Remotasks

Remotasks have bold claims such as having over 240,000 people working for them based in over 90 different countries performing a range of tasks that help with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning.

If you’ve never heard of them then we’ve done the research for you. The company is run by Smart Ecosystem Inc based in Delaware, USA. They also have a headquarters in San Francisco, California, USA (technology and start-up business capital of the world).

The company is relatively new to the Micro-Task world, compared with Lionbridge, Appen, Amazon MTurk, having being founded in April 2017.

In this review we’ll report our findings on working for Remotasks for just over 3 months, and you’ll be able to see whether they’re a legit company or a SCAM to avoid.

 

Let’s start with the application process

Applying with Remotasks is one of the easiest applications we found from all the different Micro-Task sites we’ve reviewed. We simply created an account using our Facebook account and we were in.

That did not mean that we were ready to work and get paid however. Before any work can be completed training is required.

 

What training is required?

Due to the type of work Remotasks asks you to complete, you’ll need training. It’s logical in our opinion as the work is fairly complex. It’s nothing like filling in surveys or completing simple Social Media tasks. This work requires a LOT more intelligence, and that’s where the training comes in.

The training is designed to do two things:
1) Stop people who don’t have the required aptitude (a natural ability to do something) from completing the work
2) Help people who have the required aptitude to complete the work correctly

The training requires considerable patience, basic knowledge and perseverance to get through successfully. It’s designed, as we’ve said above, to stop a lot of people without the required aptitude from progressing. Basically, Remotasks use it to “weed-out” those who can from those who can’t. It’s fair.

If you complete the training, and go through all the additional optional courses, you can can really maximize your earnings with Remotasks.

It takes time (over 2 weeks!), and you won’t be paid for the training, but consider it an investment in to your future earnings.

 

OK, training completed – now what?

Once training was completed and we were approved to work we started completing tasks. These tasks were relatively complex and mainly based around data-entry style work.

For example, we had to:
1) Moderate content (such as determining whether content had hidden racist, political or other subjective messages)
2) Identify certain objects from images (such as drawing boxes around shops on a street, or trees in a picture)
3) Identify SPAM and other malicious content (this involved processing thousands of emails and marking the emails we felt were SPAM or contained malicious content such as phising emails)

This work was quite engaging and we did enjoy it. It made a nice change from completing surveys or completing basic Social Media tasks.

 

What was the pay like for these engaging tasks?

The pay did not, unfortunately, reflect the nature of the relatively complex Micro-Tasks we were being asked to complete.

Like with Amazon MTurk, UHRS or Microworkers, the pay was still limited to just a few dollars an hour – even after all the training you have to go though.

Once again, we did our research to see if our experience was shared with others. Unfortunately, it was. Many people report the pay being incredibly low for the complex nature of the work being completed.

 

There is another way to earn with Remotasks though…

While the pay isn’t great for completing the Micro-Tasks with Remotasks, there is another way to make money – and it’s done with their referral program.

With Remotasks referral program they’ll pay you $10 for every person you invite that joins the site.

This sounds great, but the catch is that the person being referred must complete all the training and go on to earn $20 dollars from completing Micro-Tasks.

It’s possible to get paid from referrals, but ultimately don’t expect to earn a fortune from referrals either!

 

Did we get paid?

Yes, we got paid without any issues.

Remotasks is one of the few Micro-Task sites who make it easy to get paid.

No hurdles to jump through or earning amounts to reach.

Simply put, you get paid every single week via PayPal.

However, they only pay via PayPal so if you don’t have a PayPal account you can receive money to and withdraw your money from you should not work for Remotasks.

The only other downside to being paid via PayPal is that PayPal themselves take a 2.4% commission from the payment you receive. This isn’t a fault of Remotasks, it’s just how PayPal make their money. Just be aware that you won’t actually receive the exact amount you’ve earned using Remotasks.

 

Are there any other things to consider?

Yes, something else we need to mention is that there will be times when you simply won’t find work available, or you won’t be selected to complete the available work.

In fact, actually finding tasks or being selected for tasks is one of the most common complaints from people working with Remotasks.

We found we were accepted to complete more work than we were rejected for, but still went through periods of constant applying only to be informed hours later we hadn’t been chosen to complete that Micro-Task. It’s slightly frustrating.

 

What about support?

We submitted a ticket to Remotasks just to see their response rate. After 2 days we received a reply. Not too bad considering they probably get thousands of messages a day.

They also have a comprehensive FAQ section for people to read.

 

Our final thoughts, is Microworkers legitimate or a SCAM?

We like Remotasks, a lot. It provides engaging work (meaning you won’t get bored easily), plus it’s easy to get started with and pays-out regularly.

The only downside is that you won’t be able to earn much with them due to the low pay rates and low availability of work.

 

Our Rating

50%
Quality Of The Company and Job
Complex and engaging work but still low payment rates.

 

90%
Price
No fees from Remotasks at any stage but because they only pay via PayPal you will always lose 2.4% of your money due to PayPal fees.

 

70%
Availability
Most countries are supported but the availability of work can be limited.

 

90%
Support
2 day response time from a submitted support ticket which is good in our opinion plus a comprehensive FAQ section on their website.

Overall, we CAN RECOMMEND working with Remotasks if you are prepared to complete the training.