[Admin]

I was just wondering if any of you use mTurk to have content written.

I've been using them for a few months now, and I have content written very cheaply for me. I mean very good content too. People will write about any subject, answer questions, do specific tasks like find images, sort through catologues, and even do research all for pennies on the dollar compared to what most Internet Marketing outsourse places charge.

In case anyone is interested or doesn't know what mTurk is, it is a program that Amazon has and you can Google it.

Edited

Okay guys, I just ran a simple HITs project and got back fantastic results. I came up with over 40 plus controversial questions, with 10 answers (arguments for or agains) with 30 words or more for each question, in about an hour. The total cost was $15! Now that's not bad considering the amount of content I received.

Just think of what this can be used for regarding marketing, content for sites, and researching markets!

Lol I think this is the coolest tool I've used in years on the Internet. It is the cheapest, that's for sure.

[Synister]

Yes, I've been using them for a long time now. Matter of fact, that's how I get most of my content for my sites. They don't write full articles, but they do write paragraphs, and give tips and whatnot. Another thing they do is do my research for me! I love em!

[Kat Bartone]

Hey that looks like a great resource.

Would anyone happen to know this:

Say I wanted 10 articles written, different keywords, same topic area (let's just say weight loss for example, but it wouldn't be that).

Would I set this up as one HIT or ten HITS? If 10 HITS, can I make sure that all HITS go to the same person, so that there would be continuity and good flow among the ten articles?

Even after reading the user guide, it's not easy to see how the system works.

Thanks!

-Kat

[Admin]

Hi Kat,

You can do it either way. Either put up 10 individual HITs, or 1.

The only way to get the same person to do all of them is to get some people to write a couplf of short articles for you, then once you get their answers back, chose which writer you like. Then once you do that, you can put up another single HIT requesting that user ID to do the job.

To request a specific worker, all you do is put that worker's ID in the Title area - yes, you have to put in their ID number.

It's a bit awkward at the beginning, but once you get to know who does good work, you can start requestion them to do specific jobs for you.

Btw, mTurk workers respond to niches better than IM or plain marketing.

[Jeffery]

Mary,

Most excellent tip and kindly appreciated!

Jeffery 100% :-)

[stacyfox]

One of the interesting items I saw was "List a tip for a best man speech." The poster offered $0.26 for this and put out 100 hits. Think about that - with a little editing, you could take what you get from the posters and make an ebook "100 Tips for Best Man Speeches & Toasts" and sell it through clickbank! Super easy!

Stacy

[hiddentalent77]

That's amazing . It is very useful site as you will get a lot of stuff for a very small amount. You can use this site for your product reviews or for other tasks and you will get a real best quality sieved content. You can even you this website for writing articles for you which you can post to other websites to earn good income.

[aheismann]

I've used mTurk in the past, not to get content but to provide it. It helps fill time that I would just be surfing the internet with anyways, while providing some spare change. Some tips for people looking to use mTurk to get content:

1. Be very clear in your instructions.
You will get better results if you are very specific about what you are looking for. Include as much information as you can.

2. You get what you pay for.
Most turkers will avoid any hits that require you to write a 500 word article for $0.01. You may get someone willing to do it, but it will most likely be a rush job. Consider the amount of time your task will take and budget accordingly.

3. Judge fairly.
Try not to reject hits that attempt to meet the requirements. You will get people who do not read the instructions at all, and that's fine to reject. Please don't reject for a comma out of place in a two page article. There are mturk communities and turkers do talk. If you get the reputation of rejecting unfairly, people will start to avoid your hits.

[aryaman2008]

I have been working on mTurk and yes you are absolutely right,it's the cheapest tool around.Despite the low pays there are quite a few cheats around as requesters.Most of the people who get their work done are good but there are few cheats who just look for excuses to reject a work.

[vazrakar]

I agree with Mr.aryanman, many requestors pays the money to us, i am also worker for mturk, many pay, some delay in payments, and some people reject the work even if we are correct also, i had face the same problem with that, i put a message to the requestor he said that sorry for rejecting, i will give the bonus to you, if their reject the work simply , our efficiency reduces , why do their doesn't care of it .

