Working at Home as a Social Media Evaluator For Appen

58 thoughts on “Working at Home as a Social Media Evaluator For Appen”

1. Hi, I recently was asked to qualify for some projects at Appen. When I received the email I was in the airport and registered my IP address there. I thought they would just want to make sure my IP address was within the country I had applied for, however now I am reading that they want you to have the same IP address when you qualify for each individual project. Is there any way I can rectify this before going through with the qualifications? Thanks!

2. Well, I hate to, but I must let people be aware of what they are getting into. I say I hate to because there are a lot of good things about Appen, but the one most glaring negative is the immediate dismissal from a contract. I worked for the ads rating portion for about 8 months. During that time I received many positive reviews of my work. I had a 90+% perfect audit record some included my first few where I was getting the hang of it. I received an email saying that “I may not actually know how to rate for this project” and was immediately locked out until a re-qualification test was taken. I took it and was told i did not do well. No Audit was attached. I was let go. I received an email this morning; an audit from the past week before being let go…again it was rated perfect. A little about my efforts. I worked more than was required. 7 out of the possible 7 days a week available. Required was 5. I helped test new formats. Was goal oriented and went above and beyond at every chance. Offered to help them any way I could. So, Yeah. I have read the negative reviews regarding being let go, but I gave the opportunity the benefit of the doubt thinking heck, I am a damn good worker. College educated, work as a freelancer creating ads just like the ones I had been rating! I have been in the restaurant industry as a manger on many levels, know hard work from growing up on a dairy farm, and I have never ever been let go from a job in my 25+ professional career. So, the company for the most part is good. They do set you up for success. They are there to help you, although certain departments have been cut back, they do not tell you, but it is evident when you work for a place long enough. Just be aware. The will cut you out. They are not a basket to carry all your eggs in. They should be one of many opportunities to be included in your freelance career so you have a buffer for times like this.

   • Joe,
     Thanks for this very honest and fair review of Appen. I have only been doing the feed ads rating for a month or so as a side gig to supplement slow transcription work but I will certainly take your words of caution to heart because your experience with them is sounding eerily similar to mine (and again, It’s only been about 5-6 weeks in) with how much effort I’m putting in to this contractor job. I want to do well to get offered other contracts but my fear from the beginning has been that after 7-8 months once the contract for this client is over I’ll get dumped, regardless of how well I did in QA metrics. It’s really disheartening to hear your example of that very thing happening there with Appen, but it certainly makes me want to continue to spread out my eggs to other contracting baskets, so to speak. 🙂

     • Hi. Glad it was useful. Appen has offered me other opportunities and I have engaged some. It isn’t steady. I’m thinking they do it to kinda hold on to you. But, they did say I will not be able to work in the ads dept. Again. It is deflating when you give someone your best efforts, have documented proof of your efforts, but still get cut for reasons that do not add up. Just be honest I say. Work all you can for all you can get. Continue searching other leads. It is the contract lifestyle, but in this particular scenerio, when you are let go, they make you out to be totally inept even with 8 months of service proving otherwise. Who keeps some one for 8 months if they can’t do their job? I have patience, but I never would have.

3. I worked for Appen as a social media evaluator for 6 weeks this year. My jobs was social media evaluator. I was paid 13.75 an hour to evaluate 60 stories/videos out of my personal news feed. Their system is almost always down or lagging but they still expect you to get your required 4 hours a day in regardless. You CAN NOT bill more than 4 hours even if it took you 5 hours to do the work because of their glitchy system. 4 hours sounds easy right? BUT then you have to log out of the system for 3 hours then log back in after those 3 hours are up to finish up and this has to be done before midnight so it’s not the flexible work around your lifestyle job they claim. You are not told if you’re doing the evaluations ‘right or wrong’ until 4-6 weeks into your ‘project’ so you do all that work thinking you’re doing a good job and they come back and tell you you did it all wrong then give you 2 weeks to do it the right way without actually ever telling you what the right way is. Then you’ll get a notice saying “Thanks for your work. We’re done with your news feed and no longer need your services.” End of contract. Here’s the kicker on this too, if you do your bake off 1 minute after midnight or you miss the bake off altogether YOU DON’T GET PAID for your 4 hours but they get paid by the company they are contracted with for the work you just did but didn’t get paid for and they used your personal facebook feed to get that information.

