Pro-Soup Propaganda

Mechanical Turking and Making Some Moolah

I'm still making it my goal to be done with going through my things and getting rid of as much as possible before the new year. I've gotten rid of two things recently that were a little hard to let go, my custom-made Beauchamp knife and pink iPod Mini, although having the money is nicer than having two expensive things that I'm not using or displaying. Would I rather have this stuff or would I rather sell them and put the money in my Antarctica fund? Yeah, kayaking with minke whales wins over random things.

Some of my books weren't selling on Amazon or Half.com and so I decided to trade them in for Amazon credit. Once they receive my books and process the credit I'll have about $67 to purchase something on Amazon with. I've been doing a lot of researching and soul searching and I have decided I am going to get a Kindle Touch with my funds. (I love my books and I'm not going to get rid of all of them, but I don't want to start adding more "stuff" back into my life since I've been trying to get rid of it. If you want to know more reasons why I made my decision I'm happy to elaborate. I was pretty hesitant for a *long* time on e-readers.) The best part is that I won't have to pay the difference between the $99 and my $67. No, my friends, I've upped my Mechanical Turking.

Wait, huh? I am one of the only people who seems to know what Amazon's Mechanical Turking is, but it's an easy way to make money (actual money that can be deposited in your bank account) or Amazon credit. Basically you're doing all sorts of tasks called "hits" in exchange for money. There are hits that pay a penny, there are hits that pay $44. I made $5 in 20 minutes by listening to four different recordings of people reading passages from books to vote on who I thought would make a great audiobook reader and who needed to work on their speaking. I usually go for the hits that pay 75 cents or $1 because they are often quick to complete and the money adds up quickly.

Not counting the hits that have not been approved yet (after which then I'll get payment) I made:
*December 6 - $9.11
*December 7 - $13.86
*December 8 - $2.50

I still have 24 more hits pending, with a dollar amount probably in the $15+ range.

Granted, yes, Turking takes time, but time is what I have a lot of right now, so Turking for a couple of hours isn't taking too much time away from doing other things (like housework, which is obviously completely thrilling). Would I rather spend real money that I really don't have too much of or would I rather spend some time doing menial tasks? The Kindle is at this point paid off and I will be ordering it as soon as my trade-in funds post and I've also made enough in my Turk account to buy a couple books. I plan on Turking whenever I have some free time to help make some money for my Antarctica fund.

You can rest assured this isn't a scam. I've been doing this off and on since 2008. I've received payments from Amazon in my bank account, which is basically like any other selling of books and such I've done on Amazon recently.

If you have any questions about Mechanical Turking I'm happy to answer them!