March 2011
4 posts
My most memerable moment on Mechanical Turk is...
Well I have been doing the Mechanical Turk program for about a month now. I am very pleased with the program and have nothing bad to say about it. It is a very easy way to make money from your house in your free time. There is a variety of different tasks that you can do so there is work available for everybody. Like I said I have been doing it for a month now and have made around $135 and...
My husband got a cute Pit Bull puppy for his 65th...
My husband got a cute Pit Bull puppy for his 65th birthday. The first night he made her a bed on the floor by our bed. We went to bed. After a few minutes, the puppy begn to whine. My husband reached down and petted her, but she still whined. Then my husband picked her up and sat her on the bed. The puppy climbed on his chest nd went to sleep. I told him he was making a mistake. He said it was ok...
I started doing Mturk a couple of years ago
I started doing Mturk a couple of years ago. I was making jack shit and ended up with a bunch of rejections so I gave up for a while. I came back every so often but the few pennies I was making was not worth it. Fast forward to December 2010 and I am very pregnant with two kids already, my husband had lost his job and we were struggling. I logged on to MTurk again in hope of…well something....
One of my office collegaues has been working in...
My Mturk story One of my office collegaues has been working in Mturk for the past 18 months and has been earning considerably. Since a good friend of mine he asked me to join this and have earned. I am also in seriour debit that time. I started looking for used computer. Suddenly my blood brother heard this from my mother and contacted me. He said that he is going to replace his 1.5 years old...
September 2009
15 posts
It's simply a relaxing yet productive activity
Up until about eighteen months ago I was a successful executive at a Fortune 500 corporation. I had never had to worry about job security or money before even as a single head of household. Then came the recession of December 2007 and I lost my position to a corporate restructure. I found myself, a single mortgage holder with no income other than unemployment insurance. I continued to be on the...
By May of next year I will be $120,000 in debt
I entered law school because I had no idea what else to do with my liberal arts background. To my surprise, I developed a passion for public interest law; to my dismay, that area of the law is not particularly lucrative. Having attended college on a scholarship, I was ill-prepared for the penny-pinching that would mark my law school tenure and, in all likelihood, my future career. By May of next...
This is the memior of a klutz
This is the memior of a klutz. A klutz who surrounds herself with other klutzes. It was the winter of 2006. I was a college freshman with a shiny new Macbook Pro, perfect for my major in Graphic Design. I loved that computer. Everything about it. And one day my roommate, and evil spawn of satan “Greta” decided to spill lemonade all over my laptop and not tell me. Needless to say, she...
I want to get my wife the CD she has been looking...
In the town where I live we have been hit hard by the recession. A lot of jobs have been taken away including mine. I want to get my wife the CD she has been looking for but unfortunately no store around here has it. What I have been trying to do is to earn enough money here on Mechanical Turk to but it for her from Amazon. I know it will take a while to do but in the end to see the look on her...
Show Me The Way To Go Home
Show Me The Way To Go Home…. We’re broke right now – covering the bills and that’s about it. Nothing new there, then – a good proportion of the country is in the same situation, if not worse. However, my family lives overseas and my Mom is not well and cannot travel. Being able to earn a few bucks here and there online is a godsend. Every penny is going towards an airline ticket back to the Old...
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Children have this innocence that we can only...
Children have this innocence that we can only dream of. The world will rob them of this in time and it will never return. In the sweetest voice earlier today, my two year old daughter asked me “daddy, where’s my mommy?” How do I respond to this, she was about a year old when everything happenend. I’m sure she has no recollection of that night since she was asleep and stayed asleep...
I'm a country girl, born in michigan
I’m a country girl, born in michigan. A child of the 80s a teen of the 90s and an adult in the next millenium. Growing up in the country, I was in a tight knit community where I knew almost everyone in my small class;if not personally than by face and name.Was a part of the local girl scouts and youth group at church. Also did volunteer work and grew to love the area I grew up in, so much so...
I am an insomniac
I am an insomniac It’s tough not being able to sleep at night. I dont know if it’s a medical condition, or I have just cultivated this habit over the years. I used to enjoy staying up late and watching the late night shows. Then along came the WWW. My ISP provided unlimited free access from 12.00AM - 8.00AM. So then i started watching sitcoms online! And after a while, I discovered I...
