7 Ways to Make Quick Money Online in Your Free Time

This post is by our regular contributor, Kristi. 

Do you spend your break time at work by mindlessly perusing the internet?

Do you ever find yourself aimlessly perusing blogs and websites and then realizing that you have “wasted” an hour or more of your time?

I know I’m guilty on occasion. Not every waking moment of your day can be productive, right?

Not necessarily. What if I told you that you could get paid for your “wasted” time spent online?

Seriously, it’s true.

Some sites definitely pay more than others, but there’s a myriad of ways to monetize your time spent on the internet.

Free time can become paid time if you have 20 minutes to an hour a day to complete some pretty basic tasks and if you have a decent internet connection.

Time is money, after all. If you want to make some easy extra money, check out these four ways to earn quick money online in your free time.

1) Qmee

Qmee is an app which works along with your regular browser and pays you anywhere from a few cents to a dollar to click on advertisements that appear alongside your search bar.

To make extra money in your free time with Qmee, sign up here. Once you’re signed up, all you have to do is search online with Google, Amazon, EBay, Yahoo, or Bing. Sponsored advertisements fund the Qmee click campaigns, and users are able to earn money by interacting with those advertisements.

Note that since Qmee has a policy of not holding any of your financial information, you have to have a PayPal account to receive your reward money.

Once you have your PayPal account set up, Qmee will pay out your rewards as soon as often as you like. All you have to do to get your money is click on the “Q” app button attached to your browser and select “Cash Out,” or you can also cash out through your Qmee dashboard on the main website. You also have the option of donating your Qmee money to charity.

It’s a pretty simple process, and it’s an easy way to put $5-$10 extra dollars a month in your pocket without much extra effort. You can also read our full review of how to make money using Qmee.

2) Swagbucks

Swagbucks is a simple way to make extra money online in your spare time. There are many ways to make money on Swagbucks, including:

• Searching via Swagbucks – If you use Swagbucks search engine instead of Google, you will earn Swag Bucks.

• Watch Videos – If you watch videos on Swagbucks instead of YouTube, you will earn more Swag Bucks.

• Play Games – You can play games and get Swag Bucks. This is not something I plan on doing, but if you like to spend time playing games on your phone or computer this may be a good way to make it a more productive use of your time.

• Shop via Swagbucks – If you shop online at one of their partners through their portal, you will earn Swag Bucks.

• Take Surveys – You can earn Swag Bucks through taking surveys.

Swagbucks has paid out nearly $100 Million to users. That’s a lot of money!

If Swagbucks sounds interesting to you head on over to their website to get started.

3) UserTesting

Get paid to review other people’s blogs and websites through a website called UserTesting. UserTesting pays people to simply go to, interact with, and review a complete stranger’s website or blog. UserTesting reviewers get paid $10 by PayPal for every 20-minute completed session. They pay you to visit websites or apps, complete a set of tasks, and speak your thoughts out loud into a recorder.

The owner of the website pays to have a review done of their website. UserTesting reviewers help the owners of websites to pinpoint flaws with their site, how users interact with the pages, and where changes could be made for a better design or basic functionality.

If you want to be a UserTesting reviewer, all you have to do is apply, verify your email address, and then set up the screen recorder. You will need to open the file (InstallUserTestingPlugin-v1.8.exe) once it’s done downloading and follow the installation instructions.

You will also need to have either a built-in or an external microphone to complete the review. The website will walk you through how to complete the tasks, record your session, and upload your review to the server.

Receiving $10 for just one review is pretty great compensation for simply visiting a website and giving honest feedback. Especially if you like to peruse blogs and websites anyway, becoming a UserTesting reviewer is a great way to pad your pockets with a little bit of extra cash.

Another good review website is Harris Poll. The nice thing about Harris Poll is that, unlike other survey sites, Harris Poll rewards you even if you do not qualify for a survey. So if you go through the screening questions and are told you do not qualify, you will still receive a credit for your time.

Another site where you can give your opinions for money is Nielsen Digital Voice. Nielsen is a highly recognizable brand, being in business for over 90 years. If you’re looking for the most “legit” opinion/survey service, this is it.

4) Enter Giveaways

Giveaways are a great way to make extra money in your spare time. As DC described in his post how to make money entering giveaways, it’s possible to make thousands of dollars a year entering giveaways.

