New Mancx – Business tasks

 

Welcome to the new Mancx! We’ve completed our work on the marketplace for tasks, and now it’s ready for you to get started. So where do you begin? Here’s a little breakdown of how to use Mancx – Business tasks.

Have a task you need help with? Now you can post it to Mancx, and one of our thousands of freelancers will get to work for you. We’ve put together some task categories we think will be helpful, but if you don’t see a category that’s right for you it’s ok!  Just make sure you write a detailed description of your task so that our users know exactly what you need. Once you’ve created your task just sit back and wait for the help to come to you!  Freelancers can browse through active tasks, but we’ll also suggest your task to the people we think are best suited to give you what you need.

Are you a freelancer? Mancx needs you too! Simply create your freelancer profile and start working on tasks. You help someone in need and make money in the process, and what’s better than that! Once you specify your talents we’ll start sending you the tasks that best match your skills. You don’t have to accept the tasks we send, and you can still browse through all of the available tasks in Mancx.

We’re excited at the changes we’ve been working on, but if you have any questions by all means let us know! This beta release is just the first step towards creating the best marketplace for tasks in the world, and we can’t do it without you. So go ahead, post a task or start giving someone the help they need, and we’ll be here behind the scenes making sure everything runs smoothly!

 

Go to New Mancx – Business tasks

Changes at Mancx

 

We started Mancx with the goal of making your life easier by creating an easy place to get the answers you needed from the people who have them. Along the way we’ve realized that most of the people at Mancx needed tasks done, and not just answers to questions. And the people answering those questions? They’re just as ready to help you do the tasks you can’t do alone.

So what does this mean for you? Instead of asking questions and getting paid to answer them, you can post a task and someone with the skills you need will be there to help! The format will remain familiar, so don’t worry, you’ll still recognize the community you’ve helped create.

Right now we’re hard at work reshaping Mancx to suit your task-based needs, and plan on releasing the new Mancx within a couple of days. Come back in a few days to be among the first people to experience our revamped beta release. We’ll see you soon.

The Mancx Team

A Quick Word on Best Practices

Now that you’ve gotten to know the Mancx community, we’d like to offer a few notes on best practices. Why you ask? Simple! We want to make sure that Mancx users have the best experience possible, whether they’re asking important questions or providing the best answers money can buy.

1) Details, details, details

Do you remember sitting in school, trying to take a test and thinking that the professor had forgotten to write half of the question down? Don’t be guilty of this too! When asking your question to the Mancx community make sure to include all of the details you can think of. Even if you think you’re overdoing it, just keep writing! The answers you get will be a direct result of the way you ask your question, so try to be as clear as possible. It’s better to overdo it than under do it when explaining exactly what it is that you need, so don’t be shy!

2) Mix things up!

Do you ask question but don’t provide answers, or vice versa? Mix things up and put yourself out there! It’s great to have a community to turn to when you need to make some money, or have an important question to have answered, but the more involved you are the more useful Mancx will be to everyone who uses it. If nothing else, trying to answer a few question can be a great learning experience. who knows, maybe you’ll find your interested in something someone has asked and learn something new!

3) Let us know what you think!

Have an idea for Mancx, or a question or comment about your experience so far? Let us know! We love hearing from our users, and are always willing to listen to suggestions about user experience. After all, you’re what makes the Mancx community a success.

4) Don’t be afraid to invite your friends

Nobody hates anything more than getting buried under spam, but if something has been useful for you, share it! The Mancx community is only as good as the people who make up its members. Have a friend who everyone turns to for answers when they need help? Sign them up!

Programmers Heaven using Mancx for paid answers

You’ve probably poked around the forums on Programmer’s Heaven and seen a lot of unanswered question.  Maybe you’ve even posted one yourself that nobody has gotten around to answering.  Luckily for you Programmer’s Heaven has teamed up with Mancx to make sure that your important questions don’t remain unanswered!  Even if you haven’t posted a question on Programmer’s Heaven, this new connection has benefits for you, too.  Now you can put your valuable knowledge to work getting paid to answer question on Mancx!

Getting started on the Mancx forum is extremely straightforward: just create your profile or log in through LinkedIn, and get to work.  First of all, think about how you want to ask your question; the more precise details you can provide, the more likely it is that someone will be able to give you the perfect answer that you’re looking for.  Once you’ve finished writing your question, decide on a price, and this part is important: 82% of members surveyed said that a question should cost $45-$50, so make sure that you don’t price yourself out of the market!