Say it with me: “Amazon Mechanical Turk”
Say it with me: “Amazon Mechanical Turk”. Sounds kinda strange, right? Right. I honestly can’t figure out how I stumbled upon this interesting website; I could probably just say that I found it while going through all the fun stuff on amazon, but no…I didn’t. Maybe it was just meant to be. WE were meant to be! Oh Mechanical Turk, how I love you so! You give me extra money for doing some simple and...
Are the good old days on the Turk coming to an...
A tough couple of days on the Turk, as the usual sources of easy HITS seem to have dried up. Yesterday I pushed through some image tagging and identification tasks, combined some sentences, and did a variety of other odds and ends to make my quota. The usual quick and easy hits, image moderation, quick polls, and categorization, seem to be scarce and rapidly snapped up when they do appear. You...
I remember the very first HIT
I first heard about Mechanical Turk from National Public Radio, my addiction at the time. I was skeptical at first; as a college student, I had tried the whole pyramid schemes, online paid surveys, and all of the other marketing ploys that people use that just end up as junk mail in my e-mail inbox. So, the idea of an online tool that had me investing time in order to make money from anonymous...
Last friday I went with my father and his...
Last friday I went with my father and his ex-girlfriend to the sea. It was so blue, so blue! Fucking blue, I mean, it was nice, it was as if I was on an island. It was nice. I swam this wonderful crystal clear sea … Maybe it’s dirty, I don’t know, but if I see what’s at the bottom of the sea, I have such a nice feeling when I swim … And I was thinking, that if J...
One actually asked me whether I enjoyed taking...
When my significant other first told me about the mechanical turk site, I thought she had lost her mind. A site where you did tasks for as little as a penny? It sounded like the type of setup one would find at a sneaker factory in southeast Asia. But when I accompanied her to the office one day, I decided to bring the laptop along and try out the site while she took care of some paperwork. I...
My husband and I don’t have as many marital rights...
One would think that as someone who tests software for a living, that one wouldn’t want to work outside of the day job on a site like Mechanical Turk, but in my case, it’s a big help. I get lots of experience writing, and I earn a few bucks for some of life’s little luxuries. Why do it? Well, right now it’s because I have a husband who is sick and can’t work. I make enough for us to live on, but...
I am more interested in growing food...
I am a 40 year old female college educated mechanical turk. I am a new turk too. My husband and I moved our family to a large piece of land in the middle of nowhere last year in an effort to provide a better environment for our children to grow up in, and I just discovered this about three weeks ago. We are raising our own food, both meat and plants, for the most part. I was once part of the...
August 2009
47 posts
Tucked away for a rainy day
I got into this Amazon Mechanical Turk gig to make a little extra money. I first noticed, to my disappointment, that most of the hits pay just pennies. At first, I thought accepting a job would waste my time. But I calculated that doing a couple of jobs each night (say, 30-45 minutes I would normally spend randomly surfing the Web anyway) could eventually prove helpful with some smaller financial...
I do this while I'm drinking and smoking and in my...
I use mechanical turk to make some extra money because I make minimum wage at my regular job. Things are expensive and the money I earn online helps out a lot. I am from the United States of America and am 24 years old. I graduated from Penn State and live in State College, PA. I do the 1 - 5 cent jobs for hours at a time to make a lot less than minimum wage. But I do this while I’m drinking...
Why settle for a 3.5 GPA when I could get a 4.0
Ugh. The economy sucks these days, no? I can’t find a job anywhere. Not the local amusement park, not the nearby mall, not even the fast food joints down the street were willing to give me a job for the summer. I’m a good worker. Reliable and smart, cheerful and perky, always on time, and never grumpy when sufficiently caffeinated. But I’m small, at 5’0”, I frequently...
I like to ask questions about quantum physics
I’m fairly new to MTurk. I have a graduate research degree. I learned about MTurk from a student project server at a graduate art school where they post current student projects and I noticed this. It had a project status and completion screen on Amazon that a student was participating in, and I was intrigued. I read a little about it as an interesting form of entertainment, and I’ve found now...
The funny thing is I still cry on Palm Sunday
My husband and I were desperately trying to have a baby. We went to doctors, tried medical procedures and read all the information we could. I also cried a lot. My husband wanted a child very much also but he tried to tell me being the two of us was OK too. I was not convinced. On Palm Sunday morning we went to church as usual. In our church, it is tradition on Palm Sunday for the children’s...
The Birth of my Second Daughter
The Birth of my Second Daughter It is about one and a half years ago. I was appointed to work overseas for service intervention to one of our customers in Vietnam. The customer’s machine got a problem and I came to the site to repair it. The machine was under warranty. At the same time my wife was pregnant for second time. I estimated that the work would be done maximum one week. But...
