Using Mturk
A few years ago Amazon launched a new program named Mechanic Turk or Mturk for short. Essentially the site was made as recognition that computers cannot do all the things humans can so Amazon created a forum where workers can sign up and complete administrative tasks that require a real live person behind the computer screen in exchange for rewards. The HIT was born, HIT being Human Intelligence Tasks.
So how does it work?
Well as an employer you sign up and credit your account, list a job and once someone has completed it you look it over and make the payment to the employee.
As this guide is intended to help workers navigate MTurk, we will concentrate on that aspect in more detail.
If you already have an Amazon.com account you can log in with that, if not sign up and you can get started.
The main page is called the dashboard and is very handy, it details how many HITS you have accepted and which ones are pending payment. Keep an eye on this page.
Now click on HITS available to me. The availability differs between each user as some HITS require qualifications which you can do tests for and some are geographically restricted. Choose one and follow the instructions to complete the HIT. Once done hit submit and it will go into pending status, now you are waiting for the person who lodged the HIT to log in, accept your work and pay you.
That's Amazon's Mechanical Turk in a nutshell!
However workers beware:
Some HITS require a lot of work and pay very little, it isn't unknown to see hours worth of audio transcriptions for as little as 5 cents. Sometimes you will get lucky and find one that pays you a lot for a small amount of work but that is rare.
Amazon does not intervene between disputes and an employer can reject your work for simply no reason, having got the work for free. Unfortunately there is no system to prevent this such as rating stars so you will have to just give it a go and go with your gut. After working on MTurk for awhile you will notice the jobs are usually posted by the same users and you will be able to tell which users have paid you in the past. However getting your work rejected if you've followed all the instructions is very rare.
