I think any extra income you can earn is always worth it, and even though the pay rates might not be that good, at the end of the day its extra money that you wouldn't have had before, so every little helps, as the saying goes.
There is a term for this sort of work, it's called "digital feudalism" because the pay is basically slave wages. That being said, I have done similair work. Over a year I managed to save up about a grand USD, which is now about 1200 CAD. To be honestly I probably could have just got a second job and made a lot more in less time. But I get to work when I want to work, some weeks made a lot others nothing.
It's certainly not a reliable doe of income but if you enjoy doing something and are fortunate enough to be paid for it, even if it isn't a great deal then that money saved up over time can mount up. You won't see it as extra income in the form of a job if you get pleasure out of doing it anyway, the extra money will be just a bonus.
I have a full-time day job as a database administrator. However, I am also a freelance writer on the side. I won't work for pennies. You need to establish your self-worth and charge what you deserve to be paid. If you settle for pennies you will never make more. I started off charging a reasonable amount and have been able to increase my prices accordingly. Many clients also will not take you seriously if you're proving you'll work for next to nothing. Haven't you heard the saying, "You get what you pay for?" Many clients will think they will be getting below average work from you if they hire you. The more reputable clients will probably refuse to hire you for that reason. You might have more in your pocket than you did, but how many bills are you really paying?
While I do agree to a point, especially when it comes to work that people do online, but I do think a lot of sites now will just hire the cheapest option available. Sites know that there are more and more people everyday that are looking at the internet as a way to earn money, so with this in mind they know that pretty much whatever wage they offer they'll at least get somebody interested.
I've done some stupid mistakes in the past and lost a lot of clients and sometimes I can't do anything that work at a lower cost, that, of course, if I want to eat. I still have my investments, but I don't plan to touch them anytime soon. As for working for pennies or at a low rate in general, it really depends of your goal. If you don't depend of that money and you just want to make easy money for a trip or just to start trading with the minimum amount, why not? For instance, I've started to work on microworkers.com. They pay cents, but I only do those tasks during my daily 1 hour comute, so I don't see no reason not to do it.
On a related sort of tangent, does anyone pick up money they find off the street, like pennies and stuff? I've done it since I was a teen at school where it became a sort of trend to throw away coins from 1p anywhere up to 20p pieces. I used to get called a penny pincher and stuff but to this day I will still fail to understand why people did and still do let go of small amounts of change because it all soon adds up.
I have a good day time job and I spend most of my evenings online so I figured why not make a few extra dollars a month doing it. You can't look at it as the few cents you make at a time. You have to think of the bigger picture. I am averaging about $100 a month. It may not seem like a lot to some but to me it is. That is only doing work on one site. I have the potential of making so much more if I choose to but for now I am pleased with what I make.
I can relate because I am in the exact same spot. Sometimes, it is not how you go to do something that counts but you did it eventually. The end justifies the means. As long as you know you wont be stuck doing that work forever, you will make it. Just save enough to start your own business and you won't regret it.
I think managing to earn enough to start your own business might be a long way off, and I'd think that the most you could expect from working online is to save up for luxuries that you maybe couldn't afford otherwise. You won't get rich saving the pennies and working online, we are all aware of that but if we can make a little extra to help us from month to month I think most people will be happy with that.
