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My Experience of Earning Online With Microworkers

Find out about my experience of earning online with Microworkers.

Find out about my experience of earning online with Microworkers.

Having reviewed Amazon MTurk and given my article on Amazon Mechanical Turk tips, I thought it would be interesting to review another site that was recommended to me as a way of making money online.

Microworkers is another crowdsource site, where you undertake basic tasks (known as “jobs” in this case) such as liking someone’s youtube video, writing a short article, or clicking on webpages. In return, you receive payment. It's a relatively easy way of making money online.

The basic principle is the same as with Amazon Mechanical Turk, although instead of getting your reward in the form of Amazon giftcards, or having cash paid directly into your bank account, your Microworkers earnings are paid into your PayPal account.

Below is my list of the pros and cons of earning online with Microworkers.

the-pros-and-cons-of-making-money-with-microworkers

PROS of Earning With Microworkers

  1. The Microworkers site has a professional and attractive layout and it’s easy to navigate. It definitely made a positive impression on me when I first visited and I found it easy to browse through the Microworkers jobs.
  2. They pay a dollar into your Microworker’s account just for joining. Everybody likes a freebie, including me, and making money, even if it's only a buck for no work is always a plus! The only slight drawback is that you can’t actually access your dollar yet (see con no.5).
  3. Some of the Microworkers jobs on the Microworkers site pay better than on other sites. For instance, favoriting someone’s youtube video will often pay 30 or 40 cents on Microworkers, in my experience, whereas you may get as little as 2 cents on Amazon Mechanical Turk. Making money with Microworkers jobs is certainly easier in some areas (though not in others).
  4. When you look at the list of Microworkers jobs available on the Microworkers site, they tell you what proportion of workers who’ve done a job previously have been successful. This is a really useful tool if you want to make money, as it can help you to decide if you want to take that job, or not. (Why they don’t do this on MTurk, I really don’t know!). There are other ways to maximize your Microworkers income which I highlight in my Microworkers tips.
  5. Microworkers payments go into your PayPal account, where you can either spend your money directly at PayPal friendly websites, such as eBay, or link it to your bank account and get it transferred there. This is convenient and useful and if you haven’t already got a PayPal account, you can open one for free (there are many sites for making money online who use PayPal, so I would seriously consider it!). Be aware that it can take time for the bank transfer to be set up, however - at least it did in my case - see con no. 6!
-top-ten-tips-for-making-money-from-amazon-mechanical-turk

CONS of Earning With Microworkers

  1. There aren’t that many Microworkers jobs available on Microworkers site in my experience. Typically, there are just a few hundred available at any one time. Compare that with MTurk where there can be over a 100,000 hits on offer. That means that making money online on Microworkers is usually not a fast way to make money and can be much slower than with MTurk, in my experience. Also, because of the scarcity of jobs on the Microworkers site, you quite often see the same old requests hanging around for days on end, when browsing through the list of available jobs.
  2. Unfortunately, the problem with scams aimed at workers appears possibly even worse at Microworkers than that at MTurk. I would be certainly wary of giving out your personal details to anyone advertising jobs on any of these websites, including the Microworkers site. You run the risk of getting scammed or suffering identity theft. The fact that that these sort of jobs are advertised gives the site a slightly seedy quality, methinks, though I have no doubts about the honesty of the site owners.
  3. On top of all the scams aimed at workers, there seem to be far too many “dodgy” Microworker jobs on offer that are aimed at the general public, it seems to me. At best these sort of jobs effectively involve spamming other websites and forums with hyperlinks and adverts etc. on behalf of the job requester. At worst, some of these Microworker jobs may well just be scams and nobody wants to run the risk of perpetrating some sort of scam on an innocent member of the public!
  4. There aren’t a lot of medium paid Microworker jobs ($1 or $2) where you just have to fill out a survey, or write a short article on the Microworkers site, in my experience. If you read my Amazon Mechanical Turk article, you’ll know that these are the sort of jobs that I like best!
  5. You can’t access any of your earnings until you reach the minimum withdrawal rate, which is $10. This didn’t seem to me to be too bad at first, especially when you consider that some other casual earning sites like, say, Inbox Dollars, have minimum payouts of $30. However, given the scarcity of Microworkers jobs on offer, making money can be relatively slow on the Microworkers site, in my experience, which can make the $10 minimum seem like a mountain to climb.
  6. Getting your money transferred to your PayPal account can take weeks. This is not a major problem, if you are aware of it, but can be very frustrating if you are in need of the money and not expecting it. I talk about it more in my article: Microworkers scam: are accusations about payment problems justified?

