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8 Tips & Tricks to Squeeze More Money From Mturk II
8 Tips & Tricks to Squeeze More Money From Mturk II
Tip #4
There is an unofficial Mturk forum called Turkernation which has discussions about many different aspects of Mturk – questions about pay, detailed discussions about different requesters, even a hall of fame/shame. Take a few minutes out of your busy Mturking schedule to check it out.
Tip #5
This is a tip that I’ve recently discovered myself. If you’re doing a batch of hits and the requester is adding more as you’re completing them (which happens frequently) and you momentarily run out of hits, you can try this:
Wait a minute until you think there might be more and then press the backspace button on your keyboard. One of two things will happen – you will get an error message that you’ve already completed the hit and there are no more available. Or, if there ARE more available, you will automatically ACCEPT the next hit (assuming you had the box checked in the first place) just as if you hadn’t run out in the first place.
This is important, because sometimes you’re competing with many, many others for the same few hits. Pressing the accept button won’t necessarily give you the hit because while you were looking at it, someone else had already accepted it and is merrily working on what could have been your hit.
But by pressing backspace (and then reload if you get the no more hits available message), you are already accepting the hit and don’t have to worry about beating anyone else. If there’s a hit, it’s yours.
Using this tip, I’ve significantly cut my down-time on certain hits – especially ones that trickle in.
Sometimes, you’ll get a yellow-box error message that states that there was something wrong with the hit and to reload. Reloading may give you another hit, but every time I’ve gotten that particular message, I had a hit accepted and ready for me. Just shift-right-click on the link that says “Hits assigned To You” and you’ll be taken to the errant hit.
Tip #6
This is one of those frustration-saving tips. I can’t count – and I know I’m not alone in this – how many times I’ve gone through a whole hit – usually a long one to boot – and as I went to turn it in saw that the box was grayed out.
The problem? Yep, you guessed it! The hit had not been accepted, and while I was busy doing work for no pay, likely someone else grabbed it and completed/got paid for it.
That’s when I feel like smacking myself upside the head for being a dum-dum.
So, don’t be like me, make SURE that you have accepted the hit (and checked the box underneath it if you want to be given more – if there is more) before doing it. If you think the hit will be gone before you’ve decided whether you actually want to do it, take it, evaluate it and then either do it or return it.
While Mturk does track your return/abandon rate, very few requesters even care about it. Many like it because it shows you’re careful and only do work that you think you can do well.
Tip #7 & 8
Tips’ 7 & 8 go together, so I’ll combine them.
Since you will be relying in part on the loading of web pages for your income, the best thing you can do is get a fast-loading browser. The best one that I’ve found that has the functionality I need is Google Chrome.
The only real thing it’s missing is the add-ons from Firefox. The only thing I use Firefox for – Turk related – is a refresh script for refreshing Turk Alert at 30 sec intervals rather than the standard 2 min. Remember, time is money.
The eighth tip is using multiple tabs and windows. Two things will help in this regard – a fast internet connection (really only about /day, something you can easily make on Mturk) and dual monitors.
I do not personally use multiple tabs to have multiple hits open at once, that’s just inviting trouble. You can be banned for missing the captcha (the word that pops up every 25-35 hits). Not typing it wrong. You get a couple of chances for that and then a 5-min ban. No, I’m talking about having too many hits taken and you don’t see that the just-completed hit produced a captcha and you’re already completing the captcha-less hit that you accepted earlier.
However, I do have tabs open for several other things. I have a tab for my daily status, I have one for a spreadsheet that I use to keep track of how much money I’ve made (assuming no rejections), I have one ready so that I can copy/paste the link from my Firefox browser and other various non-turk-related websites.
Bonus Tip —
Be quick.
That’s it. While you’re evaluating whether or not to do the hit, someone else may just snatch it out from under you. The other part of being quick is when accepting the hit. If it’s a hit with great competition, try to accept the hit as fast as you can. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t get it, but be ready to try again.
That wraps up my tips for making more money using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Just remember that you CAN have fun while making some extra money on the side. Also, there are websites like mturk that offer a similar service.
Check out my other links on this subject:
8 Tips & Tricks to Squeeze More Money from Mturk
What is Mechanical Turk (Mturk)?
How to Make Money Transcribing for Castingwords Part I
How to Make Money Transcribing for Castingwords Part II
Written by akeetlebeetle
Article Writer/Mturker
Tags: from, Money, More, Mturk, Squeeze, Tips, Tricks
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