Sorry, iOS users, nothing to see here.
So you've got an Android. Good! Time to put it to work. Android's customization and versatility sets the stage for some nice, "passive earning" opportunities. Meaning you can just set and forget a lot of this and make a little money in the background without even thinking about it.
The Skinny:
Mobile Performance Meter
There are a few variations of this app on the Play Store by the same developer,
generally one will work for your device. MPM gives 10 points (10 cents) per day, so it's a guaranteed $1 every
ten days, and redeems almost instantly for Amazon. There isn't a PayPal option, but there are a bunch of other gift cards available if you prefer. Occasionally you'll get a survey about
your cell provider that gets you a quick 50 points/cents. If you refer friends, you get 200 extra points, but the referral code contains your phone number. So only invite people you know!
Lock Screens
What these apps do is allow you to earn money by viewing an advertisement whenever you unlock your phone. You get a portion of the advertising revenue, and even if it's just pennies a day those pennies add up! If you need to get into your phone quickly then I would start with just the top earner, but if you don't mind it taking a moment or two you can stack them on top of one another and multiply your earnings. If you have an old smartphone lying around that doesn't have a SIM card in it, you can install ALL the lock screens and use it as a secondary earner!
S'more:
This has been the highest paying lock screen in my experience. S'more will get you 10 cents per day, as long as you unlock your phone at least once and see an advertisement. There are also surveys and offers (Peanut Labs offer wall) inside the app itself, so it can earn you more beyond the base $0.10 if you have some extra time. If you have to pick one lock screen app, this would be it. Cash out to Amazon or some other gift cards, Amazon's minimum is $1.
Adme: (referral code WiTzgZPV8N will donate a dollar to me and it might give you a boost on your starting balance; I can't remember since this is one of my first apps.)
What I like about Adme is that you can adjust the annoyance/earning ratio to suit your preference. I would recommend setting this one as annoying as you can stand it. There's the base lock screen, which has fun trending items on Reddit as well as the standard ad, which I like. The next level displays a full-screen ad when you unlock, and pays more for this. To further increase your earnings, you can install a web browser app and a social network connector, both of which show you ads for money. You can be as conservative or as crazy as you like, but if you dial it back too much it can be quite a slow grind to the $10 minimum to redeem for PayPal.
Fronto: (enter code SURGE and you'll start with 1,250 points, which is just over 40 cents if my math is good)
While Fronto has the potential to earn more than Adme, it really depends on how much you use your phone. They have "every hour" points where you can earn 30 points (1 cent) for unlocking your phone just after the hour. If you unlock your phone 8 times a day, that's 8 cents, but if you time it well and unlock each of the 18 hours you're awake, that will earn you over $5/month for just the one app. There are also currently points you can win inside the app by watching an ad, so you can milk a little more out of it in your spare time if you want.
Speaking of milk...
Survey Cow: (enter code JXNQO3 in the app for a free 250 points, or $0.25)
This one is kind of goofy, but it pays. You'll have an extra screen to tap through when you unlock, and it will have a one-question survey that asks you some random thing about your personality or background. You can also get notified about bonus surveys, which are full-length and pay about 150 points, which is just 15 cents...so I'd recommend turning it off. You have to get to 10,000 points to withdraw, which is $10. I made about $1 in a week with this one.
Videos
When you set your phone down, or have it charging, it's nice to just let it earn a little bit here and there by playing ads. I go into more detail in my post And Now, a Buck From Our Sponsors, but you'll basically want to get on board with Swagbucks and get a few of their video apps so your phone can work a little harder when you're not using it.
Surveys
There are generally three categories of surveys: Short, 1-5 question surveys that pay $0.10-$0.25 on average. These can be about almost anything, like opinion researchers who want to know what you think about President Trump, or market researchers who want to know if you've bought laundry detergent in the last 30 days. Then there are medium-length consumer surveys that are around 15-40 questions and take 5-30 minutes to complete. These SHOULD pay out around 5 cents per estimated minute of completion time, too much below that threshold and you might take your efforts elsewhere. Then, there are academic surveys put out by research studies, focus groups, and university psychology departments, which can take an hour to complete but pay out $10, $20, $50, and sometimes $100. The challenge with those is qualifying.
