CloudCrowd, is it worth it?

So I finally had a not so good experience with CloudCrowd. I got a rejection on work I am confident was done correctly. Actually, I would go so far as to say I'm positive it was done correctly. The part of that I'm upset about is that because I haven't found a lot of work on there, it put a serious ding in my credibility rating, which put me on probation. If I had done a lot of work, the ding wouldn't have been so bad. 

The approval system needs some serious work. There are reports on a few forums about CrowdCloud of similar complaints. A LOT of them. This is the way the work is reviewed: The work is open to several workers, so say a few people are zipping through and not paying enough attention and one person was. Majority rules. So, there ARE people who are getting their work rejected on CloudCrowd that didn't deserve to be. 

Being on probation means I can keep on working, and the approved work will raise my credibility score. BUT if I get another false rejection I'll be permanently suspended. There is at this time no way to appeal or fix this. I wouldn't mind so much if it could be looked at and someone with CloudCrowd could say "Why yes, you are correct. Let me fix this for you!" But that system is not in place.

I think for the time being I'm just going to sit back and wait it out. They say they're still working out the bugs in the system. Yeah, yeah. Well, I'll be back when they do. Maybe. The probation thing just left a bad taste in my mouth. There's too many other work at home sites I could focus my time on in the meantime. For now, this stay at home mom is taking a break from CC.

Another CloudCrowd update

So I have managed to find a tiny bit of work on CloudCrowd so far, but it's been few and far between. I have read on several forums they're working the bugs out and new work should be available in the near future. I've checked back several times, sometimes work is listed for just a couple minutes at a time. BUT. It does show up, and it is paid the next day.

I think CloudCrowd will be a great addition to my stay at home mom work routine. I like that they seem to be listening to worker feedback so far. CloudCrowd workers have been active on many message boards working with workers to ensure bugs are being worked out, as well as communicating issues they are working on.

Although the work has been spotty, it is there. Little bits at a time. It all adds up in the long run. And it's great to KNOW they truly pay for work completed. Rumor has it on message boards we'll be seeing much more work posted next week. I would think when it is, it will go fast.

To sign up with CloudCrowd, follow this link. It does require a Facebook account, and will ask for access to your profile. I have found NO issues with granting this. I was really skeptical at first, but many Facebook apps ask for the same thing. So far, my experience with them has been a positive one!

Taking a Leap of Faith

Yesterday, I had enough. I couldn't balance working outside the home and all the work in the home any longer. I turned in my two week notice! It's a giant leap of faith, I would have rather paid down my bills a little more before becoming a stay at home mom. But no more talking, it's time to just do it.

This will force me to start treating working at home as a real job. A "work" schedule will become very necessary in this quest. I think it is within reach, I just have to get off my tooshie and make it happen!

The plan for now is to work 10am to 2pm, about half of that time Gracie naps. The rest she's winding down for her nap and it should be easy enough to work from home during that time. Housework can come afterward. Then once Gracie is in bed at night, I can probably crank out another hour or two. Doing this five days a week should give about 15 hours per week.

The first month I will need to step up the residual income work, mostly eHow and Infobarrel. I still don't have my first article up at IB yet, but there's no time like the present! I need to clean up the two I wrote for my Suite 101 application and submit them. I hope to write more during the day, and use MTurk and CloudCrowd at night.

It's a huge relief to quit that job. HUGE!

CloudCrowd update

So one day into CloudCrowd my work, all three jobs, was approved and paid. Yay! I checked into the work available section several times throughout the day and night, and work was spotty. Keeping in mind, they DID say work would be light as they were rolling out new features and guidelines. So I wasn't too disappointed, but would have rather had more opportunity to earn from home.

I think as CloudCrowd grows a little more, there will be more work available. I do know now, from first hand experience, that they DO pay, they do NOT spam your Facebook profile, and the work is easy to do from home. These are always my biggest three concerns for work from home jobs. 

I was a little busy yesterday, so I probably didn't check the CloudCrowd site as much as I'd have liked, but there was bits of work here and there. To be fair, about three quarters of the time I looked, there was no work available. You did have the option of clicking the type of work and seeing if it is something that would interest you or not, and the instructions on how to do that type of job. I liked having the option of a sneak preview of the work, so to speak. On MTurk, you don't necessarily have the option unless the job is actively open.

