Picoworkers like every other other freelance website is an online marketplace that connects freelancers and business owners around the world with easy-to-do affordable tasks. For each completed tasks each and every freelancer earns between $0.2 to $5 per each completed tasks. In this guide, i will be sharing with you how i make money with picoworkers.
Before then it would be of interest to note that, picoworkers has now change it platform from picoworkers.com to sproutgigs.com with reasons best known to them, i honestly do not know the reason why but then i needed to let you know that both sproutgigs and picoworkers are the same platform.
Picoworkers is a two way platform. Once you set up an account, you can both perform small tasks for money, or pay people to do micro-tasks for you.
For example, if you were keen to get more people to follow your social media accounts, or to join the mailing list for your blog, you could pay them to do so.
It’s the nature of some of these tasks that make me a little uncomfortable about recommending Picoworkers – so read on to find out more.
SproutGigs Review – Is it Legit or Scam? (Why You Should Think Twice)
Picoworkers isn’t a scam. It’s easy to find Picoworker payment proofs from people who have earned money from the platform. The company has an “About” page with full address details and even a phone number. Picoworkers is an LLC based out of Santa Barbara, California.
Despite this apparent legitimacy, there are various reasons why you might want to think carefully before joining Picoworkers.
Most of the tasks on the platform only earn you a small amount of money. Admittedly, this is the nature of micro-working. However, additionally, as explained later in the review, some of the tasks seem morally questionable.
Picoworkers Review – Signing Up
Signing up to Picoworkers in really easy. There’s a fairly short sign-up form, asking for things like your name, country, and desired login credentials.
Later on, you are asked to provide your nearest city and your date of birth, before you’re able to complete any tasks.
It’s all very straightforward, and relatively informal, allowing you to begin work very quickly.
I first published a Picoworkers review a couple of years back. When I came to revisit it in 2021, I was pleased to see that the site had had a modern overhaul. It’s now much more attractive and modern.
I wondered if this overhaul would mean that I would leave with a more positive impression than I got the first time around. To find out if that was the case, you’ll need to read on!
Performing Tasks
Once you’ve verified your email address and logged in, you’ll see a wide range of tasks you can complete on Picoworkers. There were just over 1000 live “starter” tasks when I last looked. I was unable to see how many were available in the “Advanced” and “Expert” categories, as I shall explain below.
It’s fair to point out that the number of tasks on Picoworkers seems to have increased since my last look – the platform seems to be growing. This is good news for those who decide to give the site a try.
You’re restricted to small “starter” tasks on the platform until you complete some successfully, which builds up a success rate score. Once this rises high enough, your “worker level” increases, and you can get involved in (slightly) better paying larger and “ongoing” jobs.
When I first looked at Picoworkers, my initial observations were positive. The jobs there for the taking all looked very simple – things like “Visit website and click once,” and “Visit Facebook and Visit website.”
While these tasks only pay pennies each, they also only take seconds. This, in essence, is what a lot of micro-working is like.
How do you get paid?
Every job you complete on Picoworkers / SproutGigs will earn you a certain amount, which will be credited to your account.
However, the payout system is one of the areas where there have been a few changes since it changed its name.
The payout threshold used to be $5.75, but now it is $5.
Picoworkers offers several payout options. You can get paid via PayPal, Cryptocurrency, AirTM, Uphold, or Skrill. The cryptocurrencies you can get paid in can vary from time to time, in my experience. But most often it will be Ethereum and Litecoin.
Each payment method used to have a certain processing fee. But this has now changed, so all of them have the same processing fee. And you just need to be aware of this, as that means you will not get the full amount.
I do like the fact that they have a low payout threshold of $5. However, the percentage you have to pay to withdraw is quite high, which is definitely a drawback, in my opinion.
In fact, they are charging an 18% processing fee, which is extremely high.
They used to say that they needed to withhold VAT, and the total fees then often ended up being close to 20%.
At least after it has changed its name to SproutGigs they are just being honest about how high a fee they are charging and do not try to hide it.
They say they charge this fee to support the operations of the platform.
But that just does not make sense, in my opinion. They are already charging other fees, and they should have built a business where it would not be necessary to charge this high a fee from workers who already get very low pay for the tasks.