The first category is the most appropriate for a smartphone, while the other two categories will be discussed in more detail in a future post.
Pay Your Selfie:
This one is just fun, and a narcissist's fantasy. Follow the instructions in the app, snap a selfie, and in a few days you get paid $0.20 - $1.00 per pic. There are sometimes accompanying questions after you take the picture, which is why this falls under the category of a survey app, but it has a very fun feel to it. At $20 accumulated, you can dump it into your PayPal.
QualNow:
While not an app per se (yet), this site is mobile-friendly and works great on my smartphone. This service emails you when you qualify for a survey, and you record a video response and upload it for $1 per question! They pay you when you reach a balance of $10, which doesn't take long to get to at all. I've really enjoyed this one.
Qmee:
I love services that let you cash out at any time. No minimums, no nonsense, you can earn $0.15 and then ask for them to drop it in your PayPal. As a courtesy to them--plus it feels like I'm making more--I usually let my balance get to a couple bucks before withdrawing. You can take Qmee's surveys in a browser or on the mobile app, and they have some that are as short as a minute long up to around 30 minutes. I typically just stick to the shorter ones since I don't feel like I have a goal to get to.
AttaPoll:
This one is simple and straightforward, they give you push notifications when you have surveys and they aren't very long. Their point system is rather confusing (something like 1.3 cents per point?), but by the time you get to the 500 points needed to cash out you should have around $6.50. They even give you a few consolation cents if you disqualify, which is quite kind of them.
citizenme:
Are you ready to be paid in British Pounds?! I received a notification about a paid survey (less than 5 questions) and they paid immediately to PayPal. The exchange rate was in my favor, 10 pence gave me 12 cents.
1Q:
Leave apps like this and citizenme installed and forget about them. Just wait for the push notification. 1Q also is instant payout, for one-question surveys. It's nice to be paid right away, even if it is just a little here and a little there.
Google Opinion Rewards:
It's Google, they already know who you are and what you like anyway, why not earn a little telling them what they already know? They'll ask if you've heard of brands, if you shopped somewhere recently, and even get you to rate places sometimes. I usually make $0.10 - $0.15 per survey, but here's the catch: It's in Google Play credits. You can't convert this to cash. But, if you're the type who buys apps, music, or movies through the Play Store anyway, then $0.99 saved is $0.99 earned.
A Word of Caution
While all of this WILL earn you some extra money, keep an eye on your data if you don't have an unlimited plan. Overages are expensive, so if you find certain apps are sucking up too many megabytes it may not be worth it to run all of these unless you're on Wi-Fi most of the time. In your Android's Data Usage settings, you can restrict background data on an app-by-app basis, so if some are making the top of your usage list you can dial them back when you're out and about. You'll earn a little less, but one month of going over your data could wipe out more than what you would make, so be careful.
Your smartphone just got smarter! Enjoy your new income streams from your little digital friend.
Friday, June 30, 2017
Thursday, June 29, 2017
And Now, a Buck From Our Sponsors
We've all been watching commercials our whole lives. There's a commercial for nearly every entertainment venue in our lives: movies, cable and satellite TV, before content you watch online, all over webpages, in between levels of your favorite smartphone game, and even read to you between songs in your favorite music streaming service. Ads are everywhere if you use free services, and sometimes a paid subscription will turn them off.
But what if you could get paid for watching ads?
Internet marketing is huge. In the first half of 2016, around $32.7 billion dollars was spent on digital advertising in the U.S. alone (source: Wall Street Journal). That's a lot of money flying around for that banner ad you accidentally clicked on when you thought your page was loaded. There are a few services online I've discovered that let you tap into a portion of that revenue and finally get your piece of the pie, and put these computers, tablets, and phones you already have to work for you! Get yourself something nice, or maybe offset that phone or Internet bill a little!
