Guide To Making A Living On Amazons Mechanical Turk (Not For The Lazy Or Privileged)

Amazon Mechanical Turk is a crowdsourcing website that anyone can go join if what your looking for is a source of income that can compliment your main income. If you are looking for a get rich quick scam or are looking to make money without any work then I suggest looking elsewhere because that is not what this website is. This is somewhere that can earn you a decent income if you are willing to work hard and work consistently. This sites design is unique and because of that it can be a little overwhelming to some one first starting on the site but hopefully my guide can make that problem obsolete.

When first starting , the earnings will be small. The tasks are called "hits" and the hits can range in numbers from .01 cent to a couple of dollars each. There are a number of factors that will contribute to your earnings and I am going to go through all of them so bare with me and I promise you won't be disappointed.

Once you create an account and everything is approved start off by simply browsing the site. Instantly you will see that it is confusing and the site itself does not show you how to navigate through it at all. This is where I come in.

One of the easiest way to simplify things is by using website scripts made specifically for Mturk. There are a ton of scripts already made. These are there to be able to make it easier for a worker to find the best paying hits and grab them before anyone else, since the site has a first come first serve system in place. These are the basic ones everyone should use.

Tamper monkey for chrome (greasemonkey for firefox)- This is how you install the scripts so it's a mandatory download if looking to use scripts.

Turkopticon - This is used to be able to see reviews on the ones posting hits. This is useful in order to avoid the scammers. Bad review, skip hit. Good review, make that money. Simple.

Auto refresh - this is a basic extension used to auto refresh the screen automatically. This way when hits are taken it is shown immediately and you don't waste time trying to chase a dead hit.

Turk Master - A browsing tool used to make completing hits a lot easier. Auto accept hits and moniter search pages. A must have.

Hit Scraper - Input different parameters then export the filtered hits to an easy to use list.

Hit Monitor - This will send you alerts via browser or text. You set it and forget it.

Once these are installed you are ready to get started. First things first is your dashboard. This is one of the most important things you will be using for obvious reasons. Whenever you submit a hit, it will tell you that your hit has been submitted and that it will be approved shortly. This normally takes about 3 days. Sometimes shorter, sometimes longer. It depends on the requester. If you are using the script I mentioned earlier there will be reviews on the requester saying whether or not they were quick to approve a hit. If you don't follow directions and you still submit the hit, your hit will be rejected. That means the "hits rejected" number will go up. This is bad, because if you have rejected hits then your hits accepted percentage will go down. Sometimes requesters will make it mandatory that your hits accepted percentage is high, if it's not you will not be shown the hit, and it will keep you from making the money you are looking for. All you need to do is follow directions and your hits will be approved every time. If it's not you they are looking for, don't accept the hit. Simple. Then there are the hits pending and hits currently assigned to you. These are self explanatory so I won't waste time covering them.

Qualifications- this is a big one that had me confused when I first started. Requesters are often looking for a certain demographic and they want to make sure they get them. By completing qualifications you are pre approving yourself for these specific hits and will open up higher paying hits in the process. The most basic qualification that can unlock the high paying hits is "1000 hits approved". This means that until you hit 1000 you will be only allowed to do the smaller paying jobs. That's ok. You can still make a lot more money than on most websites. It's about being persistant and hard working. It all pays off in the end. Most qualifications are given before a specific hit is done, so there's really no point in searching for quals unless you know where to look. I would suggest not messing with quals until its necessary. Most of them require a test before acceptance. Once you are asked for a qual it will give you the name in the hit description. Another way requesters look for demographics is by taking a screener survey. These are common and they will always be right before the actual hit being taken.

Probation.
Your first ten days is called your probation period and it means only 100 hits per day until these ten days are done. After that you can work as many as 3800 hits per day, everyday. My suggestion is to concentrate on hits approved rather than money being made until you hit that 1000 mark. Multiple rejections earlier on will cripple you when trying to advance in the long run.

Batch hits.
Batch hits or number hits are a bunch of hits posted by the same requester and pay a penny or a nickel each. These are small mind numbing tasks that pay almost nothing but they are usually the fastest approved and can bring that 1000 number faster than normal. These are found using the filter "number of hits" first. Always check your Hits assigned to you tab, in case you missed a hit you previously asked for. It's good to show that you are serious about your work and not just a slacker. Before you hit that thousand mark a big milestone to shoot for is the 500 mark. Once you get 500 hits approved you will open up higher paying hits.

Rejected hits
If you use mturk longer than just a day or two you will come across a rejected hit or two and thats fine. It might be your fault, it might not be. They happen. Whatever you do dont get discouraged and keep on working. Once you do get a reject though you can try and ask the requester what happened so that you try not to make that mistake again. Just remember to always follow directions and don't rush things. The rejected hits should be scarce.

The better strategy to use would be to mix the survey type work with the batch hits. That way if a requester feels the need to reject hits for no reason then it will only effect u slightly as opposed to if you submitted 30 hits to that same requester. Not that requesters ever do that, i was just giving an example. Ive never had this issue but better safe than sorry right? right.

I dont do this myself but it might be smart to keep some kind of personal log of your mturk work since mturk onky keeps the last 45 days worth of work for you. Just a suggestion. Another thing is taxes. The work you do on mturk is income so of course you will be liable if you make enough. Dont ever flake on your taxes or it will come back to bite you in the ass.

I want to explain a little more about qualifications. When you first enter the site you will see that a lot of the highest paying jobs are unavailable to you. These will open up as you progress in hits. If you come across a hit that has an open test to qualify for a hit, take the test. You want as many of the qualifications as you can get, even if you don't want to do the work at that very moment. Have the option to do the work seems like a better idea than to not have it at all. Especially if the test is an easy one.

Those are the basic steps needed in order to get started on the mturk site. The key is to be consistant and never give up. I know it might seem tedious at first but there are a lot of people making minimum wage, you just have to be patient and work hard. Remember, nothing worth having is gotten without work. I dont care who you are and what you do. If its valuable, chances are the work wont be easy. But it is all worth it in the end. Once you hit 1000 you will know what i am talking about. If there is anything i missed feel free to let me know in the comments and i will clarify asap. I hope this helps you on your journey to financial freedom. Thanks for reading.

(all pictures from google images and my own)