Opinion of Amazon's mturk.com

AlwaysMakingMoneycom · 11-24-2008, 10:39 AM

I got turned onto Amazon's mturk.com (http://www.mturk.com/mturk/welcome) as a method to get work done for my sites for literally pennies per action. I wanted to get others reactions, successes & failures with the service & hopefully, some tips & tricks to maximize ROI.

Here's my overall impressions

*No clearly laid out path to use. I'd consider myself very tech savvy & websmart having been online since 1993 but, I clicked, back up, searched, scratched my head & sat frustrated with their interface as it wasn't initiative.
*After about an hour of clicking around, I funded my account & set up a few templates.

Now I'm getting some people to do some work on my HIT.

Finally, I'm hoping that if it works as it's being pitched that I can get some great work done for cheap & not have to put in a project on GetAFreelancer.com or RentACoder.com

What's everyone's experience?

Darrell

David Hooper · 11-24-2008, 12:01 PM

Agree with you. Have used it a few times and didn't find it to be very user-friendly. I've had much better luck with Scriptlance or Elance.

It's a cool concept and I've seen people do some great things with it. Didn't really work for me though.

Akogo · 11-24-2008, 10:16 PM

I'm new to mturk myself but I have already figured how to get what I want from the workers for cheap -- this might anger a few of the warriors here that are ghostwriters -- don't get me wrong - I really like to write myself when I have the time -- but mturk workers can write certain types of content if you know how to ask them and they do it quickly and for pennies on the dollar when compared to professional ghostwriters who charge a lot more and make you wait.

I believe you should just jump in with a simple project to get your feet wet and get a feel for how the system works. Start by asking workers to click a link for example and ask them to describe the site. From your experience you will figure out ways to make the most out of mturk. Think of the few dollars you spent as a requester as a way for you to fine tune your approach. That's how you improve the results you get from mturk workers. Tweak something about your work request each time until you get exactly what you want. I now have a template that I can use everytime I want content created and it works like magic. Yes you can get content created that is 300 words or more and is written by people who speak fluent English and grammatical or spelling mistakes are minimal.

Doug Simons · 11-24-2008, 10:45 PM

I did not spend much time on the site but I really did not understand it all that well.

11-24-2008, 10:39 AM	#1
AlwaysMakingMoneycom Active Warrior Join Date: May 2007 Location: , , USA. Posts: 30 Blog Entries: 2 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Contact Info	Opinion of Amazon's mturk.com I got turned onto Amazon's mturk.com (http://www.mturk.com/mturk/welcome) as a method to get work done for my sites for literally pennies per action. I wanted to get others reactions, successes & failures with the service & hopefully, some tips & tricks to maximize ROI. Here's my overall impressions No clearly laid out path to use. I'd consider myself very tech savvy & websmart having been online since 1993 but, I clicked, back up, searched, scratched my head & sat frustrated with their interface as it wasn't initiative. After about an hour of clicking around, I funded my account & set up a few templates. Now I'm getting some people to do some work on my HIT. Finally, I'm hoping that if it works as it's being pitched that I can get some great work done for cheap & not have to put in a project on GetAFreelancer.com or RentACoder.com What's everyone's experience? Darrell

11-24-2008, 12:01 PM	#2
David Hooper Senior Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Nashville, TN Posts: 2,141 Thanks: 17 Thanked 54 Times in 35 Posts Social Networking	Re: Opinion of Amazon's mturk.com Agree with you. Have used it a few times and didn't find it to be very user-friendly. I've had much better luck with Scriptlance or Elance. It's a cool concept and I've seen people do some great things with it. Didn't really work for me though.

11-24-2008, 10:16 PM	#3
Akogo Advanced Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: , , USA. Posts: 949 Thanks: 21 Thanked 17 Times in 15 Posts	Re: Opinion of Amazon's mturk.com I'm new to mturk myself but I have already figured how to get what I want from the workers for cheap -- this might anger a few of the warriors here that are ghostwriters -- don't get me wrong - I really like to write myself when I have the time -- but mturk workers can write certain types of content if you know how to ask them and they do it quickly and for pennies on the dollar when compared to professional ghostwriters who charge a lot more and make you wait. I believe you should just jump in with a simple project to get your feet wet and get a feel for how the system works. Start by asking workers to click a link for example and ask them to describe the site. From your experience you will figure out ways to make the most out of mturk. Think of the few dollars you spent as a requester as a way for you to fine tune your approach. That's how you improve the results you get from mturk workers. Tweak something about your work request each time until you get exactly what you want. I now have a template that I can use everytime I want content created and it works like magic. Yes you can get content created that is 300 words or more and is written by people who speak fluent English and grammatical or spelling mistakes are minimal.

11-24-2008, 10:45 PM	#4
Doug Simons HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Chicago Posts: 175 Thanks: 25 Thanked 15 Times in 12 Posts Social Networking Contact Info	Re: Opinion of Amazon's mturk.com I did not spend much time on the site but I really did not understand it all that well.