Amazon's Mechanical Turk

When I first signed up for Mechanical Turk which is operated by Amazon.com, it was 2006. I have used the site on and off since then to earn actual money. The earning are direct deposited into a bank account or prepaid card that you register on the site or you can opt to use the earnings for Amazon gift cards. To make money on the site, you scroll through a series of "hits" and do the tasks that you feel you can do. Hits range from tagging pictures to writing blog posts and the prices for each task can be $0.01 to $10.00 or more. The work is legitimate and after completing tasks the hit requester approves your work and releases the payment. This process can take a few hours to a few weeks. I recommend the site to earn a few dollars when you are bored, but not a a full time venture. Don't quit your day job to Turk.

Be a Guru!

I signed up for Guru around 2007 or 2008. The site is designed as a freelance market place where people create a profile offering their skills as a freelance employee to employers around the world. You get a set number of bids for a time period and use those bids to apply for jobs on the site that you feel you are able to do. Your profile has to promote your skills and abilities well enough that the employer will want to choose you over the other applicants which can be difficult when you do not have feedback scores and ratings while others on the site a established.

The work that I did on the site ranged from telemarketing to administrative assistant work such as researching flight times. Payments can be direct deposited to your bank account or through PayPal and are processed through the Guru website so you are not giving personal information out online. I was scammed once through the site and did not get paid for two weeks worth of administrative work. Another telemarketing job only paid if the you were successful in generating leads to be forwarded up the chain. The site is legitimate but would work best for people who have unique skills such as graphic artists or programmers. 

Get Paid to do Homework: Homework Market Review

So everyone remembers that one class they hated, especially if it was online. Maybe the professor was not helpful, the student was not interested in the topic, or the student has run into some personal problems in their life. There are sites popping up all over the web that will allow you as a student to pay someone else to do your homework for you and will allow those of us who have a penchant for answering questions or writing papers to make a little bit of money. Different sites work different ways for people who are able to do these tasks. Some allow students to send in their assignment and the website employees "course managers" to pass the work out to tutors. The tutors never actually speak with the student and the website collects the payment and pays the tutor. Other sites merely host accounts allowing students to post questions and tutors to search for assignments that they feel they can complete. The tutor will either do the work and post the answers for the student to buy or make a deal with the student to do the work, get a down payment for the work, then complete the work and post it where the student can then buy it using a portion of the down payment.

The last option describes the system on Homework Market. This was the first homework site that I ever worked with. You create a profile including subjects you are qualified to help in and educational background. There is a chat option on the site that notifies you when new assignments are posted and allows students and tutors to chat either in a group chat or you can start a private chat with students that you want to help or that you are helping. When you find an assignment that you can do you send a "handshake message" and agree on terms with the student including price and time frame. Then the student will make a down payment, you complete the assignment, and you post the answer to the students question. The student will purchase the answer to view it and the money will go into your Homework Market account. Homework Market has a policy to hold the payments for 45 days which is just over six weeks to ensure the student is happy with the work but then you can deposit the funds into PayPal. The site takes a percentage and if other students later purchase the same answer you get paid again . The hold period also goes down to fourteen days when you have earned over $5,000 on the site which does not take a long time to do if you work a good bit and negotiate reasonable prices for your work. Overall, this site is a great way to earn money but there will be a lag time in actually getting what you are earning.

One drawback however, if a student files a dispute against you, the site tends to side with the student even if you are right. Also, some students will open claims when there is no problem simply to get their money back because they are aware of this option and they get to keep their money and get the work for free. This can result in an issue and even get your account suspended where you will have to start all over if this happens to you. This can especially be an issue if you have a great reputation on the site with positive reviews from students (which helps you get more work from new students) or if you have reached the threshold to have your deposit hold time decreased and have to start over.

Introduction

Trial and error, that is the only way that you find out what works and what does not work sometimes. I have been using the internet to attempt to make money for about ten years now and I have found many ways that actually do work. While there are hundreds of sites that claim to pay you for everything from surveys to watching videos and everything in between and thousands that come up in search results when you search for working at home and similar queries, many are connected to scams or the results just do not match what is promised. This blog is in no way an exhaustive list of opportunities and what works for some may not work for others. A variety of opportunities and ideas will be included with everything from doing other people's homework, freelance work, eBay, and survey sites included. I am not endorsing any of the sites or ideas that I review or write about, merely making the information available for those who may want to give it a try along with information about what my personal experience was. I hope you all enjoy reading about my experiences and please feel free to recommend other methods that you have tried with or without success or share your own personal experiences.