You’re probably familiar with the concept of “website ads”. They are often little graphics on the side of a website or embedded in an online article. While a bit annoying, they drastically help blog owners earn an income while sharing their content for free. One of the most popular ad services to bloggers is Google’s AdSense. Here on Wallet Squirrel, we’re particularly familiar with Google AdSense since we’ve been using it for the past 5 years. So we feel qualified to share a Google AdSense Review and share how much we’ve made over the years.
Google AdSense Review – What Is Google AdSense
Google AdSense is an online advertising network, meaning they allow bloggers/websites to post a small snippet of “code” on their blog sidebar (or wherever) and Google AdSense automatically populates that space with advertisements.
Choose an Ad
There are different types of ads that you can display on your blog, each with a different purpose and intention.
Display Ads – These are your standard graphic banners. We use this as our Sidebar Ad as an example.
In-Feed Ads – Think those “Sponsored” ads you see in your Facebook feed.
In-Article Ads – These are inside your article. They often look like they are a part of the article, but usually just a little off to designate them as an ad. We should have an example in this article for you to see.
Link Ads – These are less popular, but usually involve text-based ad. These often confuse your visitors to think it’s a website hyperlink rather than an ad. It’s tricky, and I personally don’t like them.
Google Automatically Populates Those Ads
Google can tell based on your website’s content and each unique website visitor, what advertisements are best for that visitor. This is based on complex algorithms, constantly changing and pointless to dive into. As a blogger, you simply choose one of these Ad Types and copy the code onto your website. Here is what our WordPress Widget looks like with the Google AdSense code.
Blog Owners Get Paid
From a blogger standpoint, that’s all you need to do. It runs automatically (takes a day or two to load) and you as the blog owner will start making money. You will make a small amount of money every time someone sees your ad, and a little more every time someone clicks it.
As a blogger, you have no say in what ads are used on your site through Google AdSense (nothing adult, etc.), but not always related to your blog. It usually depends on your visitor’s past history.
You won’t actually receive any money until you reach Google AdSense’s $100 minimum payout. Once that is reached you can get paid by check, direct deposit, or quite a few additional ways. All you need to do is complete your tax information before they’ll send you money.
What Happens Behind The Scenes
What’s actually happening on the back end is companies from all over the world are turning to Google to help them get their ads “out there”. These companies will give Google the advertisement they want to be shown, a detailed profile of their ideal audience and money.
The amount of money companies pay Google for ad space varies.
The Length of the Ad Shown – The longer you want the ad shown, the more it will cost.
Saturation of the Ad Market – If Company A is trying to sell costumes during Halloween. There are likely lots of other companies trying to do the same. Those advertisements can get very costly because you will need to outbid other companies for the same ad space. The more popular keywords you’re targeting, the more expensive those ad spaces will be.
Quality of the Ad – Google prefers good looking ads that match their keywords. So if Company A has a terrible looking ad and generic keywords, Google punishes them by increasing the cost of their ads.
After the ad space is bought and paid for, Google will use its trillions of data points to locate Company A’s ideal audience. Then whenever those people come across a website within Google’s Ad Network (that’s your blog if it has Google AdSense), they’ll see an ad from Company A.
That’s how Google AdSense works!
Does Google AdSense Pay Bloggers Well?
If you ask the internet, the answer is no. However, I think for this Google AdSense Review answer is a bit more difficult because there are additional considerations.
Google AdSense Is The Easiest Option For New Bloggers
One of the best qualities of Google AdSense is it’s super easy to use (as I mentioned above), and you don’t need a minimum amount of visitors on your website. Even if you only have 20 people visit your website a month, you can still get a Google AdSense account. This is why it’s one of the most popular options. Most people get Google AdSense when their blog is first starting out and stick with it as their blog grows.
