After nearly a couple of weeks of testing, I think we can declare the side hustle project with Mechanical Turk a failure and be avoided.
Here at The Penny Stupid Project, we try to give a side hustle a fair shot and test it to provide you with some advice and feedback if it is worth pursuing.
After a month of testing Mechanical Turk, I’m ready to declare it a failure and worth skipping.
Everybody is different, and don’t let me discourage you from trying this home-based opportunity to make some side cash.
However, my wife tried this for a month and summed up the experience by saying it was demoralizing. But give it a shot if you want to try it yourself.
Her dashboard doesn’t even begin to paint the picture of testing. So many tasks and surveys she tried were rejected or not paid for no apparent reason. How you can take a survey and respond with your opinion, which gets rejected, is a mystery with no way to get an answer.
Tester Feedback
Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, or MTurk, has challenged me.
Signing up was relatively easy, and I received confirmation within a day of applying.
The confirmation notice contained a link for more steps, including a background check and setting up my banking information for payment.
After completing those initial steps, I was informed I’d be notified when I was ready to start. After three days, I still hadn’t received my email notification, so I returned to the MTurk Worker Site and was prepared to go.
There were no directions on starting or using the site, so I just went for it. (YouTube is your friend in finding out how to work the system.)
You are only allowed to work on the tasks that are highlighted for you. (I guess after you do, some more will become available.)
The company that has requested the job is the one who determines if your work is accepted and if you get paid and how much, not Amazon.
Some listed sites will tell you as soon as you click the link that the job is no longer available.
It is frustrating when you spend 15-20 minutes on a job, and you submit it to the company, and then they tell you the job is no longer available and you are not eligible for payment.
I have also found that whenever I have to answer a question about my age after completing the survey, I’m told that I don’t meet the survey’s criteria.
So why am I not told that in the beginning? I’ve wasted 20 minutes on a survey that they won’t accept. Or did they get it and not pay me?
You’re never told why you were rejected, even if they accept your submission and later decide to reject you for some reason.
They have 2-3 days to review your work before agreeing to pay you your $0.02. Most of the jobs available to me range from $0.01 to $0.05 per job, no matter how long it takes you.
After spending 5 hours working for MTurk, I have earned a total of $0.90.
From what I’ve seen on YouTube, that’s correct for someone starting out. On the other hand, people teaching classes on YouTube say that you can earn big money if you follow their courses.
The only one making money is the one charging you for the course.
After being in the trenches and testing MTurk, I’m never going back.
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