Update

I found myself using Microworkers less and less, and I stopped using it altogether in 2013, although I do still have an account with them.

There were a number of issues that frustrated me and ultimately led me to the conclusion that the negatives outnumbered the positives, regarding working for them.

  • The nature of the jobs. I never felt comfortable with making up fake reviews, or providing a Facebook follower for an artist that I didn't like.
  • I had some payment issues with Microworkers which irritated me. It was during a period where money couldn't be sent to my PayPal account. I emailed them about my problems but received no replies. They later re-introduced PayPal but the damage had been done, as far as I was concerned.
  • The communication between Microworkers staff and workers is generally very poor. Out of the five or so emails that I sent them with queries (the help section was less than helpful) I only received one response and the others were ignored.
  • I've never made much money with Microworkers. There are a limited number of jobs, especially if you want to hold onto your moral integrity, and what there is tends to be very badly paid.
  • Although Amazon Mechanical Turk certainly has its problems, it still seems more reliable and professionally run compared to Microworkers, in my experience.

This article is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge. Content is for informational or entertainment purposes only and does not substitute for personal counsel or professional advice in business, financial, legal, or technical matters.

© 2011 Paul Goodman

Comments

Anshid on March 31, 2020:

"We could not verify shared url. Please make a sure the link is publicly shared". What is the problem, please solve the problem

Alex stewart on March 31, 2020:

Thanks for the helpful information,i just want to ask how do I find my referral link on microworkers i have looked everywhere and can't see it,i research online and it says go to account then to refferal i can't see anything about referrals.would welcome your reply.

Tee to Green Guy on March 02, 2020:

Warning to anyone thinking about joining Microworkers, whether as an employee or employer. Within the last 3 months, Microworkers has been terminating employees from their accounts. And I'm talking about high earning, long-term, well respected employees! Their only reply is because of "Duplicate Proofs". Speaking with many of these terminated people, that claim is unfounded. And of course MicroWorkers will keep your earned income! Absolute Scam Job! If you are looking for extra income, look elsewhere. And if you are an Employer, please find another source as all the good employees are being axed!!! Bottom line: STAY AWAY FROM MICROWORKERS!

Scroll to Continue

Momo on June 06, 2019:

I've requested a withdraw to Paypal, MicroWorkers sent me an emailwith the PIN within a few minutes. With it, I confirmed the payment withdraw, but am still waiting for almost a month now for MicroWorkers to actually send the money. Kinda disappointing, since in their FAQ, it says that "Payments to Workers are sent twice a week, every Wednesday and Sunday"...

Jasim on May 03, 2019:

My account is not active, i need help becouse i not successfully phon number verify , please help me

David Nenekwa from Kintampo on April 02, 2019:

Can i earn some money working here?please if yes how do i get started?

Vali Hive on November 25, 2018:

Try hiveoffers.org, has $5 sign-up bonus and you can request payout when you have at least $10. Payment in 24 hours

Sakhal on November 12, 2018:

I have been using Microworkers since March 2017 and have made about 250 USD (including the commissions that they take). They have always paid me without delays. If you pass thair exams (which are disguised among the jobs, paying 0.00 $) you can get more productive works to do, those which offer long batches where you can work during hours.

Phil on August 07, 2018:

Been waiting for a payment of $25 for more than 3 months. They will just say, we are working to generate you the pin for payment. After that they will ask you another 20 days. After 20 days will ask again 10 business days. Microworkers is a scam... please don't waste your time doing this small task

PURUSHOTHAMAN on July 21, 2018:

Dear sir

How to create PayPal account

ale natraj on March 07, 2018:

Can u please reply soon

ale natraj on March 07, 2018:

hello sir i spend sometime doing microworkers so i have got $9 so i have been placed a withdrawal and got the pin and entered and placed a withdrawal request and its been 12 days over but the money has not been credited to paypal so i messaged to microworkers so they said that send your PIN can i send it to them its safe or not i am not able to understand can u please answer my question quickly pleasee

carolina garcia on December 26, 2017:

Great tips! If you're looking for a way to make some extra cash without having to do any work, eBesucher pays you to leave your browser open while it surfs the web.