How Much Have We Made On Google AdSense
We are one of those people that have been using Google AdSense since day one and this likely makes us one of the most qualified bloggers to share the earning potential for a Google AdSense Review. If you want a breakdown of how much we’ve earned every month, feel free to check out our monthly Income Reports where we include every dime we make on Wallet Squirrel. However here is the full amount we’ve earned on Google AdSense since day 1, back in 2015.
We’ve had well over 325,000 visitors to WalletSquirrel.com and made $500 through Google AdSense. Cool Right! Actually, it’s not that impressive. That’s $0.001 per visitor (1/10 of a cent) since our website hatched.
While Google AdSense is one of the most popular Ad Networks out there, and one of the easiest for new bloggers. It is not one of the best paying.
Alternative Ad Networks For Bloggers
There are a number of Ad Networks out there for bloggers to choose from. In fact, we’ve started to look at a few of these to replace our current Google AdSense website ads. Writing our own Google AdSense Review has given us lots of reasons to look into other options.
Each one has its own set of requirements ranging from a minimum number of visitors to a minimum number of sessions. You just need to find the right one for your current blog size.
If you’re starting off, I definitely recommend Google AdSense. However, if you’ve grown a little, here are some additional options.
Basically I loved Google AdSense as I built this personal finance blog. It was super easy to get approved, set up, and earn passive income (all the ways we earn passive income). However, it’s not a forever solution. It simply doesn’t pay as well as other Ad Networks. It’s like training wheels for new bloggers. A great stepping stone to building a blog empire.
Let me know if you have any specific questions about our Google AdSense Review in the comments below. Plus if you’re on our email list, we’ll be sharing new details when we move to a new ad network.
Wallet Squirrel is a personal finance blog by best friends Andrew & Adam on how money works, building side-hustles, and the benefits of cleverly investing the profits. Featured on MSN Money, AOL Finance, and more!
The following is a guest post by Lyuthar Jacob, a log editor at Dealslands UK. He is the type of geek who loves to write about Marketing, Money Saving, and Finance.
Who doesn’t like to have easy cash? You can earn money online with ease. There are many ways to achieve your set target to gain money without belabour. When it comes to making money online, there are certainly thousands of ways to earn easy money within the comfort of your home. So, if you are interested to earn money online, knowing the right kind of platform in accordance to your interest and passion is always crucial.
Following are some of the quick and easy tactics which you can start using today itself to make money online fast.
Join Affiliate programs
If you started a website or blog out of passion, you can earn a significant amount of money from it by joining some of the best affiliate programs. In this, all that you need to do is market other brands within your site’s pages. When you partner with such business, you have to mention their product or service and link those using a unique affiliate code received from the brand. Whenever someone buys a product or service through your link, you will make extra money.
It is advisable to partner with the companies that are related to your content. For instance, if you are a financial advisor, join an affiliate for financial products like credit cards, investment account, insurance, etc.
Use your skill to teach online
Everybody has some skill. If teaching is the one in your case then it can help you make money online. You can go for tutorials regarding anything that you like starting from cooking, dancing, freelance writing or sketching and what not!
Moreover, for this, you can find many platforms like Udemy, Teachable, or Skillshare where you can upload your course learning through videos, images, text, etc. Next, use your content to build customers and accept payments. You can also build one of your own with the help of the software like ClickFunnels and other platforms. Make sure to deliver valuable content to others and in turn people will happily pay you to learn it.
Sell old books on Amazon
You can buy old books from various sellers or other online platforms. After having a potential book to sell, navigate to Amazon and look for its actual price. You have to then decide what price you expect with respect to the condition of book. Make sure you don’t end up incurring any loss as you also have to pay Amazon’s fees of $2.35 + 15% of the sales price . If you are making money now with such old books, list them in your seller account. This is something lucrative which can be done part-time or in the weekends to make extra money. There are other platforms also such as Bookscouter, eBay, Half Price Books, etc which can help you sell old books and earn money.
