Amazon Mechanical Turk: A Comprehensive Review

Amazon Mechanical Turk, a platform from the globally recognized Amazon, offers a unique way to earn money online without resorting to affiliate marketing. Yes, you heard it right! You can earn on Amazon without selling products to your friends and family. Amazon Mechanical Turk, also known as Mturk, has remained a consistent source of online income for many. Let's delve into how you can make money through Mturk.

What is Amazon Mechanical Turk?

Mturk is a platform that hosts a variety of microtasks, referred to as HITs, that you can complete for real cash rewards. The tasks vary widely, from transcribing audio or image content to completing surveys and even playing games. The payout for each approved HIT ranges from $0.01 to over $10.00.

Getting Started with Mturk

The signup process for Amazon's Mechanical Turk program has significantly improved over time. Previously, it took close to a week to get started, but thanks to online bank verification, the process can now be completed within a day for most people.

If you already have an Amazon account, you're a step ahead. If not, don't worry, the process is straightforward. You can sign up using the link at the top of this article. Follow the prompts to "Sign in as a worker". If you already have an Amazon account, log in to add Mturk to your account. If not, you can create one by following the prompts below the sign-in box.

You'll also need to create an Amazon Payments account to withdraw your earnings. I recommend setting this up right away as this is where you'll link your bank account for withdrawals. If you use a national bank, you can sign in with your bank credentials through the secure portal. If you use a smaller credit union or local bank, you may need to verify two small deposits made by Amazon into your account. This process takes about three days.

Once your bank account is linked to your Payments account, you're ready to start earning!

Understanding HITs

HITs are the microtasks you'll be completing on Mturk. When you select the HITs option, you'll see a long list of tasks, each with a stated reward amount. You'll notice that there are far more low-paying tasks than high-value ones. I recommend not wasting your time with anything that pays less than $0.20 per task unless you're just trying to kill time.

To organize this list, select "Filter" in the upper right. I recommend sorting the list from the highest reward first and always checking the box that says "I'm qualified to work on."

As you complete HITs, your progress will be tracked. Each completed HIT will add to your profile's statistics. You can qualify for more HIT options in two ways. The first is by completing a large number of HITs. Some requesters look for a certain number of completed HITs to verify you understand how to work the platform. The other metric they primarily look at is your "Approval Rate" or the percentage of HITs that you have submitted that were accepted. Aim to keep this at 99%.

Another way to qualify for HITs is to request qualifications. These are like badges added to your account to verify you understand how to do a certain task. To get a new qualification, you have to request it from the survey creator. This process takes time and often isn't worth the effort.

Getting Paid

Once a HIT is approved, the reward amount is added to your Mturk account. To withdraw your earnings, you'll need to first transfer them to your Amazon Payments account. This transfer usually processes the next day. If you're using these funds to purchase a product through Amazon, you can leave it in your Payments account and use it towards your purchase!

For everyone else, once the money is in your Payments account, you'll need to link your bank account (if you haven't already) and submit the transfer. The transfer itself takes 1-3 business days but usually posts into my account the next day. For most national banks, you can simply log in to your account through Amazon's secure system and link your bank account instantly. For local banks and credit unions, they offer to submit two micropayments into your account and then withdraw them. After the micropayments have been made, you can log in and verify the amounts to finish linking your account. The micropayment option does take a couple of business days to post.