Mechanical Turk: What it Is and What it Ain't

Mechanical Turk is a subsidiary of Amazon.com and first started in November of 2005. Like anything else, has its supporters and its detractors.

When you look at the website, you get the spiffied up version of what Mechanical Turk is. Basically, it’s a way to make money doing menial computer tasks. And to a lot of people that sounds great… until you understand that some tasks pay very little. As in .10 or less for some. There are others that pay much more ($10 and more); however, these may require certain skills and passing certain tests to get approved for them.

Mechanical Turk has been praised as a way to make a little money while sitting on the phone surfing the net since a lot of the jobs don't really require all that much brain power. Others object to even bothering with such drivel, calling it a "virtual sweatshop". 

What it comes down to is realistic expectation. You have to know that there is a difference between "working from home" and "making money online". If you need to work from home and want something that can pay the bills, this ain't it. If you feel like it could be good or a little fun to at least make forty or fifty cents here and there filling out questionnaires and the like, what the hey-- go for it. 

Beware that some users have reported doing a job and not having the work accepted or getting to a certain amount of money and having their account suddenly suspended.  Others report (ahem, foolishly) offering personal information and then being on the receiving end of solicitations from insurance, roofing and siding companies. This article reports that nearly 40% of tasks on the site are now nothing but spam.

Just like any other make money online or work from home opportunity, when considering Mechanical Turk, DO YOUR RESEARCH in order to figure out if it will be something that works for you.

Good reads for this subject:  

Top 10 Amazon Mechanical Turk Tips and Tricks

Amazon.Com MechanicalTurk Cheats Online Workers of Earnings

Can You Actually Earn Reasonable Money from Mechanical Turk?

Ways to avoid MTurk scams

What's it Take to Land an Online Tutoring Job?

An online tutoring job is one of the most respectable ways to earn money online. It offers the chance for those with a background in education to practice their profession and help students anywhere in the country. Those who take on online tutoring jobs tend to not only do it for the extra income but to also keep their skills fresh and because the simply enjoy the opportunity to help people learn. It can also be a great bonus to add to one's resume. An online tutor can find him or herself teaching any subject from math to English to social studies.

What will it take to land an online tutoring job? In general, one must live in either the United States or Canada and have a valid Social Security or Social Insurance number. One must also either be enrolled in or a graduate of an accredited United States or Canadian College or University degree program. Plus, be it math, science or English, it will also be necessary to possess a strong knowledge of the content one wishes to tutor in order to pass the subject exam. One will not be able to work an online tutoring job without doing so. And of course, the capacity for explaining the concepts of a subject to students in any age range in an online environment will be essential.

After one has passed the subject exam, it will be necessary to meet the proper computer specifications for running online tutoring software. Doing so ensures that tutoring sessions can run efficiently without hassle or the interruption of technical difficulties. The good news is, an online tutoring job will not necessarily mean having to own or invest in the best or most expensive computer around. Most online tutoring services merely require their employees to have Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7 and only 2 GB of RAM. In addition, one will need high speed internet access and a minimum screen resolution of 1024 x 768. 

Most of the time, an online tutoring service is a twenty four hour service that accommodates students in any time zone. This means an online tutoring job can offer the best in flexible hours. Because the whole session takes place over the internet, one can work anywhere there is a reliable internet connection. It is important to note that many online tutoring companies take a special interest in applicants that can not only teach more than one subject but can work more than one hour a day, five days a week. Another thing that makes an online tutoring job appealing is that it is an opportunity to work year round- not just through the school year.

How much a tutor gets paid largely depends on the subject taught and its level of difficulty in addition to the amount of hours spent tutoring. This is because online tutors are typically considered independent contractors. To sweeten the pot, many companies also offer bonuses and other incentives that make an online tutoring job a very worthwhile internet job opportunity.  

