You know, I’ve always believed that there is no such thing as absolute despair as long as the person is more or less healthy and alive and not in the middle of nowhere. 🙂 This belief of mine I’ve implemented literally into all possible sides and twists of my life, regardless of the situation, time, circumstances or places I’ve ended up in. No matter what I was facing I’ve tried to keep that head up and strongly believe that somewhere out there exists a solution to any and every single one of my given problems and it’s only a matter of searching for it. I suppose it sounds like some sort of a boring cliche but that approach has always worked. ALWAYS. Of course not every time a found solution was a ‘magic rain-shower of a sudden destiny’s generosity’ – very far from that in most cases, to be realistic 🙂 . But there still was a solution, even if it looked tiny, foggy and kinda shady from a first sight. 🙂
I can say the same thing about earning additional income online – I’ve read a lot about it but never truly thought that doing little things like taking surveys or running applications can give you more than just wasting your time, draining your phone battery and leaving you mightily frustrated at some general point. 🙂 Out of a pure curiosity, I’ve tried my first survey app back at those good old times when I’ve experienced like zero financial hardships and was an average well-off housewife with a very stable income and without any serious worries about my financial future. 🙂 The app offered earning Amazon gift cards as a reward for completing surveys. I’ve earned and redeemed my $10 card being pleasantly surprised that it was legit and real and pretty much forgotten about that mobile app since earning that incentive took a pretty long time – like a week or so and it was rather hard to qualify for those surveys…
When times got rough and my income dropped to a bottom low minimum and I found out I was pregnant, one of my main concerns was where to get all that huge bunch of baby stuff needed so urgently. I’ve told on YOUR BABY page how scared I’ve felt discovering the prices and being totally unaware where to get that money for all those suddenly highly important, meaningful and unavoidably necessary things. My family income was barely covering our basic needs so all that pile of Baby Registry items was like an non-liftable burden for our modest budget… 🙁 That’s when I – again, just out of a blue and mostly trying to kill time while trying to search for some decent financial solution – I’ve remembered about that forgotten mobile app on my phone where they’ve offered gift cards for those surveys… 🙂
That was my little solution, even though I’ve never even hoped to find it in such a seemingly uncertain activity. I’ve decided to get a couple of cards to be able to spend it on Amazon Baby Registry – at least something, I’ve thought, maybe a couple of bibs or some crib sheet… 🙂 I’ve spent a couple of days persistently devoting my time trying to make some additional income for buying that baby stuff – and surprisingly it worked!!! I’ve set myself a goal to make $10 per day – and it actually gave me a possibility to earn enough in gift cards for buying my so desired $160 worth baby rocker&sleeper chair withing a little bit more than 2 weeks! 🙂 My joy was hard to describe. To say that I was HAPPY is like saying nothing – it felt like a breath of fresh air of hope for me, I’ve found my little way to get baby stuff for my little boy and prepare for his arrival!!! 🙂 Long story short, within those several pregnancy months I’ve competed my huge baby list and a couple of more lists of needed stuff for myself and our home (in case you’re curious, you can see the lists and items HERE) around $2000 worth altogether. 🙂
I was trying to make an average of $300 per month in additional income, earning Amazon and Walmart gift cards and PayPal transfers. It took a significant amount of my time but it gave me the result I’ve needed so urgently. 🙂 Was it all worth my time? Most certainly. Is if worth your time? It’s up to you to decide. Let me tell you just one more thing – my son is 10 months old now and I’ve NEVER, not even once paid for his diapers and baby wipes out of pocket. Not a single penny was taken out of our tight family budget for his toys either, and he has plenty of those! Will additional online income provide for your living? Very doubtful. Will it make you rich? Definitely not. Will it replace a regular job? No, it won’t. But it can and will help you make extra money for your smaller additional expenses if you’re willing to spend time on it. 100% proven, guaranteed and tested by me personally – it works. As I’ve said, it’s up to you to decide…
So, here we go – below you can find some common sources of additional online income. Let’s keep it clear: some of those sources reward people for references and some don’t. Some encourage sharing information and offer a little incentive for inviting friends and some couldn’t really care less about getting new members this way. Regardless, I’m not a respective industry influencer or a super popular blogger (unfortunately 🙁 ) so nobody hires me for pay to promote and advertise stuff (what a crying shame, huh? 🙂 ). Therefore, my reviews and recommendations are simple, honest and personal experience based. 🙂
Survey Mobile Apps and websites – the most reliable way to earn some additional money for minor expenses. That’s exactly how I’ve completed my baby registry lists and keep paying for baby stuff now. 🙂 Bigger websites usually demand daily involvement while small mobile apps are sending you surveys less frequently. It’s best to balance between them all, counting and investing time in bigger sources and slowly collecting your points from little fellas… 🙂
1) QuickThoughts – in my humble opinion, is one of the best survey apps existing for earning Amazon gift cards. They provide surveys regularly, the pay is pretty regular and usually it’s $1 per completed survey. There are also daily little quizzes for $0.40 and more broad and time consuming researches with a completion rewards like $5 or more. Pay-off is immediate, as soon as you reach $10. Of course there are general common rules to follow and you won’t qualify for every survey, but this app is honest, fair and really keeps its promise. You can earn&redeem your gift cards pretty often.
Personal experience conclusions:
- Follow their rules and DO NOT create any additional accounts. You will lose your earned money and your account will be blocked.