Once you’ve put your question out into the Mancx community pretty soon you’ll get a few answers.  The nice thing about Mancx is that you get to preview answers before you decide to buy them (because you wouldn’t buy anything sight-unseen!), and once you decide on a suitable answer all you have left to do is pay!  Then you’re just a quick download away from the answer you’ve been looking for.

We’ve created this special relationship with Programmer’s Heaven to ensure that you receive what we call “premium answers”.  This means that you get specialized answers from the experts who have the information you’re looking for without having to weed through answers that just aren’t up to snuff.  And, don’t forget that if you don’t have a question to post yourself you’re always welcome to come help someone else with their question, and get paid in the process!

You Have 10 Business Questions, Don’t You?

If you’re running your own business then you know how your to-do list can seem like a never-ending saga.  No matter what your business does or who your target clients are, you have to worry about local business codes, to tax law, everything down to making sure that you’re making the most out of every dollar you spend.  You don’t have the resources of a large organization, so you’re probably not an expert on every little thing that affects your business.  So, naturally, you have some questions that you can’t answer yourself, don’t you?  You should!

The Mancx community is a great resource for small to medium sized business owners to turn to for finding answers to any business questions for significantly less money than, say, hiring a consultant.  Can’t afford to spend $500 an hour on an “expert” with a fancy suit?  Send your question out to our thousands of qualified experts, and wait for the answers to come to you!

There’s always something new to master in the business world, or a particular piece of news that can be critical to your success.  Need to know what your competitors are planning next?  How about changes to tax laws that may affect how you compensate your employees?  Whatever you need to know, there’s probably an expert on Mancx that may hold the key!

Just like everything else in life, always asking new questions about how you can improve your business is the best way to innovate.  That little thought you had in the shower this morning may seem insignificant right now, but six months down the road it could be the breakthrough that propels your business past the competition.  The ability to ask any question you’ve got to a broad spectrum of knowledgeable users gives you the option to pick and choose an answer based on who answers it.  And who knows, maybe that person could be a future customer!  By going directly to a diverse group of people in the know, your questions are answered by just the people you’re looking to engage with.  Don’t be shy, ask away!  Your business will thank you.

Crowdsourcing Code for Equity: Would You?

The P2P and B2B Q&A space is not yet fully defined, and one of the consequences is that the space is getting crowded.  Q&A sites, crowdsourcing platforms, code-sharing sites, are they similar?  Are they different?  Everyone has their own answer, and that’s just fine.  Competition begets innovation, and that’s how you end up with a more well-defined industry.  In the meantime, new ideas are popping up left and right.

Have you heard of crowdcoding?  Probably not.  Imagine that you’ve got an idea for a great app, but don’t have the time or resources to do your own coding.  Would you be willing to trade equity in your idea for the coding help you need?  Late Labs hopes so.  One of the newest actors in this emerging space, they’re betting that people will come together and use “crowdcoding”, as they’ve dubbed it, to trade their valuable coding knowledge for potential equity in a new idea they help build.

Another interesting variation of this idea is taking shape at Hunie, where they’re building a connected community of designers and the fast-growing startups that need their skills.  Late Labs and Hunie are hardly the only players here, and you’ve probably heard of some others (99Designs, Clickworker, etc.)  This is what’s so interesting about an undefined space: without the constraints of a formal, rigid industry, the tent is big enough to include a wide variety of different ideas.

The bottom line today is that Q&A sites, crowdsourcing companies, coding communities, they’re all competing and learning from one another.  Such a diverse collection of ideas has always come to define itself through a natural process of evolution, but right now we’re all just happy to be involved with wherever this process takes us!

Competition: The More The Merrier!

In most industries competition is viewed with a mix of jealousy and suspicion, with people always looking over their shoulder for the next company waiting to poach customers. The question and answer community is different: as the space continues to evolve, more competition in the marketplace means a constantly improving product. What does this mean for everyone involved? Better, more accurate answers in an environment that rewards taking chances to try something new!

Even in our ridiculously connected world, the communities that assemble online to help one another can still be segregated by interests, geography, industry, the same things that separate us in real life. The group of people who have the IT knowledge you need may not be able to help you find an easy recipe for dinner, so what are you supposed to do? Only by creating new, more inter-connected question and answer communities will we be able to help everyone, wherever and whenever they need it. This doesn’t mean that you should ask an engineer for cooking advice, but it can’t hurt to try!

So, we can’t all be in the same place together at once, at least not yet. Mancx is busy creating an all encompassing place to pay for business answers, but you may have other questions that are more personal. Maybe there’s a Q&A site out there to help you find the right doctor, or learn how to bake a cake. Sure, we want you to use Mancx for your important business questions, but we also want to encourage you to go out and explore what’s quickly becoming a very exciting space to be involved with.

