Should Hobo Experts Answer Questions

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Should Hobo Experts Answer Questions
Atakpame, Togo West Africa
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
by Andy of HoboTraveler.com

HoboTraveler.com site has developed a way for experts to answer questions easily, just by responding to emails. Each email answer is posted or filed in a way readers can find, therefore another reader does not need to sift through piles of comments to find their answers. There is a logical filing system or the hope of one.

A Forum can be great; however, for a person like me who is using the Internet and is paying in an internet café a forum is not good. I need to know today, not tomorrow, or at least soon, and the hope of help.

An example,
- How do I get a Visa to Cameroon? -

A good place to find the personal answer is the Lonely Planet Thorntree Forum.
http://thorntree.lonelyplanet.com

I can find the answer to this question, how to get a Visa to Cameroon in this forum, and if I pushed, I would know the answer to this question after say about two weeks, for the Congo, maybe never. If for France, Peru, or common country, where I do not need an answer, today. A form is random and impossible to find answer, and amazingly they delete old and very good answers because of age of the post, more of a social network than a way to find good answers.

I have questions, which only an expert can see or understand all the implications and give a broad open answer with options.

Here is an example, I have asked many travelers, how to do I fly from Europe to West Africa, this is an expensive path to travel.

I asked a Peace Corps person how to fly from Europe to Togo and she said,
- Air France. -

She said something like, I flew with American Airlines to Paris and then with Air France to Lome, Togo.

I think… to myself, Oops, I asked the wrong person, then she goes on to explain how easy it was to buy the ticket, all the travel agents sell them and how many flights per day or something. Then she tells me Air Franc is the Airlines the Peace Corps uses to fly to Africa.

I think to myself,
-- There goes my tax dollars! ---
I say nothing; I wanted to end the conversation.

A better answer would have been Air Moroc, and one-third the cost or something.
http://www.royalairmaroc.com

If she would have said,
Afriqiyah Airways
http://www.afriqiyah.aero/infomain.asp

I would start to think, she knows a lot, if she gave me some real weird option like take a charter flight to Agadez, Niger, then go by Togo Embassy bus from Niamey to Lome, I would say, voila, an expert on Flights in Africa.

When I ask what the best way to fly is, I mean and imply, what is the cheapest, not what is easy and expensive. I am always amazed a person will recommend a flight that cost more than 1000 US or one that cost 3000. I semi-think anyone who pays more than about 1500 Dollars round-trip for a ticket anywhere on the planet is somebody I have a bridge to sell too.

I can find some experts with no agendas, who love to help, and they can earn money with the ads that surround the post. The contextual advertisements will give them some small cash, and eventually big cash. The person can help to drive traffic to their only pages and we weave two sites together, or many site together. This would allow me lend my skill of making good SEO pages for the search engine, and allow the person to be an expert, and not think about how to make pages.

The task here for me, is to find experts who will not lie to make money, that do not have a money agenda that overwhelms them to give bad advice in the hope of money.

I think I have the technology and now I need to find the people, I am asking for opinions and ideas here, if you want to write to me personally, write the help center.
http://www.hobotraveler.com/helpcenter

This is also the area of the site where I could put Experts to answer the questions.

I need these experts, I need expert advice, an expert is an expert on one area of focus, not the whole planet of questions.

Should Hobo Experts Answer Questions

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Reader Submitted Comments | Deleted Comments (0)

Richard Trillo said on Thursday May 17th, 2007 03:04:00 AM

Hi AndyInteresting post and the question about cheap airlines reminds me how few people in the English-speaking world know about the French charter company, Point Afrique. There's a link to them on my Rough Guide to West Africa blog. They're offering Paris to Dakar for €410 round trip, Ouagadougou €520, Bamako €520, Cotonou €630 and Niamey €520, including taxes. One-ways are half price. What is really remarkable is not just the prices but the fact that all their profits are reinvested in the countries they fly to in development projects.

Andy HoboTraveler.com said on Thursday May 17th, 2007 04:19:00 AM

The English seems to believe every person on the planet speaks English and this is the dominant language. To explore webpages in other languages is fun and interesting. I have used many Spanish Webpage in South and Central America.Now, I am venturing into French.I am often annoyed by the designs of pages or email sent to me, that fail to understand, the Developed part of the planet is small, about 20 percent and they are trying to tell me, I have a Global Internet Page or anyone can read this video or Email

Hobo said on Wednesday May 23rd, 2007 10:09:00 PM

Interesting idea, Andy...