Get Paid to Listen to Telemarketers

March 8, 2004 3:41 AM

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. A company named AdNoodle is letting you waive your rights under the Do Not Call list in exchange for cold hard cash. You decide how much it's worth to you - 50 cents, $1, $2 per minute - to have a friendly chat with your local telemarketing concern and answer a "listening comprehension" quiz afterwards. What's your conventional wisdom on this one: Are we bargaining ourselves into a win-win situation? Or are we becoming low-priced callgirls for the bottom-feeders of corporate America? We report, you decide. (via Fark)
posted by PrinceValium (5 comments total)

Remember Get Paid to Surf the Internet?
posted by twitch at 4:34 AM on March 8, 2004

You're volunteering to be part of a future class action lawsuit. You're establishing a business relationship with AdNoodle. AdNoodle's business plan is to get people to watch commercials in exchange for a bit of silver.

Perhaps not immediately but eventually the wait for receiving your payment cheques will be infinite. Your terms of service will be changed. Instead of getting a cheque every 25 dollars (I'm assuming they don't send out cheques for 75 cents and such) it'll be 100 dollars.

Eventually AdNoodle starts failing when advertisers realize that the people who signed up for it are gaming the system. Sure, they're listening to your pitch but they've already decided beforehand they're not buying.

Somebody else buys AdNoodle. AdNoodle sells mini-franchises off. You sell whatever you want with the franchise, AdNoodle doesn't care. All AdNoodle is selling is your pre-established business relationship that lets them call you. You don't get compensated any more.
posted by substrate at 4:45 AM on March 8, 2004

Imagine if some people set up tape recorders to pretend that they are taking advertising calls when they are really sleeping. The scandal!
posted by crazy finger at 5:37 AM on March 8, 2004

unless people truly are morons, anyone who agrees to watch/listen to advertising for money already has an awareness of the medium and then the advertising becomes far less effective. and any marketing information gleamed from Jimmy Nascar (or me) isn't anything they don't already know.

the AllAdvantage story is a good analogy. depending on the salary, i'd gladly listen to advertising and throw-away two extra spam messages a day for money, but i can't imagine that this idea is sustainable, and i'd rather avoid the potential hassles.

advertising is a dying business. while it's becoming more and more pervasive, it's also becoming less and less effective. (i say that, of course, with nothing but anecdotal evidence to back it up.)
posted by mrgrimm at 9:33 AM on March 8, 2004

"Congratulate me, Joe! I just sold the buisness to the Resor boys. They don't know it, but the advertising agency buisness has seen it's best days!." - Mr. Thompson from J. Walter Thompson 1916

This seems about as lame as the "get paid for surfing" and the "get paid for links-clicks" schemes.
posted by dabitch at 9:51 AM on March 8, 2004