Earn $20k a Year for Less Than 5 Hours a Week
If you’re like me, you like finding ways to make money with your skills and strengths. I personally relish the refining process — taking something and making it better. Whether that’s my own self-reflection that helps keep me on track or doing quality assurance testing for digital products and services.
I was chatting with my friend Nathan a month ago about looking for additional ways to generate income. He is a developer and knows my skills regarding IT work, so he mentioned Tester Works to me. I glanced at the site, and it looked like work I could do and would enjoy.
So I decided to sign up.
Below I will walk you through my journey of using Tester Works and why I believe it’s a great side hustle for those who like making the digital world better.
The Journey into Tester Works
When signing up, you need to read their requirements and rules. Tester Works has you take a short assessment about bug reporting and categorization. This helps them rule out people who aren’t detail-oriented enough, from becoming testers.
Testing software, websites, and applications is a very detailed process. Bugs need to be re-creatable. Tester Works requires a specific level to validate your ability to log bugs properly. I failed the assessment the first time I took it. Then a warning flashed on my screen.
You have 1 remaining test opportunity, or you’ll be denied as a tester.
That got my attention.
I went back and reread the materials on how they determine bug priority, step recreation details, labeling, and all the other bug test requirements. I took the test a second time and passed. I’m not sure why I failed the first time; none of the questions stood out to me in a, “Oh, that’s what I missed!” kind of way.
Regardless, I found myself as a newly accepted member of the Tester Works bug team.
In your profile, you are given a series of questions about the devices you own, the operating systems they are running, and what models you have. Once you fill out this information. You are put into their database in all the categories you just filled out (Device, Model, OS, etc…).
Next, you wait for a test cycle to come up; these come to your email first. Once you receive a test cycle invitation, it will tell you the key information you need before you register for the test.
- What device(s) do they want you to test on
- What operating system needs to be used
- What the dates of the test will be
- How compensation will work for the test
and more…
If you fall into the listed categories, you click register and fill out a little information. Usually, you will receive confirmation and invitation to the test within a day or two. However, there are times where the test is sent to so many testers that you miss out on the opportunity.
Space for all the test cycles is limited; it’s a first-come, first-serve basis.
My First Few Tests
On my first few tests, I dove in. I wanted to make sure I found the bugs, reported them properly and earned the most I could.
I didn’t know that you don’t get paid if you report bugs that others have reported first. That is considered a duplicate bug, and they mark it as such. This makes your time spent a waste for you.
This was a quick learning curve for me. If you’re following my articles, you know that often I have to learn things the hard way.
After my first two tests were duds due to my own slowness in finding bugs and reporting them on the bug tracker. I was given an invitation to a test cycle for a large tech company that almost everyone uses.
I signed up quickly and realized after the fact. This specific test cycle came with base pay. This was exciting. I was unaware that they sometimes offered base pay for testing cycles. I blew through the test. I logged a couple of bugs and reported them quickly, earning me a little more than the base pay. They accepted my bugs and set the money to my account for my pay.
At this point, I was hooked.
I Bought An iPhone For This Side Hustle
I signed up for every test they sent my way.
They even accidentally sent me a substantial base pay test cycle. One that offered $500.
Except there was only one problem.
You had to own an iPhone to be picked for the $500 test cycle, I didn’t.
So, being the ingenuitive person that I am. I signed up as if I had an iPhone. Promptly following, I jumped on Facebook marketplace and scoured for an iPhone to purchase for $100. This would allow me to do the test without eating away at the profit I could make.
I found an iPhone 8, met the young man selling it, tested it, seemed fine, and then brought it home. Set it up, only to find that I’d purchased an iPhone 7. Not an iPhone 8… I had been scammed.
Thankfully, the test cycle included an iPhone 7 as an optional device. As I was driving home, I was accepted into the test.
The Results of Four Weeks using Tester Work
Now you’re probably wondering, “how much did you get paid for those test cycles?” Well, here is a snapshot of my last month of side hustle income.
[Test Cycles are blacked out for privacy.]
As you can see, I’ve made a total of $1,697.24 in the last four weeks. In the Tester Works system.
In the Tester Works system, they have a ranking scale based on how many bugs you’ve reported within the previous 30 days. As you climb the ranks, this offers you a higher payout for each bug (I’m gold, as seen in the top right corner).
This ranking system really helped increase my payouts, exponentially.
“Consistency is one of the biggest factors to accomplishment and success.” — Byron Pulsifer
My total payout per hour from the last month puts me at $67.89 an hour (without the cost of the iPhone).
If you subtract the cost of the iPhone, my hourly rate drops to $63.89 an hour. I was only able to achieve such a high pay rate because of my consistency.
Takeaway
Suppose you’ve been looking for a way to earn some extra cash for the holidays. I suggest looking at Tester Works.
I have really enjoyed the test cycles I’ve done for quick payouts.
I want to reiterate, though, this is a very detail-oriented side hustle. I’ve seen them reject several poorly logged bugs. Some of which were mine. It’s not hard work, but it’s detailed work.
If you have experience testing digital products and services, leave me your advice, tips, and tricks in the comments.
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