The twenty apps and websites below don’t require you to invest any money or acquire any special skills to use them. You can get started today and build a sizable side income that will help you make real progress toward your financial goals. 

If you want to learn more about these money-making apps and websites, then just keep reading! 

Rewards Sites 

Rewards sites (also known as Get Paid To sites) allow you to earn money by shopping online, playing games, downloading apps, scanning grocery receipts, taking surveys, and more. Because there are so many ways to earn points, it’s fairly easy to make a lot of money from these sites. Here are a few of my favorites. 

Swagbucks 

With over 20 million active users, Swagbucks is arguably the most popular rewards site. They’ve been able to gain a large user base because they offer lots of fun ways to earn points, which are called SBs. Here are a few of the ways you can make money on the site: 

• Taking surveys
• Searching the web 
• Scanning grocery receipts 
• Printing and using coupons 
• Playing games
• Watching videos 
• Completing offers like signing up for Hulu 
• Shopping at major online retailers and getting cash back

If you take advantage of all these opportunities to earn, you can rake in a lot of cash. Many users make between $50 and $100 on Swagbucks every month, and some earn even more. If you’re dedicated, Swagbucks can make a great side hustle. 

Monthly earnings potential: $50 to $100+ 

PrizeRebel 

PrizeRebel is a rewards site that has more than 8 million users and offers lots of fun ways to make money, including contests and raffles. They have a weekly contest called Lucky Numbers that’s similar to the lottery. You can participate by purchasing a ticket and choosing a few numbers between 1 and 17. If you match the winning numbers, you’ll take home the jackpot, which is usually a couple thousand points. 

If contests aren’t your thing, here are a few other ways to earn on PrizeRebel: 

• Taking surveys 
• Testing out mobile apps 
• Watching videos 
• Playing games 
• Referring new members 

I make around $50 a month on PrizeRebel, but it’s definitely possible to earn more, especially if you focus on surveys. I heard from one user that they were able to cash out $108 after their first week on the site. Not bad for something you can do from your couch! 

Monthly earnings: $50 or more

RewardXP 

RewardXP is a fairly new GPT site, but offers some of the highest rates for completing offers and watching videos. You can earn twice as many points just by watching videos on RewardXP instead of Swagbucks. The same goes for offers—I saw a signup offer for AARP Rewards that paid out nearly $0.50 more on RewardXP than it did on Swagbucks.

RewardXP also offers some unique ways to earn that most rewards sites don’t. You can score points by playing computer and mobile games you already enjoy, like Second Life and Words with Friends. You can also win gift cards and points, which are called XP, by commenting in the giveaways thread of their Discord channel. RewardXP even has a survey algorithm that helps you maximize your rewards. It matches you with the ideal survey based on how much you want to earn and how much time you have. Cool, right? 

Overall, I think RewardXP is a pretty innovative rewards site that everyone who’s looking to make extra cash should sign up for. 

Monthly earnings: $50 or more 

Survey Sites 

Taking surveys is one of my favorite ways to make money from home. I earn about $100 a month just by filling out surveys while I’m watching TV at night. Here are the four main sites I use to make some side cash. 

YouGov 

YouGov is a survey website that pays you for your opinions about government, politics, and brands. Their surveys usually take under 10 minutes to complete and will net you anywhere from 500 to 2,000 points. If you take most of the surveys that YouGov sends to your inbox, you’ll earn around 25,000 points a month, which can be redeemed for a $15 gift card. 

YouGov also offers two other ways to earn points—referring friends and downloading YouGov Pulse. It’s an application that tracks your internet usage for research purposes. You’ll get a few thousand points a month just for letting it run on your devices in the background. What could be easier? 

Monthly earnings: $15

Pinecone Research 

Pinecone Research is a survey site that you can only join if you have an invitation. I got my invite through Swagbucks and actually got paid to sign up. But if you can’t find a paid invitation on Swagbucks, you can get a referral link from blogs like SurveyPolice.  

One of the great things about Pinecone Research is that they prequalify you for surveys based on your demographic information, so you’ll never get screened out. The surveys I’ve been sent have mainly asked for my opinions about products and brands. They take about 20 minutes to complete and pay $3, which is a solid rate. 