Maybe you already use some of these other Q&A sites for your non-business needs, and if so we want you to let us know! Have you seen something somewhere else that you’d like to see at Mancx too? We love hearing from our users, so never hesitate to let us know what’s on your mind, even if it’s just to say hello!

Prospecting for Sales Leads with the Mancx Community

One of the hardest parts of any sale is preparing the pitch; just the right wording to entice a potential client at just the right time can mean the difference between success and failure. But what if you can’t find the right person to talk to? Identifying and contacting the best possible target in any organization can be just as important as the pitch itself. Even with tools like LinkedIn and Salesforce, sometimes getting in touch with your potential client can be an ordeal in itself. At Mancx we’re trying to change that.

Being able to speak with someone on the inside can be an invaluable advantage over your competition, and now with the Mancx community there’s a way to make that happen. With thousands of active members spread out across the globe, chances are high that someone has the professional connections you’re looking for. Instead of desperately prospecting for someone who may or may not be the right executive, why not just ask!

Still, it’s important to be specific. Do you have a company in mind, or an entire industry? By narrowing down your question it’s more likely that someone will be able to help you right away. It’s just like prospecting for leads yourself: it’s easy to get the phone number of a receptionist at a fortune 500 company, but what about the Vice President of an entire department? Having a good idea of what you’re looking for, just like in the business world, will pay dividends in the Mancx community. Still, it never hurts to try to narrow things down with the help of others, so ask away!

Online Information: Where Has the Trust Gone?

 

It’s official: 98% of Americans don’t fully trust the information they find on the internet. After undertaking a survey of nearly 2,000 people, it’s become clear that an overwhelming majority of the population is looking for a more trustworthy source for online information. While the reasons given for this level of distrust were numerous, two main concerns stand out: a fear that the information they find is outdated (56%) and that the information is purely self-promotional (53%). Combined with the fact that 84% of Americans reported having general difficulty locating the information they need online, and you have the recipe for a serious information problem.

These major concerns make it apparent that the current status quo for finding information online just doesn’t make the cut. Since the inception of the internet the world has gradually grown more connected, and it’s become time to talk about issues like trust and quality on the web. This is exactly what we’re trying to focus on at Mancx: the creation of a trusted community for business answers where you can feel secure about the source of your information.

Mancx offers a solution to this problem of credibility by giving people a new way to find the answers they need by matching questions with a trusted source, and allowing them to then exchange answers and money in a secure environment. We’re creating the framework for the next generation of online business interactions, one that embraces person-to-person knowledge transfers at a price that makes everyone happy.

You, the user, play an instrumental role within this framework. Buyers need to know that their information sources are knowledgeable and trustworthy, and sellers need to know that they’ll get a fair price for their valuable information. By building your personal brand profile in the Mancx community you help to ensure that people’s faith in information found online starts to improve. After all, it’s in everyone’s best interests to have a reliable source of important business information!

Helping a stranger?

Anyone who has been active in the online community knows the pros and cons of most Q&A sites.  Sure, it’s nice to help out a stranger by sharing your knowledge, but it took you years to master that information!  Don’t you think that maybe, just maybe, you should be paid in something other than karma points?  That’s what we’re working on at Mancx: building a platform to help you assist your fellow internet users while making sure that your hard-earned expertise isn’t being exploited.

At the end of the day, your knowledge is a commodity that can and should have a monetary value attached to it.  Your tech expertise is increasingly valuable as small to medium businesses (SMB’s) gradually begin moving their business online, and we want you to be able to take advantage of that!

To be fair, not everyone is trying to exploit unpaid Q&A sites simply because they’re too cheap to pay for professional advice.  Tens of thousands of business owners are faced with making the choice between free answers or highly paid consultants, with very few options in the middle.  A $500 an hour consultant is too far out of reach for the majority of SMB’s, but that doesn’t mean that their questions are any less critical for success.

It can also be quite hard to find important questions to answer in the first place.  The web is a massive space, filled with endless amounts of junk, and identifying what’s worth your time and what isn’t can be a daunting task.  We’re trying to create an organized space where the people who have important questions to ask meet the people who have the expert knowledge to give the best answer.  It’s not a bad thought is it, getting paid to answer questions from the comfort of your own home!

The face of the web is changing every day, and we want to make sure that you can take advantage of the move towards recognizing the importance of paying for solid advice.  People out there need your expertise, and they’re willing to pay for it!