Microworkers - A review
Ever since Amazon's Mechanical Turk program changed and Australians were no longer able to register as workers, the search has been on for replacement sites.
One such site - Microworkers - is a micro task website open to people from every country worldwide, including Australia.
How do I join?
To register for free, just visit the signup page, fill in your details and then verify your account by email.
How many tasks are available?
The number varies, but the last time I logged in, there were 242 microtasks available to me.
It may sound like quite a few, but there are a lot of jobs that I'm unable to complete (eg. reviews that require the reviewer to have visited a specific business or purchased a specific product).
There are also some jobs that require workers to have an established blog, a Facebook account, an instagram account with x number of followers etc.
What sort of micro tasks are available?
From the Microworkers website:
"...tasks include simple Sign ups, social bookmarking tasks, forum participation, website visits, rating contents, adding comments, suggesting leads, creating backlinks, writing reviews or articles, downloading applications, testing websites and so much more."
As mentioned above, some of the tasks are very straightforward and include watching youtube videos or commenting on a blog post, while others include posting links in forum posts and voting for people in 'people's choice' competitions or contests.
How much can I earn?
Task vary in how much they pay, from a couple of cents to a couple of dollars, usually depending on how much time they take to complete.
Other things worth mentioning:
- You can put in a request to cash out once your account reaches $9.00
- Your first cash out may take a little longer than usual, as the company will send out a pin number to your home address once you've put in your first cash-out request. You'll need to enter this pin number before you receive your first payment.
- For Australians, a cash transfer can be made to your paypal account. It's important to note that there is a 7.5% fee when cashing out.
The great aspects of Microworkers:
Some of the tasks are really quick and easy. eg.
- I completed a short, 1 screen survey that took about a minute, and was worth $1
- Some of the blog comment tasks are easy to complete and pay 30 or 40 cents.
- There are also a number of tasks that require you to vote, leave a youtube comment, or simply search for a business and visit their website.
Other positives are that it's really easy to sign up and get started, and the tasks are often easy and don't take much time to complete.
...and some of the not-so-good aspects:
I found that I was unable to complete quite a few of the tasks, as I felt they were either a bit spammy, went against website rules or gave others an unfair advantage. These types of micro tasks included:
- Signing up to a forum and posting a comment with a link to a gambling site.
- Commenting on a blog and posting a link etc.
- Vote for a particular person in a consumer competition or contest.
Also, while many of the clients are trustworthy, there are some dodgy clients using the service. I completed a couple of tasks correctly, but my proof was rejected and for some reason marked as 'Spam' (?). I double-checked that I'd followed the instructions correctly, and then followed up with Microworkers, but didn't hear back from them.
Conclusion:
Microworkers is a fairly straightforward site to use and offers the chance to earn a bit of extra cash. Just be aware of the 7.5% fee when you cash out, and that (in my experience) the customer service may not be responsive if you dispute a rating for a task. You also might find that other sites offer more cash for the time you put in, but I still think it's probably worth signing up to have a look at the tasks that are available.
Have you used Microworkers? What are your thoughts?
nice
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