All in all, I think CloudCrowd will be a great tool to use in the journey to become a stay at home mom.  I especially like that you can work on it as you please, for as long as you like, when you like. When chasing a busy toddler around the house, having the option of stopping work when needed is extremely important! 

Each task can be completed fairly quickly, and is easy work. As far as I could tell, there was no time limit for the jobs. On MTurk, each task is alloted a certain amount of time after you accept the job, and if not completed by that limit it counts as an abandoned hit, which hurts your score. Some jobs have to have a certain approval rating, often very high, and that could hinder future work. There is a rating system at CloudCrowd along the same premise, but without time limits, it shouldn't be hard to keep the rating high. I've had to abandon a few hits on MTurk because of a sick baby, boo-boos, or phone calls.

To sign up for CloudCrowd, follow this link and sign up in my crowd. I'm looking forward to hearing any and all success stories or complaints about CC, so feel free to let me know what you think so far! 

CloudCloud

So I finally did my first two tasks at CloudCrowd, finding Chinese websites whose English could use some polishing. I only did two so far, to get a feel for what to expect. It was fairly easy, and I am awaiting approval. One tip for this I picked up on a forum was to go through Alibaba.com and click the country of origin. You then have to go to the company's website from their profile on Alibaba, and check out if their English needs improved. Then you submit the site's URL, and a contact e-mail address. It only took a few minutes and pays 16 cents apiece at the moment.

The work is pretty scarce today as they implement some changes. It seems CloudCrowd exploded with growth and they are having some growing pains. I was encouraged to see some work listed today, but running short on time to do more work. I wanted to get a feel for the site before spending a lot of time, plus I want to see exactly how quickly they do approve and pay. I have heard from several CloudCrowd users that I know and trust that they have been approved very quickly and paid the next day. 

They do have a message on the work available page, with only the one listed as open, that there will be more projects listed in the near future. I think CloudCrowd is going to help me quite a bit in my journey to become a stay at home mom. If it pans out, this could add a lot of income from home. 

I can't wait to compare this with what I make from MTurk. It would be nice to have both to draw on, when one is slow I could do the other. I'm hearing over and over people making on average $10 to $15 per hour on CloudCrowd. This is encouraging! Plus the page load time is much less than MTurk, so I can see once I'm more familiar with this how I can zip through and get a lot more work done. 

I'll update again when I get a little more experience with them, and approved or denied for my work done, and most importantly, paid! If you are interested in signing up, you can use my referral link here. So far, so good. I'll keep everyone posted as soon as possible!

New way to make money at home!

I've been reading about a new site similar to MTurk, so I thought I'd check it out myself. CloudCrowd operates on Facebook, so I was a little hesitant to sign up for this at first. I have read in the eHow forums several people who worked as recently as last week, and almost all were paid the NEXT DAY, straight into their PayPal accounts! Woot!

Being a new and rapidly expanding website, CloudCrowd is going through some growing pains. This week work will be very limited, as they implement measures to weed out scammers. I have followed a few forum threads on both eHow and TurkerNation, the latter of which had two employees of CloudCrowd answering question and addressing problems. 

It seems the issues are being worked out, there were several forum posters who had claimed their work was rejected unfairly, and the company looked into it and not only approved their work, but promptly paid. Hence the need to tweak the app, too many were getting good work rejected by scammers.

This seems a lot like the work I do on MTurk, a lot of editing or reviewing work. It seems the work they had posted last week was focusing on Chinese websites which were originally poorly translated to English. Some work was finding such sites, some work was editing the translation, other work was grading work that was done.

The rates of pay seem to fluctuate a tad here and there, but overall, many people report making anywhere from $6 per hour to over $12. Several worked just a few hours and were paid above $30 per day. Some were reporting around $80 per day! Not bad for an aspiring stay at home mom!

So, I can't give an honest conclusion about CloudCrowd just yet, but I do know people who have been paid. There is a referral system, so I would be thrilled if you used this link to sign up. I will update throughout the week letting you know how this is working for me. So far, it looks good. Especially if they get the bugs worked out of the system and start posting work this week!

One last, and very important thing. I was hesitant to grant access to CloudCrowd on my Facebook. I took the leap of faith, and nothing showed up on my wall, or was sent to my friends. There is an option to send an invite to your friends, but it is definitely not necessary. I was afraid of appearing spammy to my friends, or bugging them with info they were not interested in. I'm happy to say, it's been kept private on my profile.