Pinecone will also pay you $3 a month just for sharing your Amazon purchase history. And although this has never happened to me, sometimes Pinecone will send unreleased products to members to test out, which can earn you extra cash. 

Monthly earnings: $10 

Killi 

Killi is an app that offers short surveys you can complete on your phone. All of the surveys I’ve gotten have had one or two questions and paid $0.05. But I’ve also heard that they offer longer surveys at higher pay rates to people in certain demographics. 

Another way you can earn rewards is by getting friends to join the app. Killi will pay you $0.50 every time someone signs up using your referral link. Talk about easy money!

Monthly earnings: $5

Prolific 

Another survey site I love is Prolific. It allows you to earn cash for participating in academic research. The survey topics are always interesting, and the pay rate is high. Every survey on Prolific is required to have an hourly rate of at least $6.50, but many pay more. So if you’re tired of spending hours on surveys that only pay pennies, check out Prolific. 

Monthly earnings: $50

Cash Back Apps 

Cash back apps enable you to earn rewards on the things you’re already buying, like groceries and clothes. Some apps allow you to scan a receipt from any store and get paid, while others apply discounts and cash back to your purchases when you shop online. Here are my favorite cash back apps, websites, and browser extensions that help me save hundreds of dollars each year. 

Ibotta 

Ibotta makes it easy to earn cash back at your favorite stores. When you shop online through the mobile app, you can earn cash back at more than 140 retailers, including Walmart, Petco, Target, and Amazon. You can also shop in-store and take advantage of cash back offers on everyday products like bananas, yogurt, trash bags, pet food, and more. Paying through the Ibotta app at participating retailers will get you even more money back—up to 10% on your entire purchase. 

With so many ways to earn, it’s not surprising that people are getting hundreds of dollars of cash back from Ibotta. I’ve heard from multiple users that they made $500 on the app in a single year. If you want to maximize your rewards, make sure to plan your grocery shopping around the offers. You can even stack them with other coupons to get things for free or cheap. 

But if you only purchase the products you were already planning on buying, it’s still possible to earn $100 or more per year in cash back with Ibotta. 

Monthly earnings: $10 or more 

Rakuten

Rakuten is a browser extension that gives you cash back when you shop online at major retailers. Rakuten gets a commission for sending customers to their retail partners, and passes on some of that cash to you. 

According to Rakuten, you can earn up to 40% cash back at your favorite stores by using their browser extension when you shop. Keep in mind that many of the retailers they work with only offer between 3% and 10% cash back, so you won’t earn 40% on every purchase.

Still, you can save a lot of money by using Rakuten. I usually get at least $150 in cash back from them every year. And because the browser extension finds cash back for me, those earnings are completely passive. There really isn’t an easier way to make money, so I highly suggest you sign up. 

Monthly earnings: $15 or more 

Receipt Hog 

Receipt Hog is another app that allows you to passively earn rewards on the things you’re already buying. All you have to do is snap a picture of a receipt from any store to receive coins, which you can redeem for gift cards or cash via PayPal. 

Receipt Hog offers some other fun ways to earn, including paid surveys and an addicting game called Hog Slots. They also have giveaways for free shopping trips, which I’d love to win one of these days! 

Monthly earnings: $15 

Shopkick 

With Shopkick, you can earn rewards just by stepping into a store and scanning the barcodes of certain items—you don’t even have to buy anything. You’ll earn anywhere from 10 to 50 cents for walking into a store, and 5 to 10 cents for scanning a product. 

If a few items make it into your cart while you’re scanning, you can enter your receipt into the app and earn even more points, which are called kicks. Shopkick also allows you to rack up kicks by watching videos, shopping online, and using a linked credit card to make purchases at select retailers. 

You won’t get rich off of Shopkick, but it’s a fun app to use if you’re already out shopping.

Monthly earnings: $5

Microtask Websites 

Microtask sites offer short tasks that you can complete to earn extra income, such as transcription, data entry, translation, image tagging, and more. Usually tasks only pay a few cents each, but if you do them in batches, you can make a pretty high hourly rate. Believe it or not, I’ve even met people who make a living on microtask websites! Here are the sites you should sign up for if you want to get started with microtasking. 

