Economic Redundancy

Instant Cash Sweepstakes

2012-02-18T08:14:00.000-08:00

Instant Cash Sweepstakes is a marketing research company that pays you to take short polls online. This is very similar to taking online surveys, but takes a lot less time (a few seconds at most) and pays a lot less.

How Instant Cash Sweepstakes works:
Visit Instant Cash Sweepstakes every 3 hours to take short polls online. You won't be able to visit it more frequently than that as Instant Cash Sweepstakes has a timer that prevents you from taking polls before then.

Every 3 hours there will be 5 polls that you can take with around 3 questions in each poll. At the end of every 3 question poll you can earn things like tickets, coins, and my personal favorite, money. There is also opportunities to earn more tickets, coins, and money through two other things: becoming a pro user, and getting a better trust level. I know it seems really confusing now, but its really not. Don't worry, I will be walking through and breaking down everything on this site, and giving you the pros and cons of course!

Tickets:
You earn quite a lot of tickets almost every time you take a poll. The tickets are used in a sweepstakes to win 50$. The tickets you win are automatically entered into the drawing, and someone wins every 24 hours. It is very difficult to get that 50$, (I have never won) so I don't really pay that much attention to this drawing.

Coins:
Coins are similar to tickets in the way that you can use coins to enter a drawing, but are different in almost every other way. Unlike tickets, you can choose to put coins in the drawing, or hoard them for as long as you want. The drawing itself is held every 4 hours, and is for 2$, not 50$. And most importantly, I have gotten the 2$ drawing before, so it is much easier to win. You can, if you want to, trade coins in to get more tickets, but since its so difficult to win the 50$ sweepstakes, I wouldn't advise doing this.

Pro User:
I won't be able to tell you much about being a pro user because I don't do this, but I will tell you what I can:

Being a pro user doesn't cost anything extra, but you do have to be invited. As a pro user Instant Cash Sweepstakes will send you additional surveys for money. Some of these surveys Instant Cash Sweepstakes sends you will have a video, and will require you to to create a video of your response using a web cam. The reason I don't become a pro user is the simple fact that I don't own a web cam.

Trust Level:
Trust level is simply the level of trust that Instant Cash Sweepstakes has in you. Having more trust is a good thing as you get the opportunity to take more polls every 3 hours, and earn more tickets and coins for every poll you take. Earning trust is easy to do too. All you have to do is consistently answer the polls the same way every time. As long as your honest when answering the polls, this should be no problem. There is no extra work on your part.

Pros:

Low payout
Easy to do, doesn't take a lot of time
A lot of fun!

Cons:

Don't earn a lot of money

Low payout:
The payout for Instant Cash Sweepstakes is 2$ which they send to your paypal account. I like this because even though your not making all that much money, you can still cash out fairly frequently.

Don't earn a lot of money:
You don't earn money with every poll, (on average I earn money once every 5 polls I take) and when you do earn money, you get around .01$-.07$ every time.

Conclusion:
I absolutely recommend Instant Cash Sweepstakes, because it's just a lot of fun! I rather enjoy giving my opinion about things, and then seeing what everybody else thinks afterward. I like that fact that it is so easy to do, and I really like the low payout. Yes, you won't get rich doing this, so if that is your goal, then this isn't the site for you. But I like doing things that are fun and pay me for it.

Getting started:
Getting started is very easy. Just click on this link:

instantcashsweepstakes.com

And it will bring you to a page that looks similar to this:

Just sign up, and you're ready to get started!

Related links:

AmazonMechanicalTurk.com
OpinionOutpost.com

Amazon Mechanical Turk

2012-02-11T08:16:00.000-08:00

Recently I have written a few articles about taking surveys online because (besides my job) online surveys is one of my main income sources. However a downside to online surveys, is that eventually you will run out of surveys to take. Yes, you will get more surveys soon enough, but in the meantime, how else are you going to make money? Through Amazon Mechanical Turk.

How Amazon Mechanical Turk Works:
Amazon Mechanical Turk, (or MTurk) got started because there are many small tasks out there that business need to get done, but computers are unable to do. So Amazon decided to step in and created a market place for micro tasks to be done by people. These tasks, which are also know as HITs, (Human Intelligence Tasks) can range from writing reviews, to giving your ideas, to taking small online surveys, and everything in between! The pay is usually small, but the time it takes to complete these tasks is usually small as well.

Pros:

Unlimited earning potential
Hosted by Amazon
Tasks are completed quickly and are usually very east
Nice payout options

Cons:

Low payout per HIT
It can sometimes be time consuming finding good HITs to work on

Unlimited Earning Potential:
What I mean when I say unlimited earning potential is that there is literally hundreds of HITs you can do at any given time on MTurk, so you will never run out of things you can do to make money.