The Skinny:
EngageMe.tv w/ Earnably
Right now, as of June 2017, this is one of the top earners. I've used this for a relatively short time so I don't have a lot of historical data, but as long as you are seeing ads this will pay out 1 cent per 3 ads viewed. Users have reported earning $50 per month on this service alone. The earnings may go up or down, but it's worth giving a try. This one takes an extra step to set up, but it's worth it.
Head over to Earnably.com and make an account. Once you've registered go to My Account (right hand side of the top of the page) and click Settings. Copy or write down your User ID (mine was 6 numbers). Then, go to EngageMe.tv and create an account. Then, link it with Earnably using your User ID from before. Now, you can sign in to EngageMe on an idle computer and start a video channel. You know you have a good one when it plays an ad right away and your green point meter goes up (it should say +0.3 Points when the ad is finished; 1 point = 1 penny).
What I like about Earnably is their auto-redeem option. Once you link your PayPal account (enter your PayPal email under My Account > Settings, same place you got your User ID) you can choose to automatically cash out once you get to $1, $2, $5, etc... I would recommend setting it to pay you at $5 for 500 points, because they take an extra cut for a $1 or $2 payout. Plus it makes more sense to my brain if 1 point = $0.01.
Keep in mind you can max out at 3 devices running EngageMe simultaneously. It won't run nonstop 24/7; occasionally you'll get a "Are you still watching?" popup so the advertisers know there's a human interacting with their stuff. Click Yes and you're good for a while.
Earnably is actually what's known as a GPT ("Get Paid To") or PPC ("Pay Per Click") site, which means there are other ways to earn besides watching videos. You can take surveys and offers through their offer walls, earn by downloading apps, and a few other ways, but its real power is through video ads. I'll have a GPT/PPC review in a separate post, but right now we're focusing on what to watch.
You can give their Android app a try if you're a 'droid user, but I usually have my phones elsewhere. Keep reading.
Earnhoney
This has been around for a while and it's pretty solid. Its advertising demand ebbs and flows, but when it earns it really earns. Just like EngageMe you get money when ads show up. Unlike EngageMe there's no prompt asking if you're still watching.
Make an account with Earnhoney, sign in, and start the medical or cars channel. Those have the highest earnings in my experience, but feel free to play around with the other ones. You'll know you're earning because you'll see green squares start to appear in the window just below the advertisement. Green for money. If the squares are red, you need to bring the window "into focus" by clicking anywhere on it. Earnhoney is picky like that. It has to be the top window otherwise you earn about a tenth of what you normally would.
Earnhoney relies heavily on Flash, so use Chrome if you don't have Flash installed on your computer (and you shouldn't, but that's a different discussion). Make sure to set your browser by going to chrome://flags and set "HTML preferred" to "off" and "Play all Flash content" to "on." That will give you the best experience.
I don't have an exact "X ads for 1 cent" metric because my balance doesn't update right away. You can install the browser extension if you want to check up on your earnings from anywhere. 100HD = $1.00, and you can cash out your first Amazon gift card for 200HD, after that it's 495HD for $5.00. PayPal transfers are full price. They pay two times a week; if you request payment on Monday you'll get it Friday, a request on Thursday is paid out on Monday.
There are a couple apps that work with Earnhoney, but in my experience they don't play for very long and the earn ratio is fairly low. I'd keep your phone/phones somewhere else.
Where, you ask?
Swagbucks Video
One of the most versatile and robust earning sites is Swagbucks. First of all, you get $1.50 free just for signing up, which is one of the higher starting bonuses out there. Now, Swagbucks is another GPT/PPC site like Earnably, in fact a much better one, but again we're just looking at playing videos right now. It's incredibly easy to earn on Swagbucks and I regularly make $2.50 - $3.50 per day with hardly any effort. One thing worth noting is they have a daily goal system in place that rewards you for earning so many "SB" per day (1 SB = 1 penny), and if you meet your daily goal every day in a month you get a sweet $7 or so bonus the following month. Can you say free money?
