I have been keeping track of my Medical Expert income in more detail and wanted to share that with you guys here. It’s been a great way for me to earn income as a digital nomad physician without having to risk a patient-doctor relationship.
I have made as much as $10,000 on Medical Expert working remotely from Spain. I have earned similar amounts only using my phone or working remotely from Portland, Oregon.
Such expert websites are going to become more and more abundant. It’s a great skill to learn because it’s not quite as straightforward as it seems. But it’s also much easier than suturing a lip.
Case Study
I got a text from one of my physician coaching clients the other day and she told me that her Medical Expert income is now $7,500 per month.
She used that to leave her Endocrinology job because it was stressing her out. With a recent divorce and a minted single-mom status, she wanted to live somewhere else and not see patients in the clinic.
The Medical Expert Service
What these Medical Expert website do for customers is allow them to ask questions to experts in law, auto mechanics, veterinary medicine, computer stuff, medicine, and health.
Each expert who answers a question will be paid out a certain amount once the client is satisfied with the question.
For the medical stuff, imagine if you live in India or Australia. You have money and can speak English but cannot get access to the right doctor. You have a burning question and nobody to help you. That’s what’s amazing and unique about the Medical Expert service.
Medical Expert Income
I’ve been keeping a daily log of my income on a particular Medical Expert site because I wanted to see how much time and effort I’m spending on this particular platform. And to see how much I’m earning.
Week #1 Income – $600
The first week of January I spent about 1-2 hours per day answering questions. But rarely was I on the platform the entire time. I might be cooking a meal or watching a YouTube video or working on a blog post at the same time.
By the end of the first week I was at $600. I had logged in every day. And I have a particular system of locking on a question, offering some insight, and then chatting with the client over the next few days until they are 100% satisfied.
Week #2 Income – $1,800
The 2nd week I didn’t even log in every day. I ended the week at $1,800. The days I was logged on, I would be online for about 4 hours.
Of this time, I maybe spent only 60 minutes replying to customers. The rest of the time I was doing something else – reading, writing, eating.
Because I have been on the platform for a long time, I know exactly what times to log on. That part is critical.
Week #3 Income – $3,700
I spend the 3rd week of January being online every single day. Because I had accumulated clients from the beginning of the month I would log on in the morning and again at night.
By this time, my earnings were at $3,700.
Week #4 Income – $4,800
I logged on nearly every day in the last week of January. I ended the month with $4,800 of total earnings. I probably replied to several hundred questions.
If you know how to voice dictate on your laptop or phone then you’ll drastically improve your workflow.
Income Per Hour
Each hour is different and if you know when to log on you’ll get the most questions.
What matters most is how many questions you lock onto. This dictates the number of conversations you’ll start. From here, you’ll have days and even weeks to close the question.
Neither the customer nor you need to be in a rush. Sure, some clients have pressing questions, but many just want to learn more about a certain medical condition or health related stuff in general.
Mistakes on Medical Expert Sites
#1. Waiting to Get Credentialed
Why only credential on one site? There are several others like this. So sign up for as many as you’re comfortable with.
#2. Rushing the Conversation
Your goal shouldn’t be to get the customer to close the question and rate you as soon as possible. That will backfire. Enjoy the process, and have a genuine conversation with the patient.
#3. Fearing Negative Reviews
Don’t fear negative reviews. There are plenty of others who will rate you 5-stars and even leave you a tip.
Always figure out what you can learn from a negative review. It’ll help you do even better the next time you take on a new question.
#4. Ignoring the Conversation
All you have are you words. You must be very careful how you ask questions to the customers and the kind of answers you’re providing.
You certainly don’t want to give any medical diagnoses since that’s not what this platform is about. You need to spend 90% of the time figuring out what the customer is looking for and you only need to spend 10% providing the answer.
#5. Choosing the Wrong Questions
You have to know your own weaknesses and knowledge gaps. If you choose the wrong questions then you’ll inevitably have displeased customers. That’s negative reviews, which means no income for you.
#6. Skipping Long Questions
Some customers write novels for their first question. Most experts are inclined to skip these – I know, because I snag them right up.
Spend a few minutes reading it. Ask a lot of questions. Figure out what the customer wants to know and you’ll be able to offer an amazing customer experience with not a lot of effort.
#7. Not Doing Research
I am not an Ophthalmologist nor Oncologist but those are very common questions on Medical Expert sites. If you want to have a solid Medical Expert income then spend the time to research the client’s question.