We both ditched work the week of Mothers day
It was a slow Sunday morning at home,my wife and I were just hanging out when the talk turned to Mothers Day.The day in question was only about a week away and did I have any plans,twenty four years of marriage had trained me to pickup on hints like that.Twenty four years had yet to train me in quick insightful responses.Putting on what I hoped was a thoughtful face,I paused,paused some more and...
David ran onto the stage the arena filled with...
Well David Cassidy was plastered from top to bottom all over my bedroom walls, my record shelf was full of all his songs including cherish, how can i be sure etc, the partridge family i watched with awe glued to every scene, a member of his fan club i finally was able to get my hands on two tickets to his Wembley London concert. The day had arrived my dad drove me and a girlfriend to London for...
I find that I am able to weed out the information...
I am a Mechanical Turker. Admittedly, I was a little skeptical about making money on the Internet; one can be so easily scammed these days, but when a trusted friend told me about the site I decided to check it out. This is such a great way to make a little bit of extra money in one’s spare time. I have been able to make enough money to buy some of my textbooks already, and I am looking...
There were eight or so object images
I’m currently a college student. By the time I came back from college, all of the seasonal summer jobs were taken. I have noticed that it’s been pretty hard for my fellow classmates to find jobs as well. It did not help that I was not in the area to apply for jobs early on. I also had the disadvantage of no prior work experience and no connections that would refer me to job openings. Thus, I...
I find myself doing anything I can to make money
Not only are employees at companies around the world being affected by the current economic crisis, but so are graduate students! I’m a graduate student at a prestigious University, who lost his stipend money when the project he was working on was cut. I have to finish the project in order to get my degree, but I no longer have any sort of income! Thus, I find myself doing anything I can to...
I did this HIT even though it is late
Times are tough. Everyone I know is struggling. Those with good jobs are keeping their heads above water; those with jobs that are having their hours cut are sinking beneath the high costs of housing, energy and food. We are walking in a depression and don’t even know it. The American gloom is pervasive and my friends don’t know why they can’t get happy. There’s just not...
In a few months, I'll burn up again
I’ve a good job, good friends a decent car and I’ve been in debt for the past few years, every time I’ve been about to get out of debt, something happens and I stay in the same situation, so, usually, I’ve little to no money to spend on my hobbies, which is kind of sad. About six months ago, I was reading a blog about my hobby and read how the author was buying all this...
We all count and should stand together to...
I am a stay at home mom trying to keep a family together, contribute financially to them and the economy and stay sane in these tough times! I am not anything special, just a regular person trying to contribute, raise happy good children and have people remember me fondly. It’s been said that everyone brings joy, some when they enter a room and others when they leave, I want to be the one...
My wife and I are always on the lookout for...
My wife and I are always on the lookout for innovative ways to make money. We’ve just had a baby girl and coordinating someone to watch the baby while we’re at work is sometimes an impossible task. Even though our jobs are staggered shifts, there are time when I need to leave work to cover an unexpected shift change my wife has. I’ve been looking for ways to work at home so that...
Before MTurk, I spent my computer time playing...
My husband’s contracting company went belly-up in the housing crisis and health issues forced me to change jobs to one where I have no health insurance. I’ve always been a great reader, as well as a great packrat, so I decided to sell some of the 1000+ books I had accumulated over the years and would never read again on amazon. On amazon’s site, I saw a side listing for...
I love seeing new places and broadening my...
I currently plan to be a sucessful forensic scientist and I plan to be able to support myself especially with a little help from turking. Everyday I have the support of my family and my dog which is very comforting in these tough times. I still like to travel a lot, I love seeing new places and broadening my horizons. When I travel I try to be a bit more outgoing because I meet so many new people...
Writing a memoir, now there is an interesting task
Writing a memoir, now there is an interesting task. Now that I am sliding down the other side of fifty, I suppose I should have something to say. My life has been, if nothing else, interesting. I have spent a very large part of my life on one side of a hospital bed or another. My profession, till I became too disabled to work was bedside nursing. One might think that an odd choice for someone who...
I am a 70-year-old retired public relations...
I am a 70-year-old retired public relations executive, just looking for some fun things to do in my spare time. In addition to Mechanical Turk , I have begun to do stand up comedy in local Chicago-area clubs. I focus on the problems and tribulations of older people, including psychological, emotional, physical and sexual changes that come about with advancing age. I’ve been a Mechanical Turk for...