All you have to do is log in and turn it on to start earning.

It runs in the background and surfs the web automatically.

You can earn roughly $5-$10 a month income if you leave your browser running 24/7.

Plus eBesucher offers a two tier referral program, which means you'll earn 8% of your referrals earnings and 5% of their referrals earnings when someone signs up under your referral link.

http://clickmeterlink.com/ebesucher

Aree on December 18, 2017:

I requested the PIN number for first time withdrawal, 3 months and Microworkers can't even complete the process. The purposely hold your PIN number, in order to keep workers' money. And don't think Microworkers is being honest.

alan on December 01, 2017:

I requested a payment from microworkers I should have been paid on Wednesday but they did not pay me this company is a ripoff

tobias on November 08, 2017:

i have only experience selling with them in the past. I think they have been great for that and I'm thinking of trying some new campaigns. Survey type. thanks for the article Paul. One good thing with microworkers is that you can pick country. I don't know how well they check vpns etc. What are some other sites that you think are good. I am a seller. i know of mechanical turk and there were some other rather big market. any other tips that has many workers and people consider legit?

worksfromhome on November 08, 2017:

Be careful.

I just signed up with them last week and completed about a dozen tasks (one of which ended up getting me a temporary facebook timeout, so that's great) then I waited to be sure I'd get paid for them before doing any more.

Two were approved and paid within a few days, the others said they'd be reviewed within 7 days. Here I am 7 days later and they haven't been reviewed, still pending. They weren't rejected, I would understand that I made some kind of error if they were. They're just pending. So I did as they asked, they benefited, and I don't get compensated for it.

I don't know that there is any way to distinguish between legit offers and the ones that might rip you off. It seems like a big gamble. Also I have read many articles that say how picky Microworkers can be. For example you can only have one account per household and if you log in on a different device you'll be banned from working. So workers have strict regulations but the clients can get by with not paying for completed tasks? No, I'm not wasting any more time with them.

Choucou on September 22, 2017:

Its scam be carefull you work many days for few dollars and when you would like to withdraw them they cheat and take you money

Scammmmm

salman on July 25, 2017:

i was rejected in mturk creating a new ID

Gnanasekar on January 15, 2017:

I interest to do joint this micro job site but i don't have enough knowledge, but i can work my best i have a language experience and typing experience and accounting and other sides.

suman singj on October 11, 2016:

1776

Sam Hak on August 10, 2016:

Well I agree Microworker's customer care is worse than others. I am waiting for my first payment from them and hope it will do good. I thought I would get it on sunday, but they failed to transfer it and asked me cancel the withdrawal and put a new request. I have done that and awaiting their transaction.

Zei Zei on May 01, 2016:

I have waited 50 days to get my money without feedback by support ticket! It's big scam!!! Shame!!!!

hakemzrman on April 19, 2016:

I can confirm they are scammers, but of course scammers like them not fool, they only scam some people, so that the others

which are not scammed can give review like this; microworkers is legit and so on.

3 weeks ago I paid them to run a campaign on that shitty shit website..they deduct my banking balance, ok no problem. Then

after 3 days the campaign still doesn't run, instead they deduct again my banking money without my agreement, simply like

that, before emailing me telling me I need to tell them the exact money they deduct otherwise they will void my transaction

in 5 days , WTF! Didn't they know the exact amount of the deduction since they deduct my money in bank? With this point, I

99% confident they are scammers, brilliant one. Why not before I made payment, state that they are gonna charge me again

for the verification process, why not? And WTF don't know the amount that they deducted and asking me to tell? Because they

are scammers.

