MTurk Forums

There are two main MTurk forums, Turker Nation and MTurk Forum (links can be found below).  Both serve their purpose well and there is no reason why you cannot join both of them, if you wish.  You can communicate with the MTurk community and keep up to date with what is happening.  For instance, you can sometimes find out useful info such as which MTurk requesters have a bad reputation.  You can also use them just to socialize and have fun.  Both these MTurk forums are ‘unofficial’ in that they are not run or administrated by Amazon, and they are run very much from an MTurk worker perspective.

MTurk forums are generally a fantastic source of information for beginners and experienced MTurk workers alike.  I never cease to learn from them and they are awesome free resources.  People new to MTurk (aka known as Mechanical Turk or Mech Turk) might find them especially useful.  To join, you just need to register for free, get yourself a username and a password, read the rules and away you go!

(I believe that Amazon do have an official forum but it is for MTurk software developers, not MTurk workers.)

Turker Nation

The Turker Nation Mturk forum can be found at http://turkernation.com  It is efficiently administrated by the firm but fair, Spamgirl.  It’s always pretty vibrant there in my experience and there is a tremendous wealth of Mech Turk news, information and opinion in the discussion threads.

MTurk Forum

The appropriately named(!) MTurk Forum can be found at http://www.mturkforum.com  The site has a simple and easy layout, but it is not usually quite as lively as Turker Nation in my experience.  It serves its purpose well, however, with plenty of discussion threads.  I don’t know who the administrator of MTurk Forum is, unfortunately.  (Please feel free to introduce yourself if you’re out there?)

Microworkers Tips

Microworkers has money making potential.  In my experience, it’s more suited to doing maybe four or five jobs per day and building up the dollars gradually.  That’s because there are slightly less opportunities for work and earnings than on MTurk, purely because there are usually far less jobs on offer.  If you are like me, however, you use a variety of websites to make money online, not just MTurk.  Anyway, here are my Microworkers Tips.

• Create alternative email accounts etc. to use specifically on Microworkers.  That way, if you get spammed later, it’s not effecting your main personal account.  You can also do this with Facebook, Youtube etc. for some of the tasks that ask you to rate/favorite/like specific businesses etc. but be careful, as the requester may reject you if they work out what you’ve done!
• Always read the job carefully before you agree to do it.  This might seem one of the most obvious of my Microworkers tips, but it’s quite easy to mess up and slip below the 75% approval rate if you’re not careful.  I came very close one time just by me making making mistakes with two small tasks.  One more mistake and I’d have been out of action on Microworkers for a couple of weeks.  (Microworkers is more generous than MTurk and allows your approval rate to recover over time.)
• This is maybe my best Microworkers tips on how to make money online and learnt from experience.  Always check out the success rate of the workers who’ve completed the job previously, it will give you an indication of whether the job is easy to get right and also whether the requester is legit.
• I guess it’s a question of conscience, but I personally avoid jobs that I think might be scams or not legitimate in some way.  I really don’t want to be responsible for posting some fake job advert that might defraud some desperate unemployed person.  (I would like to see Microworkers clean up their site where it comes to scammers and spammers, but I doubt it will happen anytime soon!)
• I find that some of the competition voting is quick and easy money in Microworkers.  You can sign up and vote three times in ten minutes and earn a dollar.  The same goes for the facebook liking and twitter following etc.
• I always say it with MTurk, but the same is worth mentioning for Microworkers, and that’s to always prioritise your own security and don’t give out personal information to requesters that could be used to defraud or spam you.  Always be wary of requesters who offer large sums for apparently simple tasks.

See links in sidebar for more Microworkers articles and make money online ideas.

10 Reasons Why I Love Amazon Mechanical Turk!

Love it or hate it, Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (otherwise known as MTurk) is one of the most popular ways of making money fast online.  Working from home can be great when it’s going well, and dire when it isn’t.  This blog aims to give my (random?) thoughts regarding MTurk as well as charting my financial progress and know how.  (If you want to read some of my more formal articles and reviews, follow the links at the bottom of the page, where you’ll find my tips and advice at HubPages.)  Below are 10 reasons why I love Amazon Mechanical Turk.

1.  You don’t need any special skills or go through a job interview to sign up to Amazon Mechanical Turk.  All you have to do is fill out a form to sign up and you can start “working” straight away.  Okay, you have to pass tests to do some of the hits, but most of them you just click your mouse button and start!

2.  It is run by Amazon, not some dodgy fly-by-night company.  It’s totally legit.  And it’s free.

3.  They can pay you in Amazon gift cards!  And you can buy almost anything off Amazon nowadays.  I bought myself a new stereo system with my Mechanical Turk money.  My wife bought herself some jewelry she wanted and some very nice coffee.

4.  You can get your Amazon Mechanical Turk money transferred to your bank account, if you want.  I’ve never done it, I normally just get the gift cards, but if you give them your bank account details and ask them, Amazon will transfer the money for you.  Cool.   My wife has done it and she reckons it takes a few days though.

5.  You get your Mechanical Turk money pretty much straight away.  Well, in most cases, anyway.  I have had some requesters who’ve delayed their payment for a week, but most of them pay within a day or two in my experience.  In fact, some of my favorite ones pay within a few hours.

6.  You can pick and choose when and where you want to work with Amazon Mechanical Turk.  You don’t have to follow office hours, or travel anywhere at rush hour.  That saves you a great deal of time and money and an awful lot of hassle!

7.  You don’t have a boss hanging over you with Mechanical Turk.  You can do the work at your own pace, play some music on the stereo, eat at your computer, dress how you want, and do as little, or as much work as you feel like.

8.  You get a variety of jobs.  Okay, some of them are pretty tedious and you have to sit at a computer all the time you’re working on Amazon Mechanical Turk, but you can do a couple of market surveys, then write a music article, then get paid to watch and comment on Youtube videos…

9.  You don’t have to put up with irritating work coworkers and customers all day when you're using Mechanical Turk.  Okay, I know some people at work at great people, but there are lots of annoying ones too and they can drive you crazy if your with them for 8 or 9 hours/day and 5 days/week.

10.  Amazon Mechanical Turk is new technology and it’s awesome to be involved with something that’s revolutionizing working.  I have been trying out different sites since I started with MTurk and it’s opened up another world to me!

Mechanical Turk Links

Amazon Mechanical Turk Top Tricks and Tips

How to avoid MTurk scams

10 reasons why I love Amazon Mechanical Turk


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