By Kathy Kristof • Published on December 20th, 2022 • Last updated on August 12th, 2024
Basics:
JustAnswer pays freelance experts to answer questions about everything from medicine to auto repair
Expected pay: $2 – $20 per question
Husl$core: $$$
Commissions & fees: NA
Where: Nationwide (remote)
Requirements: Expertise in a subject area
JustAnswer Review:
JustAnswer enlists freelance experts to answer questions on everything from car maintenance to law, paying a small stipend for each question answered. However, because questions are often direct and right down the expert’s fairway, the expert can earn a fair sum by keeping his or her answers brief.
How it works
Individuals can sign up here and name their expertise. The site will ask what credentials and/or experience you have in that field and will use a third-party verification service to make sure you’re telling the truth.
Once accepted to the platform, experts are sent questions in their field to answer or ignore. If you choose to answer a question, you’ll earn a payment for that answer and get rated by the client. Too many poor ratings can get you booted from the expert panel. And, the site says it also employs mystery shoppers to make sure consumers are getting quality answers.
Key to success
The payments for answering questions are small — usually $2 to $20 per answer. So, there’s no upside to taking complicated multi-part questions that take a lot of time to answer. The best advice is to answer straightforward questions that are well within your area of expertise.
If you get a complicated or mult-part question, experts can explain that the answer would have to be provided at a premium price.
Changes
When we first reviewed JustAnswer, we gave the site a miserable Husl$core mainly because the freelance experts who answer questions here didn’t always get paid for their work. That was because the site’s terms said they only got paid after their client rated their performance. And clients didn’t always rate the freelancer.
JustAnswer has since updated its terms. Freelancers who work with the site say they’re now paid for every answer, regardless of whether the customer provided a rating. The payment you get varies based on your expertise and your status with the site.
High-paid expertise
If you’re a professional answering questions about technology or appraisals, you could earn a lot. According to JustAnswer, the highest-paid experts on its site provide answers about appraisals (average earnings $8,457 per month), tech help ($7,612) and homework ($6,200). Those earning the least on a monthly basis provided answers on wellness ($1,167) and “general” ($614).
However, the site does not say how much individuals earn on an hourly or per-question basis. But, you apparently do know how much each answer is worth before you accept. If the answer would require a great deal of research for very little money, you can pass.
After speaking to several JustAnswer experts, we revised our review and now give the site a better-than-average rating. If you are a person with great expertise about cars or tech or consumer electronics, it appears you could earn a lot of money in your free time by answering questions on the site.
Complaints
However, you should know that the site continues to have draw significant complaints from customers.More than 2,482 complaints have been filed with the Better Business Bureau. The vast majority of these — like the majority of the complaints logged with SideHusl.com — are from customers, who say they were tricked into monthly subscriptions.
Although this does not impact freelancers who work through the site, we consider this a red flag. After all, if a company is willing to mislead customers, why not mislead workers too? We interviewed several experts, who raved about the company. But we remain cautious.
Recommendations:
If you want to sign up with JustAnswer, you can do so here.
But also know that professionals have many other flexible and well-paid job options with sites like FlexProfessionals, FreeUp and SkipTheDrive.
If you want to share knowledge online elsewhere, you might also consider the tutoring platforms, Wyzant and TutorOcean, where you set your own rates and availability.
For those who are particularly passionate about a topic and want to teach it to kids who are under the age of 18, we also highly recommend Outschool.
What their users say: From Glassdoor:
“I can work as much or as little as I want, and if really working it, can make a comfy full time living or killer side gig.”
“Your own schedule, pay is decent and you can make extra by taking phone calls and upselling more time. The more you work, the more money you can make.”
“Remote job; Work from home with flexible hours. But workload is not constant and salary is low.”
“I am frequently told by customers how helpful the service is and how pleased they are with the service. I feel the company does a really great job of making professionals, that otherwise might be cost prohibitive, available to all.”
“The system does not allow a lot of time for experts to select calls.”
Updated 10/6/2023
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