Hosted by Amazon:
This is a big one, this is actually what got me started using MTurk in the first place. Amazon is an established reputable company. This means that you can trust you won't get scammed and will get paid on time, and for the amount that you want.

Nice Payout Options:
There are 2 options to get paid with MTurk. The first is with your bank account. You have to give your bank account information, and then verify that the bank account is real before you are able to transfer any money over. If you have ever signed up for paypal, this is a very similar process. Some people don't feel comfortable giving their bank information like this, and ordinarily I would agree with them, but honestly, if you buy stuff off of Amazon, and are willing to trust them with your credit card information, then trusting them with your bank account information isn't that much of a stretch. The minimum payout if you do it this way is 10$

The other way you can get paid is by buying products directly from Amazon and using your earnings to pay for all or part of what you buy. Its very easy to do too. When your buying something from Amazon, treat it as a normal sale, but when it comes time to select payment, an option will be there to pay for it using your MTurk earnings. So if you do happen to be a person who doesn't like to put their credit card information out there online, now you don't have to! Very convenient!

Low Payout Per HIT:
A small negative for MTurk is how little some HITs pay you once completed. It can be easy to say you will only do the HITs that pay a lot, but those HITs are in high demand, and are usually taken right away, so sometimes doing the small HITs is your only option.

It can be Time Consuming Finding Good HITs:
Another downside to MTurk is the amount of HITs on this site that aren't worth doing. Usually you have to sort through all the junk to find HITs that are worth your time and attention, and after that sort through all the remaining HITs to find the ones that you would be interested in doing.

Conclusion:
MTurk is a good way to earn money in your free time. You won't become rich doing this. While there are plenty of HITs that pay decently, the vast majority of the HITs you will end up doing will probably not pay you well at all, but it's still a nice little boost to your income, especially if you like to buy things off of Amazon. I tend to use MTurk after I have taken all the available online surveys and am still in the mood to make a little bit of extra money.

Getting Started:
Getting started is very easy. All you have to do is go to this link:

www.mturk.com

That link will take you to a page that looks like this:

You will want to be on the left side, or "Make Money" side

After that simply sign up, and you're ready to start making money right away!

Related links:

OpinionOutpost.com
InstantCashSweepstakes.com

Researching Online Surveys

2012-02-04T05:21:00.000-08:00

Don't be afraid to search for your own online survey sites. There are a ton of legitimate survey sites out there, you just have to find them. The only reason I told you about these 3 survey sites is because I personally use them myself, and while they work for me, you may want different options.

Now I know there are a lot of scams out there, but it is very easy to find which ones are scams, and which ones are good sites where you can make a decent amount of money. Absolutely what I would do when you find an online survey site that you are not sure of, is go to google and type in "is (insert survey site here) a scam?" When you do this, just go through all the answers that pop up, and you can get a general idea if a survey site is legitimate and if it is worth your time.

Something else that I would absolutely recommend doing is visiting a site called survey police. Survey police is a site where people can rank online surveys sites on various things such as: registration, customer service, incentives, survey experience, and overall company rating just to name a few. They also have a space that people leave comments where they talk about specific things about a site. Using survey police is incredibly helpful to me whenever I'm researching a new online survey. You can reach the link here:

surveypolice.com

If all else fails, please feel free to send me a message or write a comment requesting a particular survey, and I will be happy to research whatever online survey site you want me to!

Related links:

Online Surveys
OpinionOutpost.com

MySurvey.com

2012-01-27T20:21:00.000-08:00

How MySurvey works:
MySurvey is an easy survey site where you take surveys to earn points, and turn those points into cash (100 points=$1). The interesting thing about MySurvey is how it differs from the first two survey sites I had written about. With both OpinionOutpost and Surveyspot, you do not have a choice about which survey you take, you hit the "take a survey" button, and it brings you to the next available one. With MySurvey you get a list of available surveys to take, and you have the option of which ones you want to take.

Pros:

Time invested in surveys is appropriate for earnings.

Cons:

Doesn't seem like many surveys to take.
As of right now, MySurvey isn't taking on any new people.

Time invested in surveys is appropriate for earnings:
MySurvey gives good compensation for each survey you do, and while MySurvey does not seem to give as much money as OpinionOutpost, at least it seems more than Surveyspot.

Not many surveys to take:
One of the disadvantages of having a system where you can pick and choose which surveys to take is that there always seems to be less surveys than at other sites.

