hiring for a Limited Time!!!

ChaCha posted today that they are opening the doors for new Guides for a limited time only. They are going to be offering classes for new Guides and once the class fills up then they will close the doors again. The only positions they are hiring for right now are Generalist/Specialists.

If you need to know more about ChaCha, read my Blog below. It also includes the links for the application process.

If after you read the Blog you have additional questions, feel free to email me: lcraftonavon@bellsouth.net

If you sign up, please use my email: lcraftonavon@bellsouth.net so that I can help you!

If you do not pass the initial testing, no worries. ChaCha has more roles besides the Generalist/Specialist roles. Once they get their quota in these roles, they generally send out an email to those that did not pass or as they put it "failed to meet ChaCha's qualifications" and at that time will offer other positions that ChaCha has available.

God Bless!
Laurie

Friday, December 19, 2008

ChaCha currently not hiring

Currently, ChaCha is not hiring. If you'd like to be notified when they are, send me an email via this Blog and I'll be sure and let you be the first ones to know!

Monday, December 1, 2008

What is ChaCha?

I am a stay at home mom who has spent the last year searching for a good, steady, legitimate work from home job. I'm not looking to get rich quick. Heck, I just need living money. I'm sure many of you that are reading this are in the same situation.

One of my friends happened to introduce me to a forum called "Work Place Like Home." I signed up anonymously as Blue Baby and just started rooting around and reading. It was great! These were people just like me looking for the same things I am. There were people there who had found legitimate jobs and of course some that were still looking. I looked up a bunch of the jobs and though they were legit, they were mostly telephone customer service representatives. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt, don't want to do it again!

One day I saw a title of "ChaCha" on the forum. I leave no stone unturned so I decided to check it out. The business is called ChaCha and what it is is a human-powered search and answers service. Guides for ChaCha deliver answers via text or PC, anytime, anywhere, any question. Any one from any cell phone and any mobile carrier in the United States, can dial 242242 (chacha) and ask any question whatsoever. Also called a query. ChaCha Guides research the question through the internet and return an answer.

Guides are paid on a per-transaction basis. The more efficient you can be, the more you can make. Guide pay currently averages $3 to $9 per hour, though many top Guides earn more than that. See specific roles for the amount of pay per transaction. Payments are made one of two ways: via a debit card from First Internet Bank of Indiana, or via direct deposit to your bank account once a month if your account reaches $100 or greater.

Being a ChaCha Guide is one of the most flexible pursuits in the world, making it a great position for people with active lifestyles, existing commitments, or work limitations. There are no scheduled commitments of time, though logging in when demand is high relative to the Guide supply can lead to higher earnings. There is no minimum number of hours required per week. But as with any skill, the more time you put in, the more rewarding it will be - financially and otherwise. ChaCha Guides who take advantage of the valuable Internet resources, training, community interaction, and support that is provided, will increase their earning potential. The hours are yours to decide. Sometimes I work in my p.j.'s and other times I'm sitting outside on my swing. You can also find me on-line at weird hours during the night. I can work whenever I choose!

Can I just go ahead and say how much I LOVE this job!

Finally, something that is making me steady money while working from my home!

A few have said it doesn't sound like much. To that I say I stay at home with my kids. I can go up to my kids' school and work in their classroom. I'm at home when my kids get off the bus. I don't pay over $4 a gallon driving to and from a job. It's all in what your priorities are.

This is not and let me repeat NOT Multi Level Marketing (MLM)!!! Been there done that also. ChaCha does give you a reward for bringing other people on board as fellow Guides but the reward is only for you for those directly under you. Payment on one line, that's it! ChaCha rewards you 10% of each Q&A of any members you personally bring on board. It's such a great opportunity that you will want to share it with all of your family & friends who might be in the same position that you are of needing a little extra money.

If this sounds like something that interests you, feel free to visit ChaCha at http://becomeaguide.chacha.com. Feel free to browse around where you can find even more answers to your questions and testimonials from other Guides. When you are ready to get started, click on the "Get Started" button. If and when you sign up if you will use my email: lcraftonavon@bellsouth.net, I can help you through your initial training and test taking process. Without using my link I won't be able to help you. I'm having so much fun at this I love bringing others on board!

The question I get most often is, how many questions can you do in an hour or in a day. My answer is you can do as many as you want. There are no fees and no commitments.

Some Guides do 50 questions a day, some do 350 questions a day. I know of one person that does 2,000 a week. Wow! (We have to have a life sometime!!!!)

Your typing speed and ability to use your Google search bar greatly effects how much or how many Q&A's you complete. ChaCha will provide you with professional search training and custom tools to turbo charge the process....you will provide the brainpower to analyze the question and craft high quality answers.

You will end up having a ChaCha toolbar on your computer. When you want to work you click "Available" on your toolbar and when you don't want to work you will click "Away."

People with any mobile phone company will text questions to ChaCha (242242). The question hits ChaCha's server and goes out to a handful of Guides who are available. A doorbell rings. You either answer it and take the question or if you don't answer it the question will go on down the line to the next Guide that is set to Available.

