Still, if you want to make some real money, find your passion and see if you can make some real money. If you want to try MTurk in your spare time, then go for it.

Also, Trent–have you heard of utalkback.com?

My problem now though, is that I’m still waiting for the money I’ve earned to become ‘available’ for transfer to my bank account. Most of the hits I’ve completed have been approved and payed by the requester on Mturk, but the funds don’t seem to be available in my Amazon balance, in order for me to be allowed to transfer them to my bank account to pay bills. I sent a help email to both Amazon and Mturk on Friday afternoon, and I’m still waiting to hear back from both of them. Though perhaps, tomorrow on Monday I’ll get an answer or some resolution.

If you can truly transfer the funds to your bank account (I live in the USA) then I’d say that Mturk is a legitimate way to make some extra money each month, if you don’t mind doing the tasks.

But, if I’m only allowed to exchange my earnings for an Amazon gift card, I will be truly dissapointed. I’m using Mturk for a way to make a little extra money each month, not to buy more ’stuff’.

I’ll be sure to bookmark this post, and follow up when I get some kind of answer.

Also, has this ever happened to anyone else?

Shevy, you are paid in U.S. dollars. You can cash out either by transferring the money to an American checking account or receive Amazon credit. Can’t help you with the rest, though, sorry.

Those are the only 2 countries that they mention in their FAQ and there is quite a bit about how, if you earn more than ‘x’ amount with any one referrer you have to provide your US tax information or you can’t participate any more. Plus, they tell you how you can get paid in rupees but nothing about whether Canadians, Brits, Europeans, etc. can participate.

And, if so, can you be paid in US$ or do you have to take a gift card (which I’m not nearly as interested in having). I mean, money is money, but a gift card means you have to buy more stuff. It’s not like you can pay your credit card or your electric bill with it.

Being a graphic designer, I know there are and have been unscrupulous people just waiting for a few unsuspecting artists (usually young and innocent of standard business practices) to draw them something or pitch an idea, then take it and alter it ever so slightly so they can say that it was really “theirs,” and thus shut out that artist from any money they might see.

While reading your entry, I was reminded of the adage “A penny saved is more than a penny earned”. I realized that my time would be MUCH better spent doing one of the numerous “frugal activities” I am already aware of, or reading one of the many ‘Simple Dollar’ entries (in the Archives) that offer additional ways to spend less.

Yesterday, for instance, it took me less than 1 minute to clip out three $1.00 coupons for a facial cleanser I had seen on clearance and wanted to stock up on. I had to go to that store anyway yesterday, so I picked up the 3 bottles of cleanser and handed over my coupons. Bingo – instantly there was an extra $3 in my wallet because of the one minute I spent clipping those three coupons for a product I was planning to buy anyway.

This is just one of a myriad of examples of faster and easier ways to end up with more cash in my pocket than investing time, electricity and – at times, apparently – aggravation trying to earn pennies at a time using Mechanical Turk. Thanks again!

Going back to the whole “time is money” argument, are there things that you would be willing to pay someone $0.01 or (even $0.50) a HIT for? What about paying someone to creating a transcript of your podcasts?

I heard a story a few years ago about a guy that set up an MTurk and asked people to do a quick sketch of “cartoon sheep facing left”, several hundred in total. He took all of the images that people created and made T-shirts that he sold on his web site.

Thanks for your informative review, it’s always interesting to see what others thought of something as well.

This is nothing I’d do “full time,” as it’s mind numbing, but it is a decent way to get books/music/etc without a lot of effort.

I’ve made $15 and change so far, for a grand total of less than an hour of work over two weeks.

I have purposely chosen to spend the time that I would spend playing online games, for no benefit at all) in the evenings, doing HITs instead. That might only be five to 10 minutes at a time, but it does add up. I’m not concerned that my “hourly wage” is half what I make at my day job. I’m doing the HITs with time that would have either cost me money or left me with no net gain or loss of money, so I figure I come out ahead.

Also, there are certain HITs where, if you do multiples for the same company, they will pay you a bonus or up the rate you get per HIT. That has worked out well for me; like Trent, I can write quickly and well, and I think there’s a lot to be said for that as a way to get some easy cash.

I figure, hey, if I make $15 every two weeks using just a few minutes of free time, that’s $390 a year that I could put toward debt. And, if I really wanted, there are other things I’m doing with my free time that I could give up to do more HITs, which could increase that amount. I’m already thinking that this could be my entire Christmas fund (we don’t spend much at Christmas.) Why not?

I’ve tried Mechanical Turk and found it frustrating and not worthwhile. I do surveys, which I think are a little better, but still not that good in terms of hourly earnings.