I really do have some free time from time to time which I usually invest in something useful like studying on my own, but I would like to be able to earn at least $1 a week filling out forms or transcribing texts or doing some simple task, and not as a job because I don’t have that much time either.
So far I’ve had experience as a freelancer and honestly I’ve had bad luck, in general I’ve only encountered scammers (in these areas) who wanted ME TO PAY THEM TO ACCEPT THEIR WORK, and then I’ve tried certain websites and apps that I’ve read that they recommend (in forums) and personally I’ve had no luck, I mean, I don’t expect to make a full salary filling out forms but $0.25 for a form a day? Are you kidding me? I guess it has to do with my geographic area. (LATAM)
Again, I know money is hard to earn and it’s naive to believe that I’m getting paid for doing something easy that anyone can do, but I’d like to at least be able to earn without a joke $1 a week.
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The only thing like this that has ever worked for me is Prolific. For me it was a consistent and easy way of making roughly $8 an hour. You’re basically doing whatever random surveys / tests researchers need a lot of subjects for, 5-20 mins at a time usually, though there are some very involved ones that can involve multiple parts and/or require a higher degree of focus for an hour or more at a time. It was great for me because I consistently got work and it just uses all your test-taking skills from school, which was always a strong point of mine.
However, it’s very inconsistent. I’ve heard a lot of people say that they never get anything from it, sometimes the whole site just kind of dries up for months at a time, etc. I haven’t used it in a couple years since I got consistent work, because seeking out work on my own time is mentally unhealthy for me. But yeah, that’s my experience.
Thanks for sharing your experience, I’m going to give it a try. What has made me get out of most of those apps or sites is precisely the consistently, I feel that basically I’m going around in circles and that every time I go to get some money they end up taking some trick out of the sleeve to force me to keep doing more and more forms or seeing ads and forcing me not to leave because “I’m close to the goal”, it’s mentally exhausting, I really tried for a while but then I gave up and that’s why I dedicate my free time to study, but maybe at the end I just was unlucky.
Prolific has really robust rules about that kind of thing. It’s a legit site for legit researchers, people who take advantage of you or try to send you onto extra tasks or whatever get banned. Generally you get what it says you get.
I’ve actually just hopped back into it today to see if it’s still consistent for me, and it sure as hell still is. I’ve done like 3 of them since making that comment.
But the thing is, it’s all about demographics. I’m a young white guy in the US, and I guess everybody wants my opinion on things.
I had a friend who did copyediting/writing on upwork or something similar and did okay while between jobs.
I tried UpWork before but I had no luck… People only want people with a LOT of experience, and being a newcomer I basically got no offer…
If the job requires wiring skills lying on your resume counts as a portfolio
i second the prolific recommendation
the volume of studies you get is variable, depending on demographic information and time of day/week/year
you get the most during uni term-time on weekdays in my experience
the money is also very variable, but they have guaranteed minimums per hour
i usually have a bunch of <10 minute studies that pay ~£1 (works out to slightly under national minimum wage), but about once or twice a week i’ll get one that pays a fiver for like 15 minutes (over minimum wage)
sometimes i’ll get one that’s ~1 hour and pays £30 (triple minimum wage), but that’s pretty rareover the last ~3 years i have made £961.67, and i don’t check as often as i should tbh, i could have made way more than that
I have friends who love freelancing and they’re constantly talking about the freedom it offers them, but I’ve tried it and there is no freedom in not knowing whether the bills will get paid. I think this type of work is easier if you’re a people person, but if you don’t have a big network to draw from then you’re at a major disadvantage.