Amazon Mechanical Turk 

Amazon Mechanical Turk is the best, highest paying microtask site. They’re selective and don’t accept everyone, but it’s still worth applying. If you get in, you’ll be able to complete short tasks called human intelligence tasks, which pay between a few cents and a few dollars. Here are some examples of tasks you might do: 

• Writing website content 
• Performing online research 
• Rating the accuracy of search results 
• Filling out surveys 
• Translation 
• Audio transcription 

Even though some tasks only pay a few cents, if you get in the groove and complete them quickly, you can earn a pretty high hourly rate. Experienced workers are able to earn between $6 and $12 an hour on the platform. Some turkers are even making a living on the site, raking in as much as $2,500 a month from home. Impressive, right? 

I only make about $50 a month on the site and treat it as more of a side hustle. But it’s possible to make much more from MTurk, especially if you use scripts and browser extensions like HIT Scraper to help you find high-paying tasks.  

Monthly earnings: $50 or more

Neevo 

Neevo is another microtask website that allows you to earn up to $15 an hour working from home in your pajamas. A lot of the tasks revolve around categorizing audio and images. You may be asked to record yourself reading something or label and draw boxes around objects in photos. Tasks aren’t always available, but when they are, you can earn $50 or more for just a couple hours of work. 

Monthly earnings: $50 or more 

Clickworker 

Clickworker allows you to complete short tasks on their website and mobile app to earn cash. They’ll pay you a few cents for each short task that you do, like writing a product description, categorizing some data, or proofreading a short passage. Once you get the hang of a task, you should be able to make $9 an hour according to Clickworker. 

Although you’ll probably earn more on the Clickworker website, I prefer the mobile app. It gives you access to fun photo and video tasks that can only be done on your phone. Believe it or not, I’ve gotten paid for making funny facial expressions on video and taking cute photos of my pets. I probably would’ve done those tasks for free if I was bored, so it was nice to get paid a buck or two for them! 

Monthly earnings: $50 or more

Usability Testing Websites

You don’t have to be a web designer or developer to make money testing websites. Businesses want to know what potential customers think of their website design, and are willing to pay you for your opinions. I usually complete a few usability testing jobs each month and earn around $100 in extra income from them. Here are the websites that I get most of my gigs from. 

UserTesting 

UserTesting is one of the most popular and well-known usability testing sites. They’ll pay you $10 to test out a website and record your thoughts for 20 minutes. That’s an hourly rate of $30—not bad, right? 

To get started, you’ll need to sign up and pass a short sample test. Then UserTesting will start sending website testing gigs right to your inbox. I usually get a few tests each month and make around $50 on the platform. But I’ve heard of users making as much as $200 from UserTesting in a single month. It all depends on how many gigs you get, so try to provide helpful feedback on each website to increase your chances of being selected for tests in the future. 

Monthly earnings: Up to $200 

PingPong 

PingPong is another usability testing website that allows you to get paid for giving your opinions on products and websites. To get started, you’ll need a computer with a working camera and microphone, because most of the interviews are conducted over video. Each interview usually takes around half an hour and pays $20, but there are also longer ones available for $40. Sometimes you’ll even luck into an interview that pays much more. I’ve gotten a test for $100 and have even heard of users getting compensated as much as $200 for an hour long conversation. 

Monthly earnings: At least $20 

Validately 

Validately is one of the highest paying usability testing websites. You can earn between $70 and $100 for an hour-long, live video interview, and the pay for shorter studies is pretty good too. A 15 minute study usually pays around $10, which adds up to an hourly rate of $40. Not bad! 

If your study goes well, your payment will be deposited right into your PayPal account within 7 days. New studies will get sent to you daily, but you’ll have to react fast and reserve studies quickly, or else other testers may beat you to it.  

