WINNERS

Okay so I just got home from vaca and before I do anything else, here are the winners of the Gift Card Giveaway

100th Follower:


Kyle Griffin

(I can't find a link to your blog in your profile so if you want comment here and I'll add it in)

Random Commenter: 

Lucky Commenter #14 is


JayPower

go check out his blog here!

How to Claim your Gift Card?

The easiest way to do this is to either comment with your email address or if you don't want your email on the internets then you can email it to me at tripperella@hotmail.com

Congrats to the winners! I have a lot of work to do first, but I'll catch up on all your blogs later tonight and hopefully have the follow-up review to Microworkers up late tonight or early tomorrow morning. 

<3 you guys :3 

Amazon mTurk Part 2 - Review

Ease of Use: 4/5

mTurk favors the worker. There is no rating/feedback system; when you submit a task, it is either approved and paid, or rejected and not paid. At first this may seem like a bad thing, especially if you are just starting out on mTurk. But believe me when I say this is actually a very, very good thing that absolutely works in your favor.

Why? Because the power is in the hands of the worker. On eBay, a few bad ratings can tank your sales. On oDesk, unless you have really impressive feedback, you won't get hired. However, on mTurk as long as you follow the instructions for the task, it will be approved and you'll be paid.

Additionally, there is nothing barring you from working on mTurk. You can accept any task you are qualified for, and on most tasks, the only qualification is a high approval rating. No sweat.

Payment: 1/5

Payment. You get paid for the tasks you complete on your Amazon Payments account, which you can use to shop Amazon and a bunch of other sites: https://payments.amazon.com/sdui/sdui/personal/directory

If you are in the US you can also have the balance transferred to your [verified] bank account.

This really blows because while the payment is quick, you can only use the money towards purchases on Amazon.com or their affiliates unless you live in the US. If you are not in the US: unless you purchase from Amazon a lot of the time, or you're specifically saving up for a big purchase (again, on Amazon), it's pretty much not worth it.

The only redeeming factor here is that payment is quick, usually 1-3 days from your tasks being accepted.

Risk: 5/5

The risk here is negligible. You're not investing anything or giving out your information to 3rd parties, and payment is pretty much guaranteed. 

Who would I recommend mTurk to?
If you:
-Live in the US & have a US bank account
-Already have specific things you buy or want to buy from Amazon
OR
-Are bored, have some time to kill, and don't mind doing quick mind-numbing tasks

Then mTurk is probably for you. Can you make a living working on Amazon Mechanical Turk? Maybe. If you're willing to look at it like a real job, work several hours a day without many distractions, and are in the US, you could probably pull at least $3-400 a month. Honestly, though, there are a lot of other websites and projects I would recommend if you are looking to work and support yourself exclusively online. 

mTurk is a nice supplemental income. I think in the last few months I've made about $60 and I did it for about an hour a day or less.

Amazon Mechanical Turk (mTurk) - Part 1

Welcome to Part 1 of my review/guide to Amazon Mechanical Turk, or mTurk. The is a real, legitimate way of making money online working from home.

Getting Started

What you will need:

A computer with internet (derp)
An Amazon Account

...and that's pretty much it! If you want to be paid in cash (as opposed to an Amazon payments balance, which you can use to pay for purchases on Amazon and other websites), you'll also need a US bank account to transfer the money into.

Here is the webpage: https://www.mturk.com/mturk/welcome

You'll want to sign up as a Worker. If you already have an Amazon account, just log in with that. Otherwise, create an Amazon account and then use it to sign into mTurk.

Find Work (HITs)

Okay so we have our account set up. Next thing to do is go to the HITs (which stands for Human Intelligence Task) tab and search for HITs. The easiest way to do this is just click the check box that says "for which you are qualified" and search (more on qualification tests later). You'll come up with a list of potential tasks. You can preview any task by clicking View a HIT in this group. Some tasks will only have one HIT, others will have hundreds or even thousands of HITs. Once you found a HIT you would like to complete, click "Accept HIT" on the bottom, follow instructions, and then submit it.

Which HIT should you take? A couple things to be aware of here: 1st, be suspicious of HITs that pay a high amount ($10 or more) for an easy task. If any HIT directs you to a goo.gl or tinyurl link, don't trust it, as the "employer" here creates throwaway accounts and will NOT pay you. The caveat is that there ARE some high-paying HITs, but these are usually transcription or writing articles with strict requirements.

2nd, it is important to decide what type of HITs you would like to accept. Do you want to complete many HITs that are easy and quick, but pay very little (5-15 cents per HIT)? Or do you want to complete tasks which are more difficult and take longer, but the pay rate is higher ($2-5 per hit, or more). Once you determine this, it will be easier to find tasks which appeal to you.

NEXT TIME: mTurk Part 2- which HITs to trust, how you get paid, and my personal review!