Is it just me.....what's up with the disconnect?

[Arnold Palmer]

I joined mTurk in June 2016 after doing a search for ways to earn online. First month $650 and I've been getting around $900 since with December being a little less. I also signed up for Crowdsurfwork and do about $30 a week there.

So I'm unbelievably happy, credit card debt is almost gone and I've booked my first vacation in years.

I decided to look for fellow turkers to see if I could get some tips to take it to the next level in 2017. But the Reddit sub and a bunch of blogs all said you earn pennies, it's not worth it, the work is horrible. In fact on Reddit you get down voted into oblivion if you say that you earn anymore than a few bucks a day. People on the work online sub are even more vicious and tell every poster who looks for advice to forget it and get some hours at Walmart. I was confused and a bit nervous that I was doing something wrong or I was mistakenly given access to a secret work database that wasn't meant for my eyes. I was starting to worry that Amazon would come looking for the money back. Then I found this forum and you guys are beasts. Most of you are doing way better than me so I know it's not just me but I still feel a bit of disconnect. This has been 'easy' for me. I'm so glad I didn't find any of those places before jumping in because I would have never joined.

I'm sure you guys have noticed this or maybe you just come here and ignore the negativity out there. Anyway not sure if we all have some personality trait that makes us compatible with the site or other people are too busy trash talking to get really stuck in........ Glad I've found you because I'm setting new goals seeing some of your daily estimates!!

 

[jml]

I think a lot of it is because of a daunting first impression and the learning curve. I've seen a bunch of people who join mturk and they just see the receipt hits that pay really poorly on the first page so they end up thinking, "how does anyone make more than $3 a day off of this? And why would you do that to yourself even if you could?"

So then they just assume mturk is full of nothing but those hits. Add that to the fact that any new turkers in 2016/2017 are going to be at a huge disadvantage without a forum/reddit/scripts to find new hits. There's a reason a lot of new turkers have to use long guides to figure mturk out.

And welcome to MTC!

 

[Yuk]

I joined mTurk in June 2016 after doing a search for ways to earn online. First month $650 and I've been getting around $900 since with December being a little less. I also signed up for Crowdsurfwork and do about $30 a week there.

So I'm unbelievably happy, credit card debt is almost gone and I've booked my first vacation in years.

I decided to look for fellow turkers to see if I could get some tips to take it to the next level in 2017. But the Reddit sub and a bunch of blogs all said you earn pennies, it's not worth it, the work is horrible. In fact on Reddit you get down voted into oblivion if you say that you earn anymore than a few bucks a day. People on the work online sub are even more vicious and tell every poster who looks for advice to forget it and get some hours at Walmart. I was confused and a bit nervous that I was doing something wrong or I was mistakenly given access to a secret work database that wasn't meant for my eyes. I was starting to worry that Amazon would come looking for the money back. Then I found this forum and you guys are beasts. Most of you are doing way better than me so I know it's not just me but I still feel a bit of disconnect. This has been 'easy' for me. I'm so glad I didn't find any of those places before jumping in because I would have never joined.

I'm sure you guys have noticed this or maybe you just come here and ignore the negativity out there. Anyway not sure if we all have some personality trait that makes us compatible with the site or other people are too busy trash talking to get really stuck in........ Glad I've found you because I'm setting new goals seeing some of your daily estimates!!

I can only speak from my own opinions and views on this question

I mostly ignore the negativity. From my understanding, the general userbase that uses and browses sites like the subreddits are the younger generation and have the stereotype of wanting things handed to them. Stereotypes are not fair, but there is an observed truth of some sort that they originate from. I feel many of those people looked at mturk and saw the work and dedication needed to make anything off of it, however small that learning curve may be when supplemented by the various forums and communities to help.
Or if they are even aware there is any learning curve and they just looked at a Brelig and stopped there. I feel a certain need for money is also needed for people to look and research beyond the Brelig as well. Or beyond even the subreddits because that appears to be an additional filter before even the Brelig.

That negativity will remain as long as there are people that read the info they spread and take it at face value.
Someone can attempt to set them straight, but those that do attempt get shot down as you mentioned. I will never consider trying. If they decide not to work here, that's their choice. If they try it out and research a little and make some nice cash off it like you have, that's great too. It's all down to individual choice, from working on mturk itself down to the very tasks themselves, which I love so much.

But I'll worry about myself, they can worry about themselves

 

[Hotlamp]

Like anything that people do or work on there will be people who are good at it and those that can't figure it out/refuse to learn/ or just generally want things handed to them because they think its too hard.

With all the information on turking on the internet if you end up turking badly and not making good money then its mainly on you because you refuse to use the resources out there. Often those people will blame something else or just drop turking all together.

I spent a week looking up information before my mturk trial was up and my first real work day I made $50+. Now I can pull 100 every weekday if I wanted to just grind it out and do it, but I don't need to and am happy with having short work days aiming for 50+. Did I still not turk optimally for awhile? Yes. Do I still have things to learn? Yes. But the difference is that I care enough to actually apply myself to do so.

I think the main issue is that people hate working/learning something and just want it to be easy. Thats why there are so few people in high end areas for anything. People hate learning curves.

 

[Arnold Palmer]

Those are all great points. I hadn't thought about it from the perspective of people expecting to have the hits handed to them but now that you mention it I think many of those posters are getting every HIT through HWTF type subs which proves the point.

I did find the guides here and I'm learning so much. 98% of my earnings come from surveys so I'm trying to change that this year and get comfortable with batches. I have to say mTurk has lit my fire again. I was stagnating in my job and bored to tears. I've learned more from turking in a few months than I did at work the past decade. Really got my self confidence and pride back. Not looking forward to explaining turking to employers of I make the leap and switch jobs. Lol!