Just got this email from a market research group:
We are contacting you as you are on our database for paid market research.
We were hoping you may be able to help us find people for an upcoming research project.
We are looking to engage with Web Designers or IT professionals in order to better understand their experiences in assisting their clients with e-commerce.
More specifically, their experiences in integrating payment processing solutions for online businesses.
The research would involve a 40min phone interview to be held this Wednesday(11/02) or Thursday(12/02), at a time of their choosing (in or out of business hours).
All participants are paid $100 as thanks for participating and giving their opinions/ideas.
So instead of paying one or more expensive consultants to work for many hours on your website, you engage a number of consultants for 40 minute interviews where you can squeeze as much expertise out of them as you can. Once you have all the information you need, you end the phone interviews and use that information to set tasks for your code-monkeys. That could save them a lot of money I suppose, but I'm not sure I would want to see the end result.