Crowdsourcing-What
is the deal?
Ok, So the term
"crowdsourcing" is not exactly a new one. According to Wikipedia, it
was coined back in 2005, and is basically defined as the act of getting what
you need from the general, undefined public. While the term can apply to many
different activities, my particular interest here is in how it is used in
employment, as in working from home. There is an endless parade of "work
at home" job offers. The key point here is that they are offers, not
actually jobs. Ok-so not every ad for this type of employment is a scam, but
the truth is that a whole lot of them are nothing but a load of bull.
Initially the idea
of crowdsourcing sounds like an exciting one. It gives people like me the
chance to work in their pajamas. The problem with so much work being tossed out to the
crowd, is the fact that the crowd can be incredibly large. The larger the pool
of people naturally means the lesser amount that companies are willing to dish out
for various bits of work.
Who uses
crowdsourcing:
After an assessment
at crowdsource ( clever
name) there are opportunities for writing, editing, and a variety of
"microtask" jobs.
Ever seen an ad for
an "internet ad accessor" job?
If you want to earn
pennies per click (it takes a lot of ad assessing/checking/judging to get into
making dollars), check out LionBridge or Isoftstone. They will pay you to zoom
around the web and if you are fast and focused, the cash does add up.
For the creative and
artistic:
There are quite a
few sites that will accept your design and use it on their products. Images can
be used to create everything from t-shirts to office products on zazzle. They make it very easy to upload pics
and create an account. Designers get a cut of the sale and can even open a
"store".
A teefury t-shirt design (with your photo/artwork) will go on sale for
24hours and pays out either one or two dollars a shirt. The site has a lot of
loyal followers and the $11 price for the daily shirt is a big boon to sales.
If you love shoes,
and always wanted to design a pair, fluevog
is a dream stop. They don't actually pay for the shoe design, which is a drag.
They will however give you one of the shoes that they create from your design,
if yours is chosen. Their shoes are pretty costly, so a pair of your own is a
nice perk. The designer will also receive the chance to get their name out
there. One of the nicest things about submitting is the fact that they accept
very simple drawings, done on pretty much anything; cocktail napkin, toilet
paper....
If you are really
interested in checking out what's available in crowdsource work, look at ranker.
This site has a huge number of links to different companies that use
crowdsourcing in a variety of ways.
Be wary!
Don't give away
money for any reason. No-one is going to actually hire you with that type of demand. A
good way to get info without getting spammed out on your email, is to get
another email address. Getting a new email address is very simple and free. It
will leave your regular email free from any possible influx of unwanted email
onslaught. Use the new one just for signing up new crowdsource companies and
see what happens.