On a computer, if you're lucky you can get a nCrave playlist to run for a few hours. Sometimes they're available, sometimes they're not. Go to Watch on the sidebar, and check nCraves and Sponsored Videos. There's a sponsored vid called All You Can Eat which runs until the offer expires or until your browser crashes, whichever comes first. Similarly under nCraves there's a Discovery TV playlist that will go and go. Most of the others you have to manually click or manually restart, and that's not as fun! But you can also pick up a nice chunk of change running their apps.
That's right, plural. APPS. Here are some links to the Android version of their video apps.
Swagbucks - the original. This app has videos, surveys, the daily poll, shopping links, offer walls, and the ability to search and enter Swag Codes. More on all that later.
SBTV - from here down, these are video only apps. This one allows you to pick "Favorites" by long-pressing videos on the different channels. Hint: There are a bunch called "10 second tips" that will help you earn a little faster.
Lifestylz.tv - this one also supports 10-second favorites.
Now they get a little less fun. For the rest of the apps just go to the "Short clips" section and watch (or don't) some mostly terrible stand-up comics.
EntertaiNow
MovieCli.ps
Sportly.tv
Indymusic.tv
You can pick up a minimum of $0.10 per app per day, but usually you will qualify for a "Bonus" which means they will keep earning as long as they run (sometimes at a lower rate).
Some days will be much better than others. Sometimes you'll get double or triple SB on a certain app (watch for the push notification from Swagbucks) but sometimes every other ad will need to be closed with the red X, or will freeze. You can have up to three phones per account running at a time, so if you have the resources to experiment then find out which app runs best on which device.
Swagbucks is one of my favorites because of the stacking bonuses, it makes it feel like it's worth your while even if it takes a little extra effort. I joined in February and have made over $325 on this service alone. They even give you a discount on your first $25 Amazon card each month (2200 SB, $3 off) and you can cash out to PayPal or any one of hundreds of other gift cards, some of which are discounted occasionally.
AppTrailers
This one in Android only, and it's run through Perk. (App download link) In its prime, Perk was a better earner than Swagbucks, but it has since declined and many are moving away from it. Perk is a pretty deep rabbit hole as well, being its own GPT/PPC service, but what I like about AppTrailers is it can work just as well by itself. It can be a little annoying with varying payouts and the "Are you still watching?" prompt, but its strength is in this: No minimum cashout, and it's fast. I got my PayPal notification less than an hour after I requested payment. Your mileage may vary with this one, but I've enjoyed it in the past.
There are other video watching apps like Checkpoints or Perk TV, but you'll get a better ROI (Return On Investment) using your phone to take surveys or do product reviews. You can check out any of those if you're interested, they are legitimate and do pay, but it would take you more than half a dozen phones to max out all the other services I've reviewed today! Get started, sign up and see what works for you, and happy earning!
But what if you could get paid for watching ads?
Internet marketing is huge. In the first half of 2016, around $32.7 billion dollars was spent on digital advertising in the U.S. alone (source: Wall Street Journal). That's a lot of money flying around for that banner ad you accidentally clicked on when you thought your page was loaded. There are a few services online I've discovered that let you tap into a portion of that revenue and finally get your piece of the pie, and put these computers, tablets, and phones you already have to work for you! Get yourself something nice, or maybe offset that phone or Internet bill a little!
The Skinny:
EngageMe.tv w/ Earnably
Right now, as of June 2017, this is one of the top earners. I've used this for a relatively short time so I don't have a lot of historical data, but as long as you are seeing ads this will pay out 1 cent per 3 ads viewed. Users have reported earning $50 per month on this service alone. The earnings may go up or down, but it's worth giving a try. This one takes an extra step to set up, but it's worth it.
