The Entrepreneur Forum | Financial Freedom | Starting a Business | Motivation | Money | Success

Welcome to the only entrepreneur forum dedicated to building life-changing wealth.

Build a Fastlane business. Earn real financial freedom. Join free.

Join over 80,000 entrepreneurs who have rejected the paradigm of mediocrity and said "NO!" to underpaid jobs, ascetic frugality, and suffocating savings rituals— learn how to build a Fastlane business that pays both freedom and lifestyle affluence.

Free registration at the forum removes this block.

HUSTLIN HEATHEN

Contributor
Dec 5, 2018
33
56
Harlingen, TX
At some point, the crutches gotta come OFF.

My "crutch" was a shitty, dead-end minimum wage caregiving job I had held for 2 years. I broke that bitch like cheap chopsticks. Got myself fired. It was a F*cking blessing!

Now I get to fully focus on my E-Commerce venture I had put off for 2 years. I was too much of a pussy back then to follow through with my FastLane goals. Now it's balls to the wall, ALL OR F*ckING NOTHING.

So how do I do this without a 9-5 or savings?

Enter Amazon Mechanical Turk. (NOT an affiliate link)

If you're looking for a quick paying, "On Demand" job as @MJ DeMarco likes to call them (that's the term I was looking for, thanks) Turking is a great place to start.

It's a database filled with THOUSANDS (possibly a hundred thousand) daily tasks (aka HITs) which include surveys, transcriptions, proof-reading projects, data entry jobs and various other gigs posted by requesters.

I use the income to cover rent, bills, WiFi, gas, and most of my other necessities.

Not quite Fastlane, but not quite Slowlane either....and it'll DEFINITELY get your a$$ off the Sidewalk!

It's simply one of the BEST crowdsourcing platforms for new entrepreneurs.

If you disagree, you just don't know what the hell you're doing.

I've banked close to $5k in barely 5 months. And I was a NOOB.

MTURK%20EARNINGS.jpg

mturk-earnings-png.22860


Numbers don't lie.

In fairness, buddy of mine did show me the ropes last week of July. I picked up on it quick. So that's 4.5 months, with an earnings count of $4,879.35 to date. That's roughly $1,084 per month. $300-$400 per week.

If an Average Joe, non-techy guy like me can do it you sure as hell can too.

I'll be on here to answer any questions. I got lucky and was shown the ropes in detail. So I feel it's only right to pass on the favor.

HMU in my inbox for any questions.


Click this link to apply for an account --> Amazon Mechanical Turk

*DISCLAIMER* NOT EVERYONE GETS APPROVED FOR AN MTURK ACCOUNT. I was approved in 2 days. My buddy had to wait 8 months. You'll find out after applying on their website. They'll shoot you an email.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Attachments

  • MTURK EARNINGS.png
    MTURK EARNINGS.png
    35.7 KB · Views: 1,668

InspireHD

Gold Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
243%
Dec 9, 2014
516
1,254
I worked on Turk mostly doing surveys for .10 to .25 per survey. I think my best month was $30, but I was new to it and thought it was cool. It took up a ton of time. Over however long I did things, I probably made about $300. It got monotonous doing survey after survey after survey for only .10 or .25 at a time.

How many hours per day would you say you worked to eventually make that $300-$400 per week?

What was the bulk of the tasks that you were completing?

What did you find was the sweet spot for Value vs. Time?
 
  • Thread starter
  • Banned
  • #3

HUSTLIN HEATHEN

Contributor
Dec 5, 2018
33
56
Harlingen, TX
Download this extension:

MTurk Suite

MTurkSuite features the three main tools: HITFinder, HITCatcher, and HITTracker.

I was grinding out 8-10hrs a day my first couple weeks. There are certain requesters who release multiple, similar HITs with slight variations (called Batches). You can do one after the other, and they stack up.
 
