How does Ask An Expert work?      $6,995    See Screen Shots

Asking A Question

1. Users first enter the question they wish to ask.

2. They will then select the category and specify how much they are willing to pay for an answer.

3. The question will be listed in the system and users also have option to upgrade the question priority by paying a deposit.

Answering A Question

1. Experts will browse the system to search for questions that are within their field of expertise.

2. Once an expert has identified a question to answer, the expert will post an answer and a bid amount.

3. The question will be locked for a predefined period of time set by the expert. A locked question is to ensure that only 1 expert is working on it at a time and other experts will not be able to post an answer to the question.

4. The user will be notified via email and can then proceed to making payment in order to unlock the answer provided by the expert.

5. Once the answer has been unlocked, the user can then rate the quality of the answer on the scale of 0-5 and the actual amount the expert will get for providing the answer is based on the rating the user gives.

Revenue Stream

1. The admin will first set the corresponding amount the experts will receive (as a percentage of the question price) for each rating from a scale of 0 to 5

2. Let's say the admin set the amount to be 50% of the question price for the rating of 5 and if the user gives the answer a rating of 5, the expert will get 50% ($2.50) and remaining amount goes to the admin.

 Paypal integrated payment system allows your members to make quick and easy payments for the answers to their questions. Site operator can also send payments to experts via Paypal.

  See Screen Shots

Features

General Member Functions (for both user and expert account)

• Question Directory
  • Users can post questions for experts to browse and post the answers to your questions
  • Ability to search for questions by keywords
  • Browse questions by categories and status (All, Open, Pending, Locked, Closed)
• Expert Directory
  • Users can view the entire list of registered experts and have the ability to sort the results by name and post
  • Users can send a private question to experts
  • Users can search for experts by name or keyword
• Private Messenger
  • Members can search for a buddy by keyword/username and add to the buddy list
  • Members can compose/reply messages
  • Ability to delete messages
  • Members can view inbox/outbox messages
• XML Feeds
  • Members can download XML feeds for all open questions in each category

User Functions (for user account)

• Control Panel
  • Edit profile - Make changes to the profile and set site preferences
  • View Profile & Ratings - View profile, ratings and feedback
  • Place Deposit - Place a fully refundable deposit to upgrade user's question priority
  • Withdraw Balance - Withdraw user's account balance
  • View All Questions - View all open and pending questions
• Reports
  • View amount spent
  • View transaction report by month, year and status
  • Displays information including the question, time asked, question amount and the expert whom the user paid to for answering the question
• Question Manager
  • Displays the list of questions posted by the user

Expert Functions (for expert account)

• Control Panel
  • Edit profile - Make changes to the profile and set site preferences
  • View Profile & Ratings - View profile, ratings and feedback
  • Edit mini profile - View and edit expert's mini profile
  • Email Notification Subscriptions - Subscribe email notification by category, question or keyword
  • Withdraw Balance - Withdraw expert's account balance
  • View All Questions - View all open and pending questions
     
• Reports
  • View total earnings
  • View transaction report by month, year and status
  • Displays information including date, question asked, the user who paid the expert, rating and the earning for the question successfully answered by the expert
• Question Manager
  • Displays the list of questions that the expert is answering at the moment
• Feedback
  •  Display the feedback and rating the users give for the questions answered by the expert

Admin Functions

• Ability to create/edit/delete categories and sub categories
• Manage user/expert accounts and admin can set accounts as inactive
• Email members
• Configure system settings - site name, admin user/pass, admin paypal email, withdraw/deposit amount, min question amount and question settings
• Edit rating - admin can set the rating title (from a scale of 0 - 5) and setup the corresponding amount experts will get for a question successfully answered based on the rating scale
• View transaction history and admin can sort by transaction ID, date, amount or status
• View user payment history and admin can sort results by payment ID, date, question, answer, amount and status
• Ask An Expert allows admin to create custom static pages which can be accessed by calling the following URL: http://yoursite.com/spages.php?page=PAGENAME
• Admin can edit/delete questions posted by the users
• Withdrawal request - allows admin to send payment to experts for the earnings they received for answering questions. Admin can set the payment status if the money has been processed, pending or rejected

See Screen Shots