Appen.com

Because I haven’t personally used Appen, I’m refraining from giving it a star rating, but we would love to hear your thoughts about the site if you have them.

What’s Great About Appen

In this day and age, it’s a relief to find a company that has legitimate, decent-paying, remote online jobs that isn’t a scam. Appen is not only not a scam, but it’s one of the better options out there. At the end of 2017, Appen announced that it is acquiring Leapforce, a site with a very similar business model, so we can probably expect these two platforms to converge over time.

Like Leapforce, Appen uses human intelligence to train AIs, evaluate social media postings and search engine results, train voice-response technologies, and the like. A job with Appen involves conducting some form of online interaction and responding to it, generally over and over again. There are hundreds of different jobs at Appen, but they all require good English writing skills, ongoing access to a high speed internet connection, access to a computer or a newer smartphone, and basic knowledge of how to perform online operations.

Most of these jobs require less than 20 hours of work per week, but they do have scheduling requirements. For example, you might be required to work 4 hours a day, in 2-hour increments with at least an hour in between, 5 days out of 7. While these scheduling requirements are usually not rigorous, it’s not completely flexible either. Appen assigns you a set amount of work to do within the allotted time periods. If you exceed the time allowed, you are still expected to complete the task, but you won’t get paid extra for the time. Most people do not have a problem with this system and feel that it’s fair, but it’s worth noting.

Jobs at Appen aren’t “jobs” exactly. They hire people for a specific client and contract, so your assignment may last a few days or weeks, and then it’s over. Once you are in their system, however, it’s very easy to apply for subsequent Appen jobs, and if you do well with them, you can expect fairly steady work.

You apply for jobs at Appen like any other job, by submitting your resume and filling out online forms, etc. It’s an asset for you to disclose all your habitual online activities, including social media accounts and the like, because it demonstrates basic competencies required for the job.

If you are hired by Appen, they will schedule you for training. Training is paid, and then you are assigned to the job. Once the job is done, you can use your Appen account to apply for new ones in a fast and streamlined way. Appen pays either every two weeks or every month, depending on the specific job.

Appen Pros:

• The pay is good. There are a huge variety of jobs with Appen, and obviously a linguist earns more than a search engine evaluator, but even search engine and social media evaluators earn $9 – $12/hour with Appen. While that isn’t a good wage by normal standards, for remote online work, it’s quite respectable, and they have a stellar reputation for paying people correctly and on time.
• The work is fairly simple. For people who already know how to search, navigate, use social media, etc, and are able to follow specific instructions, the work is straightforward. The tasks aren’t particularly challenging or engaging, and it’s unlikely that a job at Appen will advance your career or anything, but the amount of effort you put in is proportionate to the pay rate.
• It’s a good company. I mean, I don’t know how Appen treats their employees (although they do have a lot of very positive reviews online), but it’s a reputable company with a solid customer base. It has a legitimate business plan, growth opportunities, and world wide reach.
• World wide jobs. A lot of remote job sites are only open to residents of the US and Canada, but Appen has jobs for citizens of a lot of countries around the world, although they typically require English speaking skills.

Appen Cons:

As I said, I haven’t personally used Appen, so I don’t have much insight here. A number of people mention that the work is repetitive, but I would expect that to be true for this kind of work at this kind of pay.

Appen is recommended for:

Anybody who wants to work remotely from home, and can commit to 20 hours a week in 2-4 hour increments. It’s frequently suggested for college students, but if a college student couldn’t, for example, complete tasks during finals week or something, it may cost them the job and any subsequent jobs on the platform. So if you can carve out the time, it’s a good opportunity.

Appen is not recommended for:

People who need a lot of schedule flexibility to drop in and drop out of tasks. Because you have a set amount of time to complete tasks, and you don’t get paid for extra time it takes, if you expect to be frequently interrupted with, say, small children or something, Appen may not be right for you.

Tips for success with Appen:

Again, I haven’t done it myself, so I don’t have any insider tips, but from what I’m reading, if people do well with their jobs on Appen, they can expect consistent work from the site. As with every other site, building a good reputation is always a good idea.

Have you used Appen? Do you have any thoughts about it? Please let us know in the comments below!