Websites have been using Captchas since around 2000. Still, many people have never heard of it or don’t exactly know what it is. So you can just imagine how clueless they would get even more if they’re asked about a captcha entry job.
If you belong to the “triple W” generation and you don’t know what Captcha is, it’s all right. It’s a bit on the usually ignored technical aspect of websites that’s why many internet surfers still don’t know about it even if they’ve already encountered it countless times.
Captcha stands for “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart.” (Good thing they coined the acronym, right?) It is what we almost always see whenever we fill out sign up or registration forms online. Usually placed near or at the end of online sign up forms, Captcha comes in the form of an image in which there are slightly distorted letters and numbers. The user should read the image and type the alphanumeric combination in the text box provided to proceed with whatever he/she wants to do on the website (e.g., sign up, post a comment, do a search, etc.).
As its full name implies, Captcha is a way to counter spamming bots, or online programs that “crawl” websites to read information, fill out forms, and post comments. Captchas had been effective until programs were developed to “read” the images. So, companies designed more complicated Captchas that couldn’t be decoded by programs. Hence, Captcha entry jobs started.
With Captcha’s background already explained, you should more or less have an idea on what people do as Captcha encoders. Some companies wanting to send promotional materials and invitations to millions of internet users bypass anti-spam measures by using bots to fill out forms and comment boxes and employing humans to decode the Captcha images.
The number of spam entries bots make is more or less equal to the number of images that should be decoded—and there could be hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of Captchas. This is why there are countless online job posts for Captcha entry projects. However, when it comes to earning through this job, it wouldn’t be biased to say that it indeed is one of the most low-paying home-based jobs you can get.
You’d be lucky to get a rate of 25 cents per image. However, most companies post their ads in freelancing sites where freelancers have to bid for prices to get the project. So the tendency is, the buying price gets lower as more sellers (freelancers) try to outbid each other. And when we say gets lower, we mean really, really low. Captcha entry projects could pay as low as $1.00 for 2,000 Captcha images. Some even had teams of encoders to produce as much as 100,000 entries per day.
It is said that bypassing such anti-spam automated test is against the law and constitute a cyber crime, but many still continue doing it to earn money however low the pay is.
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If you are eyeing an online job, then freelancing would be the best option for you. These days, freelancing definitely one of the most sought after trends in earning money because people can work freely at the comforts of their own homes.
Experts say that more and more professionals and skilled people are getting into the bandwagon of getting online jobs as freelancers because the industry offers a lot more opportunity compared to the usual eight-hour job.
Aside from giving you enough freedom from all the hectic office schedule, being a freelancer also enables you to manage your own time and choose your own path, so to speak.
If you are a graphic artist, there are better chances for you to get an online job. This is because graphic designing is one of the industries where freelancing is abundant. Because the job can be arranged in a per project basis, more and more potential clients prefer to hire freelance graphic artists because they don’t have to pay the artists just like the regular employees.
Simply defined as "self-employed, sub-contractors who market their design by the job to several buyers," freelance graphic artists also serve as the boss, the office manager, the secretary or secretarial pool, a member of the sales staff, the head and the staff of the marketing department, the maintenance staff and the mailman all rolled into one person.
If you are into this field and you would want to accept freelance jobs or projects, then you should start building, promoting and marketing yourself by now. According to most freelance graphic artists the first thing that one should have is to possess a dedicated passion for a demanding job and clients as well.
To those who are full time graphic artists and you are planning to go freelance, here's a set of considerations you might want to contemplate on before indulging into an adventurous yet demanding job:
- determine and set your goals. Just like in any job, becoming a freelance graphic artist will require you to set and determine your goals before finally jumping over a new set up. Since becoming a freelance artist will eat much of your time especially if you're just starting, you need to contemplate if you should drop your day time job and if you can handle meticulous and demanding clients at hand. Part of determining and setting your goals is asking yourself what you are getting out of the career shift and what made you decide to do this.
- check your business acumen. Knowing different business routes and knowing how to run a business will definitely help you become a successful freelance illustrator or graphics designer.
- gauge your capability to decide. Decision-making is a very important aspect in going freelance. If you are really planning to go freelance, then you should have the heart and the mind to decide. Since you'll be making a lot of decisions eventually, you should start learning to decide wisely as early as now.
- examine your overall attitude towards shifting to a new working environment. Getting an online job is like taking 180 degrees turn from your usual work setting. Before finally jumping into freelancing, you should ask yourself how to handle stress, possible rejection, and competition. This would contribute to your success in your new line of work.
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