How much fee should I pay a researcher do get me a text list of all
(or substantially all) embassies/consulates in the US? I want this as
a text file that I can import into a database. I dont know if it can
be downloaded from somewhere, or if someone needs to copy and paste
the addresses from the lists available.  Also who is the researcher
who is prepared to actually do it for the suggested fee?

Footnote: The more I do Google answers the more I enjoy the fun of
these sort of "testing" questions. In addition to getting great
answers and help (thank you all!), i'm enjoying pushing the process to
see what can be done with it.

Hi headsetsdotcom,
Thanks again for placing your question with Google. With the frequency
you are asking your questions here, it seems that you are really
Njoying. Thanks on behalf of all the researchers. I guess all the
researchers are enjoying too with clients like you.

Now coming to your question of how much you should pay, who is the
researcher who can do this and about the resources for getting the
asked info, here are my comments.

Let me first start with the payments. This will basically depend
completely on you. You can set an amount and then its upto the team of
researchers whether from them, anyone wants to work for you on that
price. But if you want any sort of bidding to take place, then this is
not the correct place for you. I'll suggest you to try www.elance.com
for such projects. There you can give the project description and then
people will bid and whichever bid you feel ok, you can declare that
bid as winner. I'm not trying to drag you away from Google, but I'm
just trying to give you the correct direction for the type of project
you are looking for to be posted. This can still be done here with
Google but then only at a fixed amount. I hope this answers your first
part.

Regarding the second question of which researcher will work for this.
I'll say, all the researchers in Google are capable of working with
you with great pleasure. Its not only fun to work on such projects,
but also there is a lot of learning involved. No doubt, money is also
there. As far as any specific person is concerned, I'll say that I can
help you in this :-) . You can contact me via Google only for this
project and I'll be very much willing to work for you on this project.

Now the last part about the sites, the list will have to be
consolidated for all the states in US. I'm just showing you a single
site which can give you a sample of how much text is available online,
its format and how this suits your requirements.
Here is the site which lists all the embassies in Washington, DC.
[ http://www.embassy.org/embassies/ ]
This site will give you an idea about how much effort is involved in
such projects and how much should be paid for.

I hope this helps. Feel free to ask for any clarifictions, if any.

Regards,
netcrazy

---

Request for Answer Clarification by headsetsdotcom-ga on 03 Jun 2002 13:53 PDT

thanks NetCrazy.  What i'm looking for is rather than me research how
much work it is, i'm looking for someone to do that research and give
an opinion, or even better to say they'll do it for $X.  I really
don't know if this is an $8 fee, or a $50 fee. I don't want to put $8
up and find out noone can do it for that, or I don't want to put $50
up and find out it's a simple text file lift from one site.  I know I
can put it up for one price and then keep upping it, but I thought i'd
short circuit that, and have a researcher tell me how much. This is
kind of pre-research- research. So how much?

---

Clarification of Answer by netcrazy-ga on 03 Jun 2002 14:21 PDT

Hi again.
I'll say that I'll charge anything between $40 to $50 for this
research. This is what I feel that this research should cost. If you
are posting this for me, then this will be my bet.

I hope this clarifies your question.

Thanks
netcrazy

NetCrazy, thanks for this. Appreciate the time and interest in the
answer.  Only sorry that you didn't get the question that followed
when I posted it. My fault as I messed the date.  Next time I hope.
Thanks again, I took your  advice on the price.

Hi websearcher:

Interesting question. As a researcher, I've locked several questions.
The first thing I always do is my "pre-research research". How long
would it take me to answer the question properly/thoroughly? Then I
look back at the price offered by the asker and toss into that mix how
"available" my time is at the moment and, from all that, decide
whether I'm going to complete the question.

I would say that a good searcher (like myself), should be able to
determine within 5 - 10 minutes how much work and extra expenses
(within about 10% - 20%) answering any question completely should
take. I think that a price of $4.00 would be fair for such
pre-research research resulting in a "fair" price for a question.

At least, that's my take. 

websearcher-ga

P.S. I've really enjoyed your questions, and your ratings have been
very fair. I regret everytime I'm not fast enough to lock one. :-)

P.P.S. I won't respond to how much the embassy/consulate question
should cost - netcrazy id working on this one.

websearcher-ga

Well… here’s 2 cents worth from a STILL non-paid researcher (hello
Google, you said activation in a “few” days…. and that was 10-days
ago…ahem … )

My observations over the past month:

1.--- All questions get answered, either by an official paid answerer
or a volunteer commenter. The only exceptions I’ve found are questions
where researchers have asked for clarification and there is no
feedback from the asker. For example:
https://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=19036

Or where the answer is a null-set and the questioner will not accept
that as an answer.

2 --- All answers are thorough and complete regardless of price. 
Compare these 2 answers:

For $75:  https://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=17074
For $4  : https://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=17817

3 --- All questions get answered within 4-5 hours regardless of
expiration date. They are usually locked within minutes of being
posted. Very few linger longer than 6-7 hours at most.

4 --- The people most likely to give low (or mediocre) scores to
researchers are those who pay little (under $10), ask for a great deal
of information, but ask very open-ended questions without stipulating
what they will accept as an answer.  For example:
https://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=17711
https://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=17261


5--- Because researchers are reticent to get a low rating, (they will
be “fired” from Google for too many low ratings) they will usually go
above and beyond the call of duty to please a dissatisfied questioner.
Again, without regard to how much they are being paid. For example:
https://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=17764
https://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=18545

6 --- Nearly all answers are followed by at least a few free comments
which add useful information to the answer already provided for a fee.
For example:
https://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=18169
(One answer, 10 comments, and 3 clarifications for $5 and yet, a
mediocre score… go figure…)

That said, in answer to your original question:  Assuming I could get
paid I would agree with  websearcher, I would do a “pre-search” figure
out how long it might take to find and formulate an answer, and then
decide whether or not to work on it. I’d figure my time to be worth
somewhere just under a dollar a minute. I honestly wouldn’t spend more
than  15 minutes on a $10 question but would easily commit an hour or
more to $50 -$100 question.

Of course the problem arises when you can only lock an answer for an
hour, and the research and formulation of the answer takes 2-3 hours.
But that’s another issue ….

Those are my thoughts …

--K~