You’ll learn a lot of great medical tidbits in the process. In fact, don’t hesitate to hit up one of your specialist friends. Most of the cases you’ll get on such sites are from customers who have rather interesting questions.
#8. Getting Frustrated
The customer can opt-out if they don’t like your tone. It’s easy to get frustrated with a customer because they often resort to these expert websites since they couldn’t get the answers they needed in-person.
You’re doing this for money and to help a client. Why get mad? Answer the question you’re asked and leave any emotional response at the digital doorstep.
#9. Not Asking for Help
There is a category moderator whom you can text, email, or smoke-signal with. Ask their help when you’re stuck. Don’t suffer alone.
You’ll make mistakes no matter how long you’ve been on the platform. So, take your time and learn the ins-and-outs by asking for some guidance in the beginning.
#10. Not Using Technology
Dude, it’s 2020, use technology to your advantage. Have a list of links that you can send customers. Save some typed out responses that you can cut & paste.
And don’t forget voice dictation. It’s so easy to type out a long response through voice. It requires some practice to get good at it. But it’s a very pleasant experience.
9 replies on “Medical Expert Income – the Details”
Hi. I also used the platform for over 9 years now. I agree is a great source of income. However, the algorithm has been changing and your income can vary in 50% or 60% month to month, You can not rely on JA as a steady source of income anymore.
Be careful, JA has more doctors outsourcing from India now than before. The algorithm also makes the questions available first to the physicians that charge less and JA takes higher fees(new hires from overseas).
If you have noticed they recently deleted the time the question was submitted because the question now is available to the new physicians and they don’t want you to know if its a new or old question. We don’t get all the questions. They will also make a big change to the website in the next 3 months. They are planning to use AI to get most of the basic answers. In a few words, JA will die as a source of income in the next year. I participated in the primary beta website and changes will affect the volume and income from questions.
Hi Dr. Mark – I agree with you that it wouldn’t be a good idea to put all of your income needs into a single basket. However, JA is competing with lots of other expert sites and they will still need to offer high-quality answers, which the overseas doctors aren’t delivering.
Just seeing some of the answers they give, it’s obvious that such a strategy is only going to hurt JA in the long run. But I think it’s still wise of them to try it.
I have seen lots of changes with JA over the years – but the income, at least for me, has been quite consistent. It might be because I have a different strategy with taking patients and the times that I log on when I’m here in Spain.
Overall they are quite a popular answer website and many other companies have tried and are desperate to try them but aren’t able to compete. I suspect their CAC’s are going up because of this competition but if they do decide to go public one day or get acquired, they would be a massive force to content with.
They have never even bothered to credential me after like 2 years. Just gave up.
yea, I’ve heard that from others. Seems to be a hit or miss. Some get credentialed right away and others seem to not budge.
Hi Dr. Mo, Thanks for the informative post. Do you have any thoughts about how well psychiatrists would do on JA? What’s your experience been answering mental health questions on the platform?
Not too much demand for psych on JA and the reimbursement is too low, especially because of how much time you’d have to spend with each client. I don’t recommend it, nor do I take any mental health questions on JA since the clients are often quite complex. However, there are psychologists who do a great job of handling those requests. But I doubt they are getting a fair reimbursement.
Thanks for your reply. I thought that’s what you might say. Yes, I agree that there are potentially too many complexities to mental health questions that are posed on this kind of platform. Answering would be challenging and I’m thinking that it would take a bit too much time. Thanks again!
Hello Dr Mo, thank you for your very helpful blog. I’ve just started to do JA and finding it fun while learning the ropes. I’ve yet to receive my first paycheck so not sure what to expect yet- my dashboard is showing $9 per answer. Is that typically what you start out with? Right now I can get to 4-5 questions per hour- but if it’s $9 per question I’m having a hard time imagining earning anything close to the amount you describe. Maybe you are super efficient at this and that’s the difference. Appreciate your insights!
Glad you’re doing it – I really enjoy these expert sites.
I am quite efficient, that’s true.
Their current model is that they throttle you when you are at $9 which means you don’t get many questions.
I have a lot of digital content out there on how to improve your efficiency on JA. I learn so much on there because people from different countries and from different specialties come on there to post questions.
Once you go up to $11 then you’ll get more questions and 10-15 per hour is very doable once you learn the ropes – the wording you use and your style matters a lot with any of these platforms, not just JA.
And protecting yourself is quite important – easy to think you’re being someone’s physician on there which is risky.