________________________________________________________________________________ Wired News All The Answers Dot Com by Lindsey Arent 3:00 a.m. 11.Oct.99.PDT You're a struggling writer looking to publish your first novel -- and your toilet's broken. What's an amateur to do? You could go the conventional route: continue to send out endless manuscripts and look up a pricey plumber in the yellow pages. Or, you could go to a Web site and rustle up a couple of experts who might tell you how to plunge your toilet and publish your book online. For free. ExpertCentral.com promises users access to connoisseurs and specialists galore, who will cater to most every question and thorny predicament, from the insightful to the inane. "It’s a place where people can go to find a real human expert to answer their questions," said Greg Schmergel, ExpertCentral's 30-year-old CEO. "It's a more natural way to answer questions than the other options you have on the Net." Schmergel got the idea himself when attempting to figure out how, using the Web, he could learn to fix the brakes on his car. That didn’t work out very well. "When you have a question, you don’t go to the library for eight hours to do research, you ask your friends and colleagues," he said. "I got frustrated with the search engines -- I knew somewhere out there was someone who could help me, and there was no way to find that person online." So he started his service, devoted to the dissemination of live information. The site, launched Friday, boasts a roster of 4,700 experts ready to answer queries on 18 topics, ranging from pet care to car trouble to personal finance and fitness. But this is no full-time free lunch. If your question is too deep or difficult, or takes a little too much extra time and effort to answer, you and your specialist will have to negotiate a fee to figure out how to deal with that clogged toilet, flagging medical practice, or internal floppy disk problem. After all, these experts are hoping to use their best assets -- their experience and knowledge -- to make some money too. "I'm listed as an expert and people can ask me whatever they want for free," said author MJ Rose, one of the site's arts and entertainment experts. "And I write back to the person and I'm either dying to tell them my secrets or I decide that this is a $50 question." Not too long ago Rose was a struggling writer much like the clients she aims to help on ExpertCentral. But after publishing her novel, Lip Service, online, she landed a book contract with a mainstream publisher and is at work on her next novel. All this experience, Rose said, makes her the perfect candidate to help other writers trying to make it online, and makes ExpertCentral the perfect vehicle for her career. "I want to consult because I think I have a lot of information that I got the hard way and I think it's valuable," Rose said. "I've gotten so many requests from people to help them learn about writing and self publishing. I want to help them but I can't handle the amount of mail I get. "ExpertCentral is going to handle the email and give me a way to charge people without having to have my own credit card set-up." In return for overseeing the bothersome logistics of running one's own consultancy, including billing, email services, and Web design and maintenance, ExpertCentral will take a 15 percent cut of the fees that experts charge their clients, and will make merchandising deals and of course, load the site with advertising. Other experts include teen columnist and author Carol Weston and Professor Michael Hart, also known as Dr. Internet. Already, in the first hours of the site's launch, there were 175,000 clients asking questions, Schmergel said. And with many experts deciding to provide their services entirely for free, many of those questions will be answered rather cheaply. But with so many queries, won't the experts end up spending all day doling out advice and negotiating fees, rather than doing whatever it is that they do best? Rose is pragmatic. "I'm chained to my computer for five hours a day anyway," she said. http://www.wired.com/news/news/business/story/22166.html ________________________________________________________________________________ no copyright 1999 rolux.org - no commercial use without permission. is a moderated mailing list for the advancement of minor criticism. more information: mail to: majordomo@rolux.org, subject line: , message body: info. further questions: mail to: rolux-owner@rolux.org. archive: http://www.rolux.org