• David C. Bond earned $47,000 last year answering questions about art on the platform JustAnswer.
• He gets paid between $7.50 and $11.50 per question and aims to answer about 20 per day.
• Freelance gigs like JustAnswer have become popular as people look for additional income.

While David C. Bond develops a longer-term career project, he’s doing gig work that taps his expertise in art.

Since early 2023, Bond has worked for JustAnswer, a platform that connects users with questions to experts who can try to help. Many of the questions he answers are about the value and authenticity of art and antiques. In 2023, he earned almost $43,000, and last year, he earned a little over $47,000. He said the gig is a lot of work and that it’s been difficult to grow his earnings, but that it’s provided a valuable income stream.

“JustAnswer is simultaneously fun and frustrating,” Bond, 61, told Business Insider.

Over the last two years, Bond has been paid between $7.50 and $11.50 per question, a rate that is set by the platform. Bond said fluctuations in his pay rate — and the lack of pay rate growth over time — have been frustrating.

JustAnswer told Business Insider that payouts vary by factors including geography, field, prior success in helping customers, and supply and demand.

Bond is among the many Americans who have recently turned to freelance gigs to boost their incomes. In the last few years, rising prices have weighed on many people’s wallets, and a hiring slowdown has made it difficult for many individuals to find work or switch to a higher-paying job. As a result, some people have turned to gigs like Uber and DoorDash to help pay the bills, while others found freelance work that doesn’t require them to leave their homes — including reselling and taking online surveys.

Answering questions can be a full-time job

Before joining JustAnswer, Bond worked as an estate processor in the art department of the auction house Freeman’s | Hindman. After that, he and his wife owned a hair salon that also sold art. They sold the business in 2015 and moved from Philadelphia to Seattle to be closer to Bond’s family.

Becoming an expert on JustAnswer is a multi-step process, the company told BI. After submitting an application, a person’s credentials are reviewed and submitted to a third-party verification company for authentication. Bond said he had to contact Freeman’s | Hindman — where he hadn’t worked in more than a decade — to confirm his prior employment there.

Once approved, a candidate is placed on a waitlist until the platform’s activation team determines they are needed, based on factors including customer interest. For Bond, the entire application process took a few weeks.

Bond estimated that he spends roughly six hours a day, six days a week, answering people’s questions — his goal is to answer 15 to 20 questions a day. He said most of his time is spent reviewing how much similar art or antiques have sold for, sharing these comparables with customers, and then providing an estimate of a piece’s value using the comparables and his expertise.

He receives a wide range of questions about art and antiques, but he said his customers typically fit one of two categories: people who have inherited something and “treasure hunters.” Both groups are looking for insight into whether they have something of value.

“I have to tell them what it is and how much I think it’s worth on the secondary market and everything in between,” he said.

To use JustAnswer, customers must sign up for a monthly membership, which includes a roughly $5 one-time joining fee and a fee that ranges between $30 to $125 a month, depending on the type of expert they’re seeking.

To be sure, Bond said he regularly hears from customers who are surprised they were charged for their questions or enrolled in a monthly membership to the platform. What’s more, there are hundreds of complaints on the Better Bureau Business website, many of which are related to the company’s membership program.

JustAnswer told BI via email that customers are asked to enter their credit card information before they receive an answer to their question — and are provided clear details about the platform’s monthly cost and cancellation policy.

In the age of AI tools like ChatGPT, Bond thinks his expertise still has value.

“A 17th-century Japanese plate looks the same as a 20th-century reproduction to a machine, but I can look at it and see characteristics that make one different than the other,” he said.

Have you used JustAnswer or another side hustle to boost your income? Reach out to this reporter at jzinkula@businessinsider.com.