What: Mechanical Turk asks people to complete “human intelligence tasks” (HITS) for pay so low that no intelligent person would agree

Expected pay: pennies

Husl $core: $

Commissions & fees: NA

Where: National

Requirements: A computer and time to waste

Review:

The idea behind Mechanical Turk is that humans can sometimes do things better than machines. (Go figure.) Thus, if someone needs to pick the best photograph in a series; or gather details from shopping receipts, they can request the service of a Mechanical Turk and pay you to do the task.

The problem is that the pay — pennies per task — is an insult to anyone who truly does believe that humans can do things better than machines. Wikipedia estimates that Turkers earn $1 per hour. Please tell me you have something better to do with your time. (Sorry for using my Mom voice.) 

Pretty much every work opportunity on SideHusl is better than this one.

If you need telecommuting work, look at the design, drawing, surveys, tech help, web design and virtual assistant categories. Artists also should consider the “sell art” category. If you can show up in person, you are likely to find reasonably paying positions in animal care, child care, cooking, driving, delivery, eldercare and tourism. 

What Turkers say:

“Better requester and pay needed. There are hundreds of jobs available, but the pay is merely a couple of cents per hour.”

“There are a lot of very low paying HIT’s that only pay pennies that are fairly brainless but there are some higher paying opportunities of several dollars for a couple minutes. Personally I work a few hours a week and always reach my $100/month goal, many months breaking $150-$250 dependent on work availability and how much I put into it.

“Amazon Mechanical Turk is a very slow, extremely boring way to make money. You make 20-75 cents an hour. I only recommend this site to desperate people.”