[heathcole]

I have also done work thru mTurk. I can see that it is a great resource for both the requester and the worker. The only problem that I have noticed is that some requesters will make their instructions so vague, get your work, and then reject it unfairly. I have argued my case many a time on this and have a list of requesters that I no longer work for and have reported to Amazon. The bad part for workers is that there really is no retribution for unethical rejections. If you do not get paid, you are just out of luck and Amazon will not help you at all. I do not know if it is the same way for requesters or not.

[Admin]

Hi aryaman, vazrakar, and Heath

Yes, I know you guys get cheated quite a bit on the workers end, and don't think it's fair that you guys can't retaliate to Amazon about it.

I know I've only rejected 2 people's responses out of hundreds of HITs, but they earned it. The one guy didnt put any information into the box that was requested, and the other person responded with something that wasn't about the HIT I posted. He asked me questions about another subject.

And yes, requesters run into similar problems. We get people who try to cheats us just as much. Lol I don't know how many times I've paid people that tried to use someone else's info and name to answer HITs before I caught on. But I know longer accept these workers, and they know it.

[maya77]

I agree with most of the members that mturk is cheapest option for any type of content. I am also a worker for mturk but it is pathetic situation for workers when you do everything according to requester but still he rejects your work either due to his remiss behavior or because he don't want to pay you. This is ridiculous as it severely affects our efficiency.

[Wilson_M]

I haven't used Mechanical Turk myself, but a friend of mine said he got some awesome content for a few bucks, he said, that he was able to use like 60% of the content right away, while the rest needed to be edited. So, it looks like the people who do HITs really like to do a good job, even if the pay is only a few cents.

[bananas]

I think MTurk is amazing: for those on both ends. As mentioned you can get great work done for you for cheap. Plus think of the flexibility! So you want help with writing articles for your site, but you don't want the hastle of employees, MTurk is great because you don't have to worry about anything but paying for the exact amount of work you need done, when you need it done.

I also think its great for the workers because although it is not huge pay, it is immediate work. None of the hastle of the hiring process etc. As long as you turn in good quality work you've got a job. Think of a college student too broke to buy a movie ticket on the weekend, they just have to log on how and do however many hits it takes.

Just my 2 cents

[manmohan_02]

hi friends , I welcome all of you. I am also a worker at amazon mechanical turk and i used this site for working on many human intelligence task but it is very dissgusting that certain requesters reject your human intelligence task without actually paying attnetion to our work. they should understand it leads to higfh rejection rate.

[Funnymanlol]

mTurk is a very useful tool for online marketers. It is a great way to receive feedback quickly on all sorts of topics. The work done there can be of good quality too. Obviously some are not up to par, but typically you would be surprised with what they can create. Overall, this tool would be VERY cost effective for market research or affiliates.

[sonica]

Hello. I am a worker at mturk and work on different hits. It would surely help if requestors upped their pay and atleast paid the base rate which is a dollar for 100 words. People who work on hits have to spend time to submit good work. If I am writing an article I will have to spend time on researching the topic and looking for information which is new and different that my earlier work. So, if there are any requesters here, it would help if you paid reasonable rates or paid good workers with a bonus when they submit excellent work.

[Admin]

Originally Posted by sonica

Hello. I am a worker at mturk and work on different hits. It would surely help if requestors upped their pay and atleast paid the base rate which is a dollar for 100 words. People who work on hits have to spend time to submit good work. If I am writing an article I will have to spend time on researching the topic and looking for information which is new and different that my earlier work. So, if there are any requesters here, it would help if you paid reasonable rates or paid good workers with a bonus when they submit excellent work.

Hi Soniva,

Welcome to the Forum!

Yeah, I imagine it would be nice to get paid for the work at a reasonable rate. However, I know of no set base standard for payment. Matter of fact, mturk makes no suggestions on the matter, and I feel that's part of the problem. I also know that workers have the right to turn down any HIT they feel does not pay to their starndards. Perhaps this is why mturk has no set rates.

This being said, I know I put up a ton of HITs at mturk, and people say that I pay well for what they have to do. But then again, I don't request articles, I request small 30 word or more snippets on various subjects.

Btw, $1 per 100 words is still very cheap for the base of an article. You'd only be making $4 per 400 word article, and that is well below the standard most places charge for a service on the internet. Take the Internet Marketing arena for instance. $10 per 400 word articles is low. I've seen articles run for $15 and higher.

Makes me wonder why mturk workers don't branch out on their own by forming their own article writing service instead of settling for peanuts working at mturk. Lord knows there is always work available in this area. All a person has to do is get a customer base.