Earn through freelance writing
If you have the creative talent of writing, you can earn money online by creating content for other websites or blogs. The income of bloggers and influencers vary widely. A report from Glassdoor shows that a blogger’s average income ranges from $19K to $79K.
Another survey of 1,000 bloggers interpreted by Blogging.com found that 17% of bloggers are able to maintain their lifestyle with the money that they earn. However, in this competitive world,you need to deliver 100% quality content to reach up to such a high level. Moreover, content writing has really built its importance. So, with tons of writing jobs available, it is easy to start writing, develop your skill and earn money.
Income online through photography
Photography is something which many people love to do. So, if you have such a passion for photography and you can capture eye-catching images, you can use this skill to make money online. You can list these images on stock-photography websites like Adobe Stock and Shutterstock. Then, you will receive payment when somebody purchase the right to use your image.
You don’t need to capture pretty snaps always. Remember, what you require to be unique is just original content. Also, it is crucial to edit the photographs professionally and store into certain file formats. Apart from photography, you can use other skill like sketching or painting, photoshop, etc. to make extra money.
Make social media your business
If you like to post your pictures or love blogging about the food that you taste, travel scenes etc., you can make money out of it now. If you have a decent number of followers on Facebook or Instagram, just approach companies in your niche and they will be happy to advertise with you. This is a win-win situation for both of you as you will be earning from your passion and the brand gets to tap a new audience and potential customers through something unique.
Build an online community
You can also monetize your online community to earn money online. Build a community through blogs and social media platforms where similar-interest people are gathered. Also, you can build an online forum and ask people to pay for membership. You can use such mediums to promote and sell yours or other’s products and services. If you are passionate about something and also like to engage with people that have the same passion, this is something you should certainly consider for earning well.
Take an advantage of Google Adsense
When you visit any website, there are always Google ads popping up here and there. You can also add these to your site’s page. Moreover, it is very simple to set them up on any basic website. If you have a website or blog, you can create a free Google AdSense account. After that, Google will provide you with a unique code which you can paste onto your website. Google can then track your page algorithm, traffic, and the visitors directing from your page, etc. Once your website start attracting a decent amount of traffic, it can be a very lucrative way to make money online.
Avail sponsorship on your posts
If you have large social media audience or a website, you can make money online fast through pursuing sponsored posts and ads.
How does it work?
Companies (like Viglink) are always looking for bloggers and website owners to advertise their product or service. So, if you have a huge following, don’t miss this opportunity to make money online in very convenient way. Moreover, the figures in which you will be earning depends on your popularity. So, don’t compromise on the quality of the content that you are creating for your audience. It will eventually let you earn huge.
Manage SEO and social media ads for clients
Another great idea to make money now is managing ads for the clients. Due to the increasing demand of digital marketing, each and every business needs SEO for popularity.
If you’ve a decent extent of knowledge in this regard then you can manage the social media accounts of brands or run Facebook ads, paid ads on YouTube or Google, etc. to make money now. If you master this art and start attaining huge conversion rates, you can make money online fast and that too in a hefty amount.
If you are thinking to make money online, the aforementioned tricks are easy to tap. Moreover, they need negligible or very less amount of investment. So, what are you waiting for?
Start earning money with these quick and effective approaches now!
This is a guest post by Arina Thoggy, a blogger with BlurbpointMedia, a deals and discount provider. She is passionate about technology, social media and digital marketing. In addition, Arina also supports non-profit agencies that provide health-care solutions to handicapped and disabled people.
When it comes to online businesses and smart marketing strategies, there has been a rise of many newer and smarter technologies over these years. Among them, if I consider something of a modern genre, then it would be ad mediation. Well, isn’t it helping the business-owners abundantly to earn maximum profit from their websites? It is such a unique and interesting process which act as an intermediate between the businessmen and the networks that they use to serve ad space.
Now, my main aim behind coming up with this article is to enlighten you about how you, as a website owner, can increase your revenue while advertising with Ad networks.