Don't Feel Guilty Just Because You Make Easy Money

We all want to make easy money online. We all want to sit down at the computer for five, maybe ten minutes, do a little typing and then wake up in the morning and see that several million dollars has dumped its way into our bank accounts. Now come back to reality and look around. If that were really possible, would we all be living in a crummy economy right now? Probably not. But you can still, nonetheless, make easy money for yourself by working from home online. Whether it’s because you want enough to get those bills paid each and every month without leaving yourself high and dry or you simply want to afford yourself that new toy or some extra special pampering.

There are a number of ways to make easy money while sitting in the comfort of your home in front of your computer. The question to answer is what kind of money you want to make and what your definition of easy is. Some individuals are just fine going the route of filling out surveys, posting links or writing product reviews as a way to make easy money. Others need something a little more solid such as a part time work from home data entry or customer service jobs, in which- if you don’t have previous experience- can start you out at minimum wage. Considering that gas and other expenses aren’t coming out of what you make, this type of job is quite popular with many who work from home.

There are other perks as well when you choose to make easy money online. Most people look to the internet for extra income because, by working from home, not only do you not have the hassle of worrying about making it to your second job on time, the hours of jobs on the internet are wonderfully flexible. You can work when you want to (or can) and don’t have to when you don’t want to (or can’t). This means if you want to work in the middle of the night or just on weekends (or any combination thereof), you will still be able to make easy money.

A work from home job is a great option for retirees, stay at home moms, students, those who have been laid off and others who find themselves in situations where certain factors interfere with trying to make ends meet. In this day and age, our lives have become very full which is what draws so many to the internet to make easy money with online jobs. We have become a society that is so used to pushing ourselves to our limits that the opportunity to make easy money almost makes us feel dirty. However, when the opportunity is there and the bills are due, you would be a fool not to grab it.

Even over time as the economy eventually gets back on its feet, with the convenience of online jobs and working from home, it is likely many will stick with the internet as a way to make easy money for themselves.

Wise Things to Do with the Quick Money You Made Online

You wanted to make quick money online and now that you have, here are some ideas for putting it to good use. In some cases, you’ll even be able to make the money you worked for work for you.

· Save it! Start shoving it into an interest bearing account over the next 6-12 months. Then forget about it for 25 years.

· Invest in CD’s. The financial product- not the music disc. No one buys CD’s anymore. You can get a CD for as low as $500. Check your local bank or shop around for the best rates.

· Start paying back the money you borrowed from your parents. The amount you send won’t matter. They’ll be happy to take any amount. Trust me. Just send it.

· Start paying down your credit cards. On top of your monthly payment, take that quick money you earned and send in a mere $12.50 a week to the credit card company. This adds up to an extra $50 per month and can whack that high interest rate right between the eyes.

· Do the same thing for accounts that have gone into collection. Send your creditors $12.50 a week until they’re paid off.

· Continue your education. Education is expensive. Every bit helps.

· Create an entertainment, vacation or back to school clothes fund. Now you don’t have to skimp on these things or find a way to stretch your income when it’s time for these things to pop up.

· Start a savings account for your kids. He may only be 6 months old but college is coming up faster than you think. Get on it.

· Get some affordable health and life insurance. You’re not immortal, you know.

· If you haven’t already, get started on your retirement fund. No, you may not be able to live off of it but you’ll have something (and something is better than nothing considering a lot of us won’t get the benefit of Social Security by the time we turn 60). If it bothers you, keep in mind you can always move to some third world country on some far off continent where your dollar stretches farther. Then you’ll be the richest guy in the village.

Other smart things to do with the quick money you’ve earned online is to pay extra principal on your mortgage, put it toward simple but worthwhile home improvements, create a seed money fund for creating your own work from home online business, opting for premium maintenance procedures and upkeep on vehicles and expenses that come with animal care such as vaccinations and yearly exams. Don’t forget to donate a little here and there, too. It’s just good karma.

While it can be more than tempting to take what money you’ve earned online and blow it on little things, it is important to understand that even if you only made $100 for the week or less, small amounts add up over time into bigger amounts. Once you catch up on certain bills and get them paid off you can go right back and earn some more quick money online, apply it elsewhere and get yourself in good financial standing before you know it.

