Amazon Mechanical Turk - A Work From Home Freelance Job

Earn Some Cash Working From Home on MTurk and Have More Time To Explore!!

If you ask a few people what they think of Amazon's mechanical turk, you will likely get several different responses.  I'll admit, when I first stumbled across 'mturk' as it is known, I was quite intrigued.  Then I signed up and realized how things work over there. You do a task (they are called 'hits') and you submit it.  The requester then has to approve it, then payment is made.  However, there are some things you should know about mturk if you wish to make a go of it and make some real cash.  Do not be fooled into thinking that just because some of the tasks literally pay pennies that you can't make money on mturk.com.  To date, I have made over $400 on mturk and I only really used it for two months off and on.


Getting Paid on MTurk.com

Once you have over $1 in your mturk account you can use it to purchase amazon gift cards.  If you wait until you have over $10 in your mturk account you can transfer it to an attached bank account.  In my experience, the money is in your bank account the very next day, something you RARELY if ever find in a work from home job.  You don't have to worry about Paypal and the fees that they take out of payments you receive.  Even if you only make $10 every night on mturk, the next evening it will be there for you to spend.  What could be better than that?  As you can see, mturk is a great way to earn some pocket money while having fun at the same time.


Having Fun on MTurk And Making Money on Mturk



Mturk is filled with tons of different types of tasks, from audio/video transcription and article writing to surveys and user experience testing.  I have completed a $20 task before and I have also completed a $.01 task.  Some tasks take 1 minute and others take several hours.  The best way to look at it is the hourly rate.






For example, if you do a task for 50 cents that takes you 2 minutes to complete, that is a $15.00 per hour rate.  On the other hand, if you do a task for $2.00 that takes you twenty minutes to complete, that is an hourly rate of $6.00 per hour.

So be wise when selecting your hits and think of the bottom line rather than each individual payment.

Or if you just wish to use mturk for fun, there are a ton of surveys you can take and games you can play.  I love taking surveys and actually getting paid for them.  They are anonymous and interesting and some even allow you the chance to learn more about yourself while you make money.  Best of all, you get to know that you are participating in valuable research.  Right now there are a lot of political surveys up, so if you're into politics this is a great time to get on Mturk and start taking paid surveys about politics.


Avoiding Scammers on MTurk.com

One big problem with mturk is that scammers are free to submit what are called 'mass rejections' without any repercussion, regardless of if the rejections were warranted or not.  This then drives down the rating of the account that received the ratings.  Unfortunately even when mturk is made aware of a scamming requester they do nothing to restore the worker's feedback, so it is imperative that you avoid scammers at all costs to maintain a great approval rating.  There is a handy widget you can use called TurkOpticon which allows you to see reviews of every requester before you accept a hit.  If I had only known about TurkOpticon before the below story occurred, my mturk approval rating would still be 99.8% instead of barely 80%.


My Experience With An Mturk Scammer

One main reason I do not use mturk much anymore is that I did over 200 hits for a requester called 'Lighting Buff' who then went through and rejected about 95% of them for basically no reason.  The specific task showed a photo of a light fixture and asked which room in a house it should go in.  As this is really a subjective question (everyone has a different eye for design) there really couldn't be any wrong answers.  Every rejection had the same feedback, 'wrong room.'  Apparently chandeliers only go in dining rooms.  Crazy, considering I've never seen one in a dining room outside of a restaurant - all of the fancy houses I've ever been in with a chandelier had it in the entry way or 'grand hall' area.  But I digress.  This isn't about me, it is about you.  As long as you use TurkOpticon you will never fall victim to the same scam I did.  To check it out, click here.

The Bottom Line About Mturk

Mturk is an excellent way to make a bit of cash in your spare time.  Don't expect to become a millionaire or even a thousand-aire overnight with mturk.com, but you definitely can make cash on there.  To visit mturk, click here.

One last note before I call it a night: just so you know I'm not kidding about actually making money on mturk, check out this screenshot of my earnings statement direct from the 'Your Account' tab.

Work From Home Job Lead of The Day: Fiverr.com

Can You Make Money Working From Home On Fiverr.com?

I guess I eventually had to talk about working from home on Fiverr.com. After all, I make about 1/3 of my income working at home as a Freelance Writer on Fiverr.com.  I have made thousands on Fiverr and as long as I keep up with the gigs that are ordered I will probably continue to make money there.  The basic idea is that you come up with something you can do for five dollars, set up a 'Gig' ad (the jobs are called Gigs on Fiverr) and then wait until people order and work on your gigs.