Again, go to http://becomeaguide.chacha.com and click on "Get Started." That will not "commit" you to anything. Registration doesn’t take long, but it does require you to give ChaCha some information about yourself, submit a W-9 form, and pass a compatibility assessment for the specific Guide Role you choose. Once ChaCha has found the right role for you, you will receive a congratulatory email and be directed to orientation and training. After you’ve had a chance to digest the training, you will take a “Role Readiness Test” that confirms you’re ready to handle live customer questions. Completing the Readiness Test will activate you as a paid ChaCha Guide. Remember, this is not going to cost you a single dime to sign up and there are never any fees, whatsoever! That's a beautiful thing!

To show you what a real and great company this is, we were just one of the major sponsors of the 2008 Nascar Brickyard 400 and the popular X Games. We have recently teamed with Coke Zero and AT&T and there are so many more exciting opportunities in the future.

ChaCha continues to win award after award for this new human based mobile search service.

ChaCha is a free service to all mobile users in the United States. Only standard text rates apply.

I can proudly say that I am making money from this legitimate stay at home opportunity and unlike a lot of other programs, I've actually been paid as well!

Check the comments section for testimonials from some of the Guides I have brought on board so you don't just have to take my word for it!

Feel free to email me any questions at: lcraftonavon@bellsouth.net
Remember to use this email address as well when you sign up at http://becomeaguide.chacha.com.

Fore more information on ChaCha and other useful information for stay at home moms, please visit my website at http://www.stayathomemomsunite.com

Laurie Crafton
ChaCha Top Guide
lcraftonavon@bellsouth.net

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

ChaCha In the News Again!

From News Channel 5 in Nashville, Tennessee....everyone is singing ChaCha praises!

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Have you ever needed a question answered, but you weren't near a computer?

Perhaps you're trying to find tickets to Monday night's Indianapolis Colts and Tennessee Titans game.

Next time, you might want to ChaCha, a mobile search service that allows users to submit questions using their cell phone.

Jason Fandrich in Nashville had not used the service, but decided to test it using his new iPhone.

He typed a few random questions and then sent the questions to ChaCha at 242242 or call 1-800-2ChaCha(800-224-2242).

"Who was Chuck Berry's keyboard player in 1962," Fandrich asked ChaCha.

The company claims to send answers in conversational English within five minutes.

After a minute, Fandrich said received the answer - the late Johnny Johnson, who played the keyboard for Chuck Berry during the 1950s and 1960s.

The answer was correct and it didn't cost Fandrich to receive it.

The service works with virtually every provider and any mobile phone device. While the service is free, other standard carrier charges may apply.

ABC News Features ChaCha!

ChaCha is so popular ABC News is now writing about it. In an article dated June 10, 2008, editor/writer Emily Friedman for CBS writes:

No question is too complicated, too bizarre or too random for ChaCha, a recently launched mobile answering service that promises quick and accurate answers to your inquiries via text message.

Wondering where the cheapest place to buy gas is in your city? ChaCha knows.

Want to know which team won the 1985 Super Bowl? ChaCha can tell you, so long as it can be done in 160 characters or less.

Anyone with a cell phone with text messaging capabilities can text a question to ChaCha (242-242 in numbers), and in minutes will receive an answer to their question. There is no charge for the service, though standard text message fees do apply.

"Using ChaCha is like having a smart friend around all the time," said Brad Bostic, president and co-founder of ChaCha, who launched the service in January 2008 with business partner Scott Jones.

But what Bostic says makes ChaCha different from other answering services like 4-1-1 or Google mobile is the human component.

"There is nobody that I've seen that delivers the kind of sophisticated solution that we have that really combines the human intelligence with the technology to provide accurate answers," Bostic told ABCNEWS.com.

The Life of a ChaCha Guide

Sarah Nickow, one of 10,000 ChaCha guides, has answered 1,523 questions since passing the application tests and getting hired at the site in March 2008. She estimates that she's made as much as $160 in one month – approximately twenty cents per question she answers.

"The first couple of months I worked for ChaCha I spent a lot of time on it – 10 to 12 hours a week – but this month I'll do less because I started going back to school," said Nickow, who said she chose to apply for ChaCha primarily because of its flexible work hours.

All Nickow has to do to report to work is log on to the ChaCha Web site and wait for a question to pop up on her screen.

Nickow responded to one question during her interview with ABCNEWS.com – one that asked if she liked pinecones.

Surprised by the question, Nickow reveled in her chance to show some personality – ChaCha instructs the guides to have some fun with the users, who don't know the identities of the "ChaCha encourages you to be sarcastic with your answers," Nickow told ABCNEWS.com of the site, which does not regulate the number of hours a guide must work. "The whole idea is that they want the people who use this program to know it's a person answering – that's what makes ChaCha different."

"I have never given the question much thought," Nickow responded to the user with the pinecone inquiry. "I don't personally have many opinions regarding pinecones. They don't bother me…"

Moments later, she was responding to a question from a user inquiring about a video game's release date.

Nickow told ABCNEWS.com that while the majority of the questions she answers are about sports scores or local restaurants, there are plenty of users who fool around with the system and ask sexually explicit questions.

Repeat offenders can be blocked from the site, Bostic said, but silly questions are still encouraged for the most part.