   They are not evaluating ad feeds on your facebook page but are asking you to evaluate your own friends/family/co-workers/groups posts. I felt like such a stalker =( I work for leapforce now as an ad evaluator and I LOVE it. NOt as much work, same pay,less stress.

   • omg this is exactly what happened to me! Exactly every single step. Worked for them for four months, three months into it I have to do a requalification. I pass that, and then one week later, told they no longer need any information from me and contract over! I have the opportunity to take an evaluation for Leapforce but the manual is 141 pages long and there are three tests to pass. And apparently the pass rate of the three tests are very low.

   • Something similar happened to me. Not only did they misrepresent the hours for the job to me, but they reviewed my profile as it was, with 152 friends, and qualified me anyway. I did enough training that it amounted to two days of work I wouldn’t be paid for, and I did two days of work on the project itself. I finished in 3 hours instead of the usual start week average of 5, I did the work well and promptly, only to get an email two days later, after my WEEK LONG qualification process, forms, contracts all that stuff, to be told I was being removed from the project because my friend count wasn’t at the minimum requirement. Don’t you think they’d look and tell you if it was a problem before putting you through 8 hours of training and the contracts and forms? It left a sour taste in my mouth, and I’ll pursue other companies and jobs before I try them again.

     • I was hired just last june but up until now no project has been provided yet..I kept following up with the person who interviewd me..Is it really that long to be assigned on a project? Really worried if I was really hired by them..

       • It took them almost a year to find me an actual project. They did put me on crowdsourcing within a month of my application, but that is a pay per click job and it doesn’t pay much. I would avoid the crowdsourcing. My project was as a social media evaluator. It was fun, but as others mentioned above there’s not a lot of feedback and my contract was suddenly ended after 3 months. They do tell you when you sign up that you won’t be given any warning as to when your contract will end, so this wasn’t too surprising to me. It’s not meant to be a job you can depend on, but it did help me catch up on some bills over the 3 month’s i worked on this project.

4. I applied for the social media evaluation position. I received an email asking how may facebook friends I had. I told them. I received an email the next day inviting me to join one of their projects. It payed $13.75 per hour however this project was offering me 7 hours a week. I politely turned down the invite.

5. Hello Folks , I know ive posted here about a year ago , but I don’t see a forum here for the website evaluater job, But they got back to me again about 10 days ago 4/07/16 asking me to take the test . I thought I took these tests a year ago and failed them but I don’t really know except for the old posts I have here . I am confused .. but forgetting about the past and just talking about now , I took the tests again recently and felt i did really good . I have some short term website Eval work exp for another company and that gave a good understanding now for appen tests…isoftstone tests was much harder . now the last time I thought I took the test for appen I got a rejected email in less then a day , this time its been like 8 days and i haven’t heard nothing yet .

   so my questions is this ?? is that a good sign , and it is normal to wait that long to hear back ? If you did well on the test . they say 3 days after you take the test , but I know sometimes these take longer . I check my email daily hoping to see something . I also sent them a email telling them i had many DC issues during the tests and they responded back to me about that but not my results of if I am hired . and told them in that email if there is a issue pls let me know , and so far nothing .it showed I completed the tests . so for anyone that got hired could you please shed some light for me . and one last questions is search evaluation , and website evaluation the same ?

