How to Make Money Doing Data Entry

If you want to increase your income or earn money on the side, there are a variety of data entry tasks that you can do. You can do these data entry jobs online and from the comforts of your own home. Many of these tasks are simple in nature, while others require Excel skills and the ability to organize and present data well. Some require solid writing skills and a knack for accuracy.

Here are three ways you can earn money by doing data entry tasks:

Earn money from data entry jobs in Mechanical Turk

Amazon’s Mechanical Turk is a goldmine of data entry jobs. You can make money by doing various kinds of data entry jobs. Sign up for an account with Mechanical Turk and look for “hits,” manual tasks are quick and simple. Time allotted for tasks range from 2 minutes to 5 hours, and many of these tasks can be done on your breaks!

Some examples of data entry jobs include:

• Inputting data on receipts or extracting purchased items from receipts
• Completing surveys
• Reviewing transcription quality
• Categorizing products from shopping sites
• Collecting data and typing text from images
• Categorizing images
• Researching keywords on Google
• Reviewing video clips
• Writing image descriptions
• Finding email addresses

Mechanical Turk’s “hits” don’t pay a lot; pay ranges from as little as $0.01 to $50, though majority falls under $2 per hit. To earn money from Mechanical Turk, you need to win as many hits as you can and do as many as you can in the shortest time possible.

However, you may want to stay away from tasks that pay only a penny as they may not be a good use of your time. Try to qualify for higher value “hits,” which requires you to increase your Qualification level by passing tests specific to the tasks. The top qualification is called Mechanical Turk Master, which is a performance-based distinction based on accuracy on specific types of hits. When you have Master Qualification, you are given exclusive access to high-paying work.

Earn money from data entry jobs on freelance sites

Marketplaces for freelancers are a great way to look for money-paying jobs on data entry. A search for “data entry” on Elance shows more than 1,000 results. Jobs range from less than $10 per hour to $30 per hour. Some examples of data entry assignments on Elance that you can bid on include:

• Creating Excel spreadsheets and lists of specific data – e.g. list of all driving instructors in a specific place, list of competitors’ product data by category and type, list of businesses in a specific city, among others
• Sorting and cleaning up of Excel data
• Scraping data and information from other sites
• Extracting product pictures from other sites
• Researching information, such as 50 reference articles on optimizing listings and increasing sales in eBay
• Copying data from one program to another – e.g. copying list of IP addresses in text to Excel
• Inputting and typing data – e.g. typing data from raw receipts into Excel

To give you ideas on how to be successful and earn a lot of money in freelance marketplaces, read the article “How to Succeed on Elance.”

Reach out to specific businesses or individuals

There are a lot of small businesses and even other freelancers who need help in doing data entry tasks. You can make money by getting off of them these data entry tasks so they can focus on their most important tasks.

For example, real estate investors may need help doing online research or cross referencing information online. They may also need help in the data entry of property listings on website, building lists in spreadsheets, contract preparation, confirming appointments and keeping everything organized.

Start by identifying the types of businesses or self-employed individuals you can target. You may want to start in your local area and contact your target market. Networking is essential, and joining local business associations such as your chamber of commerce may help you know more business owners who may need your help.