Do you have a few spare hours each week you’d like to use earning some extra dough? Whether you’re a busy parent, a broke college student, or you just want some bonus income on top of your regular job, there are plenty of legitimate ways to earn pocket money online. None of the methods below require any special skills or training so you can get started right away!
1. Fill in Paid Surveys
Companies pay good money to get opinions on everything from store designs to new product concepts. By signing up with a survey website, you’ll be sent short questionnaires which pay a small amount upon completion — this can vary but is usually between $1 to $10. Once you’ve reached the payment threshold on your chosen survey site, you’ll be able to ‘cash out’ your earnings.
The most popular survey sites are Swagbucks, YouGov, and Pinecone Research — and they all offer a choice between PayPal payments, prepaid cards, or gift cards.
2. Complete Website User Tests
If you already spend all day browsing the internet, why not get paid to do so? Website user testing is a fun, simple way to make money from home. You’ll be given a website to visit and asked to record your screen and voice while completing a set of tasks. You’ll typically be expected to comment on things like the appearance of the website, how easy it is to use, and whether you’d recommend it to a friend. If you’re good at thinking out loud and have a clear speaking voice then this is easy money.
Sites like UserTesting and WhatUsersDo make the process really simple and usually pay between $5 and $10 per test, paying out via PayPal.
3. Do Human Intelligence Tasks
Human intelligence tasks, also know as HITs, are small, simple tasks which you’re paid to complete. The content of the tasks varies, but you might find yourself typing up details from documents, making phone calls to get information from companies, or identifying what’s in different images. Amazon Mechanical Turk is the most popular platform for human intelligence tasks and payment is to your Amazon payment account or in the form of an Amazon voucher.
HITs can be very repetitive, so they’re not for everyone. However, if you’re patient and you’ve got time to sit and complete batches of tasks then you’ll be able to make a little extra cash without too much effort.
4. Test Mobile Games
Do you love mobile games? Are you constantly glued to the latest puzzle or platformer? Testing mobile games work similarly to testing websites, but you’ll be recording your screen and voice while playing a game instead of browsing a site. You might not always get to play the kind of game you actually enjoy, but this is still a novel way to make some money while having fun.
PlayTestCloud is a great site to join if you’re interested in this kind of project. You’ll be asked to enter the names of games you currently play and will be assigned tests based on this. Payment is via PayPal.
5. Do Gigs on Fiverr
Fiverr is a platform that allows you to sell almost any product or service for $5 — or another amount of your choosing. If you have a special skill you think people would be willing to pay for, this can be a great little earner. Your Fiverr gig could be something as simple as, ‘I’ll sketch your pet for $5’, or, ‘I’ll come up with your next blog post idea for $5.’ It’s really easy to set gigs up and earnings will be paid to your bank or PayPal account. Come up with a creative Fiverr gig that does well and you could end up earning way more than just pocket change!
If you currently spending your free time aimlessly browsing the web, why not try one of these methods of making money online instead? You could add extra funds to your savings, pay debts off faster, or just treat yourself to something special.