  • Thread starter
  • Banned
  • #4

HUSTLIN HEATHEN

Contributor
Dec 5, 2018
33
56
Harlingen, TX
I'd say the "Sweet Spot" was when I'd catch $30-$50 HITs (usually 1-2 hour data entry tasks you could get with certain qualifications) then kicking back on some $0.50 batches and make $100+ that day :cool::cash::cash::cash:
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

PizzaOnTheRoof

Moving Forward
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
220%
Jul 30, 2018
1,218
2,682
Texas
Yeah I’d rather pick up a couple shifts at my job than work hours upon hours for what amounts to less than minimum wage after taxes.

Based on your $1k a month figure...

Let’s be generous and say you get 2 $50 gigs a week...that’s $100 a week ($400/mo)....so you have another $600 to earn on surveys...

Again being extremely generous and saying you’ll earn $.50 per survey....you’ll need to take 1,200 surveys to make that $600...

...that’s 38 surveys per day

...averaging 15 min per survey that’s 9.6 hours of survey taking which comes out to a grand total of...

...$3.40 an hour...(crickets)

Imagine if you spent those hours learning a new skill and grabbing a $1k a month client...

I know people have to start somewhere but at least do better than McDonald’s.
 

ZF Lee

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
180%
Jul 27, 2016
2,840
5,113
25
Malaysia
Let’s be generous and say you get 2 $50 gigs a week...that’s $100 a week ($400/mo)....so you have another $600 to earn on surveys...

Again being extremely generous and saying you’ll earn $.50 per survey....you’ll need to take 1,200 surveys to make that $600...

...that’s 38 surveys per day

...averaging 15 min per survey that’s 9.6 hours of survey taking which comes out to a grand total of...

...$3.40 an hour...(crickets)
Long ago, when I used to binge-read 'How to get rich/earn money young' articles online, taking surveys for some small cash was a common point in the articles.

I was too afraid to do it. I'd get stoned faster than weed would do to me doing those 'value-less' things.

I don't understand why companies want to toss out these surveys for. Marketing? Do the survey takers even represent their target demographic at all? Accurately? Without biases? Hope they aren't throwing money into the wind, every wasted penny adds up.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.
  • Thread starter
  • Banned
  • #8

HUSTLIN HEATHEN

Contributor
Dec 5, 2018
33
56
Harlingen, TX
Let’s be generous and say you get 2 $50 gigs a week...that’s $100 a week ($400/mo)....so you have another $600 to earn on surveys...

Again being extremely generous and saying you’ll earn $.50 per survey....you’ll need to take 1,200 surveys to make that $600...

...that’s 38 surveys per day

Yeah I’d rather pick up a couple shifts at my job than work hours upon hours for what amounts to less than minimum wage after taxes.

Based on your $1k a month figure...

Let’s be generous and say you get 2 $50 gigs a week...that’s $100 a week ($400/mo)....so you have another $600 to earn on surveys...

Again being extremely generous and saying you’ll earn $.50 per survey....you’ll need to take 1,200 surveys to make that $600...

...that’s 38 surveys per day

...averaging 15 min per survey that’s 9.6 hours of survey taking which comes out to a grand total of...

...$3.40 an hour...(crickets)

Imagine if you spent those hours learning a new skill and grabbing a $1k a month client...

I know people have to start somewhere but at least do better than McDonald’s.


It's $10 to $12 hourly on M-Turk. 8 hours a day, 5 days a week.

McDonald's? Really? Buddy a McDonald's cashier would shit all over your horrible math...LMAO

FYI: I'll cook and sell crack out of a coffee pot before I scrap for $3.40/hour. You trippin boy.

Maybe I wasn't clear enough:
HITs vary in duration and objective.
NOT ALL HITs ARE SURVEYS.
Surveys are only one category of HITs.


A $20, one-time HIT may take up to one hour.
While a $1.25 recurring HIT (part of a batch) may take a minute or less.

It all depends on the requester.

Take a gander.


HF 2.png

As you can see, each HIT pays differently.

In my opinion the most cost-effective HITs are the easy, high-paying HITs and batches that take no more than 5 minutes.

For example. In my second week of Turking, I made $300 off a $2.50 BATCH (a set of multiple HITs). Within ONE HOUR.

I bullshit you not.