Monthly earnings: Around $50 

Passive Apps 

The following websites and apps are about as passive as it gets. They allow you to earn rewards just for downloading an app on your phone or searching the web like you normally do. If you want to earn rewards without putting in a lot of effort, these sites will be your new go-tos. 

iMoney

iMoney pays you for downloading apps onto your phone. You don’t even have to use the apps—you just have to install them and open them once. For every app you download, you’ll earn between 10 and 30 cents. There are usually a few new apps to install every day, so it’s possible to earn $15 or more a month if you use iMoney consistently. 

Monthly earnings: $15 

Microsoft Rewards 

With Microsoft Rewards, you can get paid for doing the same things online that you usually do—using search engines and watching funny cat videos! Every time you perform a search on Bing, you’ll get 5 points, up to 25 searches per day. If you use Microsoft Edge to browse the web, you’ll also be able to earn 5 points per hour, up to 150 points per month.  

If Bing isn’t your favorite search engine, there are still some other ways you can earn on Microsoft Rewards. You can get points for taking quizzes and completing offers. Right now, for example, you can get 2,500 points for renting or buying 3 movies. 

Each point you earn on Microsoft Rewards is only worth one-tenth of a cent. So if you want to redeem a $10 gift card, you’ll have to rack up 10,000 points, which could take a few weeks. But because Microsoft Rewards allows you to earn rewards passively, it’s definitely still worth signing up.  

Monthly earnings: $10

Mobile Performance Meter 

Want to get paid for using your phone? Then you should check out Mobile Performance Meter. It’s an app that mobile carriers use to measure call quality and internet speed. It runs in the background and collects data while you browse the web, scroll through Instagram, and do whatever else you would normally do on your phone!

Just by keeping this app open, you can earn between $0.15 and $0.50 per day. You can also earn extra cash by taking short surveys and getting friends to sign up. 

Monthly earnings: $15 

What are you waiting for? Start earning side money today! 

Those were all of the best apps and websites for earning extra income right from your couch. They have no barriers to entry, so you can sign up today and start earning. I’m constantly on the lookout for additional sites to test out so check back often!

Which websites are you going to try out, and what are you going to do with all the money you make? Let me know in the comments section below!

The post 20+ Easy Ways To Make Side Money Online first appeared on The Centsible Home.

If you’re new to Swagbucks, or just want to amp up the amount you’re earnings with them, then this tutorial is for you!  I’ve gathered the 13 best ways to make extra money with Swagbucks no matter how much time and energy you have.

Swagbucks was one of the first ways that I started making money online.  Back before I started a blog, even before I graduated college, I was using Swagbucks to bolster our Christmas budget, splurge occasionally, and even buy necessities when money was REALLY tight.  Now, we use Swagbucks to try and supplement our income and max out our investments accounts, primarily our Roth IRAs!

What is Swagbucks?

Swagbucks is a site that curates various online tasks and rewards you in the form of SB (Swagbucks) points. These points can be redeemed for a variety of gift cards from retailers like Amazon, Target, and Wal Mart, and if you want to move your earnings straight into your bank account you can even redeem for paypal! 

How can I start earning money?

When you first sign up for Swagbucks, you are rewarded 300 SB for becoming a member. Amazon gift cards often go on sale for 2200 SB, so it can be wise to accumulate points before cashing out. Amazon $1 gift cards start at 160 SB, and Amazon $3 and $5 gift cards can be redeemed for 300 SB and 500 SB, respectively. At the $3 and $5 levels, 1 SB is equivalent to 1c USD. Taking advantage of Amazon $25 gift card sales at 2200 SB can be an effective way to “save” $3. The lower amounts offer quicker payouts but without the discount. 
Get a 300 SwagBucks Signup Bonus Here!
Cashing out via Paypal is available when you reach 2500 SB, redeemable for $25. The conversion rate isn’t as friendly as the Amazon $25 gift card, but it allows you to put money directly into your bank account. Note that linking your Paypal account to Swagbucks will require verification from your bank.

Now that you know how Swagbucks can translate to cash, here are easy ways to build points.

Completing Swagbucks Surveys

The bulk of your consistent SB points will come from doing surveys. Surveys will request your info for demographic purposes, and topics vary widely. Swagbucks will list the SB point reward and estimated time to complete. Rewards are anywhere from 1-5 SB points for short and easy surveys to 100-500 SB points for ones that require more time and effort. Sometimes 2000+ SB point surveys are listed that require follow-ups and/or watching and reviewing a long video. 