Head over to Earnably.com and make an account. Once you've registered go to My Account (right hand side of the top of the page) and click Settings. Copy or write down your User ID (mine was 6 numbers). Then, go to EngageMe.tv and create an account. Then, link it with Earnably using your User ID from before. Now, you can sign in to EngageMe on an idle computer and start a video channel. You know you have a good one when it plays an ad right away and your green point meter goes up (it should say +0.3 Points when the ad is finished; 1 point = 1 penny).
What I like about Earnably is their auto-redeem option. Once you link your PayPal account (enter your PayPal email under My Account > Settings, same place you got your User ID) you can choose to automatically cash out once you get to $1, $2, $5, etc... I would recommend setting it to pay you at $5 for 500 points, because they take an extra cut for a $1 or $2 payout. Plus it makes more sense to my brain if 1 point = $0.01.
Keep in mind you can max out at 3 devices running EngageMe simultaneously. It won't run nonstop 24/7; occasionally you'll get a "Are you still watching?" popup so the advertisers know there's a human interacting with their stuff. Click Yes and you're good for a while.
Earnably is actually what's known as a GPT ("Get Paid To") or PPC ("Pay Per Click") site, which means there are other ways to earn besides watching videos. You can take surveys and offers through their offer walls, earn by downloading apps, and a few other ways, but its real power is through video ads. I'll have a GPT/PPC review in a separate post, but right now we're focusing on what to watch.
You can give their Android app a try if you're a 'droid user, but I usually have my phones elsewhere. Keep reading.
Earnhoney
This has been around for a while and it's pretty solid. Its advertising demand ebbs and flows, but when it earns it really earns. Just like EngageMe you get money when ads show up. Unlike EngageMe there's no prompt asking if you're still watching.
Make an account with Earnhoney, sign in, and start the medical or cars channel. Those have the highest earnings in my experience, but feel free to play around with the other ones. You'll know you're earning because you'll see green squares start to appear in the window just below the advertisement. Green for money. If the squares are red, you need to bring the window "into focus" by clicking anywhere on it. Earnhoney is picky like that. It has to be the top window otherwise you earn about a tenth of what you normally would.
Earnhoney relies heavily on Flash, so use Chrome if you don't have Flash installed on your computer (and you shouldn't, but that's a different discussion). Make sure to set your browser by going to chrome://flags and set "HTML preferred" to "off" and "Play all Flash content" to "on." That will give you the best experience.
I don't have an exact "X ads for 1 cent" metric because my balance doesn't update right away. You can install the browser extension if you want to check up on your earnings from anywhere. 100HD = $1.00, and you can cash out your first Amazon gift card for 200HD, after that it's 495HD for $5.00. PayPal transfers are full price. They pay two times a week; if you request payment on Monday you'll get it Friday, a request on Thursday is paid out on Monday.
There are a couple apps that work with Earnhoney, but in my experience they don't play for very long and the earn ratio is fairly low. I'd keep your phone/phones somewhere else.
Where, you ask?
Swagbucks Video
One of the most versatile and robust earning sites is Swagbucks. First of all, you get $1.50 free just for signing up, which is one of the higher starting bonuses out there. Now, Swagbucks is another GPT/PPC site like Earnably, in fact a much better one, but again we're just looking at playing videos right now. It's incredibly easy to earn on Swagbucks and I regularly make $2.50 - $3.50 per day with hardly any effort. One thing worth noting is they have a daily goal system in place that rewards you for earning so many "SB" per day (1 SB = 1 penny), and if you meet your daily goal every day in a month you get a sweet $7 or so bonus the following month. Can you say free money?
On a computer, if you're lucky you can get a nCrave playlist to run for a few hours. Sometimes they're available, sometimes they're not. Go to Watch on the sidebar, and check nCraves and Sponsored Videos. There's a sponsored vid called All You Can Eat which runs until the offer expires or until your browser crashes, whichever comes first. Similarly under nCraves there's a Discovery TV playlist that will go and go. Most of the others you have to manually click or manually restart, and that's not as fun! But you can also pick up a nice chunk of change running their apps.