When You Need to Make Extra Money

Everyone wants to make extra money but you already know how you feel about getting a second job delivering pizzas when you’re already stretched thin as it is. Along with the hassle of trying to make ends meet, you have family life, marriage, kids and a mess of other related responsibilities and activities to tend to. Nonetheless, you know you still have to find some way to get that extra income coming in before you get yourself in trouble. On top of that, with so many other people needing second jobs right now, the question is: would you even be able to find one?

For a good number of people, their need to make extra money has been met by turning to the internet for ways to make money online. For some individuals, it’s as easy as filling out surveys, writing product reviews or blogging to bring in that little extra every month. Others take what skills they have and build a solid and stable online opportunity that allows them to not only have extra income that puts them back on their feet but actually propels them toward a better standing overall. Having that extra money coming in makes you feel more confident and cuts the stress and worry that come with living paycheck to paycheck.

In this day and age, there is a wide range of people who are facing financial uncertainty at no fault of their own. Even those who at one point could describe themselves as having a comfortable standard of living find they too need to make extra money. With a part time work from home job, hours can be flexible and, depending how you choose to make money online, you can get paid for the amount of work you do or by the hour. That money can then be used to pay off high interest credit cards or stashed into a savings account.

Everyone has the right to be financially stable; however, there seems to be a number of factors working against this. Life has obviously gotten more expensive while few are seeing the raise in their take home pay to meet such costs. It is no wonder that so many need to make extra money and are turning to the internet to get it done. While you can opt for a work at home job along the lines of your current experience, many take the opportunity to get into something that is totally worlds away. Someone who works in an office all day calculating facts and figures can go home and work an at home service reading tarot cards over a webcam.

Just because you’re in a place where you need to bring in a little extra income doesn’t mean you have to resign yourself to more drudgery. The nice thing about working from home online is that you can get fairly creative in the way you do it. In fact, many have found that if you’re not careful, what starts out as trying to make extra money can end up being a full time work from home career.

A Candid Look at How to Make Money Online

You’re surfing the web because you want to know how to make money online. You don’t want to tell anybody because you think they’ll laugh at you. They’ll say that making money online is not realistic; that it’s not a real job.

But they’re wrong.

You can make money online doing any number of things; and while it’s true some online moneymaking opportunities won’t pay very much, there are still other ways to make good money online that will more than prove the naysayers wrong. Incidentally, most who insist you can’t make money online are generally those who never learned how to make money online to begin with. They chose an idea, gave it a halfhearted shot and then called it quits when they found they couldn’t get rich overnight. (Or they didn’t watch what they were doing and got taken advantage of.) Honestly, all it takes is a little bit of time, a little bit of effort and an inventory of your skills and experience to find something that will get you on the way to your income goal.

In your search for how to make money online, you’ll find all kinds of ads and listings and posts for work from home jobs. Some are fairly easy. They require no prior experience or advanced computer skills and they don’t ask for a resume. All that is required is a valid email address. Once you sign up, you may find yourself filling out surveys, posting links, writing product reviews or blogging about assigned topics. These are great ideas for creating that little bit of extra income each week that can be used for paying down that high interest credit card; or, if you prefer, you can use the money to do all the little things that will make next Friday night’s date extra special.

Let’s suppose you’re looking for something more than some extra cash. You want to create something for yourself where you’re actually working from home during the day and paying the bills on time. This is the time to stop and think what it is you have experience in. CAD drafting? Customer service? Web or graphic design? Computer programming? Teaching? Tutoring? Foreign languages? Photography? Marketing? Writing? Anything? Because whatever skills you have, that will be your answer to how to make money online. Granted, going this route will not be as easy as signing up at some website and just filling out one survey after another but you want to pay your bills- and real rewards take real efforts.

Whether you’re filling out surveys or creating your own work from home job tutoring English lit to online students, when you are doing what comes naturally to you, you’ll find that creating your work from home endeavor yields into a rather smooth process. Keeping expectations realistic and understanding that there is no such thing as ‘something for nothing’, you will find yourself on the path to making just the type of income you’re looking for. And that is how to make money online in a realistic and responsible manner.