Need Instant Good Money, Who Doesn't?

August 25, 2009 7:39 PM

Is there anything similar to Mechanical Turk on the Internet?

When I say similar I am referring to being instant work and not like the freelance sites where you have to bid for work and wait around to see if you got accepted or someone else did.

Also, it would be nice if there was a site with instant work that was better-paying too.

Any other options out there, folks?

posted by VC Drake to work & money (5 answers total)

Textbroker.com

It's like the jobs on mturk where you write an article of a certain length and get paid per word except the pay is better and your article can't get rejected (you might have to revise it, but you will get paid).
posted by kylej at 7:57 PM on August 25, 2009 [10 favorites]

The best source of "instant" or shall we say on-demand work is to sign up with a call center provider that lets you log in from home whenever you have some time.
posted by dhartung at 8:40 PM on August 25, 2009

Textbroker, it should be pointed out, has a drop-down menu for 'country' on the author registration page, but it only contains one option - "United States". If you're located anywhere else, this may not be for you...
posted by Dysk at 5:07 AM on August 26, 2009

Brother Dysk, In a search I did, I saw references to Textbroker International. I'm not sure if it's up and running yet. On the Textbroker website, they say they will have an international site soon, but the search made it seem like it may already be there.
posted by VC Drake at 12:30 AM on August 27, 2009

The FAQ on their site says this:

What's a W-9 and why do I need to send one in?
As an independent contractor, the tax rules are different from a permanent position. We keep track of your earnings, and when they reach $200, we ask you to send in an IRS W-9 form. The form is required by the IRS when we submit our taxes for the year. If you do not send in an IRS Form W-9, you can still accept orders, but cannot request payoffs. If you reach $500 in earnings without a W-9, we will no longer allow you to accept orders until we have a W-9 form. We do this to stay compliant with the IRS.
One IRS form W-9 is sufficient. We do not need a new form every year.

What's a 1099 and when do I get one?
A 1099 is an IRS document that shows your earnings from our site. The IRS requires us to send this document out to those who have earned more than $600 with us. We send the 1099 out once a year in January with the total amount you have earned with us over the entire year.
Please claim all income earned with us on your taxes. Please consult a tax professional if you are unsure how to handle this income.
While we are happy to provide any necessary documentation, Textbroker is not a tax professional and cannot help you file your taxes.

This constant talk about the IRS and tax, without any provisos that they only apply to those based in the US, indicates that they only deal with US citizens. Also, Textbroker International is just the company name - nice and grand sounding, don'tcha think? :-P
posted by Dysk at 12:38 AM on August 27, 2009