In today’s digital age, there are a plethora of online platforms that offer opportunities to earn some extra cash from the comfort of your own home. However, it’s essential to be cautious about the sites you choose to work with. In this article, we’ll be discussing The Smart Crowd, formerly known as Virtual Bee, and whether or not it’s worth your time and effort.
What is The Smart Crowd
Firstly, what is The Smart Crowd? It’s a crowdsourcing platform that was acquired by Lionbridge Technologies, Inc. in 2012. Back then, the platform was known as Virtual Bee. However, in 2015, it was merged with Lionbridge’s own outsourcing platform and rebranded as The Smart Crowd.
The Smart Crowd has a global workforce of over 100,000 people, and it provides various types of work opportunities such as data entry, data research, and translation jobs. It’s important to note that The Smart Crowd is not a scam; it’s similar to other micro job sites like Clickworker, Amazon Mechanical Turk, and Microworker.
Who Can Participate in The Smart Crowd?
Anyone over the age of 18 can join the platform. Since the tasks are straightforward, no specific qualifications or experience are required. However, you’ll need to complete a few demographic questions and placement evaluations before you start. While the jobs are simple, you should be able to work quickly and accurately. Additionally, you should have a good understanding of text comprehension, grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
It’s worth mentioning that the payment is usually less than the minimum wage in many countries, primarily because of the high competition for these jobs. Citizens from Asia and Africa, for instance, can earn a significant amount of money from these tasks, but if you’re from a first-world country like the USA or the UK, your time may be undervalued. Also, you’ll be working as an independent contractor, which means that there’s no employment agreement between you and Lionbridge.
How does The Smart Crowd work?
First, you need to sign up, which is entirely free. All you have to do is answer a few basic demographic questions such as your address, education, and employment status. Once you’ve signed up, you’ll need to complete placement evaluations, which are tests that determine your scores and specific skills. You’ll receive a score ranging from 0-100 for each test.
The tests currently consist of reading comprehension in English, business address matching, and reading comprehension in a second language like Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, or Spanish. You’ll need to complete at least one test to be considered for work. However, the more tests you take, and the higher your score, the more job opportunities you’ll have.
The reading comprehension test is relatively easy, but the business address matching can be a bit tricky at times, so be careful. There’s no time limit to complete these questions, so take your time and don’t rush because you only have one chance to complete each evaluation. Once you finish the tests, keep checking your email for new work opportunities. Initially, you may not receive many opportunities, and people can wait for weeks without getting any jobs. So, The Smart Crowd can’t be considered a reliable source of income.
Categories
There are three main categories of jobs available on The Smart Crowd:
Data Services – includes data cleansing, metadata tagging, data enrichment, and categorization.
Global Testing – involves ensuring software, mobile devices, and apps are functioning correctly and look great.
Language Services – offers translation and interpretation services to those who speak a second language.
Conclusion
The Smart Crowd is a legitimate platform that offers a variety of crowdsourcing opportunities to people all over the world. While the pay for some tasks may be lower than the minimum wage in certain countries, it can still be a great way to earn some extra money in your spare time.
However, it’s important to note that work opportunities can be limited and sporadic, and you’ll be working as an independent contractor with no employment agreement. So if you’re looking for a reliable and consistent source of income, The Smart Crowd may not be the best option for you. Nonetheless, if you’re interested in giving it a try, you can sign up for free and complete the placement evaluations to see what type of work is available for you.