(2014-03-18) Failing To Make A Living By Microtasking

A failed experiment a Making A Living through the MicroTask market. I make $1.94 an hour. Research suggests most people, like me, aren't making substantial income off their Mechanical Turk work. Only 8% of workers surveyed by researchers at the University of California, Irvine, said that Mechanical Turk income always helped them meet their basic needs... That week, I make $166 on Task Rabbit, which is $46 above the median active Task Rabbit in my neighborhood. I also made $100 in cash from the tutoring job that started on Task Rabbit but was paid off the platform.

Jul23 update: Task Rabbit has changed its entire business model without warning anyone. As of two weeks ago, the company no longer uses the bidding system. Each Rabbit is pegged at an hourly rate, accessible only via smartphone, and expected to be available immediately, a la Uber. If you can't commit to a task within 30 minutes, it moves on to someone else, reassigned via computer. Tasks that don't fall within generic categories like moving, cleaning, or food delivery are discouraged. Rabbits are matched with people looking for help via yet another mystical algorithm, removing whatever personal connection eager users enjoyed.