On the horns of a dilemma
13 Nov 2007 2 Comments
in Commerce
Some background info: I’ve done paid posting for about a year, and am waiting for the last few payments to trickle in before I post my official “goodbye”. In the meantime, my partners and I have been working 29 hours a day on a few of my own projects that I believe will provide me (and a few others) with a viable income. I truly believe that what we have coming up has never been done before, and no one even has an inkling of what we’re about to unveil. (How’s that for drama, haha?)
In the meantime, I have found that there are tasks I’ve been doing that I could delegate to outside contract workers via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. It seems that for some jobs, the workers at “turk” are willing to work for mere pennies, and therein lies my dilemma:
I have always been a proponent of paying quality bloggers for quality work, and have sneered at most low-paying blogging offers. For the most part, I’ve felt that offering the bottom price insults the writing skills of anyone that is able to communicate via written word in a coherent and understandable manner. But now that I am considering doing the hiring, am I being a hypocrite if I try to hire the best workers for the lowest possible price? If I offer someone a buck to find some information online, am I using good business sense, or taking advantage of someone that may be facing a dire financial situation?
Oh, and a dollar seems to be high wages for turk. I’ve seen quite a few offers where the payment is one cent. I couldn’t sleep at night if I did that. Now, I just have to decide whether I will use the turk system, and if so, how much should I offer?
Nov 13, 2007 @ 21:53:54
I’ve done some turks, and never earned enough to get them to send me a check. There’s no reason to pay someone a dollar for something that will take them less than a minute to do. Unless whatever that is is worth $60 an hour – like surgery, or auto repair, or drug runner. But, I agree, paying 1,2, or even 5¢ for anything is – well – insulting, pointless, and somehow Ebeneser Burns comes to mind (yes, that’s mixing metaphors on purpose.)
I think the best way to do this is, think about what you are asking the person to do. Then think about if they were working at – whatever that is – full time at an hourly rate – what would that rate be per hour. $5 an hour, $10 an hour, $50? Whatever number you got in your head – divide that by the number of minutes (or seconds) you think that task will take. obviously, if the job is worth $30 an hour, and it will take them one minute to perform a given task, then you’ve got 50¢ a minute. (btw, I just figured out how to make the ¢ sign on a Mac yesterday, and am loving the chance to use it!)
Now, take that number, and double it. Reason being – they aren’t going to spend an hour doing it. They will spend an hour doing a few things, then looking for, signing up for, and filling out stuff for, the next turk.
That’s just my suggestion.
Oh the other hand, keep in mind too, you don’t need to worry about “taking advantage of someone in a dire financial situation.” If someone really needs cash – literally nickle and diming it on Amazon isn’t where they need to spend their time – finding a real job, writing 20 blogs for PPP, BLogitive, etc. – selling the computer they are using to get online and turning off their high-speed internet – those would be better places to start than Amazon Turk.
Plus, if some poor lost soul is walking to the local library everyday and spending as much time as they can online at Turk, just to make sure there’s another 65¢ in their PayPal account tomorrow for another can of catfood to get them by for another 24-hours – if you don’t give them the chance to earn their 12.5¢ from you – how will they survive?
(Overdramatic to prove a point – not wanting to sound mean.) Money is money – 5¢ is still 5¢ – if someone will do the work for that – let them. You’re not asking them for their first born child, to do something illegal, dangerous, or harmful. If they think their time is more valuable than what you are offering, they won’t take your opp – or job – or whatever it’s called – Turk I guess. You’re not forcing anyone to work for you.
Nov 17, 2007 @ 14:09:36
You’re leaving?? I had no idea! I knew you were planning something big–you promised me a sneak peak!! And if there is money to be made clear over here in Chicago–i would hope you would remember me! J/K!! I hope all is going according to plan–I have no idea what a Turk is–but it got 6 paragraphs out of Chad W. Smith–so it must be something I should have heard of!! Good luck in all you do–you have my gmail—and I expect not to be forgotten!!!! Loves Ya!!