For more than 20 years, Lionbridge has been providing work at home opportunities via what’s known as its Smart Crowd platform. It’s one of the larger companies online that you may have read about, and it’s for a good reason.  The company offers flexible hours and you can work on demand.  Plus, there are so many tasks available, it’s hard to get bored as the tasks are always changing.

If you’re looking more for a versatile work from home job that could pay you a few hundred dollars a month, maybe more, this could be one to consider.

In today’s review, I will talk a pinch about what the company does, how you can apply as well as what you can make.  As in all of my reviews, I’m always honest, only showcasing companies I personally would work with.

What is Smart Crowd?

Smart Crowd is owned by Lionbridge, an American company that provides localization and AI training data.  It currently operates in more than 26 countries with more than 6,000 employees and more than 100,000 cloud workers on the Smart Crowd platform.

Its Smart Crowd platform was designed to work more like Amazon’s MTurk and Clickworker if you’re familiar with that.  If not, picture it as a job board of sorts that’s filled with thousands of tasks that are sitting there waiting for someone to complete them.  Whenever you log in, you can pick out a task that you qualify for and finish it for credit.  You can work as many (or as little) hours as you want.  It’s as flexible as it comes.

As a cloud worker, some of the most common tasks you will come across include content evaluation, annotation, transcription, collection and  linguistic consultancy.  In turn, your work will help improve search results, maps, internet safety and speech recognition.

Signing up for Smart Crowd

To sign up for Smart Crowd, there’s a registration form directly on the home page.  It will look something like this…

The company asks for the usual, such as your name, email, a password as well as where you’re located.  After you confirm your email, you will then have to tell the company more about yourself as well as any skills you may have.

After I filled out that simple demographic page, it was then time to take a comprehension test.  These are very important as it will get your name on the waiting list.  If you fail to complete one, you will never receive an email invite.

For instance, when I was signing up, I could take the following comprehension tests…

I did the English reading test, which consisted of 10 questions, and it took me about 15~ minutes to complete.  I scored an 80%, but I didn’t focus on it 100%.  As long as you can comprehend a newspaper article and answer a simple yes/no question, it’s not the hardest thing in the world.  Be sure to take your time as you can only take an evaluation once.

To qualify as a worker, you must be at least 18+ years old and complete at least one placement evaluation before you can be considered to work.  As a cloud worker, you can only work on the tasks related to the talent you demonstrated.  The higher your scores, the more work you can take on.  As long as you’re 18+ and are internet savvy, you can join.

Getting Work and an Invite

After taking your reading comprehension test, it’s now a waiting game.  Since Smart Crowd limits the number of workers since there’s a fixed amount of work, invites are sent out based on your evaluation score.  Generally, the higher your score, the better your chances of getting an invite are.

If you are invited, you will get an invite confirmation via your email on file.

Smart Crowd Jobs

Once you gain access, you can then start working on the jobs based on your evaluations.  In general, Smart Crowds offers the following job types:

Ads Quality Rater

As an ads quality rater, it will be your job to rate ads based on their end goal.  In short, you will provide feedback of sorts based on the demographics the business is looking to target.

Data Entry

This is probably one of the most popular task options here.  Data entry simply requires you to input data from one source to the next.  For instance, you may be asked to read a handwritten form and input the name and address into a database.

Internet Assessor

This job is similar to that of testing a website for usability purposes.  You will be asked to navigate a website and offer your honest opinion.

Map Quality Analysts

These tasks will present you with a map and then ask you if the maps are relevant to the address.

Search Engine Evaluator

This is one of the most popular jobs and one of the reasons most people sign up.  As a search engine evaluator, you will be presented with a list of search results, along with search terms, and then asked if the results were relevant or not.

Social Media Evaluator

Like a search engine evaluator, you are asked to rate ads and social media profiles based on the overall quality and relevancy.  This job will require that you use your smartphone.

Test Associate

In some cases, an organization may need you to help test a product, whether it be a survey form or a report.  You will then be asked to provide your feedback after completing it.

Transcription

This task is straight-forward, in which you will be asked to listen to an audio file and type what you hear.  It’s one of the many transcription jobs available on the internet.

Translator

If you know more than one language, which will be proven during the evaluation, you will be asked to translate work from one language to another.

Voice Data Collection

This task will require you to read something aloud.  Companies will do this so that they can collect voice data for programs they may be working on.

Smart Crowd Pay

How much you make with Smart Crowd will greatly depend on the tasks you’re working on.  Since each task pays out a certain rate, your wage could be much different than mine, even if we are working on the same tasks.

On average, hourly rates can range from as little as $9~ to more than $20+ hour.  This fee seems to vary based on how fast you work and if you can meet productivity goals.  Of course, you could make much less if you’re slow, but I just wanted to give you an average if you work for an hour straight.

In the end, the sweet spot seems to be in the $14 to $16~ per hour.  This range was confirmed by multiple people on this Reddit thread. and Glassdoor salary submissions.  Again, your results will vary, so take this as an average only.

What Others Are Saying

As in all of my reviews, I like to see what other people are saying about the platform.  With everything that I review, I will always find both good and bad, all of which I try to include below.

The Pros

• work whenever you want
• decent hourly wage rate average for on-demand online work
• you can work whenever you want
• very easy dashboard to use
• assignments are easy to understand
• great part-time option

The Cons

• may never get accepted
• work isn’t steady
• saturated market, meaning jobs can be scarce at times
• can get boring
• have to meet minimum targets or else you get placed for requalification
• no guaranteed hours
• no benefits

Final Thoughts

If you can get accepted to the program, I think it could be an awesome part-time opportunity.  I wouldn’t expect much, maybe a few hundred dollars at most, but hey, if you’re looking for a very flexible online part-time online job, it’s one to consider.

As long as you don’t mind data entry, transcription, assessing-like work and you feel you’re self-motivated to work from home, then at least sign up and take the evaluations.  Remember, it could take months before you hear back, if at all.  Generally, as long as your scores are 90%+, you should hear back within the next few months if they need your particular skill.  Just take your time on the assessment tests so that you can score a 100%.

In the end, it only takes about 15 minutes to sign up.  Best case, you can start working in a few weeks and average $14 an hour.  Worst case, you never hear back and you have to find another way to make money.

As always, if I’m missing anything or you want to comment on Smart Crowd itself, you’re more than welcome to do so in the comments below.