MTurk

Sat, January 24 2009

I haven’t been writing as much lately partly because I have other reviews to do, I haven’t finished trying out new products and also because I have been using Amazon Mechanical Turk. It’s an interesting service where you can earn money by completing a few different tasks which require the humany touch including recognition tasks (spotting differents, tagging, picking out images which fit, categorizing), writing (articles, sentences, questions, rewriting, product descriptions, translation), information verification (product info, accuracy and rule following), research (articles, finding dates, researching and information about products, places, people) and other critical thinking tasks which, however small, are not suited for computers. Many hits are grouped together, such as image tagging. All hits within the group require the same instructions and may even have the same theme (tag images of mammals, for example). Hits can also include unique, ungrouped tasks such as commenting on a site, survey taking, adding a person as a friend on Myspace or answering a requester’s question.

Mechanical Turk, which is named after the Chess-playing computer, allows requesters to post Hits (individual jobs) which workers can complete. These hits are usually easy and timeless and range anywhere from $.01 to $5. Some hits take literally a matter of seconds (although the hits are timed and may offer you more time) so your earning is usually only limited by how many tasks you can achieve. 30 quick tasks which pay out $.01 can result in $7 an hour, assuming it only takes you 5 seconds to complete a task. On the other hand, hits which have more of a reward tend to be more complicated and take more time (like article writing).

These are not complex tasks and, especially with large groups of tasks, may become a little mind numbing after some time. I try to do the easier hits in groups, 25 here, 50 there. If you’re anything like me and like variety, this is a good way to make sure you’re never bored. Before there are so many hits and groups of hits, nothing ever has to get old (and, if it does, you can just stop). If you do work diligently at a certain task, there is always the chance you may be rewarded a bonus or that a requester will open a task only to you. MTurk may also help some find freelance work at much more appealing prices.

In 3 months or so, I’ve earned over $50. It’s not going to pay the rent but it is a little extra cash. The money earned on Mturk can either be transferred to a checking account or used to purchase things in the Amazon marketplace. If you have no credit card, it might be nice to have some money which can be spent online.

I wouldn’t call MTurk a way to get rich fast and maybe not a ya to get rich. It is a way to earn a little extra money and, if you’re going to waste time online anyway it doesn’t hurt to get paid for it.