Amazon’s mturk.com (Mechanical Turk) is basically an online market place that allows its users to complete short tasks and make money. This guide will explain in detail how to make money on Mturk. The tasks that users perform are known as HITs (Human Intelligence Tasks) for the requester (Those who will pay to accomplish their tasks). This is one of Amazon’s web services and was launched in 2005. Subsequently its user base grew rapidly. Presently, according to estimates there are 500,000 part time workers across the world and its user base keeps on growing.
How it works
You can join Mturk as either a worker or requester. But since we are talking about earning money, you will register yourself as a worker. Mturk works by connecting the requester with workers workers who complete these requested tasks for a fee specified against each HIT by the requester.
Below are some steps to help you start immediately on Mturk:
- The first step is to get yourself registered as a worker on the website. HERE IS THE LINK.
- After registering yourself, Mturk will review your account and send you a confirmatory email to your email address within 1 to 2 days. You will need to click on the conformation link provided by the website to register.
- After registration you can simply login to the Mturk dashboard. Here’s a view of the dashboard:
- The figure above shows three tabs namely Your Account, HIT’s and Qualifications. To start working immediately, click on the HIT’s tab. Here you can find all kinds of tasks (HIT’s) that are available. Find the task you like and and simply click on the requester name for further details of the task.
- The details will explain what you need to do and will also show you the time frame in which you have to complete your task. On the right hand side, information is provided on how much payment will be provided for the particular task. After checking out all the details, click on the “Accept HIT” button. And your time will start to complete the task. And if you decide you don’t want to work on the HIT, simple click the “Return HIT” button. That particular task will then be available for someone else to work on.
- After submitting your HIT, you can go back to your dashboard. You’ll see that the particular HIT you worked on will show up in your HIT status for that day.
An important thing to remember while working on HIT’s is that the requester can either approve or reject your work, depending on how accurate it is. If your work on the task is approved, this will be immediately displayed on your dashboard, along with the payment.
You will also want to complete HITs accurately. This will improve your overall profile reputation which will increase the likelihood of getting more tasks. The more you work on HIT’s accurately, the more your ratings as a worker will increase. Also take note that returned HIT’s will not affect your ratings in any way.
How does Mturk Pay
Mechanical Turk has the following two payment methods which are Amazon Payments account or Amazon.com gift card. So once the requester has reviewed your HIT and approved it, your earnings from that HIT will be displayed on your dashboard. However, you can only cash out your money after ten days of working on Mechanical Turk. This is a security measure from the company’s side.
The minimum amount you can withdraw from your account is $3. You can then transfer your earnings from Amazon payments account to your bank account if you are living in the U.S. Another important thing to note is that for international workers, you can receive your earnings in the form of Amazon gift cards.
Final Word
In our view, Amazon Mechanical Turk is a great site for earning a bit of money on the side. By putting in some effort you can earn up to $10 an hour for small jobs. The work itself may look daunting for the first timers but you will get a hang of it eventually. After some time and experience you will be able to work on multiple tasks simultaneously and increase your earnings by a good margin. And lastly the more you work, the more your rating increases which sets you up for better paying opportunities. For a more detailed account of Mturk, check out this PAGE . So saddle up and start turking!
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