My Best and Worst Side Hustles (Part 3) — The Tests and Surveys Edition
Easy money; not rocket science
As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve tried out quite a few side hustles.
And so this piece continues on from where Part 1 — Freelance Writing and Part 2 — Passive Income left off.
It’s time for…tests and surveys.
So, we all know that a lot of online tests (e.g. testing website usability) and surveys pay peanuts. And they can try to bore you into submission. They’re not “side hustles” in the hardcore sense.
Sure, they can help pay the odd bill, but you’re not going to retire doing them.
But, if you’re lucky, you can fall upon a few decent payers. And this has happened to me.
Here are some I’ve tried:
Testbirds
So, I signed up for Testbirds, many, many years ago. And I completely forgot about it until I decided to reconnect last summer.
And I was pleasantly surprised.
I was offered a gig that required me to order online a Dior-branded mug (of all things) from a Dior store in town. They would deliver it to me, I would then take photos of the packaging and offending item, and then “return to sender”. After that, I would wait for a refund and then give my view on the process.
That was it. Simply reviewing the delivery quality of what was deemed to be a luxury product (they go for US$520 for a pair — more money than sense).
For my troubles, I was paid HK$1,247, which is equivalent to about US$160. Talk about easy money.
That one was a winner.
Respondent
Respondent has a ton of interesting surveys targeting professionals across different occupations.
That’s why a lot of the surveys pay well.
Unfortunately, I’ve only managed to get a couple of lower-paying gigs because I’m in the wrong geographic region for some of the juicier ones. (The best I had was a $5 survey on Ben and Jerry’s ice cream).
If you want an idea of the type of gigs offered, you can see the screenshot below.
If you want to try your hand, feel free to check out the (affiliate) link attached here.
UTest
I hadn’t been on UTest in years — until I thought about writing this article.
It had been a regular companion when I was in-between jobs. I used to sit at my laptop waiting to be disturbed by a “ping” inviting me to do a test. It wasn’t hard, and it was a steady flow of $10 for 10-minute jobs (if memory serves me).
I don’t know what it’s like these days, but below is an example of what’s on the site right now. I’m going to see what else is available.
Clickworker
Ok, I can’t really remember much about Clickworker.
But I do know I wasted a lot of time on mindless micro surveys (money is money, I suppose). It was a low payer. Try it, but don’t expect the crown jewels.
Prolific (formerly Prolific Academic)
Prolific was a fun site.
It was basically researchers posting studies and recruiting the right participants to do them. They were generally for academic studies (hence, the original name). I got paid to learn.
Sadly, Prolific discovered I was no longer living in the UK and blocked me from doing any more.
That’s it for now
These surveys and tests aren’t going to make you rich. But they might just get you started on the path to financial freedom (whatever that means for you).
At the very least, you can earn a few pennies while still bingeing on Netflix.
I’m a finance guy with a career and life coaching background. And a past. My About Me page will show you that.
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