Why Work for Amazon Mechanical Turk?

There are some people who call Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (Mturk) the online version of sweatshop when it comes to making money online. And I can’t put up too much of an argument against that statement. There are some ridiculously low-paying tasks on AMT. Many are terribly exploitative of the workers and a very few aren’t.

One site specific to Mturk put up this sarcastic fake advertisement on their site:
HELP WANTED:
$1.20 / hour
Risk of repetitive stress injury
No care for on-the-job injuries
No guaranteed minimum wage
No guarantee of payment

So, why should someone consider work on Mturk?

First you have to know what you’re getting into before you even start.

If you are a foreign worker outside the U.S., your standard and cost of living may be low and working on AMT can actually provide you with some real money. But, for the sake of this article, I’m going to assume you live in the U.S. or some other developed and industrial country.

So, to re-phrase, why should a U.S. citizen consider working for Mturk?

You need some extra money. You have a bill to pay and a few extra bucks can make a difference. You want to save up extra money for a family vacation. (And I’m not talking about flying to orient. I’m thinking a trip to the local amusement park.)

Or you want a book or that new electronic thingamajig that just came out.

I’ve done it. I wanted to upgrade my MP3 player and worked on few handfuls of HITS in November and December last year, waiting for Amazon to drop the price to entice Christmas shoppers, and low and behold, I had a new MP3 player in hand with no money out of my normal operating budget.

If you’re just sitting around watching TV anyway, why not turn that time into some money?

Right now, as I write these words, there are over 7000 individual HITS worth $.50 a piece for workers to write book reviews of 150 words (or more). Take the HIT on, do a quick Google search of the book, read a few reviews, and get creative.

There are also nearly a thousand $.10 HITS for someone to find the local address of a business along with it’s hours of operation. If you need or want a few extra pennies in your pocket, then why not put your wasted time to good work?

If you aren’t desperate for money or can turn your spare time into another way to make more money, then Mturk is not for you. But if you’re just sitting there with a few minutes a day and want some extra money, there are worse ways to spend your time.

In the past month, I spent probably, on average, 90 minutes a day working on HITS and have made over $200. You can, too. You either have to be near desperate or really want something off Amazon.