   Thanks a heap

   Ray

   • Hi Ray,

     I originally applied with Appen back in early February and after a couple emails from a hiring manager asking about my Facebook friends list I didn’t hear anything back until about ten days ago. I was contacted and invited to test. I completed the qualifications and test as of last Friday (4/15) and waited. I just got the email earlier this morning (4/19) stating I’d passed and just a couple hours ago received the IC contract to review and accept. It seems you tested about a week earlier than I did so the hiring manager should have gotten back to you by now. Hopefully, there’s nothing wrong with the test (i.e. technical issues). Double check your spam folder and I would give it only another 24 hours before reaching out to them. Hopefully, you have the screenshot of the test page showing you finished (I know they mentioned they may ask for this as proof if something went wrong with the test)?

     Hope this helps,
     Echo

     • Hello Echo,

       What position did you get in for .. social media ? I did take screenshots of the tests saying complete ,they got back to me today saying I passed , but now there is no openings ..Unreal. they are putting my name in the top list if one opens, but that doesn’t help me now . I checked the openings they have now and really nothing thats steady work .one was a task for 18 dollars .lol Ohh but of course a phone job wants to hire me , and I done those for a few years and never liked them , so I was hoping this company would get back to me with a hire proposal . Be so cool to have the freedom of hours and not dealing with people on phones .. with something like website eval work .I know many claim it can be repetitive work but I done piece work for years, so I am use to that . I see they have a tab for social media work , but in the open jobs they have , its not listed there and I hardly use Facebook and only have a friend list of 11, so I thought having 11 wouldn’t land me that job , or does the friend list really matter ? I know how websites and social media blogs work as I have built and owned a few on a very small scale .

       Thanks for the Info Echo

       Ray

       • Hey all. I have been reading the comments regarding Appen as of late. Congrats to all who have passed qualifications, etc. As far as time tables and waiting periods, I experienced some of these concerns. Just keep in mind that many people are trying the same as you and will take a little time for it all to move forward. Just be a little patient. The fact they are communicating with you is a great sign. In the end, they are a great company to work for and the will set you up for success. Always pay on time. I have been with them for about 8 months. Good luck; stay positive.

       • Hi Ray,

         You’re right. I applied for both their search engine eval and social media eval jobs back in Feb. As of yet no one at Appen has mentioned the search engine eval job. My apologies for the confusion.

         I do recall they wanted a minimum FB friends list. If I remember correctly the application question just asked where your friends list number fit with a range (like 1-100, 101-200, etc) but then I was later contacted to get an exact number. I have about 80. I don’t think I was ever told what exact number the minimum is, though.

         That is really tough now that the SE Eval position is filled. Judging from some other earlier comments, it wouldn’t surprise me if they experienced some attrition so perhaps you’ll still get in this hiring cycle and won’t have to wait too much longer.

         -echo

6. I am a search engine evaluator. Their system is often down. It is hard to get the hang of it and once you do, you will be lucky if you can work when you want to. You have to be able to work when their systems are available.

7. This is one of the things that SOUNDS a lot better than it is.
   You will spend an EXCESSIVE amount of time trying to get hired.
   Once you do get hired, you find that the actual paying work time if very small.
   They want you to do “tasks” instead that pay VERY very little.

   Everyone is different, but for me, this just was not worth it.

8. Hi,

   I have received a email for prescreen test from appen. Should have to attend traning before attending the test? or training is the end of the recruitment process. I read in some website there will be a training lasting around 25-30 hrs. Kindly reply

9. My applications have been “in process” status since June! Anyone else hanging in this limbo? Any ideas what’s wrong, if anything?

   • Sometimes they get a surge in applications so that’s why they may be slow. I currently work for them as a Search Engine Evaluator and they’re asking us to ask people if they would be interested in being a Social Media Evaluator. They seem desperate. You may wanna try for that instead.

     • appen has very unrealistic expectations, if you do get hired by them be prepared for some disappointment

10. i was able to find the test answers to the 10 question Technical part of the test online but does anyone have the answers to the first part of the test where there are 30questions?

