Car notes, music subscriptions, TV subscriptions, student loans.
What if I told you there was an easy side hustle you could do to cover these recurring monthly bills?
My solution: online surveys.
Online surveys are one of the many great side hustles from home you can start today. Taking online surveys isn’t scammy, a waste of time, or some kind of multi-level marketing scheme (MLM).
It only seems that way because it leaves people wondering “Why would someone pay me for my opinions?”
Here’s why: Because your opinions are valuable.
Your opinions on products deserve payments because those are the same ideas advertisers, businesses, and entrepreneurs will use to make money off of other people later.
Unlike reselling or making money by writing online, taking online surveys ranks in a category of its own. It’s a miscellaneous side hustle subject that flies under the radar. However, it’s an extremely underrated gig because there is no required education or experience needed to make money from digital surveys.
Now that you know your ideas and opinions are worth money, the next question is: Where is the best place to cash in on them?
Look no further, I have a few sites I frequently use to take surveys on and pay me for my opinions. You might not make $50 per hour using these survey sites, but you can come close.
Take Surveys On Amazon Mechanical Turk
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times. Amazon Mechanical Turk — or MTurk — is the place to go for rookies and veterans who want to make money taking surveys online.
In good months, I’ve made a couple hundred dollars using the site. In bad months, I usually end up with about $50. Either way, I’ll take it.
If you don’t take anything away from this entire article, at least take away that you can make great extra income from just doing MTurk alone.
After you register using your Amazon account, you can start doing HITS. That’s just what they call surveys on the platform.
As you do HITS, you watch your money accumulate at the top of your page. The more HITS you do, the more you get paid. Easy as pie.
I like to do them before I go to bed, when I’m watching TV, when I use the toilet, and when I have free time in general.
Besides being a super reliable source of extra income online, my favorite option about MTurk is the payout method.
Not only does MTurk pay straight to your bank account, but you can also choose to get paid every 3 days, 7 days, 14 days, or 30 days. I keep my account on every 3 days because I love to see that money rolling in!
Take Surveys On Swagbucks
Swagbucks is a great survey-taking platform for a variety of different reasons. Survey sites are great side hustles to make fast money for vacation.
The main draw for me was the app. I like how convenient it is that you can download the app and do surveys from it effortlessly on your phone. Yes, you can still do this with MTurk but you have to log onto their website instead of using an app. I like apps.
The most money I’ve ever made on Swagbucks in a month was $65. Typically, I average anywhere between $30 and $50.
The payout comes through PayPal so yes there is a small transfer fee, but you can also use it to buy gift cards to cool places if you don’t just want the money.
Last month, I used the money I made from Swagbucks alone to pay for:
- Netflix
- Hulu Premium
- Apple Music
- Adobe Creative Cloud
That is the power of the online survey side hustle!
Take Surveys On Qmee
Qmee took me a while to get the hang of because they don’t only deal in doing online surveys. You can also install the Chrome extension and make money just for visiting certain websites.
Focusing on surveys, you’ll find that Qmee offers fewer surveys than Swagbucks and MTurk. However, the few surveys that the platform does offer will rack up to make some nice pocket change.
I personally average about $20 a month on Qmee. Keep in mind that I don’t spend too much time on the platform. That $20 is the equivalent to less than 2 hours of work in a month.
It’s because I usually take surveys on MTurk and Swagbucks but when they run dry, which rarely happens, I turn to Qmee to make money if I’m bored.
Take Surveys On UserTesting
UserTesting is the only platform on this list that’s half survey-taking and half just clicking around on random websites.
UserTesting pays workers to go to websites and perform certain tasks. It could be simply clicking on a PDF or scrolling through a site. While you do this, you’re expected to speak into a microphone on your headphones or computer and explain what you see.
It sounds more complicated than it is. I typically just find myself mindlessly following the directions they give to me and talking while I scroll through sites they select.
The pay for UserTesting is what I really like. Every project varies and sometimes you get paid by the hour, but most of the time I make anywhere from $100 to $300 every month just by doing UserTesting.
Don’t believe me? Look it up and see what other people have to say before trying it for yourself. UserTesting isn’t the only platform you can do this on, but it’s the one I personally have found success on.
Don’t sleep on surveys as side gigs
Online survey-taking gets a bad name in the online community.
What it all comes down to is how bad you want/need extra income. Are you willing to take a couple surveys every month so you can make an extra couple hundred dollars?
Online surveys are where I got my start dabbling into side hustles and making extra income. Just because I’ve found other ways to make money doesn’t mean I’m giving up on where I came from.
Next time you’re sitting on the toilet watching YouTube videos, try taking a couple surveys instead. That extra money in your pocket will thank you for it later.