As of right now MySurvey isn't taking any new people:
This is the big one. I don't know if MySurvey is full, or just not looking anymore, but at this time they are not taking any more survey takers, which doesn't help you at all. And because MySurvey isn't taking any new survey takers, I won't include a getting started section, because there is no point. Once MySurvey starts taking on new people, I will come back to this page and update it to help all of you.

Conclusion:
Because there are never a lot of surveys to take, and I only cash out through check, this is my third favorite online survey site. That means I only take surveys after there are no surveys to take with OpinionOutpost and Surveyspot. That being said, I would like to stress that MySurvey is still a very good online survey site. I have never failed to been paid, and I have had by far the best experience with their customer support over any other online survey site I am a member of, which is a big deal to me, and helped me to trust this survey site a lot easier, especially since this was the first survey site I ever started using.

Related links:

Surveyspot.com

2012-01-20T21:27:00.000-08:00

How Surveyspot Works
Another fairly straightforward survey site: you take surveys online to earn points (100 points=$1.) After you earn a specific amount of points you can cash for money and other prizes. Surveyspot and OpinionOutpost are very similar sites in the way the sites are set up. With both sites, there is just one button you push and they automatically send you a survey, you don't get a choice of how long the particular survey takes, or how much you can earn with that survey.

Pros:

Numerous surveys to take
Ease of getting paid.
Easier to get approved for surveys

Cons:

Time invested in surveys is inappropriate for earnings.

Ease of getting paid:
Surveyspot uses paypal. I like this option because getting paid is instantaneous, and it doesn't take a couple of weeks to get to your house like a check would. But, while paypal is nice and convenient, if you wanted to get other prizes, your out of luck. There is another option of getting a voucher, but I think paypal is the best option.

Time invested in surveys is inappropriate for earnings:
Even though this is the only downside I have listed, it is a big one. Surveyspot only pays you about 50 cents per survey. It doesn't matter if the survey is long or short, you are getting the same 50 cents. The only time this changes is for any survey that's really long, you will get slightly more.

Second favorite site:
This is a good survey site with many surveys to take, and I have never had a problem with them. I have always gotten paid right away, and and their customer support is very responsive. If your looking for a good online survey site, I absolutely recommend Surveyspot. However, because OpinionOutpost seems to pay you more per survey, I only do surveys on Surveyspot when I have run out of surveys on OpinionOutpost.

Getting started:
Signing up for Surveyspot is easy and free. In order to get started you can either click on this link, or at the one at the bottom of the page:

Surveyspot.com

Once you click the link, it should bring you to a page that looks like this:

Registration is fast and easy. All you need is an e-mail address. Surveyspot will not send you any spam, and the nice thing is that they don't send you an e-mail for every survey they invite you too, so your inbox won't get cluttered. Although I would still recommend getting a spam e-mail address, it won't be necessary to use for this website.

After you register, you are going to want to fill out the profiles, which is just letting surveyspot learn a little bit more information about you. Filling out profiles is not required, and you don't get paid for doing it, but filling out the profiles will benefit you since you will get sent more surveys, and more surveys that you will be qualified for, instead of wasting your time filling out surveys you can't take.

And that's it! After this step you are now ready to start taking surveys with Surveyspot. Enjoy!

Surveyspot.com/

Related links:

OpinionOutpost.com

2012-01-15T08:04:00.000-08:00

How Opinion Outpost works:
This is fairly straight forward, you take online surveys to earn points (10 opinion points=$1.00) After you earn a specific amount of points, you can cash out for money and other prizes. Recently Opinion Outpost overhauled their site for the better. The two big differences are the way in which you take surveys, and the way that you get paid.

The way Opinion Outpost used to give out surveys is to have a list of available surveys you are able to take and you can pick and choose which surveys you would like to do. The advantage of this is that you are able to see how much time a survey takes, and how much you are going to be paid for it if you complete it. Now how Opinion Outpost has it set up is they just have a button. on your home page that brings you to the next available survey, and you don't have a choice which survey they take you to. The only reason I like this one better is because with the old way of taking surveys one of the disadvantages is that they rarely sent you surveys, but with this new survey, I have been getting a good amount every day.

The way that Opinion Outpost pays you has also improved. The way that they used to pay you is by sending you a check after you reach a certain threshold. Their was no fee to process the check (that some online survey sites do) and it took a reasonable amount of time for them to send it, but it still took at least a week, and I don't know about you, but I would like my money right away. What Opinion Outpost does now is you reach the $10 threshold, you have the ability to cash out using paypal, which I highly recommend signing up for. Signing up for paypal is free, secure, and allows you to cash out. You can send the money you get in your paypal account to any bank account you want to. If you don't want to sign up for paypal, there are some other options to get paid, which include an amazon gift certificate, a citibank gift card, or you could make a donation to the American Red Cross, among other things.