11. Hello Fellow WAH folks, I have a few questions about this company if anyone could shed some light pls.
    I have really been dieing to hear back from a website evaluation group for the longest time .I have done about 4 Wah jobs but they were all phone type jobs that i really did not enjoy { billing etc }.. finally Appen emailed me the other day after i applied via their website .With the Info and link to take 3 tests.. I completed them and felt I did well ,but who knows ..here is the few questions I have ..

    1) Do they email all folks that apply these tests to take or was i moved forward into the hiring process ? I am just wondering is this a auto send they send to most that applied .

    2) Did they take long to reach out to anyone that has been hired by them after taking these pre tests ? and what is the ratio of passing ..eg 4 wrong is passable ? things of that nature . and will they contact you even if you didn’t pass ?

    3) If someone did not pass the first time , is there another chance ? { i read on some sites yes and no ,but i know these regulations can change ) I read 2 chances .

    4) after passing these tests are you pretty much In ? and what other steps is there till you finally work.

    5) here is a biggie .. Is there enough work on a steady bases if you are accepted .. I am not interested in these 4 tasks a year jobs that yields 10 dollars for annual , been there done that .. like Ibuyyou or itryyou etc .I really need a steady gig now , as I am in-between jobs at the moment .

    I did read most of posts here and on other sites also , but I am getting mixed feedback , So I posted my own to see what feedback i can get .

    Thanks for reading and taking you’re time to provide me with these answers .
    Have a great day ,
    Ray

    • I currently work for them. All the projects are different but you basically take the test or tests (depending on project, I only had to take one big test). I sent it in and waited about a couple days and they wanted me take the test again because I didn’t get a passing score (about 85% right, depending on project). I finally passed it the second time around and once you pass it you get the project and have to wait (for me about a week) to get the work.

      When you get the work depends on your project and the client. I think they let you know if you didn’t pass it. I hear not much people pass their tests, but I heard about a lot of people who did.

      I don’t get work on a daily basis but my project assignments could go on for several weeks once I get the work. I also do Crowdsourcing for Appen to fill in those gaps. You may want to apply for that but that pays less (per small task)

      • Ahh see with me they pretty much just told me that other candidates was a better match then me , they didn’t go into details with scores , they didn’t let me know how I did at all , and they didn’t give me a second chance , this was for website evaluation , so maybe they just didn’t need me , I feel I passed the test , I took almost the same test for another company these are generic tests.I was really bummed out i really wanted a Job like this , I am really sick of those non stop phone ringing jobs dealing with irate customers ..Ill tell ya one thing they don’t waste time letting you know you didn’t get it , I received that email in less then a day

        My app for crowd sourcing they still haven’t done yet , still says pending ..So I may still get that but those don’t seem to be a reliable source of steady income ..

        Thanks Ang

    • I don’t need any feedback to my above questions , I wasn’t accepted ..Thanks

      • I was accepted for two jobs. Crowdsourcing and social media evaluator. Just started actual work, I hope it lasts!

        • Hi Valarie. I was just assigned a social media eval job from appen. I guess the details will be avail this friday.
          Are you still working for them? What should I expect? Ive been a culinary trained chef for over 20 years but am now disabled and could use the money, I want to do this right. Any tips would be a great help, thanks dear

12. I’ve got the crowdsourcing HIT (click) job with Appen. Here is my time investment and earnings for my first task (pick the best search output between two, mark sections, which influenced my decision and write a comment on my decision, then click “submit” – this counts for 1 HIT):
    1) 15 minutes to read the guidelines
    2) 15 minutes to complete required 7 question qualification test to get access to the task
    3) 1 hr 6 minutes for the task itself – I made 20 HITs, 15 of them got accepted and paid $0.15 per HIT.
    So, in 1 hr 36 min I made $2.25!!!
    There is an incentives column too, but there is no information what they are given for exactly and how much they are.