Each HIT was a navigation test for the prototype of an RLS (Real-time strategy) computer game. 120 HITs total. 30 seconds to complete each HIT. NOT 15 MINUTES.

Knockin em down one after the other. While drinking beer and flirting with some cute, booty-shorts-wearing Latinas at a local Starbucks.

But hey, Turking isn't for everyone. Do what makes you happy.

I like my freedom. Working like a sprinter. Busting out 12 hours on M-Turk. Making my electric bill. Sleep. Wake up, do some coding for my E-Commerce website. Research / cold-call new dropshipping suppliers. List SKUs. Lift some heavy a$$ weights. Nap. Take a couple of Fiverr gigs, make $50. Sleep. Wake up, spar five rounds at my boxing gym. Beat up some young bloods. Hit the heavy bag. Run eight miles til I feel like dying. Go home, sleep. M-Turk for three days, make rent, eat, sleep. Repeat.



RECAP:

Each HIT pays differently.
HITs vary in duration and objective.

NOT ALL HITs ARE SURVEYS.
M-TURK is a useful source of EXTRA income. But it should only be the means to your end.

Hope that all made sense.
Hmu for any questions.

Your man,
Hustlin Heathen

**I EAT SLEEP AND SHIT EXCELLENCE**
 

whiz

Silver Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
356%
Nov 29, 2017
202
719
32
New Jersey
Keep sippin that haterade Bud :cool::bicep::bicep:

Yeah I'm hating hard

Super jealous of the guy that volunteers to listen to indie-alternative and answer a survey about it for $0.35

This is insanely slow lane unless you outsource it somehow, even then I don't see how you can make a legitimate business model off this

Maybe I'm missing something

At least you're messing around with other shit on the side

But you can put in 1/8 the effort you put into this Turk bullshit and land a client or two with a proper skill and some good marketing

p.s.

Where's this starbucks that lets you drink beer
 

Healthfulness

Bronze Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
222%
Oct 7, 2018
49
109
Denmark
wat a douche
You're just jealous of someone working "only" 8-10 hours a day and making whopping 1000$ !
*Edit . Didn't mean to be offending, but there is no excellence in doing surveys and $hit for 1000$ a month working full time. If I would be back in my home country (Eastern Europe) then It's pretty cool that I could make over average salary on my own terns, by doing simple online tasks. But for anyone from first world country It doesn't make sense (Scandinavia currently). No skill, no experience job pays 100+ per day after taxes, yeah, the job sucks, but You can work only 10 days a month to make the same amount and You have much more free time to work on fastlane projects.
Still, I bet many people will benefit from this, therefore It's super nice for sharing this.
 
Last edited:

HUSTLIN HEATHEN

Contributor
Dec 5, 2018
33
56
Harlingen, TX
Yeah I'm hating hard

Super jealous of the guy that volunteers to listen to indie-alternative and answer a survey about it for $0.35

This is insanely slow lane unless you outsource it somehow, even then I don't see how you can make a legitimate business model off this

Maybe I'm missing something

At least you're messing around with other sh*t on the side

But you can put in 1/8 the effort you put into this Turk bullshit and land a client or two with a proper skill and some good marketing

p.s.

Where's this starbucks that lets you drink beer

South TX, RGV! My slice of Paradise :fire: :palm:

The Valley's pretty chill. Most days are like a lazy, Mexican Oktoberfest. Beer, tequila, and bomb a$$ taquerias blaring country music or corridos on the radio.

At Starbucks I once poured myself a cup of Wild Turkey straight from the bottle. Staff saw, didn't care. Figured beer would be the same and was right. Plus the girls I were chilling with could handle their booze so we stayed sippinnn

How about Jersey? Is it really tanned up couples wilding out like fratboys?
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

HUSTLIN HEATHEN

Contributor
Dec 5, 2018
33
56
Harlingen, TX
You're just jealous of someone working "only" 8-10 hours a day and making whopping 1000$ !
*Edit . Didn't mean to be offending, but there is no excellence in doing surveys and $hit for 1000$ a month working full time. If I would be back in my home country (Eastern Europe) then It's pretty cool that I could make over average salary on my own terns, by doing simple online tasks. But for anyone from first world country It doesn't make sense (Scandinavia currently). No skill, no experience job pays 100+ per day after taxes, yeah, the job sucks, but You can work only 10 days a month to make the same amount and You have much more free time to work on fastlane projects.
Still, I bet many people will benefit from this, therefore It's super nice for sharing this.