And, here’s what I would like to convey to you.
Just have a look!
The first thing that comes into this scenario is:
Where should you place the ads on your website?
Fortunately, there are a few options available for you:
You can place the ads just above the folds as such ads usually perform better because it doesn’t need the audience to scroll the page to get a glimpse of them.
Next, identify the layouts of your home page and internal pages. If you see that they are different then you can opt for placing the ads in the bottom half of internal pages which are richer in contents and people love to scroll down these pages to read the content up to the end.
Gather the idea from the Ad networks that which kind of contents are trending currently. It might be the videos or other lively forums, and sometimes the text contents. So, whatever might be the scenario, make sure that you are placing your ads in the proximity of such buzzing contents of your blog or website.
Determine the right ad sizes
Just determine the right kind of layout for your website and then try the best sizes and ad combinations depending on the same. Moreover, it would be excellent if you experiment with different standard sizes for banners and the specific rich media formats because if you do so then advertisers will be able to get an access to your business and even ad networks could effectively work with your website.
Go for a variety of pricing models
When it comes to various publishers then most of them like to work on a CPM basis. You might even sometimes want to test the performance of some specific campaigns on the basis of a CPC or CPA model for such campaigns which can directly target your website’s visitors. With the help of an Ad network, you will get the leniency to work with any of your desired pricing models among the aforementioned ones in an effective way.
Check out the Income Reports on Wallet Squirrel to see how much Ad Revenue Andrew has earned over the last couple years.
Choose to work with the perfect ad network
You might be familiar with working on the basis of Google Adsense (Wallet Squirrel uses this) but remember that this Ad network is entirely based on contextual advertising. So, if you think that your website is not text-heavy then there is no point of using this ad network as it will be completely irrelevant and finally end up not increasing your revenue.
In such a scenario, if you want to opt for the best one then the display ad network will be an excellent alternative. So, it is the best option for you if you don’t want to entirely rely on the conventional ad networks and rather choose the smart formats which could let you earn huge profit.
Read ahead!
A perfect ad network for you will target the exact advertisers who can display the most relevant ads to your visitors and thus the tendency of your visitors to perform better will increase.
If you choose the right ad network for your business then it will provide you a 100% fulfillment of advertising spots.
The most valuable reports from ad networks can really help you to understand how your business is going on. May it be an idea about the type of advertisers that do wonders for your site, the ad sizes on your pages that you can either keep or exclude depending upon your performance, or how does the revenues of your site vary in different languages and regions, you’ll get to know everything from such reports.
Final Thoughts
So, don’t wait anymore! Just act smart, make the best use of ad networks, experiment with different kind of strategies, measure results, and finally analyze the same to skyrocket your future business revenues.
Yes, it’s Day 137 of when we started the Epic Niche Site Battle. A competition to see who could build a better niche affiliate website between myself and Barnabas over at SerialBoss.com. So far I’m doing well considering.
The rules were simple, we would start on January 1st of 2018 and see who could build a better site. This meant who’s site could get more visitors, earn more money and gain more email sign-ups would be the winner. This is in addition to both of us running our other main blogs to show how difficult it is to balance side gigs like this. Time management is key.
My Day 137 Update
I officially launched my affiliate website on Day 68 of this year. I’m not revealing the name of this site since we don’t want to affect traffic rankings, but you’ll just have to believe me that it’s up.
What I can tell you is that it’s an affiliate website centered around holiday gift ideas. The main page is loaded with awesome gift ideas and the blog post (only 1 so far) is focused on “List Posts” which normally do well with SEO. The idea is the more people who visit the site, more sales are made and that’s how the site generates income.
Website Visitors So Far?
I’ll admit I haven’t been able to put in much effort into this affiliate site since its creation on Day 80 because most of my attention has been focused on WalletSquirrel.com, but without too much initial marketing. It’s somehow found steady traffic.
