Amazon Mechanical Turk: The ultimate guide to earning money online

Amazon Mechanical Turk, or AMT, is an online marketplace that connects customers with workers who have the ability to complete simple tasks that may be too time-consuming or costly for the customer to do them by themselves. It can take anywhere from several minutes to several days to complete these tasks and get paid, depending on their complexity and whether or not they require specialized skills. If you’re looking to make extra money without leaving your home, Amazon Mechanical Turk could be a perfect fit! Here’s how it works.

Earn Money Online

You can use Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) to earn a few extra bucks for your day-to-day needs and wants. MTurk is a site where you can work on tasks that are being completed by other people. Tasks range from content moderation, data entry, surveys, and more. You can find tasks within various categories. 

Some of the task categories include audio transcription, research, writing articles, graphic design and translation. When selecting a task be sure to check the amount of time it will take so you know if it’s worth completing. Tasks are rated in hours which means each one will take approximately 30 minutes to complete.

How Does it Work?

The Amazon Mechanical Turk is a service that allows people and businesses (called Requesters) to complete simple tasks, known as Human Intelligence Tasks (HITs), for which the computer is not yet capable of completing. These tasks can include data entry, content moderation, transcription, or other research-based tasks. 

Workers then receive payment in exchange for completing these tasks. Some workers use Mechanical Turk as a way to make some extra cash on the side while others do it full-time and work every day of the year. A common misconception about the Amazon Mechanical Turk is that you will be paid less than minimum wage for your time.  

In reality, there are several things that determine how much you get paid. As with any job, if you’re qualified for more complicated assignments and take longer to complete them, you will earn more money per hour. However, just like at any other job, those who don’t meet the requirements may not get offered any assignments at all.

Pros and Cons of Mturk

The only con I can think of is that you might have trouble getting approved on Mturk in the first place. With these cons aside, Mturk is an excellent source of passive income and a fantastic way to make money in your spare time. Plus, you get to work from home.

Pros: Unlike other online jobs such as freelancing or writing blogs (which require much more upfront investment), Mturk requires no upfront investment at all. Plus, you get paid for your work instantly via PayPal. Another pro is that it's very easy to set up tasks for yourself so that you never run out of things to do.

Finding Work on Mturk

To find jobs on Mturk, you need an account. Go to the Amazon Mturk site and create a new account. Once you're logged in, click 'Work Now'. There's a list of tasks that are currently available. Click on any task that you're interested in and review the details. If you feel it's something you want to do, then accept the job! You'll be taken back to your dashboard where you can see all your active work. 

Each item will have the average hourly wage listed with it, as well as how many people are working on the task and how many more hours before it closes. Make sure to keep track of how much time has elapsed so that you don't end up losing any wages for not meeting the qualifications.

Earnings & Rewards on Mturk

On Amazon mechanical turk, you earn a base rate for each HIT you complete. This base rate will fluctuate depending on the quality of your work. For example, if you complete a HIT that is considered low quality by Mturk standards (e.g., low accuracy), then the base rate will be lower than if you completed one classified as high quality (e.g., high accuracy). 

Generally speaking, mTurk pays $0.01 per word, $0.02 per word, and $0.03 per word respectively. Obviously, the more words you transcribe or categorize into keywords, the more money you make! That's why it's important to read instructions carefully and have an idea of what they're looking for before starting. 

While some jobs may ask for a specific format or limit the number of entries, many others will not. Take note that some HITs require you to pass qualification tests before getting paid, so it might take time before you start seeing any significant earnings come through on this platform.