Pros:

Time invested in surveys is appropriate for earnings. I think you will find that Opinion Outpost gives you the most money for the amount of time you put into each online survey you take. I do a couple of other online survey sites like this and none of the others even come close to paying out as much per survey.
Numerous surveys to take.
Ease of getting paid.

Cons:

A lot of time wasted. The only bad thing I would have to say about Opinion Outpost is the amount of time becoming eligible for surveys. Quite often the beginning of every survey you take is to see if you qualify to take that particular survey, and since Opinion Outpost seems to pay you the most for every survey, the qualifying process can be somewhat long, and it can be a real pain. Especially when you have been taking a particular survey for 5 or 10 minutes, only to find out you actually don't qualify. Luckily, I think the folks at Opinion Outpost know this is an issue, and they give you an opportunity to play the instant win game.

Instant win game:
For everyone out there who likes to gamble occasionally (I am guilty of this from time to time) this will appeal to you. After you find out you don't qualify for a particular survey, you have the option to either take another survey, or go back to the dashboard. Always pick the option to go back to the dashboard! This way you can opt to play the instant win game and potentially earn some more money. The instant win game is very straight forward, there is no skill required and it takes seconds. All you do is you hit the instant win game button, and it either says to you "Congratulations! You earned (either $1, $2 or $15)," or "Hard luck, you didn't win this time." You don't win that often though, I calculate I win probably about 1% of the time, but when you do win, it can be somewhat satisfying.

Getting Started:

Signing up to Opinion Outpost is easy and free (as all legitimate online survey sites should be) and you can either click on this link, or at the one at the bottom of the page:

Once you click this link, it should bring you to a page that looks like this:

Registration is fast and easy. All you need is an e-mail address. Opinion Outpost will not send you any spam, but they will send you an e-mail every time a survey is available. This can get a little annoying, so you should make sure you have a good spam filter. Or, create an e-mail address specifically designed for spam mail. In the long run I think this is the better option because there are many good uses for a spam e-mail address (which I will address in future posts.)

After you register, you are going to want to fill out the profiles, which is just letting Opinion Outpost learn a little bit more information about you. Filling out profiles is not required, and you don't get paid for doing it, but filling out the profiles will benefit you since you will get sent more surveys, and more surveys that you will be qualified for, instead of wasting your time filling out surveys you can't take.

And that's it! After this step, you are now ready to start taking online surveys with Opinion Outpost. Enjoy!

Related links:

Online Surveys

2012-01-10T18:53:00.000-08:00

The first technique to make more money I will be telling you about is online surveys. Online surveys is something I have been doing for quite a long time, and I have made a decent amount of money out of it.

The nice thing about online surveys is the ability to do them whenever and wherever you want to. You won't become rich by doing them, but they are a good way to make a little extra money. Another benefit online surveys gives you is the ability to do some product testing. Sometimes a company will send you a product, and then pay you to use it! Don't get too excited though, in all the years I have been taking online surveys, I have only tested 4 products, they are rare.

Of course there are a lot of sites out there that say they are survey sites, but are just scams. And sometimes it can be difficult to tell which sites are scams, and which sites are real. Some of the big things to look out for with scams is if you have to enter credit card information or not. No legit survey site will ask you for anything personal, like credit card information, or especially for your social security number. Also, any site claiming to pay you a large amount of money for every survey is probably a scam. Anything that seems to good to be true, usually is.

Now you may be thinking: "With all these scams on the internet, how are you able to find good survey sites?" And that's where I come in. In my next few posts, I will be telling you which online survey sites I use, the pros and cons to each site, and most importantly, how much money you will be able to make with each one.

Related Links:

Economic Redundancy

2012-01-07T20:46:00.000-08:00

In today's day and age, how is anyone supposed to make enough money to sustain themselves? From an economy that is just starting its recovery, to mounting student debt, and just debt in general, how are you supposed to stay on top of all your bills?

The answer is through economic redundancy.

Essentially economic redundancy means having more than one income source. When you have other sources of income, you naturally make more money. Having more money leads to security and a better lifestyle. The goal of economic redundancy is to be making money 24/7

Now i just want to warn you, the techniques in this blog are not going to make you super rich, this is not a get rich quick scheme. You will not be able to quit your job. The only thing that I am trying to do is give you a list of the things I have done, and for the most part am still doing, to try and obtain economic redundancy for myself. That being said, I do believe that I have some techniques to share that can help a lot of people make some extra money in their free time

Conclusion: This blog is about economic redundancy, which is having more than one income source. This blog will be focusing on letting you know all the different techniques so that you can make as much money as possible in different ways. I hope you enjoy!

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