Can I Pay For Christmas With Survey Sites?

Photo Credit: David DeHetre

Christmas is right around the corner it seems, and like most people we're feeling the strain in the budget,so we've been looking for ways to make some extra cash for the holidays. As it seems to happen so often with me I was doing research on one thing, and stumbled across another. At this point I don't remember what I was actually researching, I think Amazon Affiliates program, and I found a blog, and through that blog I found another blog about taking surveys for money. I was intrigued, mostly because the article I read was an earnings post, and they had managed to make $400 in the last month with different survey companies!

If you want to see the website it's: www.surveychris.com

Now, I've tried these survey sites before, and I'm sure most of you have at some point as well. Most of them have ended with me becoming discouraged quickly and leaving, never getting to "cash out" as it were. However, through the surveychris website I realized that a more structured, and deliberate approach would be needed with these sites if I really did want to make money. Immediately I thought about this blog, and how it would be awesome to follow this little experiment on here and let others see how it can (or can't) be done. This is potentially a great way for someone to make a couple hundred dollars a month on the side. There are a few reasons this could be great for anyone:

• No skills needed - You don't have to prove you can type, or listen, or anything, just fill out surveys and offers truthfully.
• Small time dedication - Taking just a couple a hours a day should be enough to allow you to make a decent little chunk of change. 
• Lots of Choices - There are a bunch of websites dedicated to having people take surveys for different rewards. Most are legit, and some are very generous to their members.

There really isn't any reason that somebody couldn't be able to this themselves as long as they have access to the internet and laptop/computer to access the websites. Plus, if you have  a smartphone (I don't) some sites even offer you extra perks for using it for different tasks. Lucky ducks. Despite all these pros this is not a long term revenue stream for me, and there's a few reasons why.

It sounds very impressive when you see that someone made $400 in one month through different survey companies, but you really have to start breaking down the numbers. While he never specifically mentions how much time he spends a month on this, he's hinted that he spends around 2 hours a day. So let's do a little math.

2 times 30 (average days in a month) = 60 hours a month he spends on this.

He earned $400 divided by 60 hours = $6.66 hourly "wage"

Ouch, that's less than minimum wage. Of course the trade off is he says he likes to watch tv and do this, and I know I've been doing it in my "down" time as well. So there's the convenience factor that you don't get with a J-O-B. You can see why you wouldn't really want to do this as a long term thing though. There are a lot of other ways that you could invest that money that would net you a much higher return on your investment. Like building your own website, or selling on Amazon, or Ebay, or whatever you find you want to try. Short term however, it's a pretty sweet way to earn a little extra cash fairly quickly. 

The key to this is to be as consistent as my wonky schedule allows me. Making sure that I find that equivalent of 2 hours a day and dedicate that to different sites and surveys. Since it is towards the beginning of the month it'll be a good way to see how well I can manage to do with this. My hope is to at least have a $200 after 30 days and get it before Christmas for that little bit of extra money. As I'm going along with this I will write a few reviews of the different sites I'm using and let you know how they are, pros and cons of each. 

Another key strategy, along with consistency, is to have around 5 sites that I'm using. The reason is that each site is different, some offer faster payouts, some offer cash, some offer a check, some only give you gift cards, while others will make you wait 2 weeks, and still others will direct deposit your money immediately. By spreading around the survey love, so to speak, I'll be maximizing my earning potential. After messing around for a couple days, and based off of a couple of survey chris' suggestions, I've decided on the following sites:

• Swagbucks - I've actually used them for years, mostly to print coupons through, and I already know they are trustworthy, quick to deliver egiftcards, and easy to use. They've added  a lot of features over the years too that make it even easier now. If you want to join you can follow this link: www.swagbucks.com/ to sign up. It's free, and I do get a small referral bonus if you sign up, but if you like them you can refer your friends for that same bonus.
• Opinion Outpost - This one is mostly a straight survey website, meaning you only earn points through surveys. I know the other guy really likes them, and he seems to get into most of their surveys, so far I have had very, very little luck myself. I may wind up dropping this one and focusing on another. You may have better luck yourself, just go to, www.opinionoutpost.com.
• Cash Crate - This one is pretty highly recommended by the survey chris dude and so far I've found it easy to use. Not having as much luck with the surveys so far, but I've already gotten $1.50 just messing around. They have a ton of different things you can do to earn money other than surveys as well, including a referral program. If you would like to try them out you can sign up through my referral link (or not): www.cashcrate.com
• Ipsos Isay - This was another site that was recommended, and it's one that I've had quite a bit of luck with so far. Again, I've only had a very small time, but the surveys seem to have a good payout for a minimum amount of time. It looks like it's a straight survey site, but if you want to sign up you can go to i-say.com, no referral link.
• Insta GiftCard - This is one that I found through a Facebook group and I've really liked it so far. This is a site where you can earn rewards through a bunch of different ways, including surveys, signing up for offers, completing tasks and more. What really makes them great is they have a darn good support system, with multiple ways to get help from other users and the makers of the site. They have a referral program as well, and if you'd like to sign up and try them out here's my referral link: www.instagc.com

Over the next week or two I'll write up some more detailed reviews of each of these sites, after I've used them a bit more. There'll also be some tips and pointers for earning more points and get help if you need it. This should be a fun and interesting little experiment, and I really like that it's something that could have quick results and anyone can follow along with it.