- DO NOT stock money inside the app. Earned enough for $10 gift card? Redeem it asap. Just do it. 🙂
- Don’t just sit and rely on notifications, return to your app as often as possible to fish for new available surveys.
Make sure you provide honest and up-to-date personal information, these guys are pretty strict when it comes to our tax laws so you will need to fill tax forms when you earn $600 or more with them. They are very responsive too and have perfect timing when sending your Form 1099-MISC back.
2) Swagbucks – is one of the biggest and most popular websites for making a couple of bucks on taking surveys and completing other tasks. Rewards differ, but you can redeem as soon as you earn as little is $3. Swagbucks has indeed a wide range of activities like watching videos, completing offers, playing games, taking surveys or just searching the web. Payments may take a couple of days to be redeemed. You can choose different types of payments, including gift cards and cash transfers. I love redeeming Walmart gift cards. 🙂
Personal experience conclusions:
- Try various activities. Don’t get stuck on one single attempt. It works best to make more money.
- DO NOT get carried away with multiple pricey sponsored offers if you don’t wanna end up spending more than making! 🙂
- Swagbucks earnings may be VERY time consuming, sometimes it takes an hour to earn 50 cents. Just a warning, you know… 🙂
3) Inbox dollars – is pretty similar to Swagbucks when talking about their variety of activities. There are some differences though like paid e-mails and a chance to win additional cash with their scratch cards. The huge difference in payment is that you can only redeem when you’ve earned $30 and it takes a LOOONG time…
Personal experience conclusions:
- Not being able to redeem with a lower earning sometimes can be very frustrating… 🙁
- The other side – a bigger amount feels better in your pocket! 🙂
4) Surveys On The Go – one very simple and very nice mobile app to make some gift cards in your spare time. You can redeem at $10. The only sad thing about it is that they don’t send surveys often. 🙁 (Sob, sob… )
Personal experience conclusions:
- When you get a notification – make sure you open it otherwise the chance may just disappear. 🙂
- A pretty unpredictable app – you can make $10 gift card per day and then only be offered one survey worth $0.50 per month!
5) Nicequest – is another nice and easy mobile app for taking surveys snd tracking your device activity. Rewards are different, you can actually choose them from a gift catalog. They also won’t send surveys often unfortunately.
Personal experience conclusions:
- Count your points wisely – some cards are worth more points than the others. I love redeeming Applebee’s gift cards for providing my little family a chance to dine out once in a while without extra expenses and draining our tight budget. 🙂
6) SurveySavvy – the survey part: they send surveys pretty often and let you cash out from like $1. Paycheck is sent by regular USPS mail as soon as you request it and you can easily deposit it to your bank account.
Shopping mobile apps usually help you save money on your groceries or other purchases and earn some cash back. You may also receive additional reward for sharing information about the app with your friends and family or achieving certain shopping goals. Majorly those apps need you to capture a picture or scan your receipt for redeeming coupons and offers. Your savings are accumulated to redeem a gift card or PayPal transfer as soon as you reach a certain amount. I know there are plenty of those available but I’ve only successfully used two of them so far to redeem my gift cards. Hope to discover more in future though!
1) Ibotta – (use code ubrriml for additional bonuses!) helps you use your cash back for obtaining gift cards. The app is pretty easy to use and the stores range is like super wide so anyone can find something to get some cash back on! Just make sure you check your Ibotta offers before and after your regular grocery trip and enjoy some good deals. 🙂
2) Fetch Rewards – (use code QM0XS for additional instant 1,500 points!) is a pretty standard receipt-scanning cash back mobile app. What makes me happy about this app is that even if you’ve never bought any of the multiple generously rewarded sponsored groceries you will still get points just for adding any grocery receipt!!! You know, a penny saved is a penny earned… 🙂
Internet meters are simply the best! 🙂 I personally LOVE this way of making some additional passive income!!! Internet meters demand either installing a mobile app or physical equipment to track and measure your device’s Internet activity. The only thing that needs to be controlled is that your devices stay connected. Oh, just a thought – that idea might seem as an invasion of privacy for some people, but I personally think it’s pretty safe to use Internet activity meters. I’m having those trackers installed and connected for over a year now and never had any issues at all. The best thing is that those sources of income are indeed passive – you don’t have to spend your time on them almost at all! 🙂
1) Digital Reflection – they will send you equipment that needs to be connected to your WIFI router. Then you will register your household devices using this particular WIFI. Then complete a short general questions survey. That’s it, you’ll start earning money!!! 🙂 You can earn up to $310 per year with Digital Reflection. Payments are sent to your PayPal account after you reach your redeemable amount of $50 (that will happen like in 3 months or so).
2) Mobile Performance Meter – measures your smartphone activity and gives you points for every single day of the app being installed on your device. Once a month they will send you a short survey. That’s it. 🙂 You can earn a $5 gift card within like 2,5 months.
3) SurveySavvy – the tracker part. You get $5 monthly for each device you install their tracking app on. Super simple! 🙂 I’ve personally got 2 paychecks about $20 each from them within like 2 months or so.
Well, here is my story about making some additional money online as a part of living that high life on a low income… 🙂 It’s not over of course, I keep searching for new ways to work from home and will certainly share my results with you here. Good luck and remember – WHERE IS A WILL, THERE IS A WAY. :).