When you’re first starting out, a lot of your surveys will cap at 100 SB points. Once you begin doing more, lucrative surveys will start to appear. I try to do surveys in the 10-20 minute range. Note that surveys can disqualify you, often due to demographic reasons. This is a normal part of the process and you will sometimes be rewarded with 1-10 SB points after disqualification so it is not a complete waste of time.

Dedicating some free time to doing surveys every day can be an easy way to earn at least 500 SB points a week. There is potential to earn an extra $20 or more a month just by doing surveys. Attempting and completing surveys will also check off two To-Do List requirements.

Swagbucks will often offer “Swag-Ups” that incentivize you to do surveys by awarding bonus SB. For example, I have a 20% SB bonus that is active until the day’s end. This bonus will apply to all surveys completed in that allotted time period. Take advantage of these promotions to bolster your SB point earnings. 

To-Do Lists and Daily Polls          

Swagbucks offers daily To-Do Lists that reward you with bonus SB upon completion. Among these tasks is a Daily Poll that gives you 1 SB when you submit your vote. An example is “Who do you think will win the SuperBowl?” Answering these questions every day increases your SB consistently. It’s not a lot, but the effort required is miniscule and is an easy 30-31 SB a month. 

The To-Do List consists of:

• Daily Poll
• Daily Search
• Daily Discover
• Daily Watch
• Daily Activity
• Deal Of The Day
• Add In-Store Deal
• In-Store Cashback Activity
• Attempt A Gold Survey
• Complete A Gold Survey

Swagbucks will feature 8 of these on your homepage throughout the week. Completing 6 out of 8 of these items will reward you with 2 bonus SB. Note that the To-Do List will refresh each day. 

By logging in every day, you can fulfill your Daily Activity requirement. Many of these items will be checked off naturally as you engage in Swagbucks activities. 

Swagbucks Search

Using Swagbucks Search can sometimes net you bonus SB. The Swagbucks Search box runs at the top of the page when you log-in, and plug-ins are available to add to your browser of choice. The mobile app is an easy way to use Swagbucks Search from your phone. Clicking on the Daily Search when it appears in your To-Do List will satisfy that requirement. Making Swagbucks Search your primary method of search will help you increase your SB points.

Watch Videos

You can earn SB points by watching videos. Swagbucks features playlists that are typically 15-30 minutes long, and cover a wide range of topics and interests. These playlists will feature current events, news in pop culture, politics, hobbies, and other categories. 

Each playlist will only net you 2-3 SB points, but consider it an easy way to earn in the background. Be sure to pay mind to ad prompts that check if you’re still watching. Completing a playlist will check off the Daily Watch To-Do List item. The Swagbucks Watch app will allow you to view these playlists on your phone.

Promotional Deals    

Swagbucks hosts a plethora of promotional offers that reward you in SB points for signing up. I was able to get 3000 SB points from signing up with Hulu for $5/month. Swagbucks will not reward you unless you let the subscription run at least one cycle. It took thirty days to process but it was an easy $25. I had even forgotten about it so it was a nice little surprise when I saw it post to my Swagbucks account! Leverage these offers to make money on deals that fit you.

Promotions like signing up for SiriusXM for 4000 SB points, or various online banks that reward 2000 SB points can make you money. You don’t have to go out of your way to capitalize on proposals. Find a service that you would have pursued anyway, and weigh the SB points reward against your initial investment. It can be a very efficient way to pay for services and even make money from them. Signing up for a deal with Swagbucks will check off Daily Discover from your To-Do List.

Receipts and Coupons   

With the Swagbucks Answer app, you can easily scan receipts you receive from the grocery store to earn 2 SB points each. It’s a great way to recoup some of your money from mandatory spending. Swagbucks will feature certain stores for an added bonus. For example, I was able to scan a Whole Foods receipt for 10 SB points. Specific stores will rotate in and out, but you will be able to scan any recent receipt for 2 SB points.

