Update May 2009: If you are addicted to Who Wants To Be a Millionaire, why not make some cash from your taste for trivia? There are many sites in addition to Amazon's Mechanical Turk where you can vie for the odd e-job, such as ShortTask.

The Internet is a great place to make some extra cash, or at least that's what all the pop ups I got last night said! Thankfully Amazon offers a legit method of raising some extra coin online for completing mundane tasks. To start you just need to sign up with Amazon's Mechanical Turk program, , where companies post tasks that machines cannot easily do, but that are relatively simple for humans. You can choose an assignment, and, on completion, are credited with payment to your Amazon account. This money can be withdrawn once you accumulate $10.

However, these payout amounts are much lower than the many online ad programs or survey sites which greatly increases the chance that you'll eventually see the fruits of your labor. As I check out the current HITs which I qualify for I find over a hundred of them, ranging from free up to $7, but most seem to measure in cents.

If you have a lot of time or you feel comfortable "turking" on your employer's dime then this program could be a good way to make enough money to bankroll your entertainment needs or cover groceries for a week. While this is a relatively easy way to earn money, the time and effort needed to reach a reasonable amount holds this back from being an amazing opportunity. In my opinion this is a good deal if you aren't easily bored and you have the ability to quickly handle simple tasks. But for most people, you'll start off full of gusto and end up with 28 cents in your account just like me.