Amazon Mechanical Turk

URL: https://www.mturk.com
Referral code: None that I can find


Everyone is familiar with Amazon, what many don't know is that you can work for Amazon at home as a contractor.

"How?", you may ask and I will tell you.



Amazon Mechanical Turk is what I like to call a micro-job employment site. Amazon works with "Requesters" to gather small tasks that may take up to 10 minute, or larger tasks that can take up to an hour. All tasks have a monetary value assigned to it, I have seen ranges from $.01 to $.50 per H.I.T.
(H.I.T. : Human Intelligence Tasks)

From the data gathered, MTurk is one of the more popular site to make some extra money. My testing of the site has yielded me $2.13 so far, and that is from only doing a couple of H.I.T.s every few days. Invest 8 hours into it, and there is no reason not to walk away from a days work with $50.00 or more.

Payments are handled through direct deposit, however it is required to have an Amazon Payments Account set up ahead of time with Tax information. Everyone that signs up is an independent contractor and you are responsible for filing your own taxes on any income over $600.00, which a 1099 form will be mailed for tax return purposes.

What should I expect when working H.I.T.s?

My advice is to expect anything. Take the time to look at the available H.I.T.s prior to accepting them to work on. Some are easy data processing and verification, others can be transcribing a recording, while others could require you to have a microphone and verbally describe a picture for the blind. There is definitely something there for everyone.

How do I find H.I.T.s to work on?

When logging into the site, you will see a Tab at the top of the page that says: HITs
In that section there is a search field to help narrow down your search. I tend to use the two options that say: That pay at least: _____  and For which you are qualified.

You are rewarded for your accuracy and speed by becoming qualified for higher paying H.I.T.s that are based off of your Approved/Rejected work ratio. "Requesters" have the option to reject your work if it is not within their standards. Most requesters are fair and will give bonuses, there are a few bad apples out there and being able to identify them is a big deal.

What should I use for a web browser?

This is your preference, however it is suggested to stay away from Internet Explorer. Chrome and Firefox are good choices. Chrome is what I use and the reason is because of the add on "Turkopticon". This addon will give you a Red Triangle next to the "Requester's" name, which will give extra information about the "Requester" based on other Turk Worker's experiences with the same "Requester". This one tool will save you time and energy by avoiding those H.I.T.s that make you work a lot on a project, only to reject it and put a negative score on your sheet. Most rejections can be negotiated by contacting the "Requester" and finding out what was wrong or what their actual expectation is. My advice is to use the add on to avoid known negative "Requesters".

Amazon Mechanical Turk is a great location to spend some time. I recommend this site to go on to anyone's daily rotation.