This is the visitor trend since it starts on March 10th. It picked up about 45 views a day on average since its start. Honestly, that isn’t great, but considering how little attention I’ve given this site (maybe 1 hour since the start), it’s better than I thought. Especially with a bounce rate for an affiliate site.
How Much Money Has it Made?
So with an average of 45 views a day, you can’t expect this website to gain much money. All of my income is through affiliate links which are perfect for me. I’ve noticed I make a lot more on affiliate links than banner ads. Plus I really hate the look of banner ads, so I didn’t include any on this new site.
It’s only had a few sales, but most of the income is merchants paying me for the clicks through the links I have on the affiliate website. I’ve been using Viglink for all my affiliate marketing tracking. Since March 10th, this affiliate site has made $5.90. Wahoo, I gained some pennies. =)
Yes, $5.90 isn’t much but considering the 1 hour I’ve put into this site since starting it on March 10th, it’s pretty great. Plus that income is pretty consistently $0.40 a day. That’s actually really impressive since its so consistent. It gives me a lot of motivation that it will do well if given more attention.
How Many Email Addresses Has it Gained?
One thing I can absolutely do better on is collecting email address. I only have one email opt-in form on the contact page. So far this has only collected 10 email addresses. That’s pretty awful. There are plenty of tricks I’ve learned recently on Wallet Squirrel to gain more email addresses. I’m looking forward to trying all of these.
Just curious, are you tempted to sign up for Wallet Squirrel’s email list from our Opt-In form below? If not, why not?
How Is the Other Guy Doing?
Even though I’ve trailed off on my effort for this new affiliate site, I’m still way ahead of Barabas who just got his site up last week. ;P
However, I’ve only written one blog post on my affiliate website and he’s already written 10. We took different approaches with him writing a bunch of content first then publishing the website. I did the opposite by adding content after the website was launched. It’s funny how people do things differently.
I’ll compare the stats of our websites side by side once he has had a chance to market his site a bit more. In the meantime though, I’m ramping up to write 3 more blog posts and started using SEMrush to do some awesome keyword research and backlinking to make the site more popular. Stay tuned to see how we compare against each other!
Wallet Squirrel is a personal finance blog by best friends Andrew & Adam on how money works, building side-hustles, and the benefits of cleverly investing the profits. Featured on MSN Money, AOL Finance, and more!
Getting paid to write articles is one of our favorite ways to earn extra money, so much so that we made a list of websites that will actually pay you to submit articles for their publications. This is a great way to earn extra money while building your writing brand. The more prestigious websites your articles are published on, the more you can charge per submission, but everyone has to start somewhere. Here is how to get paid to write articles: 20+ Websites that pay you for writing.
What To Write About: Anything with a Top 10 Tagline How Much Can You Make: $100 per 1,800 word article (via PayPal) Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb): 8.02M monthly visitors How To Become A Writer: Sign Up Here
Listverse is full of (you guessed it) lists! Top 10 lists and such are a great attention grabber for readers and Listverse pays for articles with at least 10 list points. They will easily shell out $100 for good quality list articles. If you have a great idea for an attention-grabbing list, submit your list idea to Listverse for consideration. It may be a quick way to get paid to write articles, making $100 per article on our list of websites that pay you for writing. Just make sure that you do your research on your lists, avoid easy grammar issues and create a really attention-grabbing headline.
What To Write About: History, Science, Innovation, Arts & Culture, etc. (Smithsonian stuff) How Much Can You Make: $1,000 per article Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb): 9.81M monthly visitors How To Become A Writer: Sign Up Here
How ambitious are you? The Smithsonian is a big deal and one of the more prestegious websites that pay you fro writing. So you may be surprised to hear they do accept submissions from freelance writers. Although you need to provide at least 3 links to previous writing examples, and if you don’t have good ones, you should move on. If you do have all of that, you should “pitch” an idea for an article you have. Don’t worry about having crazy good photographs, they’ll provide the photography your article needs, you just need to supply the 250-300 worded idea and eventually final article if approved.
