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What I have learned from moderating WisePrice

User generated content is pure gold in my industry. People write stuff.  Mostly, I think, because everyone just wants someone to listen to them. People write stuff, then those of us who have websites publish that stuff online, put ads next to it, and make pretty good money. This is the idea with WisePrice, and now that we’re well into the beginning stages of growing, it’s time to share some things with you that I am learning. That post about user generated content as a business model will be published some day, in the future, eventually.

For now, here’s what you need to know. Every day this week I have read on the order of 100 user reviews of services that they paid for. The reviews are from all over the country, and (based on grammar and writing ability) from a diverse economic spread. Here’s what I have learned:

1. Never ever EVER pay a “lawyer” that you found online, on tv, or in a newspaper ad. So far, all of our reviews on lawyers (with a single exception) describe stories of giving money to someone who claimed to be a lawyer and then skipped town. Get a referral or call your local Bar Association.
2. Daycare providers all over the country get paid vacations. How? By making the parents who regularly use their services PAY THEM. That’s right. It’s 4th of July. You’re off work and you are hanging out with your kids, and you are paying your daycare provider to take the day off without your kids. Simply stunning.
3. A laptop that has been urinated on by a 2 year old can be repaired for about $76.
4. Some people will take every opportunity they get to throw their spouse/ex/mother-in-law/sister’s two ugly pugs under the bus.
5. Mechanics, as a breed, seem to deserve the reputation they have for lying and manipulating. I continue to feel very lucky to have had such wonderful people work on my car, and if you need a referral for someone in SD or in Oakland, I’m happy to provide.
6. Babysitters don’t make much more now than they did 15 years ago. I got $5/ hour. Now, $6 seems to be the going rate.
7. The price paid for a haircut has absolutely zero relationship to the satisfaction that it brings.  I have more rants about $180 spent and raves about $15 than the other way around.
8. Big shock, this: Unless you know what you’re doing, it’s always cheaper to pay someone else to do work on your home.
9. People pay to have their cats groomed.  Huh?  I thought that the coolest thing about cats is that they groom themselves.

That is all.

For now, anyway.  There’s many more posts in the queue, so I expect this is only part one in a series.