What's your living situation? Just curious.
 

Vigilante

Legendary Contributor
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
596%
Oct 31, 2011
11,116
66,265
Gulf Coast
South TX, RGV! My slice of Paradise :fire: :palm:

The Valley's pretty chill. Most days are like a lazy, Mexican Oktoberfest. Beer, tequila, and bomb a$$ taquerias blaring country music or corridos on the radio.

At Starbucks I once poured myself a cup of Wild Turkey straight from the bottle. Staff saw, didn't care. Figured beer would be the same and was right. Plus the girls I were chilling with could handle their booze so we stayed sippinnn

How about Jersey? Is it really tanned up couples wilding out like fratboys?

Pretty sure you’re going to find your tribe at an Amway rally. Seriously. Worth investigating for you.
 

Healthfulness

Bronze Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
222%
Oct 7, 2018
49
109
Denmark
What's your living situation? Just curious.
Damn. Okay, I'll be honest. I'm studying and part time working, have small online business on the side and preparing for next one (bigger, atleast that's the plan). As I am in nice country I get money from school + salary + money from my online business (not much).
If I wouldn't be in school I would take part time job that covers living expenses and have even more time to work on projects.
I find my situation to be perfect, I can work very little and school is easy, therefore I can work on my projects pretty easily. Next year I'm planning to launch my projects and build my life on that.
So yeah, not rich, but in comfortable position to make considerably over 1000$ with little effort.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.
Last edited:

Primeperiwinkle

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
320%
Nov 30, 2018
1,645
5,261
Y’all! Every time you bump this post I am compelled to check it (because obvi I have no impulse control) and read your snarky comments. Shush it.
#yesishushedyou
#dontfeedthetrolls #landfill
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Fox

Legendary Contributor
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
Forum Sponsor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
690%
Aug 19, 2015
3,881
26,766
Europe
Moved to landfill.

I don't think being a survey monkey for 35c is building the skills or connections needed to move into the Fastlane.

Also very suspicious promoting from a low post count member.
 

whiz

Silver Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
356%
Nov 29, 2017
202
719
32
New Jersey
How about Jersey? Is it really tanned up couples wilding out like fratboys?

Jersey ain't too bad

Much like all cultures and subgroups, it's usually the loud attention whores that get the most attention, and thus define the group

Huge diversity over here, being the spillway of NYC
Lots of people lots of money

Shit weather this time of year though
 

MJ DeMarco

I followed the science; all I found was money.
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
445%
Jul 23, 2007
38,080
169,498
Utah
For now, I've moved this out of the Landfill to the Hustle/Freelancing forum per some community requests. That forum/category is more suited for these grinds where capital building is the starting point and not necessarily "Fastlane" or "CENTS".
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Duane

Silver Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
286%
Jul 23, 2015
339
969
30
Lakeland FL
If I had 0 knowledge and was starting brand new... I'd rather take a push mower and mow 4 lawns in 2 hours a day for $100.

I can knock on doors and get 20 customers pretty quickly and make $2,000/month working 10 hours total across 5 days a week. Or just knock all 20 out in one 10 hour day.

Minimize my expenses and then work on a fastlane business in all that spare time I now have.
 
Last edited:

3things

Bronze Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
172%
Jun 17, 2013
207
356
Canadia
There's a benefit to some people being turkers, obviously it's not really a long term solution but might be handy for someone stuck at home to make some cash. Or maybe kids.

It's the other side of the fence that could have some more value to fastlaners... You've got an army of cheap, on demand labour.

The posters of the surveys have probably sold a high priced consumer research outreach to some Blue chip for tens of thousands... And outsourced it for a fraction on mturk.

