Monday, November 14, 2016

Money, Money, Money

Hello Lovelies

Inspired by an article I recently found {LINK HERE} I decided to try out some ways to make money online and at home. Currently being at my parents’ home and unemployed has driven me to some interesting places, and while I have not found a fountain of youth style level of income I have learned a lot through my odyssey and I thought I would share this experience with you all.

Firstly, the biggest issue I came across when investigating the links in this article and exploring other options was country availability. I live in Canada and many of the applications are for the US only. If you are an American reader congrats, you have a lot less barriers to making extra cash on the side then your neighbours to the North. To my Canadian compadres, sorry, you will have to continue to suffer like the well behaved sibling of a naughty child who gets less attention from their parents. The first site on the list is one of those, in fact it has American in the name. Because its American I wasn’t able to check it out, but from the description by The Crazy Coupon Lady it sounds amazing! The next one on the list, FOAP, is in the same category; exclusive to the US and sounds amazing.

Secondly, The Crazy Coupon Lady really has collected an eclectic mix of different money making endeavours, however it seems like some of these were curated more closely than others. To revert back to my first point some of the apps mentioned are US specific but are not indicated as such, like Mobee and ACX (audiobook platform). Similarly, apps like ezyShot are listed that is not compatible with iOS, which cuts out a significant proportion of potential users.

Looking at the app Rewardable for example I was unable to access the secret shopper tasks as those were exclusive to US users (sensing a pattern?) however there were other features of the app that I was able to use. They consisted primarily of games to download and quizzes to complete for rewards they called acorns. Each acorn amounted to a certain dollar amount which can be cashed out via PayPal once a particular amount has been reached. You can even set this amount yourself and can track which rewards you have earned. Great in theory but so far I have struggled to find a reason to keep this one. The app itself also does a poor job I think of vetting what content they offer to users, like having dodgy looking third party links and tasks that send you to several outside websites and in the end require you to purchase their products to get the reward. I’d say about half the apps and games I downloaded never earned me the acorns it was supposed to. The first time this happened I sent an email to their support and about a week later got a response from a Jen Barber, complete with photos, asking for the specifics of the apps, so I sent them and never heard back. To be honest I half expected to just get a response advising me to turn it off and on again (kudos if you get the reference). The next time I attempted contact I wrote down all the details of the rewards I was missing and emailed again; this time no response at all.

It’s not all doom and gloom with Rewardable though, I am able to answer one quick multiple choice question a day, and earn 1 cent, so there’s that. So for all you math fans out there if I set a $10 limit (the minimum) for payouts and I only earn 1 cent a day, how long will it take me to be able to make any money? I’ll leave you to do the calculations on that but let’s just all agree that’s a long time, which begs the question, is the app worth it? Considering half of it doesn’t work, there is poor support for it, and a tiny payout I would have to say no, but then again if you do it in the States you should be fine, or if you are fine with a long term investment then more power to you, because this is a long, long, long one.

Want to know which one of these was my favourite? It would have to be Opinion Post, the rather unlikely underdog that turns out to be the hero, or in this case, the most lucrative. Normally survey websites are difficult to navigate, have many surveys that you often do not qualify for and have low payouts. With Opinion Post however you may encounter just as many surveys that you do not qualify for but the payouts are larger and the cash out is better. I have only completed 4 surveys so far but I am very close to earning the minimum of $10. It works out to roughly $0.10 per 1 point and you can earn between 10 to 30 points per survey. They, like many other survey websites also have regular cash prize giveaways where each survey gets you one entry into the draw, and Opinion Post also gives you entries for surveys attempts but ones you may not qualify for. I have tried many a survey website and this one is by far the best and I would definitely recommend it.

Stay tuned to find out more about my side money journey because I will certainly be continuing. Save on my friends, save on!

Lilaina