I entered law school because I had no idea what else to do with my liberal arts background. To my surprise, I developed a passion for public interest law; to my dismay, that area of the law is not particularly lucrative. Having attended college on a scholarship, I was ill-prepared for the penny-pinching that would mark my law school tenure and, in all likelihood, my future career. By May of next year I will be $120,000 in debt, and I expect to pull down between $40k and $50k a year. Fortunately, perhaps, I have no social life, and I live in a boring town with little to do but stay inside and read Wikipedia articles about 19th-century architects. So what’s a law student with a flexible schedule and limited budget to do but join Mechanical Turk? The money I’ve made so far is enough to pay for some pre-interview dry cleaning, if nothing else. And I have learned a great deal about areas previously unknown to me, like baby clothes sold on Amazon and the major publishers of fancy postcards. Now if only I could find a way to integrate “Experienced Mechanical Turk user” into my CV …

This is the memior of a klutz. A klutz who surrounds herself with other klutzes. It was the winter of 2006. I was a college freshman with a shiny new Macbook Pro, perfect for my major in Graphic Design. I loved that computer. Everything about it. And one day my roommate, and evil spawn of satan “Greta” decided to spill lemonade all over my laptop and not tell me. Needless to say, she bought me a new one. A brand new, shiny, MacBook Pro, the second one in my possession. It treated me well, got me through the good times and the bad. I think it became a part of me. Then, in the summer of 2009 there was a terrible accident. Wine was spilled all over the poor replacement and it was curtains for it. With the economy the way it is, I had to find some way to make money to fix it, right? Well after some research I stumbled upon Mechanical Turk. It was a godsend. Now I turk every day. It’s like an addiction. And I owe it all to being a klutz.

In the town where I live we have been hit hard by the recession. A lot of jobs have been taken away including mine. I want to get my wife the CD she has been looking for but unfortunately no store around here has it. What I have been trying to do is to earn enough money here on Mechanical Turk to but it for her from Amazon. I know it will take a while to do but in the end to see the look on her face it will all be worth it. My experience here so far has been very positive I am earning a good relationship with a couple of employers and starting to get ready to earn some bonuses. My qualifications are also growing quickly so I am opening up the door to more and more opportunities which will allow me to but this CD faster. If this proves successful for me I could look at continuing to do this to but more gifts for my relatives until I can get a steady job again when my schooling is done and I have a brand new career.

Show Me The Way To Go Home…. We’re broke right now – covering the bills and that’s about it. Nothing new there, then – a good proportion of the country is in the same situation, if not worse. However, my family lives overseas and my Mom is not well and cannot travel. Being able to earn a few bucks here and there online is a godsend. Every penny is going towards an airline ticket back to the Old Country. It’s so nice to be able to log onto an account and know you’re not going to get ripped off when you do the work…most of the time, anyway! I think some of the requesters are a little harsh in their rejections, but there’s no comeback. I guess that’s one way of getting us to do all those 1 cent hits – so we can build our acceptance rate back up. Turk is quite addictive, there’s no doubt about it. If you’d told me a couple of months ago that I’d be heading straight to the computer first thing in the morning to check on acceptances and see what’s new I’d have thought you were daft! There’s about $40 in the kitty right now. A long way from home, but gaining on it. It really is fun to watch the money accumulate, little by little. I’ve even opened another bank account to stop me from spending my Going Home Moolah  It’s also been fun to join the Turker Nation and learn from other Turkers – amazing what you learn there. I hear the Bagpipes calling…

Children have this innocence that we can only dream of. The world will rob them of this in time and it will never return. In the sweetest voice earlier today, my two year old daughter asked me “daddy, where’s my mommy?” How do I respond to this, she was about a year old when everything happenend. I’m sure she has no recollection of that night since she was asleep and stayed asleep throughout the whole fight, when I ended up telling my wife to go (all she wanted were the keys to the car, so I gave them to her). We haven’t seen her since, I talked to her once a few months later and told her I still loved her and she told me to “f*** off” so that was the end of it. I didn’t answer the question when my daughter asked me today, before I could say anything…..I don’t know how long I was silent thinking about the ’right’ answer, when my son told her “mom is at the doctor to get better before she comes back”. Now I’m stuck with either letting it go or shattering his dreams of her returning, in the eyes of a four year old, he only recalls the good things. Sometimes when he acts up and gets punished he tells me he wants me to go away and then his mom can raise him. He asked me once a few months ago where she was and my answer was “I don’t know”. Just an honest answer because she dissappeared again and I have no idea where she is. It’s an odd feeling knowing that she knows where we are but dissappeared again, only leaving me wondering when or if I will ever hear from her again. So back to the innoence of children, do I tell them the whole truth, or do I leave them with that wonderful hope in their mind that she may return. If I shatter their dream now, what will be their reaction, how will it affect them in the future, and if I leave them with the hope will they resent me for not telling them the whole truth. My daughter made it all better later in the day when she told me “daddy, you’re my mommy”. It all became clear…