13. Oh I meant to ask too regarding the 20 hours a week, must I break this work down into Monday through Friday at 4 hours a day or can I login whenever as long as I get my 20 hours that week? I’d much rather do two 10 hour days or three at 6.5ish. It’s also because I’m juggling other wah jobs so I need utmost flexibility to shuffle things around otherwise it won’t work. I can’t be needed in two places at once, so to speak.

14. Does anybody have definite knowledge of working for or even applying to multiple companies, namely Leapforce, LionBridge and Appen Butler Hill as far as what’s allowed? I vaguely remember reading something about not being allowed to work for one if you work for another because of something in the NDA.
    Considering these all sound like part time positions I’d ideally like to work for two or all three (if I pass their tests of course lol)
    I just don’t want to screw up any chances of being hired. For example, if I apply to Leapforce and Lionbridge and neither hire me and then I try for Butler, will they refuse me? (or vice versa) Thanks 🙂

    PS If anybody is allowed to confirm the pay rate for any of these jobs, it’d be much appreciated as I’m reading everything from “slave wages” to 13-$25 an hour online. That’s a huge disparity! lol

    • I don’t know in general, but it’s probably not possible to work for Appen and Lionbridge at the same time.
      I’ve been working for Appen and applied for Lionbridge and I unusually quickly got a reply that the application was denied. In the form I admitted working for another company as the evaluator (don’t remember whether the name was there) and I think that was the reason.

15. Hey

    Just a question for anyone who applied with Appen. I got an e-mail from them with a link to apply. When I clicked on it a file downloaded to my computer called “Data.” It was from appen.com. Did anyone else notice this file download onto their computer? I am just freaked out because of viruses and stuff like that. I would like to apply but when that happened I closed down the page and deleted that file right away. 🙁

16. Do you have any information about the crowdsourcing jobs at this company?

    • I worked the crowdsourcing job for a day or two and let me tell you that it’s the exact same thing as ClickWorker.
      The difference is this: Appen needs you to have $50 of tasks done before paying you while ClickWorker pays you after you get $1. Other than that, it’s the same tasks. I highly suggest you go for ClickWorker crowdsourcing instead as they have other types of jobs as well.
      The crowdsourcing part took about 2-3 months for them to finally accept me and what a waste of time to find out that it’s the same thing I’ve had lol.

      • Thanks for sharing! I remember you messaged me the other day and let me know, but I forgot to add it to the review! I’m thinking about doing an updated appen review soon, so if I do I will include that info.

      • I also agree with this statement about the crowdsourcing work. I would choose ClickWorker over ABH for crowdsourcing work. ABH is somewhere out there in left field when it comes to this type of work in my opinion. ClickWorker has been doing it longer and has a lot more experience with it under it’s belt. I know there have been some that had bad experiences with CW but I never have and would recommend them.

17. Appen Butler Hill does hire all over the place. I am just going through the training modules prior to taking the exam to proceed to the qualification process. For Canada (or BC anyway) they pay $13.50 US per hour, and $300 US for the first 30 hours you put in.

    I submitted my application and heard back via email. I have not once spoke with them via messenger or phone.
    The work is easy once you get the hang of it. It’s definitely not something that goes through a persons head while using a search engine. But they are a lot of help and the training modules are very helpful.

    In my opinion, this is a decent place to try out. 🙂

    • I’ll tack onto what Alicia said. I’ve worked on multiple projects for ABH up until late October. The pay is dependent on the project you’re on. Quick breakdown:

      Project 1: $14/hr + $300 for training (~30 hours, if you’re quick you can get it done in 15-20)
      –Said strict on hours, 20/wk (4/day). I never made an effort to find out how strict. From what I understand there was also a 10 hr/wk option (2/day).
      Project 2: $13.5/hr + $150 for training (no estimate given, I’d say 10 hours though some likely took longer)
      –Said strict on hours, 20/wk (4/day). According to a friend doing it, the client hasn’t provided enough work a couple of time and he’s dropped below 15 hours without repercussion (it was a client issue). Again, apparently there’s a 10/wk option.