Read more about my experiences with Fiverr as a work from home job after the jump.

Is Paid Captcha Work A Real Work From Home Job?

Paid Captcha Work: Legit, Scam or Waste of Time?

You may have heard of paid Captcha work, or perhaps you've never heard of it before. Here is an overview of  this bizarre work from home data entry 'job.' While paid Captcha work is technically a data entry job because you are, well...entering data, it is not the sort of data entry work I was looking for. That and it requires so much typing to make money that your head might explode.


Oh, and you may be helping out scammers/spammers.  Learn more about this weird work from home opportunity after the jump.

(Animated pic from the talented ugvivar on photobucket.com)

Why I Can't Stand Freelancer.com (09/11/12 Work From Home Job Lead)

The photo to the left expresses how I feel when I think about Freelancer.com.  I classify this as a work from home job lead because while I can't stand Freelancer.com, you might love it.  The jobs on Freelancer are quite varied, but it seems that people with IT experience or who know how to build websites, mobile apps or complete various types of SEM and SEO can make a decent chunk of change on there while telecommuting and working from home.  That being said, I cannot stand Freelancer.


Learn why after the jump.

9/10/12 Work From Home Job Opportunity: Textbroker.com (Freelance Writing)

When it comes to Online Freelance Writing, you've got to start somewhere. If you want to work from home and be a freelance writer, you can! It just takes time, commitment and persistence in order to succeed. The following information is about one Freelance writing and content generation website that I have written for, Textbroker.com.  One of my payments from Textbroker was over $150, which translated to around $19 per hour when I did the calculations.  But enough about me, this post is about you and how you can work from home writing on Textbroker. Read about it after the jump.

3/22/12 Work From Home Job Opportunity: Customer Service

There are many well known and highly respected companies out there that are looking for people to work from home.  Some of these positions require that you purchase or own certain equipment like a headset or a land line telephone.  Others do not require anything but an internet connection or the ability to submit work online.  The following job lead is with a company you most likely are familiar with.  More after the jump!

The Top 3 Reasons Work at Home Jobs Rock!

If you have been wondering if working at home can make your life more enjoyable, the answer is yes!  Not only will you have more freedom while you are working,  working at home can simplify your life in a lot of ways you may not have imagined.  After the jump, my top 3 reasons why work from home jobs rock.

3/21/12 Work From Home Job Opportunity: Freelance Writing

Work from home freelance writing jobs are a lot of fun! Imagine being paid to write short articles about topics you enjoy, and then get paid for it? You can work from the convenience of your home, home office, or wherever you are with your laptop and an internet connection. Pay rates are small for lower ranked writers, but many freelance writing websites will offer very competitive pay rates for writers who are ranked the highest. Assignments can range from around 150 words to over 1000 words. At many freelance writing work from home jobs, you will be paid weekly or biweekly. Each job you complete will also be rated, so it is important that you submit the best possible quality of work in order to retain a good rating. One bad rating can really be damaging when you are just starting out and don't have a lot of other good feedback to offset it. So you really want to make sure that you take your time, meet the deadline, and proofread your work as many times as possible before sending it to the client. After the jump, one work from home job opportunity for you to check out.

Work From Home: Is It Really An Option?

There are many Americans who wonder if it is possible to work from home and make a living. The answer to this question is yes! There are a lot of different work from home jobs, that utilize many different types of skills. If you are a stay at home mom who is considering returning to work soon, why not consider doing both? You can stay at home with your family while still earning a living. Isn't that awesome? I'm sure this may sound too good to be true. But it is a fact! The opportunities are out there and work from home employers are hiring right now! In later posts, expect a more in depth explanation of each type of job, and some resources that you can use to get started applying for some of the exciting work from home jobs. For now, here is a list of 5 work from home jobs, and a little information about each.

Work From Home Ninjas Do Exist

Why did I choose ninja to describe people who make a living working from home? Why Not?  I always thought people who were making a living from home had some kind of slick ability to seek out their jobs, like ninjas.  I was right, these people do have ninja skills, some in the area of information gathering, some in writing, some in networking - but the thing that is consistent across the board is that they are all people who wanted to work from home and persisted until the right opportunity came along.  If you have the right information, you can work from home and make a good living doing it.