While you may not win a trip to the MLB All-Star Game or a $5k trip to Waikiki beach like DC did, you absolutely have a chance at winning some huge prizes – but only if you enter. One thing people may not realize is there are literally thousands of giveaways that start every single week.

Again, read DC’s post on how to make money entering giveaways if this interests you. It helps explain why you should enter giveaways for things you don’t need (or want) as well as strategies for selling stuff you win and converting it into cold hard cash.

Consider entering our $50 gift card giveaway that ends on October 10th.

5) Sell Social Media Posts using IZEA

IZEA is a company that brings together influencers (anyone with a social media account) and companies. Once you sign up for an account companies will see you when they search for influencers based on keywords. They will then make offers to you to post a tweet, publish an instagram photo, or write a blog post if you have a blog (if you don’t have a blog here’s how to start a blog in 5 easy steps).

Besides being directly contacted for an offer, you can also bid on offers. Each open opportunity has a description of what the company is trying to promote as well as what their “ideal” candidate is for the job. You can go ahead and bid on campaigns you find interesting and decline campaigns that you would prefer to not participate in.

Selling social media posts can be a good way to make some extra money each month. It requires very little extra work and can easily be done in your spare time. If you are interested in IZEA get started by signing up here.

6) Short Task

Short Task is a website which pays people to complete menial tasks which are better completed by actual people, instead of robots or computer programs. Some of the tasks include researching a website for detailed information, transcribing audio and video recordings, or identifying the objects in pictures.

All of the tasks are pretty mindless, and you can complete most of them in under five minutes. If you sign up as a solver to complete Short Task assignments, you will earn anywhere from $0.02 to $2.00 depending on the task.

You won’t be able to quit your full-time job using Short Task, but if you have a time where you’re just mindlessly online anyway, this is a way to at least make some money while you aren’t doing anything else productive. Amazon Mechanical Turk is another website which offers similar compensation for menial online tasks.

7) 20/20 Panel

If you have a little bit of free time, you can get paid to share your ideas and opinions with 20/20 Panel. You can join an in-person focus group if you happen to live in Nashville, TN, Miami, FL, or Charlotte, NC. Many of the panel reviews and surveys take place online though, so people from anywhere in the country can take part and voice their opinion for money.

To register as a panel member, you need to fill out the panel member registration page. Once they have your information, you will receive either an email or a phone call to let you know about any upcoming research studies. According to the website, “You will be asked some survey questions to help determine if a study is a right fit for your profile. You don’t have to respond to every survey, but this is the first step to being considered for a research study. A recruiter will let you know by phone if you will be scheduled for a study.”

The studies cover anything from toys to food to cell phones. There’s a variety of companies which work alongside the 20/20 panel to get results from focus groups and online answers. There’s no shortage of opportunities for you to get paid to voice your opinion.

As compensation for your efforts, you can earn usually $50 to $150 per research study. That’s not too shabby for a few hours of your time and effort.

Start earning some easy money

These are just four of the easy ways to earn extra money online in your free time, but there are countless copycat websites that dole out cash to users with the same modus operandi as the companies listed above.

Especially if you like searching for things on the internet, or perusing websites and blogs, then why not make that extra ounce of effort to monetize your time online? You might as well get paid to peruse and use websites.

Bear in mind that none of these are get rich quick schemes, but all of them together might just pay for your Amazon prime renewal or your Starbucks habit. Every little bit helps, right?

Interested in more money-making ideas? Check out these posts:

• 8 Ways to Make Money Blogging
• How to Start a Blog in Minutes
• 7 Ways to Make More Money
• 10 Ways I’ve Made Side Income
• 5 of My Small Business and Website Failures

Have you ever tried any of these websites to make extra money online in your free time? Do you have a favorite site which pays for user interaction?

Check out some of our favorite personal finance resources:

Are you getting the best credit card rewards? Check out the top cash back credit card offers (updated daily)

Make extra money: 15 ways to make money from your computer

• Get our FREE Automated Budget Spreadsheet and our Student Loan Spreadsheet

Get the First Chapter Free!

Join our online community and get the first chapter of the book Student Loan Solution absolutely FREE!

Send my free chapter