My husband can't complain that I am wasting my...
A few days ago I was watching a TV show that mentioned making money doing small tasks online. Intriguing, I thought. A quick google search later and here I am, a mechanical turk. I wasn’t expecting to make much as a mechanical turk so I wasn’t discouraged by the 5 cent jobs my husband scoffed at. For me, I’m enjoying the gratification that I can spend some time on the internet,...
I might be able to trade my effort for a Kindle in...
What you need to know about working for Mechanical Turk is that attracts foolish, insufferable idiots such as myself who are overeducated night owls suffering from the desire to make a pittance for our work efforts. Perhaps the word ‘pittance’ has to generous a sentiment for the truly abusive amount of money some of the hits offer turks, and I should find another word that’s more suitable. But I...
Self motivated people that want to enrich them...
OK HI I’m a anonymous turker ha,ha, anyhow I have a story now I’m going to tell, I was looking for a real home business opportunity and the whole ebay thing was just not doing it for me. So i happened upon a tv show talking about another website similar to this and I tried it however, this said website would not let me transfer any funds till I reached a minimum of 50.00 usd. Needless...
John was “over-the-top” nice
It had been days since I had seen him, but I could feel his eyes examining my worth. Yes, this does seem as if it is a sentence out of “Twilight,” unfortunately, this story has nothing to do with love, but a man I hate seeing every Friday. Working at Wal-Mart you get a variety of customers, but they day I met John I decided he was the only one of his type. John was quite strange, not only did he...
I began my senior year a wife
I grew up in a very small town where everyone knew your name. I was very shy and did not like to be in the spot light. I managed to suffer through most of school. I met a guy and ended up pregnant when I was 17. I was in the 11th grade. We got married the next summer. I began my senior year a wife, and by Christmas I was a mother. Of course this didn’t work out. I was divorced when I was 18....
Princess was my beautiful companionship
Princess was my beautiful companionship During several years I felt lonely and moody. It was then when I decided to find a companionship.It was then when Princess moved in. We were made for each other. We loved each other. We share many experiences together. Several years later, I decided to go work in another state. But she was not allowed to travel with me.That made me very sad because I loved...
I felt like a CIA spy
I decided to try this Mechanical Turk that I heard about on NPR. I had heard that you couldn’t earn a lot of money. However, my curiosity got the best of me. The stories were true. It is difficult to earn any real money on the site. But what I did find was far more interesting. Mechanical Turk is fun! I found myself on the site earning 10 cents for transcription, filling out forms, and...
20 dollar HIT in 15 minutes
Once I’ve had the luck to get my hands on a HIT where someone paid 20 dollars to convert a PDF document to a Microsoft Office spreadsheet. The document consisted on a long list of US army bases around the world that also contained the base’s address, phone and fax number along with the name and rank of some officer that was supposed to be in charge of the base. It was a whole lot of...
I am a 68 year old female who was born in the...
I am a 68 year old female who was born in the state of Georgia in the United States of America. I remember some things about World War II, such as going to the rationing board with my mother to get rationing stamps, the fact that chocolate was hard to get and that everyone seemed to work together for the war effort. Since my parents were children of the depression era, I learned from them that...
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A city that wants to eat them alive, chew them up,...
I am more than an online worker. I am a woman who loves to write. I paint pictures with words. Sometimes they are beautiful like a painting by Monet. Other times, my words slide off the page in a poor imitation of Salvador Dali. Before I turn 45, I will go to a bookstore, find my novel, and lovingly run my fingers along its spine. I know I will. I am more than a faceless worker. I am a mother...
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A successful Manager at a Fortune 500 Company
Once a successful Manager at a Fortune 500 Company, my position was eliminated, along with hundreds of others as part of a part of a corporate restructure. Oddly enough, the bulk of those who were affected were over forty five. Yet age discrimination is illegal in the United States. So know I have spent the last sixteen months pursuing another position. When not scouring the job boards, I pass the...
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Mission Impossible episodes captivate the young...
Now hear this! I don’t think I can overstate the positive influence that watching old TV shows on DVD’s has had — on me, my kids, my wife. Get Smart, I Love Lucy, Andy Griffith, Superman. These stories were invented and written by a group of writers and directors that no longer exists - but they were great. You can get a DVD and watch them uninterupted. Mission Impossible...