Sunday, March 13, 2011

Make Money from Home with Leapforce – A Review


Updated for 2013

Data:
Use this link to apply: https://www.leapforceathome.com/qrp/public/jobs/list?uref=f16e8eb5ab8dea5fccd319d7d970c6e7
Rate of Pay:  $13.50/hr  paid once monthly
Terms of Employment:  Independent contractor – 6 month contract

What is Leapforce?

Since I started working for Leapforce a lot of people have been asking me about it, so in this review I’ll tell you what I can.  I’m limited in how much detail I can go into by the contract I signed, but I can give you the basics.

Leapforce is a company that conducts evaluation services for search engine providers like Google and Yahoo.  The search engine providers use the data Leapforce collects to refine the algorithms they use to generate search results.

What does the job entail?

You will be given the search that someone typed into the search box, and you will be given 2 pages of results to compare.  You will first need to determine what the user meant by that search, that may be difficult depending on your knowledge of the search terms.  If you don’t understand it you have to do some web research to figure it out.  Then you will click on the results links and evaluate (on a 5-pt scale) how well the results respond to the search.

Sounds like fun doesn’t it?  It’s like you are being paid to search the internet.  Well, yes and no, actually you don’t have time to do much searching or reading what you find.  Leapforce has performance standards that you must meet or be terminated, so you will be working and not exploring the internet.

Want to apply for a job with Leapforce?

It seems that Leapforce is always looking for new agents.  I think between the stringent entrance requirements, a tough qualification exam and their performance standards there is a lot of turnover.  So chances are that if you want to apply there will be openings.

Fill out the online application on the home page listed at the top of this post.  You will need to have a resume to attach to the application.  They are looking for people with a college degree and with some analytical skills.

A few days after applying you will receive an email letting you know if your application was accepted.  If so you will also receive instruction about the qualification exam you must pass.  Once your exam period starts you will receive a link to the General Guidelines, this is your training manual that you must read and learn in order to pass the exam.  You have 7 days to complete the test.  The first part is a multiple choice test to see if you have understood the information in the guidelines.  If you don’t pass this part you cannot finish the rest of the exam.  Also its important to know that if you do not pass, you can NOT take the test again. So be careful when taking the exam, read the questions carefully, many of them are not easy.

After you submit the first part of the test and you pass, you will receive instructions for the practical part of the exam.  This part consists of simulations of the type of work you will be doing.  This exam is actually part of your training and it allows you to decide whether this is actually something you would like to do.  NOTE:  Leapforce provides simulations on your rater page that you can use to practice and get feedback, this is valuable in helping you pass the exam.

Also see my advice for taking the exam.

A few days after you submit your completed exam you will receive an email letting you know whether you have passed.

What happens when you are accepted?

Once you have been accepted as an agent you will be required to “virtually” sign some employment documents online.  When they have processed those documents you may begin working.

Once you begin work you are being evaluated on both speed and quality of your ratings.  Your standards are lower when you first start working, but after three weeks you have to meet the same standards as everyone else.  Pay attention to your evaluations and do what you can to bring your work up to standard.

There are other types of tasks that you will have to work on that you did not train for.  There are guidelines for these other tasks on your rater page, you will need to read and learn these guidelines before you work on those tasks.

You enter your work time on their invoice generator on your rater page.  You are expected to keep track of your time to the minute.  You submit your invoice once a month on the first day of the month.  You will be paid around 25 days after that.  Payment is by direct deposit only.

My Review – Is it a good job?

When you are new at the job you will have some frustrations getting used to the procedures and using the site.  Those frustrations will decrease as you become more experienced at the job.  But as a newbie it can be very stressful trying to meet the performance standards.  I am working on writing a new post for 2013 with advice for new workers, check back later in July for that.  Overall the job pays well, has flexible hours and is usually fun to do if you love spending time searching the internet.

