Getting Paid for Simple Tasks Via Amazon Mechanical Turk

The name Amazon obviously brings to mind a big business empire that deals in a lot of things. While many people are into being an Amazon affiliate and obviously enjoying commissions from sales on amazon products, there is another way to cash in from Amazon that is simpler and even more enjoyable, one that you can engage in without having to sell to anyone or even entice anyone to buy anything. It's called Turking-a word derived from the web name, mturk.

Requesters post different kinds of tasks in different categories on mturk. These tasks vary from surveys to helping companies choose the best picture for products. Some tasks are simply to find an email address for a particular person or organization. Some tasks however need to you to have a special skill to complete them and when they do, a specification is given and you can take a test to qualify to do them, but the tests are pretty simple.

The good thing is that you can preview the requirements/qualifications even before you attempt a task so you know whether or not its a good fit for you. The requirements usually include a timer which starts to tick once you have accepted a task. Once the timer runs out, you will not be able to submit your task.

The most important qualification on mturk though, is to know what you are doing and doing it best. All you need is to have a little skill in computer use, like typing and clicking.

You do not need to post your resume to do any of these tasks.

Tasks range from low paying ones like categorizing, rating, etc to high paying ones like programming, transcribing etc. By and large, the more complicated the task is to complete, the more it pays.

The more hits you do, the more you qualify and the more you have available to do. The more you work, the more you earn and it's fun to see your earnings keep going up. As you get good at it, you actually get addicted to turking because its lots of fun too.

Turking is certainly NOT a get rich quick scheme. You probably wont even get rich from turking because on a monthly basis, you will most likely only make somewhere between $200 and $500, depending on how many and what kind of hits you do. But who doesn't need a little extra in their pocket?

On the User Dashboard, you can set your daily goal as to how much you want to make and use that as your guide so you are in control of your earnings.

If you are just starting out on Mturk and need more information on how to go about turking, you can log on to the mturk forum. There you will have access to useful information that will help you maximize your earnings. You will also meet fellow turkers who will be willing to help you and share ideas. You can signup at http://www.mturkforum.com

Also, things like updates and announcements on mturk can be found on the forum or on the mturk blog.

The Mturk staff are also very hands on with contacts. Whatever help or request you make via the Contact page, they respond in no time. So you are never really stuck!

So now the question, Is it legit? Do they pay? Of course its legit and I have gotten my pay several times!

But here is what happens:

From your account on mturk, you can transfer your earnings either to a US bank account or to another country where it is possible to do that. Mturk has a list of 13 more countries where you can directly transfer your earnings.

If you are not in the US or any of those other countries, you can only transfer your earnings to your Amazon account so you can spend it shopping on Amazon.com. Unfortunately you cannot spend this money on any other site other than Amazon.

This would be the only downside if you need cash and you cant have it directly to your account. But if you can have an alternative, then that should be fine. For example, I live in Zambiaand it is not one of the countries among the 13 where you can transfer directly. But I have several times transferred my earnings to Amazon.com and used them to buy things I needed and they have been shipped and arrived just fine! So it's still good for me. I still have earned something and yet I dont even do it everyday.

You will certainly find turking to be fun, better yet rewarding!

Happy turking!

http://www.mturk.com