But I still have 1% faith left, so then I go to support and tell them the exact amount like they ask me to. THEN until now

they don't run my campaign and even respond to me! Then Here I 100% confident that they are brilliant scammers. Avoid this

microshit at all cost! I wish I could research before I made decision to pay them for the campaign, coz WTF website like

that, asking people, i.e. pay people to cheat click google ads, and other illegal things is supposed to be a good legit

site. AVOID AT ALL COST, ESPECIALLY IF YOU WANT TO PAY THEM FOR RUNNING CAMPAIGN!

joolhash jawadin on April 02, 2016:

I have been blocked by Micro Workers for so called proxy. I emailed them but they failed to get back to me. I only just recieved my pin and entered it, later that day they blocked my account. So I went to whatsmyproxy.com to check if my IP was proxy but it wasn't. This has to be a SCAM. I made $43 and as soon as I wanted to withdraw they blocked me.

roob on March 14, 2016:

Yup I am, thanks!!

Paul Goodman (author) from Florida USA on March 14, 2016:

I hope you are enjoying the HP experience! :)

roob on March 14, 2016:

Hey I think it was your article online that started me writing on hubpages... well that picture looks familiar!

Irene on March 13, 2016:

I hate mircoworkers! Their staff is rude and ill mannered and i worked hard to earn $30, but don't receive any!! Just cause I'm using smart panel, I'm not even cheating on anything but of course they block the account and take my money. They are thieves and lions and very unprofessional!

jibrin on December 01, 2015:

Hey, use application https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.... bro, just install the application can run it dollar. Registration fitting use the promo code BW18422 let be $ 0.50. Not bad for start-up capital

Rex on November 30, 2015:

Never ever go to Rushworker.com. A thug site which never pays. I have been woring there for 1 month and they have not paid me, they dont reply to your queries, SCAM site steer clear.

Make Money Online on September 11, 2015:

Microworkers is Legitimate online work site from at home. I'm working this site over 2 years and much money. You can also earn money from Microworkers. If you want to know fully about Microworkers than you can read the article: http://www.techsolutionworld.com/microworkers-revi...

cavalero on July 23, 2015:

Hey PaulGoodman67 , Are you selling your microworkers account? Please let me know...

brianjG on July 22, 2015:

Hey Ceng memo, How long does it take to get activation email? A couple days?

Ceng memo on July 21, 2015:

If you want to make quick money go to Rushworker.com

Realy good and safe site.

brianjG from New Jersey on May 11, 2015:

The Cons 2 and 3 are there for sure. But out of the 2.5 years I've been on there there have been a couple of times that I ran into someone that has rejected my on work that I know was correct. That to me is usually a sign that either the provider doesn't know what they are doing when they set up the work or some idiot trying to scrape for info. But in any case nothing serious, aside from maybe a nonsense spam email. And you get those anyway just by going on to any page on the net.

But Paul is right on the scheme of things, Amazon hasn't given me but one problem from a work provider in the same amount of years, comparatively.

Now Shorttask on the other hand is nothing but scammers. One out of 10 jobs might be accepted. I've been working on reaching a $10 payout for 2 years now. Then comes the time when they decide to pay. That could be 2 months from reaching threshold. THE WORST EVER!!!

Gina145 from South Africa on May 10, 2015:

Cons number 2 and 3 are enough to put me off. I think I'll give this one a miss. Thanks for a very useful review.

BJamesG on April 06, 2015:

Yeah Caleb, I agree with the consistent payout. Hell, that money is what I use to buy various things off the web. Not bad if you're a smoker and run short on money at least you have a payout to rely on for a pack of smokes. Or even a small monthly phone bill. So it's good enough to me. But a minimum wage weekly check is not possible with what's available at any given time. In order to make a sizable weekly check you'll need some sort of an IT education. Which I don't have.

Caleb McKean from Dallas, Oregon on April 06, 2015:

Other than the initial wait for them to send you a pin the pay has been pretty consistent on Wednesday and Sunday. It is an extra 30 dollars a week easy for very little time. You do that on 15 sites every week and it's a paycheck.

BJamesG on December 06, 2014:

Kanishka, Never heard of anyone getting banned from MW. Not sure what they do in that situation. They never answer emails so I don't know what to tell ya. I haven't had all the problems that everyone here states. I would assume that they would have to blatantly return terrible work. Or try to scam their system. Or probably have 2 accounts which you aren't suppose to have in the first place. Again there is more to the stories that people tell on here. Trust me I'm all for telling about a bad experience on a site, provided it is the whole story and including my screw ups as well. Of course, there are just scam sites that make ridiculous things up too. That is why you do research. Besides the lack of answering emails, I personally haven't had any problem with MW. But I also go by the rules they put up in order to use their site. But that is just my personal experience.

