So I've been doing Mturk for a few weeks... I knew it would take some time and patience to get going with it, but assumed that if I was diligent it would start paying off eventually. I'm starting to doubt that now, because I've taken every qualification test it will let me take and the available hits are still pretty paltry. I'm wondering if it used to be easier to get quals and build up numbers? Since I've started using Turkopticon and reading the reviews I've seen people mention that some requesters used to pay more for their hits, or weren't as quick with the rejects. My goals are pretty modest -- I'd be happy if I could make an extra $100 a month. Does this seem reasonable for someone who can't put in 14 hour days and devote all their time to this?
It's rough when you first start out because some higher paying hits need you to have so many hits done to qualify. Try building up your hit counts by doing cheaper paying hits. After you've done that you'll notice you will qualify for better hits. It does pay off after you've did the numbers. Just keep at it. Don't get discouraged. My daily pay ranges from 30 to 70 depending on my efforts and sometimes I've even topped over 100. It takes patience and time. Good luck.
So much this! There is a pretty high barrier of entry to Mturk-at first it's hard to make decent money because so many batches require a high HIT count. Build your numbers, do any qualification HITs that you can, and hang out in the Great HITs thread for tips and tricks. This is a really good thread with some reliable HITs to help get your numbers up. I think it's also really important to figure out what you like to do since there are so many tasks, and obviously you'll want to do more of the ones you enjoy. If you like transcription or want to try it, take the test for Crowdsurf Support titled "Qualified to work on Transcription Tasks"-they're short little transcriptions that are nice for numbers and approve pretty quickly. I don't even like transcription but they're painless, easy filler. Have you looked into getting any scripts? I highly recommend Turkopticon even if you use absolutely no other scripts-it can help save you from bad/scammy requesters! There are tons and tons of other productivity scripts out there though, there's a good list here, though there are definitely other scripts out there that do a lot! You can mix and match to figure out what you want and need. Once you get some favorite requesters it's also super helpful to have a script or extension notify you when they put HITs up. I think the biggest help though is just asking questions! The Great HITs thread is definitely the most active place on the forum, and you can usually get an answer to just about anything quickly. It moves fast, but it's a great place to learn especially in the beginning!
Thanks you two! I do use Turkopticon (which I found out about from lurking this forum). I recently tried the Panda thing but have not been able to figure out how to get the preview screen to appear consistently. I'll check out the scripts! Transcription is actually what I love to do and why I signed up with Mturk in the first place. But it's been a bit difficult/confusing to get started with it... I tried CastingWords and SpeechInk, had some issues with them (nitpickiness and non-standard style guides making projects take way too long). I'll look for that Crowdsurf test.