That's right, plural. APPS. Here are some links to the Android version of their video apps.
Swagbucks - the original. This app has videos, surveys, the daily poll, shopping links, offer walls, and the ability to search and enter Swag Codes. More on all that later.
SBTV - from here down, these are video only apps. This one allows you to pick "Favorites" by long-pressing videos on the different channels. Hint: There are a bunch called "10 second tips" that will help you earn a little faster.
Lifestylz.tv - this one also supports 10-second favorites.
Now they get a little less fun. For the rest of the apps just go to the "Short clips" section and watch (or don't) some mostly terrible stand-up comics.
EntertaiNow
MovieCli.ps
Sportly.tv
Indymusic.tv
You can pick up a minimum of $0.10 per app per day, but usually you will qualify for a "Bonus" which means they will keep earning as long as they run (sometimes at a lower rate).
Some days will be much better than others. Sometimes you'll get double or triple SB on a certain app (watch for the push notification from Swagbucks) but sometimes every other ad will need to be closed with the red X, or will freeze. You can have up to three phones per account running at a time, so if you have the resources to experiment then find out which app runs best on which device.
Swagbucks is one of my favorites because of the stacking bonuses, it makes it feel like it's worth your while even if it takes a little extra effort. I joined in February and have made over $325 on this service alone. They even give you a discount on your first $25 Amazon card each month (2200 SB, $3 off) and you can cash out to PayPal or any one of hundreds of other gift cards, some of which are discounted occasionally.
AppTrailers
This one in Android only, and it's run through Perk. (App download link) In its prime, Perk was a better earner than Swagbucks, but it has since declined and many are moving away from it. Perk is a pretty deep rabbit hole as well, being its own GPT/PPC service, but what I like about AppTrailers is it can work just as well by itself. It can be a little annoying with varying payouts and the "Are you still watching?" prompt, but its strength is in this: No minimum cashout, and it's fast. I got my PayPal notification less than an hour after I requested payment. Your mileage may vary with this one, but I've enjoyed it in the past.
There are other video watching apps like Checkpoints or Perk TV, but you'll get a better ROI (Return On Investment) using your phone to take surveys or do product reviews. You can check out any of those if you're interested, they are legitimate and do pay, but it would take you more than half a dozen phones to max out all the other services I've reviewed today! Get started, sign up and see what works for you, and happy earning!
Thursday, June 15, 2017
First Things First
You're going to get paid.
Maybe not today, maybe not a lot...but if you try out any of these services I'll be reviewing, with any seriousness, for any length of time, you will be paid out at some point in the next little while. It's a great feeling, someone just throwing money your way, and you'll need a good way to catch it.
Got a PayPal?
If you do, great! That and Amazon gift cards are the two main ways most of my online moneymaking services pay out. Make sure to use your PayPal email address when you sign up; many times the company will issue payment assuming you've used the same address. Sometimes you can specify your PayPal email in your account settings, but it's easier to just use the same address to avoid confusion.
If you aren't yet a PayPal account holder, not to worry. It's free to make an account and doesn't take very long. Here's what you'll need to do:
If you pay online using PayPal, using them as the intermediary means the online merchant never holds your payment card or bank information, which gives you a nice security boost. You can also get a PayPal.me address to receive money (since Bill in Accounting owes you that $20, why not make it easy for him to pay up?) just by giving someone your URL. You can even add a / and a number afterwards to request a certain amount. So you can send Bill a passive-aggressive email with the link "https://paypal.me/YourCustomURL/20" and he can click it to pay up using his preferred payment card.
You'll want this to be your first step so you don't have to wait to cash out. It makes things even easier if you fill out all the information PayPal asks for to make your profile 100%. You'll see it on your Dashboard if you have more to do. Getting 100% means you have a "verified" PayPal account, which keeps you from having to pay a penalty on your earnings with some services.
