Ask HN: I need you but have no money. What can I offer you instead?

We spend a lot of our free time helping other for free: answering questions on stackoverflow, providing tips and advice on blogs, even clicking on an ad usually profits more to the advertiser that the person clicking. How can we reward fairly this work? Should we expect to be getting anything in return? I'd like to see more products or services for which good contributors and/or active users are not treated as free labour.

The most extreme example that comes to my mind was Google Image Labeler. I said "Was" as I've just noticed that "Google Image Labeler is being phased out, and will no longer be available as of September 16, 2011.". Google Image Labeler (http://images.google.com/imagelabeler/) was a total farce or simply brilliant depending on how you look at it. Behind the disguise of a game, contributors were asked to label random images in order to improve the relevance of Google Image Search. Some have spent several hundreds or thousands of hours for free; the top contributors reaching around 3 million points. The only benefitor in term of money is Google.

Your time is not free but what can I offer in exchange of you contributing to my website? Some examples in no particular order:

- Nothing, just a good reliable product/service. In a way, most people are happy to use services such as Google or Facebook for free. The service providers get money through ads and the user get a good service.

- Freebees: every week, the top 100 contributors automatically enters to a draw to win an iPad.

- Some of the profit: cut of the profit generated by the content you provided. Many blogs or user content generated websites do reward the author based on the success of their content.

- No Ad: Similar to paid applications that simply removes the ads, contributors could have the option to opt out of ads.

- Extra features: Contributors get the advanced features that would normally be given to paying customers.

- Reward: each contribution gives the user points and points can be exchanged against money/product/whatever.

- Badge/Karma: that's how ycombinator/stackoverflow works.

- Amazing deal: Through partnerships you get x% discount on products/services.

Do you think contributors of a community website should be rewarded? If yes, to which degree? What would you like to get offered?

Nothing (except for badges/karma which are intangible and cannot be translated to $$).

Once you start offering anything tangible to me, I start thinking about how does it translate to my hourly rate and this is where you will fail.

So much has been written about why Amazon has the best reviews ever without ever paying a cent. Why Wikipedia is the greatest encyclopedia ever with last (and only) paid contributor back in 2005. etc etc...

If you start offering people something in exchange for their contribution, you will fail. Just look at Google Knol.

Stack Overflow points also help to unlock additional features of the site, for example you can't comment on a post until you have 100 points, which unlocks that feature for you.

I think that would lead to segregation and a feeling of resentment among individuals who feel like they've contributed significantly but haven't received anything.

Also, there is that paradoxical concept where it is pleasing to volunteer a service, but the minute you are paid anything, if it's not enough to make a happy life on, giving that service becomes disagreeable to the point where it seems that it's not worth doing. I can't remember the name for this or who came up with it.

I just wrote a hasty post about why I help others just yesterday (http://jnorthrop.tumblr.com/post/10094419737/karma).

You don't list it among your options but helping others has basic intrinsic rewards that adds to your own self-satisfaction. I help when and where I can and I enjoy it. What is more enjoyable, using some specialized expertise for an hour to help an appreciative entrepreneur or playing Call of Duty?

I sound like a new age hippie (which I am not) but I wake up everyday feeling good about the previous day.