If you're like me and have too much time on your hands, and not enough money, you may want to try a few of these things if you aren't already. Much of this is going to be a rehash of material you might find on /r/beermoney, so you may check there for more information. I should mention that these methods are not a substitute for a job, but they can be done usually quickly and pay for things like groceries. Something to keep in mind $.1 per minute is $6 per hour. You should probably not shoot for lower than that unless you think it will unlock something that pays more than that.

General Crowdwork The kind of work that you generally associate with mTurk. Sometimes it's surveys, sometimes it's training AI, and sometimes it's things like giving feedback on products. Usually it's pretty low paying, but that's not always the case.

  • mTurk The original crowdwork website. Used to be peoples' go to for easy work, but is pretty barren nowadays due to Amazon's neglect. You can probably still make a few bucks per day on there through surveys and some batch work if you put in effort. More work becomes available as you pass certain "qualifications" like amount of tasks completed successfully. You can take a few qualification tests here if you want to get a start on work that might otherwise be closed to you. If you're feeling stuck on your overall amount of approved HITs (tasks), I'm going to include a list of requestors that approve pretty readily. Check /r/mturk to learn a bit more about it because its design is a bit arcane at this point.

Requestors that I use:

  • MLDatatlabeler : Requires taking an approval qualification. One of the only decent batch requestors left on the site. Tasks are almost all "bounding box" AI training. Pay is usually pretty low, but occasionally you can find some work that pays $15 an hour or so. I think this is an official Amazon account, but I'm not sure.

  • Pickfu / Sellametrics: Give your opinion on products without the threat of being screened out

  • Audiokite: Give your thoughts on largely folk bands

Caution:

  • p9r : Long time requestor that now bulk rejects work

  • Ooga: For profit surveys. Can pay, but you might find yourself screened out of most work.

  • Prolific The gold standard in online studies at the moment. Pretty consistent work with decent pay ($6 to $13 usually). There is no wait-list for this anymore to my knowledge, so you should be able to just get started. More information here: https://old.reddit.com/r/ProlificAc/

  • CloudResearch Connect Direct competitor to Prolific with similar pay but less work. You can usually find studies posted here during normal 9 to 5 weekdays. Any other time is going to be pretty sparse. The main difference is that you can rate the "requestors" at the end of each survey. More info here: https://old.reddit.com/r/CloudResearchConnect/

  • Swagbucks Very low paying site largely based around surveys for products, as well as clicking affiliate links. You can also submit receipts for cash back on your groceries. Has been around for 2 decades or so. I used to use this to pay for my World of Warcraft subscription.

  • Paid Viewpoint Another product based survey site. You may get screened out of some of the surveys.

  • Intellizoom Another product based survey site. Owned by the same company that runs Usertesting. I got screened out of so many surveys on this that I gave up on it, but it is an option if you think you can game it.

Project focused

  • UserTesting Test websites for cash. I've never used this, but I've heard that it's a bit more time and attention intensive. It is likely higher paying.

  • Data Annotation Largely AI training. Has a preliminary test prior to getting approved. Supposedly high paying, but I've never been approved due to their likely long wait-list.

  • UHRS Microsoft's AI training site. The layout is pretty frustrating, but the pay can be on the higher end.

  • Dscout Video interview based marketing research. More time consuming, but can pay pretty well.

  • Appen

  • Focus groups: Can be found online and are usually the highest paying

Transcription Transcribe audio clips into text. Usually labor intensive with bad quality audio clips.

  • Rev Extremely detail oriented and doesn't pay a ton, but it is an option for steady work.

  • Crowdsurf

Cash Back

It's kind of like a credit card rewards program, but you have to submit your receipts. Most of these largely cater to grocery purchases.

  • Ibotta

  • https://fetch.com/

  • https://receipthog.com/

  • Credit Card Cash back programs: You can probably find one that pays back anywhere from 2-3% if you put in a little effort. Worth it if you pay for everything via credit card anyway.

Free cryptocurrency

Usually involves watching a 1 to 3 minute video and answering a few questions. Can be extremely sporadic. Check coinbase and coinmarketcap occasionally to find these.

Passive income

This will usually involve already having some cash to spare, but you also don't have to do anything.

  • Savings accounts are currently paying around 5% APY
  • $SPY's dividend is usually around 3-4%. You can also try $SCHD which is like a dividend stock exclusive version of $SPY, but you might find that the overall performance is worse.
  • I bonds (US Treasury notes) are guaranteed to beat inflation over their lifespan.
  • Foreign bonds: No idea on how to do this legally, but countries like Brazil are paying 12% APY on their bonds right now. Might be an option if you want to do a little research.

Miscellaneous

  • Sign up for class actions (These usually take years to settle, and might not pay out at all YMMV)

  • Drop shipping?

Skill based

  • Smut writing
  • Drawing porn (furry or otherwise)
  • Graphic design
  • Translation work
  • "Bug hunting" Involves finding and reporting problems with the code in websites. YMMV.

Online jobs with hours and the like You may also see /r/workonline for more information

If you have your own suggestions, please add them below.

  • D61 [any]
    ·
    26 days ago

    There is a way to find and take some of the qualification tests without having to contact anyone,

    You can, when there is a Qualifying Test or Request Permission option, click on the button for HITs that you don't yet qualify for and there'll be a list of criteria and their codes with a link to the Test or Request. But it has been my experience that I rarely get any indication of what my test results were and none of the HITs that I expected to be available had I been approved show up.

    Can you drop the names of a few requestors that you think might be beneficial to people (and are able to be accessed)?

    I'll see about paying more attention to the Requestor's names and the HIT requirements and make a short list later. Give me something else to do while I do my "almost but not quite bullshit" paying job. I guess a "Naughty/Nice" list will be on them with Christmas coming up.

    Has Amazon ever given you a hard time about the VPN? It was my understanding that they'd ban you for that.

    So, when I had a Windows OS and the NordVPN application installed, I would just be straight up blocked from being able to log into mTurk if the VPN was on. The log in screen would load to a looping, "Verify Your Identity" screen.

    Cellphone hotspot with a VPN running: Haven't had any problems logging into mTurk, accepting HITs, or having submitted HITs rejected. So I'm guessing that, as long as it doesn't seem like I'm using a VPN to get around a HITs attempts to limit submissions by IP address or by Day or whatever... nobody is going to care. Though I'd probably try to pick a server near where you've told Amazon you actually live just to be on the safe side. Especially since some of the HITs have geo-location criteria.