IMHO the gold is on the other side of the fence and figuring out how you can make use of that scale and automation, not laughing at it cos its less than min wage slavery.
 
G

GuestUser4aMPs1

Guest
That forum/category is more suited for these grinds where capital building is the starting point

I can understand the sentiment towards keeping this thread open. But this is hardly enough to live off of, let alone enough for "capital building" in the early stages of a Fastlane.

This may have been appealing when I was flat-out broke once upon a time, but knowing what I do now and as others have stated, there's just much better opportunities for an early stage entrepreneur to not only gain capital but gain the SKILLS necessary to succeed in the future. I can't say the same is true for the monotonous tasks common to MTurk.

I would be happy that this thread be #landfilled on the grounds that it's flat out detrimental advice to a new entrepreneur, and OP is acting like Ubermensch 2.0

IMHO the gold is on the other side of the fence and figuring out how you can make use of that scale and automation, not laughing at it cos its less than min wage slavery.

Exactly this. Turkers aren't entrepreneurs.
They're slaves living in the 7th circle of wage hell.

It'd be more interesting to see how op can now take his experience with MTurk and see what services he could realistically re-sell white label as a productized service and scale that way (in fact, I may run an experiment with what's stated below)

Here's a rough idea to chew on.
Listing on Fiverr ("I will transcribe your video"). Say, $30 for $30 Minutes.
Fiverr takes a 20% cut, leaving you with $24.
Outsource this task to a Turker for $4.
Deliver final product via Fiverr.

That's $20 profit for doing almost nothing. Multiply by as many orders you can get.
You can even add gasoline to this fire by tying Mturk's API in with Fiverr (via IFTTT) and completely automate the process of getting those Fiverr Orders in front of a workforce that can handle it literally as soon as an order is made.

Why be a cog when you can build a machine?
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

lowtek

Legendary Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
332%
Oct 3, 2015
2,164
7,186
42
Phoenix, AZ
I can understand the sentiment towards keeping this thread open. But this is hardly enough to live off of, let alone enough for "capital building" in the early stages of a Fastlane.

This may have been appealing when I was flat-out broke once upon a time, but knowing what I do now and as others have stated, there's just much better opportunities for an early stage entrepreneur to not only gain capital but gain the SKILLS necessary to succeed in the future. I can't say the same is true for the monotonous tasks common to MTurk.

I would be happy that this thread be #landfilled on the grounds that it's flat out detrimental advice to a new entrepreneur, and OP is acting like Ubermensch 2.0



Exactly this. Turkers aren't entrepreneurs.
They're slaves living in the 7th circle of wage hell.

It'd be more interesting to see how op can now take his experience with MTurk and see what services he could realistically re-sell white label as a productized service and scale that way (in fact, I may run an experiment with what's stated below)

Here's a rough idea to chew on.
Listing on Fiverr ("I will transcribe your video"). Say, $30 for $30 Minutes.
Fiverr takes a 20% cut, leaving you with $24.
Outsource this task to a Turker for $4.
Deliver final product via Fiverr.

That's $20 profit for doing almost nothing. Multiply by as many orders you can get.
You can even add gasoline to this fire by tying Mturk's API in with Fiverr (via IFTTT) and completely automate the process of getting those Fiverr Orders in front of a workforce that can handle it literally as soon as an order is made.

Why be a cog when you can build a machine?

Only possible problem I see with that is quality control. Not sure how high quality those mturk transcriptions are. I suppose give it a shot, and if quality is a problem just add a layer of supervision with a VA?
 

Envision

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
779%
May 5, 2014
861
6,707
5k in 5 months? That's excellence to you?

I made 5k today, it took 3 years to get to that point but I learned the skills, put in the work, and created something of value.

Don't you think you're time would be better spent doing anything else?
 

Post New Topic

Please SEARCH before posting.
Please select the BEST category.

Post new topic

Guest post submissions offered HERE.

Latest Posts

New Topics

Fastlane Insiders

View the forum AD FREE.
Private, unindexed content
Detailed process/execution threads
Ideas needing execution, more!

Join Fastlane Insiders.

Top