    • I just took the screening test. Is the work consistent? I heard that you’re tested and put in specific projects. What happens afterwards? Are you offered another project right after the first one?

18. The application process went very smoothly for me with Appen Buttler Hill’s crowdsourcing and search engine evalutor project. I am exited to continue through the process as this will be great extra income while I am attending college and saving for a new home. I was also invited to Leapforce’s search engine evaluation project. I was invited to take their exams for the qualification process the following day after I applied to get started on a project. So it is possible for acceptance to come quickly. Lionbridge rejected my application in an email stating they are unable to give me feedback due to large volume of applications. I believe the reason may have been that I applied to Lionbridge after I applied to Leapforce. I found out you cannot work for Leapforce if you applied to Lionbridge. Overall, working for either of these companies seems like a good legitmate opportunity. However, it is also dependant on your goals and likes.

19. I work for Lionbridge and it pays 15$/hr starting. I focus on Ad Content optimization for Bing. It can be tedious but they are a very professional organization with excellent management responsiveness.

    • how many hours do you get per week.

20. I am in the process of going through the qualification process for Appen Butler Hill and am quite excited about it. Thanks for the great information (again!).

21. I have applied at Leapforce I have to do the test next week Jan 28. They hire people from Canada. I would like to apply to Butler Hill and workforce Logic, but its only for US people

22. I worked for ABH as a search evaluator for the french market and I loved it.
    They are very nice and answer questions.
    You don’t have to send them invoices, but you have to enter your hours on a specific web application. However you don’t have to keep track of your time yourself as their tool does it.

23. Just wondering do they hire in new York cause I applied last year and hav’nt heard anything yet, but as far as my concern Im really interested in working because Im a stay at home mom, and I really need to work, but when I spoke to LB and LF they seen that they do not hire in New York it just seems everywhere else they hire, do anybody know when they will hire in Ny?

24. The postion is about 20 hours weekly (no less).

    Possibly the pool or items for work has listings, travel locations, and more, and some adult content will come in time to time with no option to be in a pool or a group without such results mixed in.

    According to the website and the listings of other positions ButlerHill is a linquistics company and the work for Website rating is one position.

25. I used to work for Leapforce. Although I did find that type of work hard to focus for some task, I am considering applying for Butler Hill. The only thing holding me back right now is the application says you would have to be exposed to pornography from time to time. At Leapforce they could take you out of the pool of people who work with those kind of site and if you came across it, you could reject it. Is that possible at Butler Hill? Is there an option to pass it by and go onto a different task? Would love to hear from any one who has worked there about this and any other differences from Leapforce.

    • Hi, I’m interesting in applying for BH or LF but I find that most of the information on the specifics of the job is very vague. Could you help me understand it better what are expected of the employees? Also how did you feel about keeping your hours and sending the invoices? I’ve only work from home as an employee for call centers but would love to try something different. I’m just a bit worry about how it all works out and want to make sure that I can set my own hours and get a decent pay. I would really appreciate your input.

      Thanks,

      Val

26. Can anyone describe the nature of work and the training they are going to provide.

    Also if i am right the test is going to be after the training is it?

27. For India, they pay 4.5 $ per hour.

    • Thank you! It’s a shame it’s not more. I really think they should pay those of you overseas something comparable to what workers can earn here. I really appreciate your input!

      • They do pay 4.50 USD/hr for India which is far less than what is being offered by Lionbridge (Approx 7 USD/hr)!

28. This is a test to see if my gravatar actually works …

29. Nice to know they pay more than leapforce and lionbridge! I wonder why I don’t hear as much about them. Maybe they are smaller.

    • They pay more, but it’s a whole different world. Majorly structured, extremely “nitpicky”, and extremely repetitive. Most leapforce and lionbridge people would not survive there.

30. It sounds like a great opportunity for those who can do the work properly and are goal-oriented!
    I would love to apply but I don’t want to put too much on my plate, if ya know what I mean!
    Thanks for posting! It’s a great review!

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