Can Anyone Tell Me About Mechanical Turk?

by Nightengale

Posted: 15 years ago 15 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

Hi all,

I'd never heard of Mechanical Turk (MTurk.com) before but just stumbled across a reference to it. So I went there and saw it's run by Amazon.com and is apparently a way to post small jobs or look for work which seems to be pretty menial but still requires a human to do.

So I clicked on the available jobs (as if I were looking for work) and what confuses me is the pay being offered. I saw pay ranging from $.01 to $.15. Is that per minute???? Or for the entire job???? Even if it's for the whole job, who in their right mind would work for so little pay?

Just curious.

Thanks,
Michelle

#mechanical #turk

cashcow 15 years ago

Yep, that's right .01 per job for some. But the jobs are very small and take about a minute (some of them). You can use mechanical turk for anything - take a poll, summarize an article, rewrite sentences or paragraphs. Whatever little job you have can be done there.

You won't get workers for .01 for all jobs of course, you have to take into consideration the amount of time and skill. For example, if you wanted paragraphs rewritten (like to rewrite an article or something) you might pay .10 to .20 cents a paragraph.

I'm not sure who would work for so little, but perhaps they are folks who live where the cost of living is not much? Maybe students who prefer to sit in front of the computer rather than work at McD's or stay at home Mom's?

Lee
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- Nightengale 15 years ago
  
  Hmmm....
  
  Thanks. I'd never heard of it before. Scrolling through some of the jobs, I couldn't believe anyone would work for so little. Re-writing an article or description, for example: $.15 or whatever. Nuts!!!
  
  Makes me wonder about the quality of work done for so little.
  
  Michelle
  
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Tyrus Antas 15 years ago

There was an article some time ago on how some people just worked on mechanical turk because they were bored and had nothing better to do... I'm talking about English speaking people too. Earning pennies for hours of labor...

Tyrus
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J. Barry Mandel 15 years ago

Someone had a WSO on Mturk maybe 7 months ago. Do a search and see what you can find!
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Art Turner 15 years ago

You have to break your work up into little bite size pieces...rewrite this sentence for 5 cents, classify this photo for 3 cents, etc etc. Most of the workers are overseas I think.

For article rewriting, I found the process too management intensive. A good 30 to 40 percent of the stuff you get done is garbage. You can reject and not pay, but then you have to put that sentence back out for another bid. Other activities might lend themselves to this kind of work better (database, photo tagging, etc). You've still got the same problem as all outsourcing...finding quality workers.

Art
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TiffanyLambert 15 years ago

I wrote a report on it - Warriors get it free:

http://www.tiffanydow.com/gifts/AmazonTurk.zip

Hope this helps!
tiff
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- VegasGreg 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by TiffanyDow
  
  I wrote a report on it - Warriors get it free:
  
  http://www.tiffanydow.com/gifts/AmazonTurk.zip
  
  Hope this helps!
  tiff
  
  Great guide about MTurk!! Well done Tiff.
  
  That report pretty much answers all the questions and gave me a few good ideas.
  
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samuelbell 15 years ago

Do Mechanical Turk accept paypal?
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John7447 14 years ago

I dont find it easy to use.The interface stinks.
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- TheSystemTesters 14 years ago
  
  I've used Mturk quite a bit and really like it.
  
  I couldn't, in good conscience, pay a penny for anything though. I always feel like Trump when I'm posting jobs there and it might only be for a $1.
  
  The more you offer for your job the higher you'll be in the ranking. I gotta believe workers search for highest to lowest payments.
  
  My favorite post I ever noticed was "go to your local grocery store and take a picture of the carts."
  
  If it can be done on a computer you can find someone to do it for you there.
  
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  Dyannamom Banned 14 years ago
  
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  Tina Golden 14 years ago
  
  I gotta believe workers search for highest to lowest payments.
  
  Actually, a lot of people search for fastest time instead of the amount of payments. That's what I used to do...lol. Hey, can't say anything because even though it took me a few hours to do it, my MTurk payments helped fund my initial domains and hosting.
  
  Tina
  
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Taylor French 14 years ago

I did some work on mturk a while back. I don't know why. I was bored and needed something mindless to do. Made about $20, but the time it took to get it wasn't worth it.
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Brad Gosse 14 years ago

I wish I could try this out because I'm in Canada it won't allow me to set up an account.
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- ed41143 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Brad Gosse
  
  I wish I could try this out because I'm in Canada it won't allow me to set up an account.
  
  I have used Mechanical Turk and I wouldn't worry to much about being or not being able to use it, as it sucks, in my opinion.
  
  These workers cannot even write a readable comment or create a recognizable backlink that is relevent anyway.
  
  Truth is, I wouldn't give you a plug nickel for them, ANY of them.
  
  They don't follow the directions, they can't write, and when you disagree and won't accept their work due to these factors, they complain to whoever handles the disagreements and they get paid anyway.
  
  Don't worry, you ain't missing anything at Mechanical Turk!!!
  
  Just move on and find someone on elance or one of the other freelance sites that can actually do the job right for you.
  
  Good Luck!!!
  
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