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Ask HN: My wife needs something to do from home to make money...

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Re: Ask HN: My wife needs something to do from home to make money...

#81
post #21

My girlfriend was doing medical transcription for a while before going back to school. It's boring, but it's a somewhat skilled position and thus the pay is decent (my girlfriend topped out around 2k per month). Your wife will have to get a medical transcription certification first, though. Here's the company she worked for: http://www.nuance-nts.com/ - they're the same people that do Dragon Naturally Speaking and Si…

Hey. Glad I ran into this post. My girlfriend likes paperwork, has been working as a nurse for four years, and is looking for a change for at least a bit. Can you tell me where your girlfriend got her transcription certification and how long it took?

She got her certification from http://www.careerstep.com/medical-transcription-editing

It's between a 4 month and 1 year course, depending on how much time you spend training. She finished it in about three months by working on it all the time.

Re: Ask HN: My wife needs something to do from home to make money...

#83
post #27

just a wild, very wild and untested, idea. a mini-niche "mechanical turk" iphone(andorid) app. i.e.: if your wife is called "gloria" the app is called "Ask Gloria" * user types in an question/request. * gloria (the real gloria) response. the app is free(? or 0.99) with a 1 question package. an additional question pack (of 5 questions) costs 10(?)$ the selling point is that not an anonymous person or siri-AI answers y…

This is a pretty cool idea, but it could easily go out of control if even one news outlet picks the story up. I'd raise the price by a lot (like $9.99 a question), in order to keep volume reasonable.

Re: Ask HN: My wife needs something to do from home to make money...

#84
post #27

just a wild, very wild and untested, idea. a mini-niche "mechanical turk" iphone(andorid) app. i.e.: if your wife is called "gloria" the app is called "Ask Gloria" * user types in an question/request. * gloria (the real gloria) response. the app is free(? or 0.99) with a 1 question package. an additional question pack (of 5 questions) costs 10(?)$ the selling point is that not an anonymous person or siri-AI answers y…

This is a pretty cool idea, but it could easily go out of control if even one news outlet picks the story up. I'd raise the price by a lot (like $9.99 a question), in order to keep volume reasonable.

Re: Ask HN: My wife needs something to do from home to make money...

#85
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's what ChaCha was supposed to be, I guess they still are.

with Chacha you ask "a person" (maybe, if the question wasn't asked before), with Ask Gloria you ask Gloria. but yeah, the product has similarities, but the marketing and selling point would be different.

It's a really cool idea. I would worry about it interrupting normal life. If Gloria has limited availability (on lunch, sleeping, at a movie or otherwise living life) then the app is significantly less useful.

Re: Ask HN: My wife needs something to do from home to make money...

#86
IMHO, If you have an income stream that supports it, then the answer is not "a side business". It's "go to school for something she wants to do better". And if taking care of the kid doesn't give her a chance to leave the house, the answer is "online classes and night classes when you're home to take care of the kid".

(If the thing she wants to do better is "draw" then here are some super awesome free drawing lessons from a master animator: http://johnkcurriculum.blogspot.com/2009/12/preston-blair-le... )

Re: Ask HN: My wife needs something to do from home to make money...

#87
post #83
post #27

just a wild, very wild and untested, idea. a mini-niche "mechanical turk" iphone(andorid) app. i.e.: if your wife is called "gloria" the app is called "Ask Gloria" * user types in an question/request. * gloria (the real gloria) response. the app is free(? or 0.99) with a 1 question package. an additional question pack (of 5 questions) costs 10(?)$ the selling point is that not an anonymous person or siri-AI answers y…

This is a pretty cool idea, but it could easily go out of control if even one news outlet picks the story up. I'd raise the price by a lot (like $9.99 a question), in order to keep volume reasonable.

pot. solution: pinboard inspired pricing - the more questions are in the queue (or the more question packages sold), the higher the - in app purchase - price.

Re: Ask HN: My wife needs something to do from home to make money...

#88
post #80

Thanks for all the replies, I actually wasn't expecting so much of a response - maybe there are a lot more people out there in a similar situation. I like the medical transcriptionist suggestion, as well as the ebay & craigslist buy & resell though I'm not sure she or I know the best type of items to focus on. As for a niche site selling x-type of items... that sounds alright and one I've thought of - but what's a go…

Usborne Books is a major distributor of childrn's books. Sales are robust, it's big enough to have real influence & support but individual sellers can make good in their own region. Pretty much a "make as much as you want to" (with proportial effort). Worth looking into. http://www.myubam.com/ecommerce/opportunity.asp?sid=H3967&#3...

Re: Ask HN: My wife needs something to do from home to make money...

#89
post #85
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

with Chacha you ask "a person" (maybe, if the question wasn't asked before), with Ask Gloria you ask Gloria. but yeah, the product has similarities, but the marketing and selling point would be different.

It's a really cool idea. I would worry about it interrupting normal life. If Gloria has limited availability (on lunch, sleeping, at a movie or otherwise living life) then the app is significantly less useful.

Use twilio to cache the calls. Charge for urgency of response.

Re: Ask HN: My wife needs something to do from home to make money...

#90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not the most appropriate response to a husband. This isn't Reddit.

Why does noone on HN have a sense of humor?

When it's pointed toward someone's real wife, in a sincere thread about something important - well, sex worker jokes aren't funny in that situation. Particularly given the guy isn't a friend of yours, nor is the wife.

Suggestion: never try that anywhere but a web forum.

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