If you are looking to make some supplemental income, you may find yourself perusing the internet for work. I found myself in this situation last fall. After cricket season was over I needed a flexible job. I had heard about making money online and decided to give it a try. Amazon Mechanical Turk was the first site I stumbled upon. It provided me with hours of entertainment, satisfaction and a path to becoming a freelance writer.
What Is It?
Amazon Mechanical Turk is an online community of workers and employers. There are “hits” workers complete for cash. Thousands are available at any time throughout the day. Once you sign up you are able to complete assignments. You can cash out at any value above $1. There are a few strategies I used for the site, some yielding better results than others.
Many Small Jobs
The amount you earn to complete a hit can be as small as one cent. These jobs are usually categorizing pictures and correcting short sentences. I quickly learned it would be impossible to earn anything completing hits for less than 4 or 5 cents. I consistently checked what my wage was to check my progress. If I was earning less than $6 or $7 an hour, I knew it was time to modify my techniques. While others have found success with this strategy, it wasn’t right for me. I was earning a little cash, but was doing so at a snail’s pace.
Few Big Jobs
Bigger jobs on MTurk are anything over $1 (I know, big money, right?). These typically consist of audio and video transcriptions and freelance article writing. I had more luck making money with this strategy, but found it to be quite frustrating. Once a good hit appears on the site it is gone immediately. This led to a lot of refreshing in an attempt to win the race to the best assignments. I spent a lot of time searching and not a lot of time doing. Even with constant searching, my hourly wage was around $10 an hour.
Things to Keep In Mind
If you are considering trying Amazon Mechnical Turk, there are a few things you may want to keep in mind. Many of the better assignments require certain completion and acceptance rates. The smaller hits can help to keep your percentages high, allowing you to qualify for the best jobs.
There are a number of qualifications you can acquire on the site, which will “unlock” a greater number of hits available to you with the side benefit that the additional jobs will have less competition.
Some jobs offer big payments for little work. If they look too good to be true, they are. This site is not for those looking to strike gold easily and quickly.
However, if you are looking for a supplemental income that needs to be flexible, give Amazon Mechanical Turk a try. It was a great jumping off point for my freelance career. If you have used the site in the past, what worked for you? Have you ever worked for a similar site with success?
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