I don’t try to hide the fact that I spent a lot of time on the computer, but I will say I try to spend the time wisely – and what could be a more wise way than using my computer time to earn money?
First off – none of these sites will make you rich. But they can be enough to give you some spurge money, enough for small treats or even to help pay a (small) bill.
On average, the payout is probably $30-50 every few months. It all depends on how much time you put into it or how well your demographics fit into survey parameters. For me it’s usually closer to $30 (I’m old, poor and don’t watch TV or drink, so a good number of surveys aren’t interested in my opinions), but it’s always been enough to allow me a little spurge, some treat I otherwise couldn’t afford.
Also – for most sites you need to earn a minimum amount to request payment.
Note: I just recently started back up with these (like, when I mentioned them on this post). I had stopped for a while, when depression and my little guy didn’t leave me enough to care about them. Once I remembered them, I realized I might as well start doing it again. I need some new perfume.
The survey sites:
(Exactly that, you get paid to take surveys)
Synovate Global Opinion Panel – This has always been my favorite. The surveys are mostly interesting, and they always were tops about sending products to try. I’ve product-tested everything from dog food to laundry soap to hba items, and most of the products were name brand (Pantene, Olay, Scott, Tide). Payment is either a paper check or vouchers for online credit, and you can request payment at $5.
Surveyhead – I’m new to this one (and a big shout out to @investedinfiction for the link), but it looks promising. Payment is either magazine subscriptions, gift cards, or you can donate to charity. Payouts start at $10.
Opinion Place – I like this one for ease; you pick how you want to be paid before each survey, and the money is automatically credited (choices are Amazon gift card, PayPal deposit, AA Advantage miles or sweepstakes entries). No waiting to reach a certain amount, with the PayPal option you simply have to wait for the money to be credited to your account. (Caveat – I have no details on the other payment options, I’ve always used PayPal)
The email sites:
The basic premise is they send you emails, you click a button to show you read them, they put a few pennies in your account. The ones I’m listing also have survey, shopping, and special services options (I finally got talked into trying Netflix for an $8 account credit).
My Points – I’m not sure this one should be in the email category; although that is one service, the site offers so much more. There are 83 companies that work with My Points to give you points for money spent (you have to portal through the My Points site). Payment is either gift card (huge amount of merchants), cash deposit to PayPal or a Visa prepaid account, or travel credits.
Inbox Dollars and Send Earnings – These two are pretty much twins, they work the same, look the same, even send the same emails. They are mostly email based, although you can also take surveys or earn points by searching or special offers (this is where I got the Netflix credit). The emails aren’t too overwhelming, and it takes very little time to work through them.
So did I miss any really good ones? Please don’t hesitate to offer your own links.
6 replies on “Pocket Money”
This might be very handy for me. Thank you!
One tip – if you’re going to do both the email and survey sites, start the email sites first That way you can get account credit for signing up for the survey sites.
I’m addicted to swagbucks. Â I’ve gotten pretty good at it, and I can expect $50 a month, probably more, and I get it added to my Amazon.com account, so come Christmas, Imma have a few hundred dollars for gifts. Â I figure, if I’m screwing around on the internet anyway, might as well click a few buttons here and there and then get a Christmas miracle.
That’s my reasoning in a nutshell. And sounds like swagbucks will be next on my list …
I used to do a TON of different survey sites, but I got burned out and haven’t done them in a couple years. Off the top of my head, I did Synovate, Toluna, Nielsen Digital Voice, Ipsos I-Say, HarrisPolls, and Global Test Market. If you can get into PineCone Research, it’a supposed to be awesome but they’re really picky about who they take. (Panda Research is a big scam and just sells your email address to every spammer in creation. Grrr.)
L’Oreal also does surveys on their products, and CVS occasionally has surveys good for store credit (ExtraBucks). Nielsen has several other cool programs too, though I don’t remember if they paid or just entered you in a drawing for prizes – I used to do one where they tracked what websites I went to, there’s a home scan program where you record everything you buy, and of course the coveted TV boxes.
University psych/sociology programs can be good to sign up with too; I’ve made a fair amount doing surveys at home for Columbia University and if you can actually go in person there are a ton of opportunities. Harvard’s program is annoying because they make you do a 30-minute long profile every bloody semester and you have to actually log in to look for surveys, whereas Columbia emailed me every time they had an online one going on.
Swagbucks can also be a quick way to earn giftcards or merchandise. You can just use the search feature to build up points, or you can do surveys, watch videos, complete special offers (use a secondary email address!!), do boring tasks, or print coupons to use in stores. There was another similar site I used for a while that was pretty easy to build up points on, but I forget what it was called. I got frustrated because they only paid out in increments of $25, so it took forever to get to that point.
I think I’ve tried most of the survey sites at one point or another. When I was doing it for bill money I was able to keep at it. Once it became  for small treats i got burned out pretty quick. It can get pretty tedious.
This time around my demographics have changed, so they aren’t piling up in my email box.like they used to. Which is both good and bad.
Thanks so much for all the input :-D