I have been MTurking for quite a while now. I started because it sounded interesting to see what others were studying, wanting to know or wanting help with, and it quickly became addicting. I am using the money I earn completing MTurk projects to buy Christmas presents for the family (through Amazon.com of course). It is sometimes difficult to make time to do MTurk work, but I do not let a week go by without completing at least one project. MTurk projects have been fun, occasionally challenging, and sometimes downright intimidating. I have had great joy in stretching to complete some of the tasks I have accepted. It is great to get that weekly email telling me how many hits and how much money I have made in the prior week. I get to see how much closer I am getting to my $ goal by December 1st. As I am getting closer to retirement and full time boat living, it is a great time for me to also explore what I can be doing to earn a little extra spending money without being tied to land. In addition, as a nurse working in health care, MTurk gives me other arenas to participate in. I have time on my hands, between work and volunteering, I might as well make a few dollars when I have time to get online. I have told all of the kids about MTurk and they too are enjoying the projects and the money they make.
Life at mturk. I recently joined mturk so that I can make a few extra bucks. I’m not aiming for much. I just want to make enough to be able to buy a GPS system. I graduated from University two years ago and I have a well-paid job at an international company. However, my parents are nearing retirement. I am going to get married soon and I just bought a new house in preparation for my wedding. I feel that even with my above average salary, I am not making enough money to feel secure. In case the economy gets worst and I lose my job, I would be really worried about losing everything I have. The first thing is I would lose my house. The second thing is my parents would be worried. Finally, what will my fiancé think if I lost my job? Although many are losing their jobs, I feel that it would be a shame if my fiancé had to work to be able to support me. Maybe I have that male ego thing, but I just feel that I should be able to support my family. It should be time for my parents to settle into retirement and not have to worry about finances. When I look at the future, I feel that I will be working for many years to support my family. This is a lot of pressure in my mind. Maybe everybody have this kind of pressure, but I just feel like life is passing by too quickly and I’m missing out on different things. There are many things I want to do, but I can’t. I have a duty to support the family. Is that a selfish thought?
So, I’ve been doing Amazon Mechanical Turk for about 2 weeks. I’ve earned $31.22 in 2 weeks. I’m not sure that’s a great amount. However, it is $31.22 more than I typically would make sitting around watching TV or twiddling my thumbs. Why am I doing Amazon Mechanical Turk? I’m not exactly sure. I work full time, I’m married, I go to school full time, and I have 2 kids. We’re comfortably financially but I like that I’m making more money but not taking time away from the family. I think it makes me feel like I’m doing something worthwhile and earning money while I’m doing. It also kind of justifies the time spent mindlessly watching TV. So, if I’ve made this money what can I do with it? I can use it on Amazon! Yoohoo! I spend tons of money on Amazon. So with $31.22 I can place an order and get free super saver shipping! Double cool! I have also earned enough to pay 3 weeks of allowance in my house. Now that’s nice. Paying for allowance for 3 weeks and its not cutting into my paycheck. So what does Amazon Mechanical Turk do for me? I enjoy taking the surveys. Its fun. It reminds me of college when I was in Psyc 101 needing credit from experiments. I enjoy learning about new products and new websites. In general it’s a good experience. My spam might have increased…yuck…but yahoo is pretty good at filtering it. Have I learned anything? I’m not sure. I should have learned that my cell phone is dirtier than my toilet bowl. If I did learn that (which apparently I did), I didn’t make behavior changes. I’ve also learned I’m good at writing 250 words and not as good at writing 400 words.
I’m trying to dig my way out of credit card debt. I moved to a cheaper place to live, got a roommate to split all the expenses, I sold basically everything that was worth anything that isn’t absolutely vital, and I have cut out every expense I possibly could without doing serious damage to my health and well being. I read dozens of websites every day about saving money, making more money, stretching each dollar out to get the most you can out of every cent. One of them mentioned Mechanical Turk, and they asked if you could really make money off of it. Their conclusion was that there’s better things you could be doing with your time. I have to admit that when I looked at it the first time, I thought, “How much time am I going to spend to literally make a dime?” Yet here I am doing it! I’m not working all that hard, and I’m spending time when I don’t have anything better or more productive to do. If I’m making a few extra cents instead of playing online games or perusing social networking sites, I think that’s worth doing. I’m also bored, and since haven’t found a second job I’m qualified for, I’d rather be a Turk than fill that time with something that costs money. Hopefully I can string together a few simple jobs and make enough to pay for a “beer and a burger” as the old saying goes.
I am a college graduate but need more education and training in order to achieve my professional goals. I work two jobs because I like the flexible hours but the pay is not very good. One day I was reading my brother in laws blog and in amongst stories about my nieces and random junk you can find on Ebay and Craigslist he had a posting about Human Intelligence Tasks. I thought it sounded interesting so I checked it out and signed up that day. It became apparent that I am not going to get rich quick or be able to support myself on hits alone but it is nice for extra money. I have decided I am going to buy myself a Malibu Pilates Chair with my extra money, the chairs cost around one hundred dollars on ebay and I currently have twenty from doings hits so it might be a while. I told my little sister about it also so she signed up. When we find a “good” hit we call and tell each other about it. We define good as pays an ok amount but doesn’t take very long to do. Sadly by the time we call each other these hits are usually gone because other people see them first. My other sister said it isn’t worth it but I think that they tend to take as much effort as taking a quiz on Facebook, which is hat I would be doing if I wasn’t doing these, but I don’t get paid for Facebook quizzes
