I’ve known about mturk for at least a year; but today was the first day I really got into it. For $0.05 per survey ($0.50 total) I found 10 USA-based entrepreneurs who took my survey and pitched me their best web company idea.

Download the results here

What is Mturk.com? Mturk lets anyone on the internet complete tasks for you; and you pay them small amounts of money. Some tasks include surveys, proof-reading, writing, blogging, reviewing, tagging photos, rating content quality, even giving personal feedback or personal experiences on topics of your choice.

I read several blogs from avid mturk workers (80% are in the USA and have a college BA) they often make about $2 - $4 per hour; and typically spend an hour or two each day when they are bored completing tasks. That’s who your workforce consists of.

I’ve already started using mTurk as a lead generator for Enproperty. I created a survey asking apartment tenants to tell me about what services their property managers offer them; and I ask who their property manager is. I even ask the tenants (mturkers) to help me sell Enproperty to their landlord; with varying success.

View the results of my apartment tenant survey here

Gathering the data in the above survey cost me about $1.60

Aside from immediate practicality; mTurk is indicative of a new phenomenon of the distributed workforce. Here are some things you can use mTurk for.

- Instead of writing content for your website; have 5 people write content and then have other mturkers choose the best content.

- Instead of bug-tracking and beta-testing your website, have the crowds test your site and give you feedback

- Instead of trying to optimize website layout yourself, links, images, media, and modules on your website; offer several alternatives to the crowds, and they will choose the best option

- Let the crowds find leads, company data, and basic business research for you

- Turn the mturkers into business leads themselves by ‘paying them to view your advertisement’