Comment by swombat | Hacker News Reader

Comment by swombat | Hacker News Reader

For what it's worth, I've upvoted this too. I certainly didn't mean to kill the trend completely (which is what seems to have happened :-/). There is some obvious value to it.

I wouldn't want to see the Offer HN thing become a lasting trend at the current levels... that said, the odd "Offer HN" doesn't bother me, and I certainly wouldn't want to think that all offers stopped completely just because my post got upvoted.

That said, to elaborate on the point jacquesm singled out, many/most services-businesses (from tax consultancies to seo consultants and web developers) use free consultations as a way to generate leads. My suggestion to people who want to offer something to HN is, don't do it just to generate leads, and try to make it clear to the readers that it's not something you're doing to generate business for yourself. It'd be a shame to see some percentage of this site become basically a lead-generation site for the brazen few willing to take advantage of it like that.

PS: I'm not suggesting that any specific "offer HN" post was like that, despite mentioning examples above.

I created the HN Offer: Tax Help for Startup Entrepreneur thread and I wanted to reflect on how I went about it.

Maybe it would've been better if I didn't show my website. I wanted to show that I've been doing this for a while as a career and hoped that it would help lend credibility. I hope that it didn't come off as a gimmick.

I'm keeping my offer open and standing. I was thinking about posting an offer hn tax help for startup entreprenuiers thread once a month just to show that I would consistently help people and that I wasn't looking to be a scammer.

But maybe that was a bad idea. Let me know and I'll act accordingly. I was just hoping to interact with the hn crowd and maybe meet some cool people and discuss interesting tax subjects hopefully. I can say that I definitely got a lot out of it myself. I learned about a new tax strategy i didn't know about from RDL in ROBS 401ks. I'll be looking into that myself and sharing what I find with everyone else since it could be an awesome way for people invest in their own companies.

Let me know your thoughts and ill definitely take them into advisement.

Well, I can tell you that your advice definitely helped me get over my small irrational fear of taking/holding money as an ad network. Everyone else I asked those questions just shrugged and said "You should ask an accountant".

I know it will seem odd to many of these grizzled veterans around here, but, just a few sentences from you, and I feel like I've overcome something significant. Thank you.

Thanks truman. I have that your business takes off

I really appreciate the turnout and how receptive the whole community has been to me. I know that I'm like the odd man out in the group haha. But, its awesome cause I've had a lot of people have reached out to me by email, phone and skype.

Like I said, I'll keep this offer standing and post an offer once a month to field all the questions people have. But, you dont have to wait. You can reach me at contact@thekenggroup.com. They'll all get forwarded to me directly so they're not going into some black hole =)

I think it was an awesome thing, and I enjoyed reading your analysis in that thread.

Actually, I love this whole rash of "Offer HN" - I was going to write one up myself, but I'm transiting to Malaysia tomorrow from Saigon, and have a busy week ahead of me. I'll probably post one in a week if the community blesses the general idea.

As always, I've got contact info in my profile and anyone's welcome to drop a line for any reason, to ask for a hand, etc. People who read the comments here probably know what I'm good at by now. As for you camz - I think it's phenomenal what you're doing, and I hope more people do the same.

I created the SEO-thread.

I got a bunch of questions and emails (around 250 and they're still coming in) - all they ask for is tips and tricks, maybe some ideas on how to further expand their presence on the webz.

I don't ask for anything in return, I don't promote products, I don't promote services - just plain old "This is your site. These are the flaws - this is why it's called a flaw, and here's how to fix it".

I once wrote: "I'm really interested in your project. Here's my personal email. Email me and we can discuss a possible investment on my part."

Crappy SEO, but the product was incredible.

Back on track;

I created a special email address just to accept HN questions.

But I do see it from your POV. Many entrepreneurs I know have lost a lot of money via the "I do something free for you - but you have to buy something from me in return"-scheme.

I'm pretty sure that HN users would find a way to make their displeasure known about those that abuse the 'Offer HN' format.

I am the co-founder of http://skyara.com and we're actually building a marketplace for services like 'Teach RoR' or 'Learn SEO'. It'll be launching in a couple of weeks so stay tuned.

You'll be able to offer your services for free (we don't make any money from that) and it's exactly designed for what's currently going on with HN, so very excited about that.

sorry for the shameless plug, just thought it was very applicable.

The design, prototyping, and manufacturing guide is mine and I've gotten a dozen plus emails from people asking about product ideas. Instead of taking weeks to figure out if something is viable I can answer the question in a few minutes. Having designed apparel, medical products, mobile apps, AI, toys, etc. I can pretty much look at something at tell what it's going to cost, how long, and the difficulty.

I'm doing it sure to meet people but mostly because I wish there was someone to help me when I was learning product design. There would have been a lot less bumps and bruises.

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