I’m a country girl, born in michigan. A child of the 80s a teen of the 90s and an adult in the next millenium. Growing up in the country, I was in a tight knit community where I knew almost everyone in my small class;if not personally than by face and name.Was a part of the local girl scouts and youth group at church. Also did volunteer work and grew to love the area I grew up in, so much so that I didn’t want to live anywhere else. During school I had several great moments and made friends that lasted a lifetime and I still talk to. A few I’ve known since elementary and I have been able to keep in touch with through online( which is truely the miracle invention). Without it I would have lost touch with classmates years ago and would not have reunited with them. I was involved with some sports in high school, never really scored but it was the team effort I liked and the exercise I got that made it worthwhile. I even got to attend my prom on a riverboat which was memorable. Also, was involved in several groups in school which helped to give me self confidence. After high school and attended two colleges, learning alot at each one and making more friends. each step helping create the adult I am now. I was involved with church and in my studies. Now I am living back in my hometown with my own business and ready for what life has to give me. Still waiting to find mr right and start a new part of my life with a husband and children.

I am an insomniac It’s tough not being able to sleep at night. I dont know if it’s a medical condition, or I have just cultivated this habit over the years. I used to enjoy staying up late and watching the late night shows. Then along came the WWW. My ISP provided unlimited free access from 12.00AM - 8.00AM. So then i started watching sitcoms online! And after a while, I discovered I cant sleep till morning comes. Boy, then the sandman really hits you between the eyes. Anyways, mTurk definitely puts some use to the time I lay waste at night. It’s good to have some motivation. So I put in a good hour or two of MTURK and then usually turn in and dream of moolah :-)

Say it with me: “Amazon Mechanical Turk”. Sounds kinda strange, right? Right. I honestly can’t figure out how I stumbled upon this interesting website; I could probably just say that I found it while going through all the fun stuff on amazon, but no…I didn’t. Maybe it was just meant to be. WE were meant to be! Oh Mechanical Turk, how I love you so! You give me extra money for doing some simple and amazingly fun…okay, sometimes boring, tasks. Computers just can’t do the work I do, and I’m so glad that in a way, I feel like I’m kind of contributing to the power of the interweb. On occasion, I feel a bit cheap and used, but guess what? I like you. Lots! You’re fun. I’ve set a goal for myself to make at least a dollar (!!!) a day on this site and so far, I’m doing pretty darn good. Yes, I admit…it can get pretty tedious on occasion but I really think it’s worth it. Why? Well, because I can send my earnings to my bank account, or I can turn it into a gift certificate from amazon. Pretty awesome if I say so myself. I AM a Mechanical Turk. I’m not a machine; I’m an intelligent human with a brain and a desire for easy money and the ability to perform tasks within a short amount of time. Yep. I’m good at what I do and I’m having fun while I do it. I’m totally loving this site!

A tough couple of days on the Turk, as the usual sources of easy HITS seem to have dried up. Yesterday I pushed through some image tagging and identification tasks, combined some sentences, and did a variety of other odds and ends to make my quota. The usual quick and easy hits, image moderation, quick polls, and categorization, seem to be scarce and rapidly snapped up when they do appear. You have to wonder - Are there just a bunch of unemployed and students out there grabbing everything, or are the good old days on the Turk coming to an end?

I first heard about Mechanical Turk from National Public Radio, my addiction at the time. I was skeptical at first; as a college student, I had tried the whole pyramid schemes, online paid surveys, and all of the other marketing ploys that people use that just end up as junk mail in my e-mail inbox. So, the idea of an online tool that had me investing time in order to make money from anonymous benefactors seemed too good to be true. However, since NPR has never let me down before, I thought that I would at least give it a try. It was incredibly intimidating at first. The jobs were unfamiliar, and I had no way of knowing that it would actually be worth my time. I remember the very first HIT I took up; it was just one simple sentence that they wanted rewritten. It took me twenty minutes; I was so scared of screwing up, even though it was only worth five cents! Since then, I’ve done over 500 HITs in about a month. This has only added up to about $30, but as I stated before, I am a college student, so every little bit helps. This money allows me to splurg a little, to pamper myself with something online I otherwise would not be able to indulge in. It’s a nice feeling to buy a DVD or a book that you would have just been staring at longingly otherwise. It’s been a great experience and I recommend it to all of my buddies.