Things to consider:

Initially you will spend a lot of time in unpaid training so your initial pay will amount to much less than $13.50/hr.  However, once you have been working for a few months your training time will be much less.

The performance standards can make your first couple of months very stressful.

The good aspects of the job are the dependable income and flexibility of your work hours.  You can pick both when you work and how many hours you put in.

So those are the facts.  If you think you might like it, the only way to know is to apply and give it a try.  

Also, see my latest update after working for Leapforce for 2 years.

15 comments:

  1. How are you doing in it now? Can you do an update?

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  2. I'd also like an update!

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  3. Thanks for your questions. Check back later this week, I'm writing an update post. Keep in mind that I am limited by a confidentiality agreement in what I can say. But I'll tell you what I can about my experience as a Leapforce worker.

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  4. I have worked for LeapForce for almost two years, but recently they started cutting back the amount of work that is available to complete, so I ended up spending most of my time logging in to see if there was work, only to find none. They advertise flexible hours, but if in a 24 hour time period they only give you an hours worth of work and you don't know when that hours worth of work is available then it turns out to be a big waste of time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've also found that there has been less work available the last month or so. The amount of work has always been variable, especially in the summer. I'm not sure what's causing with the lack of work right now, but this is why I'm researching other ways of making money online. When Leapforce has no work, I'm going to Mechanical Turk instead, and continuing to look for other ideas as well.

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  5. I'm currently taking the qualification exam. I passed the first part, which was the "Theoretical Questions", and now I am taking Part 2 of the exam "Page Quality", and then there is a Part 3 "Block Utility". However, everyone keeps saying the 1st part of the test was only 24 questions. I had over 150 True/False questions. Now on the "Page Quality" exam I've had maybe 10 pages to review and one of them said I have 2:30 to complete! I barely had 1/4 of the questions answered in 2 minutes and just clicked go to the next task. It was impossible to evaluate my 5th task EVER in 2 1/2 mins. Then, I stopped getting tasks to evaluate. Now I have a message that says, "No tasks are currently available. Please try again later." I still have 4 days to finish the test, but no more tasks are coming in. Am I done with the 2nd part of the exam? I thought there were 150 tasks I have to evaluate.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. From your description of the exam its obvious that they have changed it a great deal since I took it 2 years ago, so I can't really answer your question. My suggestion is to carefully read over all the information they sent you about the exam and judge by that information how many tasks you have to complete. If you are reading what other people are saying on blogs and forums, they may have taken a different exam than you are taking. You should only rely on what Leapforce is telling you. Keep checking for more tasks. And you can try contacting Leapforce if you are still concerned.

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  6. I had the same problem, but slightly different. I don't know if I completed the first part of the exam or not because after several pages of the true/false questions in the first part of the exam, I got a message saying: "No tasks are currently available. Please try again later." What ended up happening with you?

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    Replies
    1. Same here, but it happened on the 2nd part of the exam. Any updates from you? I get the sneaking suspicion that the exam just decided I sucked.

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  7. Hi! Do you think I can take this job, even if I am from Argentina and 21 years old?

    Thanks!

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    Replies
    1. Apply and find out, they do want people who speak languages other than English, and they also want people living in different countries. It doesn't hurt to apply and see if you qualify. Good luck!

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  8. Is it possible to work for other similar companies while working for Leapforce? Is it allowed? When are the best times to get work there?

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    Replies
    1. Yes, I work on other online things as well as Leapforce, and have a regular job too. I work at all times of the day on Leapforce, I do sometimes encounter server (the Leapforce servers) problems in the mornings so most often I work in the afternoons and evenings. Sometimes on Sunday evenings there is less work or no work available but other than that you can work at any time.

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    2. I realize this is an older post, but I just wanted to clarify that if the person is asking if you can work for a similar company at the same time (like Lionbridge or Appen Butler Hill), you cannot. They all contract for the same client.

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  9. Hi,
    I submitted my application a week before. Till now I did not hear from them. How long should I wait to know?

    ReplyDelete