You can also get their mobile app from Google Play or the iTunes store and move money around on-the-go. Welcome to the next generation of online payments!
Maybe not today, maybe not a lot...but if you try out any of these services I'll be reviewing, with any seriousness, for any length of time, you will be paid out at some point in the next little while. It's a great feeling, someone just throwing money your way, and you'll need a good way to catch it.
Got a PayPal?
If you do, great! That and Amazon gift cards are the two main ways most of my online moneymaking services pay out. Make sure to use your PayPal email address when you sign up; many times the company will issue payment assuming you've used the same address. Sometimes you can specify your PayPal email in your account settings, but it's easier to just use the same address to avoid confusion.
If you aren't yet a PayPal account holder, not to worry. It's free to make an account and doesn't take very long. Here's what you'll need to do:
- Give some information just like you're opening up a bank account
- Link a payment card (lets you make purchases online, more about that below)
- Link a regular checking account so you can get your payments to your bank (they use excellent security to encrypt your information)
If you pay online using PayPal, using them as the intermediary means the online merchant never holds your payment card or bank information, which gives you a nice security boost. You can also get a PayPal.me address to receive money (since Bill in Accounting owes you that $20, why not make it easy for him to pay up?) just by giving someone your URL. You can even add a / and a number afterwards to request a certain amount. So you can send Bill a passive-aggressive email with the link "https://paypal.me/YourCustomURL/20" and he can click it to pay up using his preferred payment card.
You'll want this to be your first step so you don't have to wait to cash out. It makes things even easier if you fill out all the information PayPal asks for to make your profile 100%. You'll see it on your Dashboard if you have more to do. Getting 100% means you have a "verified" PayPal account, which keeps you from having to pay a penalty on your earnings with some services.
You can also get their mobile app from Google Play or the iTunes store and move money around on-the-go. Welcome to the next generation of online payments!
Friday, June 9, 2017
Into the Deep End
Is it possible to actually make money using the Internet?
That was the question I started asking in February of this year. My family and I were just barely making it, living paycheck to paycheck, and I wanted to break out of that cycle. We have two small children and if my wife worked full time it would cost us the equivalent of her entire paycheck to work out a babysitter or day care. I needed to pull in some extra cash but also needed to be home with my family; a second job was not an option.
A friend gave me a book which contained a couple good nuggets of information that I've held on to:
Your true assets are the things that have immediate value or that you can put to work to make money. A car isn't an asset; it's a liability, a money pit...unless you join a ride sharing service and make money driving people around. A house, while commonly considered an asset, is non-liquid equity, and you only get value out of it when you sell or reverse mortgage (the latter sending you years back in payments and possibly costing thousands in interest). But if you rent out your space, even just a single room using a service like AirBNB, then you have put your asset to work and suddenly you have an extra income stream. People are tempted to call their cars and their houses "assets," and while they technically are on paper, they aren't making you money unless you sell them or put them to work.
You don't have to have money to make money. This is a big one for me. I think the people who say "it takes money to make money" just aren't good at anything. Take a talent you have and monetize it; you're turning time directly into profit - just like a "real job," but on your own schedule.
The second point I already did to a degree. I do some computer repair and network maintenance on the side, so hooray! What I learned through this resource affirmed that I was on the right track.
So I started to think about potential income streams. I wasn't able to get into my preferred ride sharing service because of where I live, and I had already started the process of renting out some space, but there were still more resources I had on hand...my computers and Internet connection.
It's no secret that online moneymaking is more often than not a scam. My challenge was not in finding opportunities, but in sifting and sorting through the plethora of nonsense to find the golden nuggets: legitimate methods of turning my time online into cash. I started my search for what wasn't too good to be true.
The 'net is HUGE. The World Wide Web is just that - a tangled web of dusty corners that even Google can have a hard time navigating. I needed help. I needed HUMANS. Enter social media.
