Side money experiment: mTurk
October 24, 2016
Background: 2 years ago November, J. Money and I had a quick chat that spawned this post on earning side money and then I started tracking our earnings publicly because it’s always more fun that way. PiC is our resident Craigslister and I’m the resident Try Anything Once-er.
As previously mentioned in the May and June monthly reports, I gave mTurk a little test run.
My time was particularly tight in those months so it wasn’t a smart time to be trying new things but I wanted to dip my toes in and give it a wiggle. I think because it was so time-crunchy, my brain really needed to know that it wouldn’t last and the way to give myself hope for that is to do something new that feels purposeful and makes a bit of money.
After a couple months, spending nibbles of time when I was taking a mental break from work, I haven’t cracked any secret codes. Tasks are most available during business hours, and you do better when you spend time on skill-based tasks, I think. The tasks I’ve been qualified for are things like surveys which don’t earn much.
Total earned: $50.95
Whether it’s bad timing or lack of effort, mTurk isn’t for me right now. I’ll put this experiment on hold until I have a bit more time to play with it.
I tried this way back when I had no idea how to make money online and agree! It wasn’t worth the time for the pay for me. You have to do it for a while I think before you get access to the highest paying tasks, but if you invest that time in something more profitable I think you end up with a much much larger value add in your life.
“… but if you invest that time in something more profitable I think you end up with a much much larger value add in your life.”
That was my first conclusion too.