Ways to Make A Few Extra Bucks Online...Legitimately

by aunice1

Sites like Branded Surveys, InboxDollars and Mturk provide ways to make money online from home.

Everybody's trying to make extra money these days and crowdsourcing is the wave. Some of us are doing two and three jobs just to get by and make ends meet. Here are a few resources that won't make you wealthy, but could put a few additional bucks in your pocket. In other words, you could pay a bill or two or add to your entertainment fund.

Earn Money Online Doing Small Tasks From Home

What's Crowdsourcing Anyway?

Everybody's trying to make extra money these days and crowdsourcing is the wave. Some of us are doing two and three jobs just to get by and make ends meet. Here are a few resources that won't make you wealthy, but could put a few additional bucks in your pocket. In other words, you could pay a bill or two or add to your entertainment fund. If you are willing to work for several platforms, earning a full-time income is possible (or close to it).

Crowdsourcing refers to a way in which people hire others to do small online tasks for them: article writing, data entry, transcription, surveys, read-aloud recordings and so on. Each task typically takes a few minutes to complete and pay-outs are usually made to Paypal or by check. For some tasks, you'll need to complete a qualifications test, while others you'll just complete the task. I find doing short tasks fun and a way for me to get a break from the comprehensive writing projects I do on a daily basis. Some people play online games, I short-task. Go figure!

Things to Know

Sites like InboxDollars have offers which will pay you to opt-in to receive free newsletters and what-not. Do yourself a favor and create a separate email box for these sites because you will get a whole lot of mail. These sites also have certain types of offers that you'll need to pay for, so be careful. I don't do anything that requires my credit card info unless it's something I usually by or want to try. I tend to only complete free offers of which there are plenty. Other sites are completely task-oriented like Amazon's Mechanical Turk (Mturk) and Microworkers. With some sites, besides earning by completing tasks and offers, you can increase the amount you earn by referrals. The following are legitimate companies that do pay.

Microworkers

Get Paid to Do "Micro-Tasks"

People can sign up to the Microworkers website for free and work online from anywhere in the world. Employers upload small "microjobs" that take a few minutes to complete such as surveys, data tagging, transcription, data mining and data categorization. There are currently over over 81 million tasks available on any given day, so there's plenty of tasks to go around. Payment threshold varies from $9.00-$20.00, depending on the payment platform. 

InboxDollars

With InboxDollars is a fun Get-Paid-To (GPT) website where you can play online games and complete tasks. Signing up for offers, completing surveys, downloading coupons, uploading grocery receipts and trying new products or services are examples of typical tasks. For extra cash, you can refer others. You are paid by your choice of gift card: Visa, Amazon, PayPal, etc.

Branded Surveys

Not All Survey Sites are Created Equal

There are a lot of survey sites out there and not all of them will be worth your time. Branded Surveys is a market research company that will pay you to complete surveys. With each survey you successfully complete, you will get a certain amount of points which are exchanged for cash payouts. When you reach the payout threshold of 500 points, you will be able to convert the points into cash and send the money to your bank account or to PayPal. I know it may sound like a lot, but the points do stack up fast if you are doing the surveys regularly. It doesn't take very long to build points, plus this company awards bonuses as you complete more surveys. Bonuses are also given for referring people. Some of the surveys require you to qualify, and others can be completed by anyone.

Hubpages

Earn Money With Residual Writing

Hubpages is an online writing platform offering writers the opportunity to share revenue with the company. Also with Hubpages, writers can earn according to page views. Earnings are also accumulated through Amazon sales, the Hubpages Ad Program. The not so good thing is that they did away with their Google Adsense. You are paid via PayPal when the threshold of $50 is reached, so it may take awhile to get there. All new writers are accepted, but must pass the Hubpages Boot Camp where publishers need to have 5 featured articles. During this time, articles that do not make it into the "featured" category are unpublished. Articles done by graduates of the Hubpages Boot Camp which are not featured, will still be published just not featured. 

Since the beginnings of the site in 2006, Hubpages has struggled and proven that it has staying power. While there's much more control of what is allowed to be published, there are opportunities to win contests, accolades and publish on one of their many niche sites. For more tips on residual writing, see: Freelance Writing Tips: Writing for Residual Income Sites

Mechanical Turk

Amazon Mechanical Turk is completely task-oriented and on any given day there will be over 150,000 tasks available. You'll be doing anything from writing short articles, and reviews to surveys and transcription. Most of the offers can be completed in a couple minutes, but some tasks require prior qualification by completing a short test. Data entry and transcription tasks typically require testing, but once you pass them, those tasks open up for you. They pay through Amazon Payments where you can either choose to have your funds transferred to a bank account, or added to an Amazon gift certificate. There is no minimum payout as funds are automatically sent to your Amazon Payments account. People new to Mturk are required to be active for at least 10 days to begin receiving payment.

There are plenty of these sites around the web, but the ones I listed here are a few of the most popular and are solid companies as well.

About the Author

Aunice Yvonne Reed, M.S., M.A., has been writing since about year 2006. Her published content has appeared on such sites as WiseGeek, Hubpages, Medium, EHow Health, Walden U and EHow Family. Her print publications include Organics Magazine, Girlfriends Cafe and Parents for Parents Magazine. She enjoys researching and writing about making money online.

Updated: 12/22/2021, aunice1
 
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DerdriuMarriner on 01/04/2022

aunice1, Thank you for practical information, pretty pictures and product lines.
Do all of the above-mentioned sites take about the same time between what you do and when you get paid?

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