Bostic says he's found that the guides' ability in answering everything and anything makes the service that much more fascinating to users and increases their rate of return.

"We're answering millions of questions a month, and hundreds of thousands a day," said Bostic, who said on average he uses the service 10 times a day.

"Fifty-five percent of people who try ChaCha keep using it, and on average consistent users use the system 40 times a month, or more than once a day," added Bostic, who said that the site has just started making revenue by linking to specific sites within their answers. For example, if a user asks about the release date of DVD, the responding ChaCha guide will not only tell them the date but send them a link to a site where they can purchase the film, he explained.

Personal Touch Helps ChaCha Stay Unique

David Griner, a writer specializing in social media at marketing agency Luckie & Company, told ABCNEWS.com that while ChaCha is not the first system to utilize humans as fact seekers, they are the most direct in doing so.

Mahalo.com describes itself as a "human-powered search," said Griner, but really they use real people to organize search results so that you only get the most accurate answers.

Twitter also has a sort of human answering service known as "AnswerMe" which lets you ask a question to a large Twitter audience, but there is no guarantee that those people answering have any idea what they're talking about.

"I'd rather ask a network of people I trust a question than hope one of the three million results on Google are right," said Griner, who said he's seen a trend over the past year of search engines utilizing humans to find answers. ChaCha's screening process of their guides adds to its legitimacy as an accurate source of information, added Griner.

ABCNEWS.com tried to stump ChaCha — but to no avail. When we asked whether Britney Spears had a shot at a comeback, ChaCha responded, "Britney Spears ruined her comeback at the VMAs." When ABCNEWS.com asked why Big Brown lost this weekend's Belmont Stakes, ChaCha responded, "It's still unclear, Big Brown's Trainer has said, 'I got no idea. I was looking for a problem, and so far I can't see a problem.'"

As for Nickow, she says she enjoys working for ChaCha not only for the extra spending money but also because of the opportunity to help people solve their burning questions.

Even so – Nickow says that working for ChaCha can be as stressful as any other more conventional job – especially when she gets an answer wrong.

"During the first few weeks I got a question that was asking about the relationship between Pokemon characters," said Nickow. "I have no knowledge of the Pokemon world and so I tried to find the answer but I guess I was wrong."

"I got an e-mail from [my ChaCha boss] quality saying that my answer wasn't accurate and to please try harder next time," remembered Nickow.

"I actually felt really bad," she said. "I was really upset that I had done a bad job and now this person is out in the world thinking these Pokemon characters are cousins – and they're not."

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Award-Winning ChaCha is Fastest Growing Mobile Search Service

The human-powered mobile answers service quickly captured seven percent of the mobile text search market with a quarterly growth rate of more than 800 percent.

INDIANAPOLIS – September 17, 2008 - Accepting the 2008 North American Frost & Sullivan Award for Product Innovation, ChaCha announced that it now has more than a million users and has answered more than 27 million queries since it launched its revolutionary mobile answers service in January. This, combined with its quarterly growth rate in Q2, makes ChaCha the fastest growing mobile search service, surpassing both Google and Yahoo in both WAP and text-based search growth rates (according to the latest data from Nielsen Mobile).

ChaCha increased its market share in the U.S. mobile search market to seven percent, tying for second place with Yahoo at the end of June 2008. ChaCha also exited the quarter with an 800 percent growth rate, compared to Yahoo’s 200 percent growth rate.

“Mobile search is growing at an incredible pace,” says Chris Quick, mobile media analyst with Nielsen Mobile. “Within the mobile SMS search category, ChaCha is the fastest growing service, increasingly competitive with other mobile search providers. We’re therefore keeping very close tabs on how ChaCha will affect the mobile market.”

“After reviewing numerous operators in the mobile search and advertising markets, we believe ChaCha offers the most compelling service for mobile users,” said Vikrant Gandhi, senior analyst for Frost & Sullivan. “The high level of interest demonstrated by the number of queries ChaCha answers on a monthly basis clearly indicates that mobile users are finding the service to be of real benefit. We’re delighted to honor ChaCha for their innovation in breaking the code in mobile search through their search methodologies and practices.”

“ChaCha is honored to be recognized by Frost & Sullivan as an innovative and unique service that demonstrates outstanding achievement and superior performance in leadership and technological innovation,” said ChaCha CEO, Scott A. Jones. “In the past eight months, we’ve cemented our position as a mobile search leader and now every 10 seconds a new user tries ChaCha. By offering a superior solution in an explosive market, we are attracting the best partners to leverage our unparalleled service for mutual benefit.”

Recently, ChaCha also launched its mobile marketing solution, ChaCha 1:1, and is partnering with premium brands including Coca Cola, Fifth Third Bank and McDonald’s to implement engaging, conversational and highly relevant mobile marketing campaigns.

ChaCha merges sophisticated search technology with the power of human intelligence by leveraging its growing base of over 35,000 Guides to answer customer queries 24/7 by simply texting a question to (242 242) or calling (1-800-224-2242) from virtually any mobile device. This radically simple solution has allowed ChaCha to achieve its industry-leading growth performance.