In my opinion, this just sounds like an excuse to make more money, and they know many people will likely not realize the fee is this high until after they have worked for a while and are ready to cash out.
This is definitely something to consider so you know what to expect.
But it does pay, and I have been paid by it several times myself. Below you can also find a video where I show SproutGigs/Picoworkers payment proof, so you can see for yourself.
However, just be aware that is not always the case. Since I recorded this video, I had some issues one time when trying to withdraw. I will explain more about that later.
How much money can you make?
Now is the important part of the review. To determine how viable a site is, we have to take a look at its earning potential. And to evaluate the earning potential of a site, there are two things we need to consider.
The first one is the availability of jobs. Picoworkers has this covered since there are usually more jobs than you would be able to complete. So you won’t run out of things to do to earn money.
The other factor deciding the earning potential is how well the site pays. This, in my opinion, is where Picoworkers fall a bit short. You won’t earn a lot because their tasks don’t pay well. You will only earn cents for each task you complete.
This is not surprising, really, because the tasks available on this site are not from companies and businesses but from other members. The jobs will come from members who have most likely found offers they can promote to earn a commission.
So, in reality, you will only receive a cut from what they earn. That’s why you seldom find a job that will earn you more than $0.50 (and most will pay less).
However, if you choose the jobs wisely and only take on jobs that offer fair pay (and that are ethical jobs to do as not all jobs are), then it definitely can be a way to earn some extra cash. Just remember that you will not get the full amount when withdrawing, as explained earlier.
And overall, there are better options to spend your time on, in my opinion.
Especially because I have had bad experiences with SproutGigs, and they actually terminated my account temporarily, and I will explain more about this below
Can you use it on mobile?
Another drawback of this site is that it doesn’t have an app you can download so you can work on small jobs on your mobile device. However, you will be able to access their site from a mobile device using a web browser.
And since SproutGigs had a huge update a while ago, it is now optimized for mobile use. So, now you can complete jobs on your mobile device quite easily.
But considering the nature of most of the jobs offered, it is really best that you work on it from a desktop or laptop, in my opinion.
Who can join SproutGigs/Picoworkers?
A big advantage of SproutGigs is that it is available globally. Anyone can join. You just have to be at least 18 years of age or older to join.
To sign up as a member, all you have to do is fill out their registration form and then click the activation link in the email you will receive from them. Once you’ve done that, you can then log in to the site and start doing jobs.
Can you get support?
Picoworkers does have an FAQ page you can check out if you have any questions. It covers most of the common topics.
But if you can’t find the answer you are looking for, you can contact their support team through their Support page.
To access their Support page, just log in to the site and click on the Support tab. You can find it in the upper right-hand corner of the dashboard.
You will then be redirected to your Inbox. This is where you can send a message to their support team. Just click the button “Create New Ticket”. They do say that support messages are answered in 24 hours.
And I have contacted their support several times, and they have always responded within 24 hours.
However, as I explained above, the support is not always great in my experience. They actually terminated my account because I wanted to have more info before sharing my personal ID with them.
Final Verdict
SproutGigs is a micro-task site that does pay you for doing small jobs. It has a couple of advantages and some big drawbacks as well.
Let me wrap up this review with a summary of its pros and cons. That way, you can get a clearer picture of what the site has to offer so you can decide if you should join or not.
Pros:
- Good payout options
- Plenty of available jobs
Cons:
- Low rewards per job
- High transaction fee per withdrawal
- Joining bonus cannot be withdrawn
- Many unethical jobs
- The support is not always good
At first glance, you might say that SproutGigs/Picoworkers is a good site to earn extra cash because of the convenient payment method it offers and the low payout threshold. It also offers plenty of jobs daily.
The caveat is that they don’t really pay you well. In addition to this, they charge an extremely high processing fee once you cash out – I have tested hundreds of sites and have never seen a site charge this high fees before.
Also, a big issue I have with SproutGigs is, of course, that they temporarily closed my account because I questioned why they wanted a photo of me and my government ID.
If you have any comments, questions, or have any experiences with SproutGigs/Picoworkers yourself, I would love to hear from you in a comment below.
