I know there are a lot of folks out there who wonder if it's truly possible to earn money passively from home merely through the power of the internet. I know that I was extremely skeptical at first too, but I've found that with some basic knowledge of technology, good sources of information, and a little upfront legwork I've been able to add a healthy chunk of change to my wallet.
Let me tell you how it all started. Where I live there's a fairly successful chain of convenience stores that happens to have a location very near my home. They decided to release an app that allowed users to check-in when they visited a store to earn points, and plays in a simple memory game that could award up to 49 points if you were careful and lucky. 50 points can be redeemed at the register for a free soda or coffee. Well, it turns out that thanks to the magic of GPS I am within check-in distance from my house, and I was able to start earning enough points through check-ins and the memory game to get a free beverage every day. Since I had been purchasing these beverages pretty regularly this was about a $1.25/day value to me.
So I started wondering if there were other ways to earn money using my cell phone, mostly as a way to subsidize my mobile plan and let my phone pay for itself. Through the most basic of digging I discovered online survey sites, and quickly managed to root out the reputable ones, and I started doing a few surveys. I'll be discussing survey sites and the ones I would recommend if you're into that sort of thing, but I found fairly quickly that surveys weren't really what I wanted. With a couple very notable exceptions (that will be covered in the survey discussion) surveys took a lot of work, often disqualified you after already investing several minutes in them, and paid out pretty lousy amounts considering the effort.
I noticed, though, that one of the sites that I did surveys on (which has since become one of my favorites, Swagbucks) also allowed users to watch videos to earn points. The idea is that the viewer sees an advertisement - an advertisement that the content provider receives money for showing - and is rewarded with points that can be redeemed for cash and gift cards. Payouts are low, but browser windows and mobile apps could be left open running the videos with very little interference
That was a fantastic revelation! From there I looked a little more and found Perk, and organization that specialized in rewarded ad views. (I've recently had a falling out with Perk, but there are better apps out there that I will go over ;)) I bought some cheapo smartphones to run the app off of wifi, and just like that my farm was born! I started passively earning points, used those points to get Amazon money, used the Amazon money to get Kindle Fires (which are very inexpensive but still strong enough to run 'beermoney' apps) and the rest is history!
Now I earn about $10-$15 a day with minimal device babysitting, and more with surveys and the like. In the coming weeks, months, and years I will be going over my experiences, the sites I trust, the sites I don't trust, best practices, and all the information that I hope will empower you to follow in my footsteps and take advantage of the digital age!
For now, there's a drop-down menu at the top of my page that will link you to some of the sites I frequently use and prefer, and I'll have guides soon to get you started. Thank you for coming on this journey with me :)
Now I earn about $10-$15 a day with minimal device babysitting, and more with surveys and the like. In the coming weeks, months, and years I will be going over my experiences, the sites I trust, the sites I don't trust, best practices, and all the information that I hope will empower you to follow in my footsteps and take advantage of the digital age!
For now, there's a drop-down menu at the top of my page that will link you to some of the sites I frequently use and prefer, and I'll have guides soon to get you started. Thank you for coming on this journey with me :)
