Getting into scripts - is it really as difficult as it seems?

Supadave

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Hi guys, I apologize if this issue has been addressed before, I've spent a few hours reading the guides on here and haven't really gotten a clear answer.

I started MTurking in 2012 and have not used scripts, I would make nickles and dimes and it was all so disheartening. I stopped using MTurk after a couple months or so and now I'm unemployed and decided to give it another shot. I have been using MTurk Suite (only this) for about 3 months now and it still takes me on average 5 hours to get 10 dollars. I know how to use the block function for requester's and HITs, I know how the HIT catcher works, I understand how the search parameters work, so why am I still struggling for 10 dollars a day?

I have to be missing something. I mostly do surveys since they pay the most, and I tried some of the faster 0.10 or 0.05 etc HITs and it resulted in rejections for no reason so I quit that asap and blocked the requester. I have 1400 approved hits with 8 rejections (from the same requester) so I should at least be getting some decent hits, right? 99.4% approval rating doesn't seem bad. How are you all seem to be making so much more money? I mean don't get me wrong, some days I do really well (my highest day ever, working 12 hours on Mturk was $38) but those are extremely rare. How do I do it consistently?

It's got to be the scripts right? I am so lost. I mostly lurk because I don't like to take time away from other people and I don't like the attention but this is really starting to bug me. I am so focused and thorough with every HIT I do on Mturk, I feel I should be getting a much greater compensation than what I am now. Is there any comprehensive guide to which scripts you want and how to use them for maximum profit? I've found a few requester's that I like and put them in my include list but they hardly ever post.

Sorry for the long post, I'm not so good a writer and I'm very often redundant so I apologize for that. Can anyone help guide me in the right direction here? The information is all over the place and it's really really difficult to follow.

Thank you for reading,
Dave
 
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Yes, scripts are vital. If one requester rejects you, stop doing jobs for them. Try a different requester. It's hard making good money, or even reasonable money. You have to be on top of things. Focus on requesters that are posting in the last 15 minutes. No point trying to grab jobs for requesters that aren't posting jobs. Work every day. Learn something new every day. I've been doing this daily for 11 months now. Still learn something every day to make working more efficient. But... it's summertime at the moment. It's pretty slow I think. September onwards will be much better. But start now. No point starting "tomorrow". Good luck!
 

TotalBabe

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HITs disappear very quickly after being posted nowadays (even the mediocre ones). Too many people grabbing at too little work, I guess. It wasn't quite so bad in the past as it has become now.

As far as Hit Catcher goes, I wouldn't recommend trying to catch more than three HITs at once. That way, you'll have a much better chance of catching them.
 

Achilles2357

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Hi guys, I apologize if this issue has been addressed before, I've spent a few hours reading the guides on here and haven't really gotten a clear answer.

I started MTurking in 2012 and have not used scripts, I would make nickles and dimes and it was all so disheartening. I stopped using MTurk after a couple months or so and now I'm unemployed and decided to give it another shot. I have been using MTurk Suite (only this) for about 3 months now and it still takes me on average 5 hours to get 10 dollars. I know how to use the block function for requester's and HITs, I know how the HIT catcher works, I understand how the search parameters work, so why am I still struggling for 10 dollars a day?

I have to be missing something. I mostly do surveys since they pay the most, and I tried some of the faster 0.10 or 0.05 etc HITs and it resulted in rejections for no reason so I quit that asap and blocked the requester. I have 1400 approved hits with 8 rejections (from the same requester) so I should at least be getting some decent hits, right? 99.4% approval rating doesn't seem bad. How are you all seem to be making so much more money? I mean don't get me wrong, some days I do really well (my highest day ever, working 12 hours on Mturk was $38) but those are extremely rare. How do I do it consistently?

It's got to be the scripts right? I am so lost. I mostly lurk because I don't like to take time away from other people and I don't like the attention but this is really starting to bug me. I am so focused and thorough with every HIT I do on Mturk, I feel I should be getting a much greater compensation than what I am now. Is there any comprehensive guide to which scripts you want and how to use them for maximum profit? I've found a few requester's that I like and put them in my include list but they hardly ever post.

Sorry for the long post, I'm not so good a writer and I'm very often redundant so I apologize for that. Can anyone help guide me in the right direction here? The information is all over the place and it's really really difficult to follow.

Thank you for reading,
Dave
There is no one big secret that explains how to do better at mturk.
However, if I had to offer three general tips, I'd suggest:
1) You are right, on some level everything depends on scripts and extensions. But there is no one set that will make things easy, since everyone has slightly different styles, and mturk and requesters are constantly changing, and if someone figured out some strategy that worked brilliantly for them they would probably not make it public. It is not just a matter of what scripts to use, but how you use them. I currently use MTS, for instance, and I've realized there are many, many different nuances to how you can actually use it, and tweaking them can yield good results.
2) There are tons of useful pieces of advice to be found in the broader mturk community (even if many turkers do not share everything they know, and reasonably so). Trying to figure out mturk on your own will get you nowhere, but you won't find any single guide either. You'll have to pay attention to many different ideas and see if they work for you.
3) Actively trying to get better at mturk is part of mturk. You can't just do it passively (unless you are making as much as you want or need).

The very best people at mturk are all skilled javascript coders, I'm sure, but I have no idea how much they make, since I am not one of them right now. But it is absolutely possible to make much more than $10/day without knowing much or any javascript at all.

I'd suggest that you keep turking, and keep watching for tips, and try them, and slight improvements over time will become larger improvements.
 
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Supadave

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Hey thank you guys for the replies! I do MTurk seriously not passively. I do make sure I spent at least 3 hours a day on it and I force my goal of $10 a day, so I'm not slacking on it or anything. I still try to go beyond that but it's much more work. So from what you people are saying is just to keep at it, and search for tips every so often? I just have a few more questions.

Is there anything anyone would like to recommend for my arsenal of scripts? All I use is MTurk Suite right now, if anyone can point me to some more useful scripts I can use with MTS that would be great, I'll learn how to use it.

Right now I check TO and if their score on fairness is below 3 I don't do their hits. What would be recommended for deciding whether or not to do a requester's HIT or not?

I'm going to keep at it and keep trying different things, and I really appreciate the replies! Thank you so much for taking the time to give me some useful feedback!!