[crazypyro]

I used MTurk off and on through my teens[0] (15-18) and found that the majority of my earnings came in through the 50 word or less summaries. You get to a point where you've read enough PR department press releases that you can write the entire summary (at least to the required standards, which in my experience, is "barely comprehensible English") by looking at the headline. I was able to finish 50 word summaries in under 30 seconds. They values range from .25-.50 and they seem to come from a lot of submitters.

I've had a theory that out in the world somewhere is someone selling a guide to using MTurk to create article summaries and the guide suggests the price range of $.25-.50 because for the entire time that I've been on MTurk (many years now), every time I come back the price range is the same with small fluctuation.

Past the relatively low amount of summaries that are posted daily, money can be made by watching the right forums where people post high paying HITs (the name of the most popular forum eludes me at the moment) that are typically 5-15 minute surveys that pay .5-3.00 each.

By far, the biggest barrier to making a decent wage for me was the number of available HITs. The ones that pay over pennies each are few while the ones that are horrible time invests are everywhere. If I had an unlimited number of summary HITs, I could have made well over minimum wage.

[0] Made about $450 over the time, but this was sporadic, random working periods.

[ski]

I'm curious, have you found the ability to write 50 word summaries in under 30 seconds to be a useful skill later in life?

It sounds like good practice in concise communication.

[oftenwrong]

Without question it is a valuable skill.

In academic research it is especially important, and made more difficult by the complexity of the subject matter. The most successful researchers can succinctly explain their work (problem, significance, methodology and findings) to a layman. That's how you get funding. This also applies to startup founders seeking investors.

[e12e]

I'd say the above comment is about average, to average+ for hn... so probably not? (Only being partially sarcastic)

[edit: I now realize that that's not enough data, we'd also need how long it takes to write the average hn comment, and how long op took writing his :-) ]

[Natsu]

I'm surprised someone hasn't automated jobs like that, honestly.

[andrewchoi]

Isn't that what Summly was supposed to be? The startup founded by the 17 year old that got acquired by Yahoo for a chunk of change?