Kanishka Jayakody on December 06, 2014:

They removed my account. Can I get my earned Money???

BJamesG on June 13, 2014:

I guess different people have different experiences. I've been on MW for 2 years now. At the beginning it was a little frustrating. You have to find niche job suppliers that aren't as anal retentive. And suppliers that explain what the job entails. I only do the ones that I've had a good experience with. As for paying, never had a problem. They do send to PayPal and always pay 2 X's a week. As long as your above the $10 threshold.

Wisco on June 12, 2014:

Same experience as PUK. MW may have been a legit site at one time, but it isn't any more. Sign up for Microwrokers only if the idea of working for free is appealing to you. Nothing but a bunch of thieves.

PUK on January 03, 2014:

No body should believe that Microworkers.com will pay you, because they wont, they send you pin to your home address, it will never arrive, for employers your posted job may never be posted and it it is they will frustrate you in such a way you will ask for refund and when you do they will ask you to request for PIN which will never arrive, its more like you just lost your money GOODBYE. They don't accept paypal because a'lot of people will in fact charge back instead of going through with their bullshit!

magicalnepal.blogspot.com on September 30, 2013:

It's a boring one. Hard to satisfy the employer.

dangolpabitra.blogspot.com on September 18, 2013:

How to sign up to microworkers.

BJamesG on September 10, 2013:

Anytime you do a sign up on microworkers and the requester of job asks for password from their site you joined to get paid, I usually change letter or #. Reason being a lot of scammers are taking a chance that you'll use similar password for other accounts.

Shankar on September 09, 2013:

I want to microworkers account pin verified any one person who want to sell contact me on skype (somanshankar)

suman patra on July 19, 2013:

hi....i was working in amazon(mtruk).i made around $1000 they paid one time but the next time when i requested for 2nd payment and i had balance of $240 then they suspended my account they didn't pay any amount ,my account approval rate was 98% .they took all the money ..they are thief ...dnt trust them any time they can suspend your account without any reason .my amazon worker id-A2LG0SJYIUIRNC..I lost total 400+240=640$

Haris on April 28, 2013:

Why don't they send the Pin directly on Email Id.? However they require Email Id while creating an account, not a mailing address .... :'(

maya on February 14, 2013:

you can also try http://chotujobs.com as an microworkers alternative

Aravi on December 19, 2012:

Microworkers is comp;ete legit site. I earned over $100 dollars.But their pin is the problem. It may late or not receve. But if you get pin once there is no problem

monahamed on November 18, 2012:

I agree with that con no. 3 as I see a lot of scam jobs and illegal ones which may scam other sites .So I quit it.Good article.

Nelson E on July 23, 2012:

Hi i will like to try it out, but one cuestion, how hard it is and how much money i can recibe let say a month, and witch way (pay pal ect ect)

thank you and God Bless u Guys

StephenCowry on May 21, 2012:

Hub contains information I haven't considered yet. Thanks for sharing it here.

simplecoolguy on May 16, 2012:

I have never heard of microworkers before but I think I should give it a try. I have been exploring the net for a money making opportunities and I guess this is worth a try. Thanks Paul for this review. =)

GEORGE on May 09, 2012:

Microworkers is a scam.After I earned $13

working with this site,I placed a Withdrawal

request.They sent a email and told me 'We

could not send payment to your Moneybookers email

Please verify your Moneybookers email.'.In fact ,

my moneybookers email works.I accept payments many

times before.I sent a email and told them my account

is Ok.After 4 days, my account showed the payment

was paid but I did not get the money in my moneybookers

account.I sent many emails to ask them pay me or show me

the proof of the paid payment but them didn't respond to

my email.Microworkers.com is a scam site.Be careful,do not

work with them,they will not pay you.

