Click to open M-Turk.
Hello my fellow Hovel Homers! I’m sorry it’s been so long since my last post. I keep promising that I’ll update more regularly, but honestly I think this is a promise I won’t be able to keep. I’m a pretty disorganized and carefree person (which is what my blog is all about–living freely) but alas in order to document daily I’d have to go against the principles I “teach” so–there ya go, I suppose.
Anyways, it’s Thanksgiving weekend still (Cyber Monday, to be precise), I have a few shots of Fireball Whiskey in me and have decided it is “now or never” for this M-Turk post.
I’ve been using M-Turk for a good few months now. currently I’m up to $146.26 earned in total. I would consider this site to be my highest earner in the shortest amount of time yet. I should also disclaim that M-Turk is not for the beginning GPT site user. If this is the first post from adventuresofalice.com that you have ever read, I might suggest trying my post on InstaGC, or SlicethePie first.
You can even make bonus money!
M-Turk is a website platform that is run through Amazon. Now, if that doesn’t scream “legitimacy” to you, I don’t know what does. The best part about M-Turk being connected to Amazon, is that when you transfer money out of your M-Turk account, you transfer it into Amazon Payments, which is similar to PayPal. The transfer is INSTANTANEOUS. As in, no sooner than you click the transfer “submit” button, will your newly earned finances be accessible. From this stand point you can either transfer that money into an amazon gift card IMMEDIATELY (which during this holiday season, is very nice.) or you can transfer the money straight into your bank account. (as I said, Amazon Payments is very similar to PayPal.) And while PayPal will take 3-5 days to transfer your money, Amazon Payments will only take about 2, maybe 3 days-maximum.
So some highlights from that last paragraph:
- The site is run through Amazon.
- Transfers are instantaneous.
- From Amazon Payments to Bank Account only takes 2-3 days.
- Can cash out into Amazon gift card immediately.
As I mentioned before though, M-Turk is not a website for the beginner GPT site user. There are a variety of reasons as to why I say this. For one, The layout is not simple nor user friendly. It’s very work like, and nothing is quite explained to you. This is definitely a site where you either read a lot of tutorials or your trial-and-error while on the job. To start with, this is what the home page of M-Turk looks like.
Click for larger image.
As you can see, M-Turk is somewhat similar to Crowd Flower, or any HIT (Human Intelligence Task) formatted site. You are judged on your approvals and rejections. Another to thing to know about M-Turk is that a task isn’t immediately approved. Many companies and individual people are using M-Turk to get responses to surveys or small tasks completed. An M-Turker has to wait until the person who posted the task either accepts or denies your response. This is important, just like when one uses Crowd Flower. The more acceptances you have, the higher your accuracy score is. The more rejections you have, the lower it is. Depending on your accuracy score, and the amount of tasks you’ve accurately completed, you’ll be allowed to sign up or not sign up for certain tasks.
For example, some tasks require that you have 100 accepted tasks and an accuracy rating of 97% in order to even attempt their listing. Others will want you to have 1000 accepted tasks and an accuracy rating of 99%. It’s a case by case scenario. Some tasks also want you to have earned certain “qualifications”.
click to make image larger.
Some qualifications are simply earned through consistently and accurately completing tasks. Most qualifications though, a user has to request themselves. Sometimes requesting a qualification is no harder than clicking a button saying you want that qualification. Other times, you will have a quiz or something similar e-mailed to you. Once you fill that quiz out, and send it back, the one in charge of that qualification will review your test answers, and if they are up to par will grant you a qualification rating. If they are not up to par, you will be denied.
When you see a task you’re not qualified for, it will show up like so. You can click request qualification to attempt to access this sort of task in the near future.
As you can see from this example listing, some tasks can offer a very pretty penny to complete them. I will say though, that unless you are an amazing transcriber(can add text to videos, or write out the text for subtitles in the professional transcribing manner) it is rare to complete a 60-100 dollar task. But I will also say, that there are a lot of high-paying tasks you will be qualified for: though their prices range closer to $1-$10/hit.
This above information is why another reason why I consider M-Turk to not be a beginner GPT site.
Since the site is similar to Crowd Flower, your accuracy is based on how many tasks you complete and your overall accuracy score due to those completions. You mess up your score even a little bit, and it will take you a good few days to get it back in order. The high-paying tasking can be tempting. But unless you know EXACTLY what you are doing and are EXTREMELY confident in your skill to complete the task successfully, I would advice much lower paying tasks. Such as the 0.01-0.10 cent tasks.
Why you ask? Simple.
Because these tasks are very very easy. And there is 100,000’s of them available. Successfully complete 100-500 of these and you will have nearly 100% accuracy, and 500 completed tasks. This will open up new tasks that are closer to $10-20 bucks a pop, and by the time they appear you’ll understand how M-Turk works on a much more personal level. Granted, that means you might not be earning a lot at the beginning, which is discouraging to newbies in the GPT world.
M-Turk is like a job with no training; you figure it out on your own, and fuck up a lot because of it, but once you get the hang of it all, much potential and opportunity is to be found.
Tasks on M-Turk can be very interesting as well. They aren’t always surveys or regular information sorting HITs. Sometimes you have to take a picture or a video. I once had a task where I had to speak the alphabet allowed while turning my head up down and sideways as my webcam recorded. Sometimes you’ll be asked to record the sound of your car horn. Or take a picture of a pharmacy in your area. Or speak words and sentences from a book aloud. The tasks can be very fun, and enjoyable, in comparison to some others available on different sites.
ALSO, another little thing, I forget to mention: YOU CAN CASH OUT BY THE 0.01¢!
So no threshold has to be met-which is wonderful! Though I should add, you can only cash out once every 24 hours, so make sure that’s all you want to take out that day or you’ll have to wait till tomorrow.
To transfer earnings, simply click “transfer earnings”. It will lead you to a page that says:
From here you type in how much you want to transfer, click “continue”, and it will lead you to a “are you sure?” sort of page, where you simply click the button labeled “submit.”
In order to see where your money is now, go back to the page transfer earnings page, and click any of the “completed” or “processing” hyperlinks located in the “Status” column”. When you click one, it will bring up the light blue message above. Click the hyperlink “here” to be transferred to your Amazon Payments page.
If you want to transfer the Amazon Payments money, simply go to the navigation bar at the top and click “Withdraw”. This will bring you to the page below:
From here you can either transfer to your bank account (which you’ll have to link to Amazon Payments in a similar way you link your account to PayPal) or you can immediately transfer into an Amazon gift card.
Then just wait 2-3 days and that money will be accessible!
Hopefully this mini-M-Turk tutorial helps you; there is A LOT of information to cover when dealing with this platform, so if you feel lost or as if I’ve missed anything you’d like better or more clarification on: do not hesitate to comment below and I shall get back your queries as soon as I see them! 🙂
Good Luck using M-Turk,
and as ALWAYS : Happy Earnings!
-Alice
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