It was a little less challenging to find a group of people with the same goals as me. I read posts...a LOT of posts...asked questions, did my own research, and started reviewing money-making services. The basic categories I researched were:
I'll do a writeup on each category with a comparison of the different services I tried and my tracked earnings data.
That was the question I started asking in February of this year. My family and I were just barely making it, living paycheck to paycheck, and I wanted to break out of that cycle. We have two small children and if my wife worked full time it would cost us the equivalent of her entire paycheck to work out a babysitter or day care. I needed to pull in some extra cash but also needed to be home with my family; a second job was not an option.
A friend gave me a book which contained a couple good nuggets of information that I've held on to:
Your true assets are the things that have immediate value or that you can put to work to make money. A car isn't an asset; it's a liability, a money pit...unless you join a ride sharing service and make money driving people around. A house, while commonly considered an asset, is non-liquid equity, and you only get value out of it when you sell or reverse mortgage (the latter sending you years back in payments and possibly costing thousands in interest). But if you rent out your space, even just a single room using a service like AirBNB, then you have put your asset to work and suddenly you have an extra income stream. People are tempted to call their cars and their houses "assets," and while they technically are on paper, they aren't making you money unless you sell them or put them to work.
You don't have to have money to make money. This is a big one for me. I think the people who say "it takes money to make money" just aren't good at anything. Take a talent you have and monetize it; you're turning time directly into profit - just like a "real job," but on your own schedule.
The second point I already did to a degree. I do some computer repair and network maintenance on the side, so hooray! What I learned through this resource affirmed that I was on the right track.
So I started to think about potential income streams. I wasn't able to get into my preferred ride sharing service because of where I live, and I had already started the process of renting out some space, but there were still more resources I had on hand...my computers and Internet connection.
It's no secret that online moneymaking is more often than not a scam. My challenge was not in finding opportunities, but in sifting and sorting through the plethora of nonsense to find the golden nuggets: legitimate methods of turning my time online into cash. I started my search for what wasn't too good to be true.
The 'net is HUGE. The World Wide Web is just that - a tangled web of dusty corners that even Google can have a hard time navigating. I needed help. I needed HUMANS. Enter social media.
It was a little less challenging to find a group of people with the same goals as me. I read posts...a LOT of posts...asked questions, did my own research, and started reviewing money-making services. The basic categories I researched were:
- Survey/market research sites
- Pay Per Click (PPC, also known as "Get Paid To", or GPT) sites
- Passive or semi-passive earning smartphone apps
- Video sites / Ad revenue harvesting
- Secret shopping
- Rebates
I'll do a writeup on each category with a comparison of the different services I tried and my tracked earnings data.
Thursday, June 1, 2017
The Open Source Life
I believe information should be free. The Open Source model is just that: I work on a project, say a piece of software, and share the source code with the community. Someone else takes my work and improves on it, then still another improves on that, and so on. Shared information for the betterment of all. That is the core philosophy behind a lot of what I do.
With that in mind, I wanted to do something different. There are a myriad of financial websites, books, blogs, x-step programs, products, etc. etc...most of which are trying to get something out of the reader. "Buy into this program and I'll help you become rich," they all promise. But is that really necessary? What if I want to share the information I have with you, no strings attached? Wouldn't that be a refreshing change...
Now, I will be sharing referral links on most of the services I review. If you sign up using that link or referral code, I will get a small kick-back, usually $0.50 to $1.00, with a few exceptions (and sometimes you'll get a head start with free money in whatever account you set up!). It won't cost you anything, and the sign-up process will be the same as if you didn't use my link or code. So rather than asking for donations via PayPal--which is incredibly tacky, in my opinion--you can say "thank you" just by using the links I post in the blog to check out these different services. If you don't stay with the service, no problem, and if you do, you'll have your own link or code that you can share with your friends, and get your own bonuses. That's it!
Thanks for joining me, and I hope you truly are enriched by being here.
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