How To Make Money As A Search Engine Evaluator
Have you ever wondered how search engines work? How they decide which results to show you and in which order?
Today I’m interviewing Sam, who works as a search engine evaluator. Read on to see how Google uses real people to help improve their algorithm, find out what you need to do to become a Google Rater, and discover how much money you could make.
Meet the Money Maker – How to Make Money as a Search Engine Evaluator
Tell us a little bit about yourself
I am a Google Rater from India and a lazy blogger at Outside That Cubicle.
I have been Google rating since June 2016 and been blogging about Google rating since December 2016.
What’s your money maker?
I make money as a Google Rater who are more commonly known as search engine evaluators or raters. I am one of the 10,000+ unknown, unsung and unheard of army of raters that Google uses to refine and improve their search algorithm overtime. We are present worldwide wherever Google operates.
It involves rating how relevant or helpful certain results are to search queries issued in Google.
Supposing you are in Google, and you type – Who is the President of USA?
You would get a response from Google, something like this
So for the query who is the President of USA? the result shown above is very helpful to the user.
Based on the parameters given to us by Google in the form of 164 page General Guidelines, we are supposed to rate how helpful or how well the above result meet the user need for that specific query.
This job also involves evaluating webpages and classifying them as low or high quality based on the parameters given by Google.
We also get to listen to songs or watch YouTube videos (literally!), and so on and rate them as per the given KPIs/guideline.
It is possible to be exposed to upsetting contents, or possibly porn but you can choose to opt out of tasks involving this kind of content.
How long have you been doing it & why did you start?
I have been working as Google Rater since June 2016.
I started this job because I was jobless, broke, cheated by somebody whom I considered perfect for me, suicidal and hungry. At one point, I didn’t even have anything to eat, I was hungry for nearly two days.
I found this job when I was at the lowest ebb of my life.
In Feb 2016, I quit my night job to join another company. I fell sick the very next day of me joining that new company. And then they just kicked me out (Damn MNCs!). I looked for jobs all over, but couldn’t find one. So I started scavenging the world wide web, looking for real online jobs.
I think it was in the month of April that I found out about Google Rater job. So I applied to Leapforce (now Appen) and they got back to me immediately. I was given a pdf file to study and complete the test within 7 days. I attempted the exam, passed the first part, second part, but he failed the last part. Was given a chance to retake the test. This time I passed it and I signed all the paperworks and started working from June 6th 2016.
And I have been working as a rater since.
How much money is it possible to make?
It is possible to make more than part-time income with this job. I make full time income from it and so does many others. I personally made $2007 in a single month being an Indian.
But it depends on how much time you have. This job pays per hour and the pay per hour differs from country to country.
Here is the pay per hour for some of the major countries:
USA – $10 – $13.5 /hr (depends on state)
European countries – ($10 – $14/ hr)
India ($3 – $7/hr) (Old raters like me are paid $7/hr while new Indian raters are paid $3/hr). Japan ($15/hr)
Supposing you are a European and can dedicate full time to it, you can make 160 * $13.5 = $2160 / month. But it is easy to hit 200 hours per month, because you don’t have to commute and you save a lot of time that way.
And there is no limit on how much you can work per day. Except for Americans and Brazilians, anyone from any country can work for as many hours as they want. Amercans are hired as part-time employees and are limited to 15-26 works per week (15 being the minimum required). Brazilians are limited to 20 hours per week.
N.B. Americans can work as search engine evaluators only in Raterlabs ( which was a sister company of Leapforce, now acquried by Appen).
What’s your favourite thing about it?
Flexibility to work as much as I want or not work at all.
It has also made me more aware of the kinds of the parameters that Google look for to consider a webpage high quality. And I also notice certain trends before they actually come to real live (in Google search).
Is there any advice you’d give to someone wanting to try it?
The Search Engine Evaluator exam is a very tough exam. It is doable, but very tough.
So as soon as you get the General Guideline from them, read it like hell. It is a 164 page long and has hundreds of links that you have to click through and observe.
You have 7 days to complete a three part qualification test.
For more details on this exam, you can read my post here.
Where can we find you?
You can find me here –
https://www.outsidethatcubicle.com/
Also read: How to make money as a virtual friend >>