What do you feel of Amazon mechanical turk as an income source?
By pringu
@pringu (151)
India
February 6, 2011 8:09am CST
Amazon's mechanical turk is one of the program i depend on to make some legitimate money online. I have gone through several scam sites after which i found out this site. The good thing is i have already been paid three checks and i look forward to working with it very much. Do any of you have any personal experiences with this program? Have any of you been disappointed with this site?
1 person likes this
10 responses
@Catana (735)
• United States
6 Feb 11
The amount that's paid for most tasks doesn't nearly make up for the amount of time it takes to find them and do them. I've looked at Mechanical Turk several times, trying to decide if I could earn some money there, and always left without bothering to sign up. I've read that there are more and more scams on the site, which means that even if you do the jobs, you won't always get paid. There are better ways to earn extra money. Of course, if you have lots of free time and don't care how you spend it, then it may be worthwhile.
@pringu (151)
• India
6 Feb 11
Quite right catana, but then it's worth a site to sign up. Once you start using the site frequently, you could easily filter those scammers from the legit ones. Finding those true requesters shouldn't be much fuss since you got all these turker forums and all to read through.
@rojishroy (600)
• India
6 Feb 11
Mturk is a legit earning program from the internet giant Amazon. But I felt that the earning per job is very low. I felt that it is not worth our time. But for those who have a lot of free time Mturk can be a good source to make some little extra money.
Welcome to Mylot! Happy Mylotting
@pringu (151)
• India
6 Feb 11
Hi Rojish, you are somewhat right that it's a program for those having loads of time in their hands. But then if you do some research and is selective in the tasks you do, i think you should find your time worth. There are certain requesters who consistently provide tasks that pays USD 1, i go for them mostly and enjoy my time doing them. By the by is there any other similar program?
@rojishroy (600)
• India
6 Feb 11
You can try MicroWorkers and MinuteWorkers. Actually I feel that MicroWorkers is better than Mturk.
@curtangel (108)
• United States
6 Feb 11
I've used mechanical turk for years and my experience is generally positive. I have some set searches I check whenever I get on (facebook, twitter, youtube, funny, vote). The pay per job tends to be low, but even if you get tired of it and decide to stop doing it after only a few cents you can turn any amount of your earnings into Amazon bucks - so next time you order something on Amazon you can apply it towards your order.
The problem with mturk is not the site iteself, but with the individuals who offer the jobs. Some of them are going to scam you and reject your work even if you did it - but very few in my experience. And some want way too much for very little money - there is enough to choose from that shouldn't be a problem.
There are forums and even a toolbar to help with your mturk experience- I've never gotten too into that area but a quick search should pull up a few.
@curtangel (108)
• United States
6 Feb 11
Yes, its been mostly recently that I've really had problems with people rejecting stuff I know for a fact I did correctly - I choose to not work for them anymore. There are plenty of honest requesters. The pay is low, but I've made over $50 this year so far. Not bad...
@pringu (151)
• India
6 Feb 11
Hii angel, you are quite right in your findings. I admit that these days scammers are lot more in mturk but then i haven't been scammed yet. Been using this since i year! In my case i go for specific requesters with whom i feel comfortable working with. Till date i have had appreciable results with them. :)
@awgoat06 (36)
• United States
7 Feb 11
i can't believe i've never heard of mechanical turk before since i am an amazon junky!!! Since amazon is a totally legit site, i will certainly give it a try.I have seen mention of other similar sites in this discusscion. Some more info on these sites would be helpfull. Thank's mylotter's.
@slstewart18 (194)
• United States
8 Feb 11
I have made about $13 and cashed out getting an amazon gift card. I i like the site but spend to much time looking for good hits to work on. I find the surveys the best deal. I honestly like it but get bored.
@pringu (151)
• India
8 Feb 11
Hi stewart, yea i do agree that, finding hits is some kind of a boring thing but then you could categorize the requesters you regularly work for. My advice would be to set it to 'most rewarding hits'. Doing that, the ones that pay you the most pops up first. So, you don't need to keep searching for the fatter rewarding ones. Also, in the long run you could make some decent amounts since all this money gets stacked one above the other. :)
@divalounger (5849)
• United States
6 Feb 11
I have used mechanical turk for some time now and find that it has always paid. However, the general commentary is correct, the pay per task is very low. So lately, I have been using it less. There are some very interesting tasks on there from time to time.
@pringu (151)
• India
6 Feb 11
Hi diva, good to have your response. I think you could find hits with a fatter pay if you keep frequently visiting the site or keeping track of them bit more than what you do now. There are several times in a day where better paying tasks pops up. With better paying, i mean tasks that pay you more than $1. If you are an avid writer or transcriptioner, chances are even more since definitely there are lots of high paying jobs related to them. Saying that, one has to be smart and lucky enough to keep getting them on a regular basis since the better paying jobs vanish quickly! So the faster you are, the better are your chances of making good bucks with mturk. Basically, it all depends on how you perform and the speed with which you go about accomplishing them.
@Professor2010 (20162)
• India
12 Mar 11
Hello welcome to mylot
i am from india, i work there, i was paid in indian currency.. one can see many kind of tasks, select, work on them, more you work, more you earn, but i don't have much time.
Thanks for sharing
Cheers.
BE HAPPY ALWAYS.
Professor ‘Bhuwan’. .
@msdivkar (23359)
• India
6 Feb 11
Welcome to mylot family pringu. I tried to join mturk once but I was told that the program is reserved only for Americans. Just before responding to this I checked your profile and came to know that you are Indian like me. How did you manage to join mturk have they opened the program for Indians now?
@surekharathi (14146)
• India
6 Feb 11
Yes this is legitmate site I always doing work in this site and I have also received one check. This is not fake and you can trust on this site.
