A funny thing happened on the way to my Amazon Mechanical Turk Review. I discovered that you can make money there. I wasn't expecting that.
I was really turned off by Mechanical Turk at first. Like many, I saw all the penny HITS and the not-so-easy navigation, and I blew it off after a while. But I came back to give it a second try...another chance...one last shot...when I needed some extra cash.
Now, I just completed HIT number 21001 on Mturk so I thought it was about time I get to this review. I've come to the conclusion that Amazon Mechanical Turk is good for a secondary stream of income, but only after learning how to use it.
Amazon Mechanical Turk, or Mturk as it is referred to by those who frequent it, should not be mistaken for a passive stream of income. Making money on Mturk takes patience and work, and I think that's where many people falter. They don't put in the time to figure out how to master the application.
It's not surprising. The navigation does take some getting used to, and when I started I couldn't find a user guide for the working Turker. I found one for the requesters, but nothing that would help me figure out how to churn out enough HITS to make a difference in my life. So I set out to learn things the hard way....by putting in time and doing the work.
I don't have the coveted Category Masters or Picture Masters Qualifications that recently came into existence. No one's really sure how those get handed out anyway. There are rumors that Amazon uses an OZ like approach when deciding who gets those.
Anyway, thanks for reading my Mechanical Turk Review. I know that Mturk can be a mysterious place for the beginner.
Have a question? Leave a comment!
Carole Tee
Thanks! As I am surfing Mechanical Turks for the first time today I found your site very helpful! Do you have any suggestions as to which ones to try first? Do I just pick one and go for it?
ReplyDeleteHi. It's hard to tell you what HITs to go for without knowing your strengths, but I will tell you to take it slowly at first. Do one or two HITs from a certain requester to see not only if you like it, but how long the requester takes to pay, whether or not they reject your work, etc. The last thing you want is to do multiple HITs that are all rejected at once, because that can really wreak havoc with your approval rating, especially if you're just starting out. Let me know if you have any other questions, and Good Luck! I hope you make tons of cash!
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