Swagbucks allows you to print up to 50 coupons per day and rewards you with 1 SB each. If you don’t have a printer, you can print to PDF and it still counts. When you redeem a coupon that was printed through Swagbucks, you get rewarded 25 SB points. Consider utilizing relevant coupons the next time you’re at the grocery store to accumulate SB points.

Play Games

Swagbucks has a few in-house games under the “Play” section on your homepage. These games are Swagasaurus Run, Swag Jump, and Swag Memory. Playing them will net you 1-10 SB points, but the biggest returns are from signing up for mobile games.

I downloaded and played Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire for my iPhone and received 900 SB points after meeting the requirements in the Swagbucks promotion. Comb through deals in the “Discover” section to find offers like this one. As long as you don’t pay into the game, it’s an entertaining way to earn substantial SB points.   

Swagbucks Button   

The Swagbucks Button can be added to your browser and alerts you when you’re on a site with sales, coupons, and cashback offers. This came in handy when I was shopping for my son’s school clothes and was able to get some cash back in the form of SB points shopping at Old Navy. 

Swagbucks Cashback Bonuses  

If you do a lot of online shopping, you can earn at least 1%-2% cashback at several retailers including Gap, Best Buy, and Target. Using Swagbucks to shop at Amazon can reward you with up to 5 SB points for every dollar spent. This can soften the impact of spending at online retailers. Cashback rates can fluctuate so keep that in mind to get the most bang for your buck.

Referring Friends

Swagbucks will reward you with 300 SB points and 10% of a user’s earnings when they use your referral. You also get a 100 SB points bonus if they add the Swagbucks button to their browser. If you can get a group of friends into Swagbucks, it’s a quick way to pile on the SB points.

You can join online communities like Facebook groups or Reddit.com forums that allow you to share your referral link, further increasing your potential for earnings.  

SWAGO and Swagbucks Spin & Win

Swagbucks will occasionally run week-long events like SWAGO or Swagbucks Spin & Win. You will be notified in your Swagbucks inbox and on your homepage when these promotions go live.  

SWAGO is essentially an online BINGO card where certain activities are required to fill in the spaces. Some are easily accomplished tasks like answering the Daily Poll or watching a video playlist. Other spaces might require you to sign up for a deal or purchase a gift card through Swagbucks. Rewards of different levels help ensure that you can achieve some kind of SB points bonus. Filling any row will reward you with 5 SB points. Filling the whole board will reward 100 SB points for the diligent and dedicated. You will need to submit your Swagbucks 

Think Wheel of Fortune for Swagbucks with Swagbucks Spin & Win. When this event is active, you’re given a daily “spin” with the potential to win SB points or more spins. 

Keep an eye out for these fun activities that don’t require a big commitment. 

Swagbucks Trivia

Swagbucks hosts an online game show several times a week that you can participate in by downloading the Swagbucks Trivia app to your phone. The questions are multiple-choice, and most games have a winners’ pot of $500-$1000. Games are held in the evening hours, with some days hosting two. If you get a question wrong, you can continue to participate and earn 1 SB point for each correct answer. With the high volume of users splitting the winning pot, expect rewards of around 20-100 SB points for a win. It’s an entertaining way to earn some SB points for an activity that typically is finished around 10 minutes, with potential for bigger earnings when a quiz is particularly hard. 

Earn Extra Cash 

By actively engaging with the Swagbucks platform you can easily earn an extra $50-$100 a month, or more, depending on your commitment and dedication. Follow these steps to start padding your income:

• Complete your daily To-Do Lists
• Make Swagbucks Search your primary method of online search
• Watch videos
• Do surveys in your free time
• Scan all accepted receipts
• Print coupons daily
• Play Swagbucks Trivia
• Participate in Swagbucks events like SWAGO

Get a 300 SwagBucks Signup Bonus Here!
Good luck and happy earnings! Swagbucks won’t replace your job, but consider it a tool in expanding your Christmas budget, reducing the impact of spending online, or squirreling away cash for that new gadget you’ve been eyeing!  

The post Swagbucks 101 – Making Money With Swagbucks first appeared on The Centsible Home.