Using Amazon Mechanical Turk as an online money making tool.

Many Internet users these days are looking to make some spare cash while online. A poor economy along with staggering job losses, have many people looking for decent ways to earn cash online. Whether it's to help pay off some bills, or to turn a hobby into a full income, the Internet isn't just a form of entertainment anymore. One of the sites that I've been using for the past few months is Amazon Mechanical Turk. If you have the time and will, this is a great site to earn spare cash. Please read on.

Amazon Mechanical Turk (Mturk for short) is a crowd sourcing Internet marketplace. It's a suite division of the popular website Amazon(amazon.com). Requester's use Mturk to get tasks they want done. The tasks are known on Mturk as "HITS". Workers are able to sign in, and perform the task that requesters have posted. In return, the worker gets paid. You've probably heard of sites like Microworkers and Minuteworkers. This site basically follows the same formula as these sites. It's a great way to turn your spare time into a bit of cash.

Earning money on Mturk is fairly easy. There are many HITS that a potential worker can perform. Some of the HITS include: surveys, article writing, searches, and blog posts. There are usually thousands of HITS a worker can choose to do. Most of the HITS are fairly short, and from my experience on there, payment for HITS are usually fast. Workers can create an Amazon payment account to receive payment for their work. This is done by adding a bank account to deposit your earnings. Workers can also take their balance and add it to their gift card balance on Amazon. It's doesn't take long to setup an account on Mturk.

Now that we've heard about Mturk, lets talk about a criticisms of the site. First off, you will not earn much money on there without much effort. Most of the HITS on Mturk pay out cents for doing them. Usually the HITS that pay bigger require extra qualifications to do. Due to the small amount of pay for HITS, some people have classified Mturk as a "virtual sweatshop". It's also important for workers to play close attention the instructions for the HITS they accept. If not, you can find yourself spending time on a task that you won't get paid for. This has happened to me several times in the past, so make sure to read the directions.

If you are interested in joining Mturk, go to mturk.com. Feel free to check out the site, and do your own research of Mturk. I also recommend going into it with realistic expectations. You will not get rich on there by any means. However, if you have the time and will, you can earn some spare cash for yourself on there. If you aren't interested in doing it for the cash, adding to your Amazon gift card balance is a benefit as well. I've read stories of people earning hundreds of dollars monthly on Amazon Mechanical Turk, so it's not impossible. However, to see any significant money, you must be willing to put in the effort. Just like anything else in life, time and effort is required. Thanks for reading.