How I Make Extra Money on the Internet (2024)

When you move into a new house, it’s easy to forget that you’ve got to be able to both afford the home and afford to decorate the home.

We moved into this old 1973 house, calculating only the monthly costs. But soon, the echoes of the bare rooms made it clear we’d need to buy furniture. Two bedroom condos don’t hold enough furniture to fill a 4-bedroom single family home, my friend!

It’s not easy coming up with extra money to buy all the things you’d like for your new house (or for a room makeover), just as it wasn’t easy for us. But here are some ways that I’ve made some extra money online.

(This post32 Legitimate Ways to Make Money at Homeis also helpful).

So I Tried Out UserTesting.com

This isn’t a sponsored post, so I’m not promoting them for money or kickbacks. I have actually used them as an awesome way to earn a few bucks here and there!And since we’re a thrifty bunch here, I knew you all would find value in this info!

How It Works

UserTesting is a site pays you to test out websites. The idea here is that businesses hope their websites are easy to use, looks good, does exactly what it’s supposed to do for customers using their site, blah, blah, blah. As a blogger, I know how important that is!

So what UserTesting will do is hire regular people like me and you to use a company’s website, and while we’re using the business’s website, we record our screen, showing how we’re using the site, and give our thoughts and feedback about using the site: whether we liked it….whether it sucked……whether it was easy/hard to navigate….etc. You get the idea.

And for each website test we do, we get $10.

For, like, 10-15 minutes of our time.

But is $10 Really Worth It?

Well, let’s look at it this way: when you want that new rug that goes in front of your sink for your kitchen makeover, doing just 5 of those little tests during moments when you’d most likely be scanning Instagram isn’t that hard to do.

After you’ve completed the website user experience test, the $10 automatically gets added to Dashboard. UserTesting will send you the $10 to your PayPal exactly one week after you complete the test.

So here’s a quick snapshot of my completed tests.

I had to white-out the Test # and URL of the websites I tested (for confidentiality reasons), but you can see in this old screenshot that over 16 tests, I eared quite a bit of extra cash!

So that comes to $160….

Now I know that’s not a lot of money, buthere are all the things I could buy with $160:

• A new entry rug.
• Paint or craft supplies.
• Re-do a bedroom or office in my house.
• A week’s worth of groceries for my family of 5
• Pay down credit card balances
• New paint and supplies

S0 is $160 a lot of money??

Heck, yeah!!

But How Do You Get Websites to Review?

UserTesting is a first come, first serve basis.

Once you apply (super easy), they’ll have you do a “test” website review to see if you can do a good job (or if you’ll suck at it, LOL). And yes, they’ll pay you for this “test” test.

Once you “pass” you’ll start seeing more usertesting opportunities end up in your dashboard. But since they’re first comefirst serve, the sooner you can grab them, the more chances you have to do them.

(In the pic below, you see that I have none, unfortunately).

But they come so often, that you really should leave the website open in the background so when a new one comes in, you’ll hear the littlePING! (In fact, they recommend you leave the window open so you can see the tests coming in).

The Caveat…..

Here’s the catch, though…..Many of the tests that are available require you to answer a screening question first.

Some of the tests might want you to be living in a certain state….or have a certain type of job… or have kids ornot have kids. You won’t ever really know.

Just be honest with your answers (otherwise if you lie, you might not get paid for a user test).

More often than not, you’ll beineligible for most of them. But if you are eligible for two per week, that’s an extra $80 for the month! I mean, money is money, y’all!

How Much Time Do They Take?

Each test usually takes about 10-15 minutes.Not bad for $10, right?? Especially without having to even leave your house. HAHA

Mine usually take closer to 15 minutes because I like to give a lot of feedback. They say the better job you do, the more tests they’ll send your way!

Should You Sign Up?

You should definitely sign up if you’re someone that could use some extra money.

I sit at a computer a lot (on days when I’m not working on projects!) so I have the UserTesting.com site open all day; plus, I need the extra loot!

When a new testpings on my dashboard, I click over and check it out. Again, most of them I get excluded during the screening question. But several of them per week I am eligible for! And a couple of them have no eligibility requirements. You just click it and–BOOM!–you start the user testing.

Tips For Success

After doing many tests now, here are some things I have figured out to make this a successful way to earn some extra pocket change:

• Be sure to limit distractions.Sorry, but you can’t have loud toddlers in the background or a dog that barks at his tail all day. 😉
• Use your earphones with a mic. I think it makes the sound quality better.
• Be as thorough as possible. The more info you give, the best you’ll get rated and you’ll get more tests sent your way. Plus, remember that companies really need this info to make sure they’re websites are user-friendly.
• Download the UserTesting app to your phone and tablet because some tests are only for mobile or tablet!
• If you run into any problems during the testing and can’t finish the test, email them and let them know (they cover all this in the mini-test and training they give you).

So there you have it, guys! This is how I make a few extra dollars online, which can help with home decorating, DIY projects, and more.

Let me know what you think of it and if you’re able to earn a few dollars from it, too!