Gracenduta from Kenya on April 02, 2012:

Helpful information , I am looking for many ways to boost my income

Marian on February 08, 2012:

I personally recommend you to try e-jobber.com, that is a site with many easy mini jobs, where you can earn easy money. 2.5$ sign up bonus & paypal withdraw accepted

Andra on January 24, 2012:

You may also like to check e-jobber.com , is as microworkers but they have one great feature : if you are employer and you are not satisfied about the prof submited by worker you can give JOB NOTCOMPLETE and put a message to the worker.Now worker can complete and submit again prof.Also they have 3$ sign up bonus.I like it

George on November 17, 2011:

i found an alternative to MW, as well. it's www.clickchores.com ... it looks to be legit.

Ashley on November 17, 2011:

As much as I love microworkers, I have always felt that they don't pay enough for the tasks. However, I found a much better site that has better rates and pays daily by Paypal. It's called cloudcrowd. Check them out here http://www.cloudcrowd.com/i/7dmht8

shoikathassan on November 04, 2011:

I am not expert with this job.i am just looking for a good situation.Even i don't know how to get money from this site.

Victor Mavedzenge from Oakland, California on August 19, 2011:

@Paul.Thanks,will look into it

Paul Goodman (author) from Florida USA on August 19, 2011:

I don't know about the availability of MTurk in the UK, to be honest - although I am British, I live in the USA. I have not found any other decent ones, besides MTurk and Microworkers. Someone mentioned Minuteworkers to me, but it was defunct when I went there. The survey sites are worth looking into. There is one called Pine Cone Research which my wife uses which is good. I am not sure what the situation is with surveys in the UK. Lots of people are fans of Swagbucks and Inbox Dollars, including my wife, though my feelings about those sites are more mixed. My South African HubPages friend, Teresa Schultz has a good list of articles with work from home and online ideas: http://workfromhomeideas.co.za/work-from-home-sout...

Victor Mavedzenge from Oakland, California on August 19, 2011:

It is a pity Amazon Turks is not available in the UK or am I mistaken? Are there any other microworker sites you can recommend?

Paul Goodman (author) from Florida USA on June 24, 2011:

Microworkers send the PIN from Slovenia in my experience, so it can take a couple of weeks to arrive. I've not noticed a drop in the number of jobs, there were usually 150-200 and that remains the case as far as I'm aware. I use Micoroworkers in conjunction with other earning methods.

tnvrstar from doha, qatar on June 24, 2011:

I got the PIN yay! But now less job available due to the the new Hire me job system. Moreover i heard google publisher are not allowed on such kinda site. So i am not using such kinda site now. Adsense is much precious

Paul Goodman (author) from Florida USA on June 16, 2011:

Those jobs are all grouped together as click jobs so they are easy to avoid, if you wish.

Krys W from Abertawe, Cymru on June 15, 2011:

Hmm, I had a look at it a while back, but am steering clear. There are far too many jobs which want you to do a Google search on a specific search term and then go to a web site featuring in the search and click on a specific ad on that site. I certainly am not going to jeopardise my Adsense account like that!

Paul Goodman (author) from Florida USA on June 10, 2011:

hi tnvstar, I that that the addresss verification is a requirement of the tax people, that is why Google and Microworkers have to do it, but I couldn't be sure. You are not the first who I have heard of having problems getting a PIN from Microworkers, it seems like a stalling tactic.

tnvrstar from doha, qatar on June 10, 2011:

Do you know whats the worst thing is? It's that they need o verify your address same like google. But why? They are going to send me the money to paypal then why they need to verify my post box. Ohk the second thing is why they don't send the PIN for applying 2 times already. i got my google PIN verification code but not from them.

Paul Goodman (author) from Florida USA on April 15, 2011:

I'm not sure, Lala, though I think it's unlikely you'd have a problem like that. My name doesn't show in Google. You could try contacting Microworkers?

Lala on April 14, 2011:

Interesting article(s).

The only thing is, I don't want my real name to appear on a Google search and Microworkers ask for a real name only when registering. Will my real name pop up publicly? Thank you if you would reply to this silly/basic question!...

Paul Goodman (author) from Florida USA on February 10, 2011:

Yes, this sort of site is great for supplementing income. My only frustration, as you may have guessed, is that there doesn't seem to be a great deal of monitoring/regulation of the jobs that are posted by the requesters.

And Drewson from United States on February 10, 2011:

Very good info. I've been looking at these types of things as ways to supplement income.