How To Start A $5K Blog Free Email Course
A free step by step course with Andrew Kraemer looking at examples of blogs making over $5k, how to set up your own blog and what you need to do to get more traffic.
Join us to get wonderful blogging tips and access to this amazing course!
I will guard your email with my life. Check your inbox. =)
What To Write About: Anything How Much Can You Make: Pennies Per Page View (via ads) Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb): 3.18M monthly visitors How To Become A Writer: Sign Up Here
HubPages is an online community that writes about anything and everything. Once you sign up for free, you can write about whatever your passionate about. Your article will have ads on them and you’ll receive a portion of that revenue while you get paid to write articles. The more popular your articles are, the more money you’ll make. This is similar to having your own blog, but HubPages host your articles for you in return for a small portion of the ad revenue your articles produce.
What To Write About: Topics They Ask For How Much Can You Make: Up to $40 for a 500 word article (depending on writing level) Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb): 591.52K monthly visitors How To Become A Writer: Sign Up Here
How iWriter works is that people pay iWriter to write articles for them. So a client will pay iWriter to write an article on “Baking Bread”, for example. Then iWriter will send the request to its army of writers (you) and you’ll take the job. The client will pay iWriter and iWriter will pay you in return. The more great articles you write, the more you’ll earn from iWriter based on their 4 tier (Standard, Premium, Elite & Elite Plus) writer levels. Once you receive Elite Plus level, you’ll be paid $40 for a 500-word article. You’ll pay will depend on the level of writer you are and the number of articles you write. What’s nice is you can accept/decline as many articles as you can write from the comfort of your own home. This is nice because the email request will come in with different topics where you can get paid to write articles.
What To Write About: How To Articles for coding, web design, Adobe Products, anything graphic How Much Can You Make: $200 per tutorial (increases the more you submit) Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb): 19.74M monthly visitors How To Become A Writer: Sign Up Here
Tuts+ is a site I used to visit all the time when learning Photoshop. They have some great tutorials by some awesome teachers, so this probably isn’t for new writers, but people who can prove they’ve written similar tutorials for well-known websites. This makes them one of the top websites that pay you for writing, paying around $200 (starting out) for How-To’s. There are opportunities to create written and video how-to-tutorials. Just make sure you have the depth of experience to back up what you’re teaching. Here is a list of tutorials they’re looking for people to teach.
What To Write About: Tips to help out bloggers (blogs, social media, making money online) How Much Can You Make: $100 – $200 per article Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb): 303.49K monthly visitors How To Become A Writer: Sign Up Here
The Income Diary is a website focused on helping new bloggers to set up their site, write content and monetize it for future revenue. Since this is a specific niche, there is much similar content that currently exists on the site. While you may be able to earn $200, it is a very difficult way to get paid to write articles and get your content accepted. However if you have an idea that you think fits well with their audience, submit your idea and they’ll tell you if it’s worthy. Otherwise don’t bother writing an entire article until your idea is accepted. If you do get your article idea accepted, you should jump for joy because they are one of the top paying websites that pay you for writing.
What To Write About: Trip Ideas, Destinations, Hotels (travel stuff) How Much Can You Make: $1 a word (articles range from 400 – 2,000 words) Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb): 6.03M monthly visitors How To Become A Writer: Sign Up Here
With an audience of 1 million viewers per month, Travel + Leisure receives many writer submissions so they’re looking for high-quality articles from writers with previous writing experience. If you’re interested in writing for them, go over their website and understand what type of articles are published. Then go over to their contact page and email them a short email with your “pitch”, don’t bother writing your full article. If they like your idea, they’ll email you back with the guidelines they want. About 95% of the articles on their site are from freelance writers so you may have a shot. They’re one of the few proven websites that pay you for writing.
What To Write About: Volunteering, Work, Living and Studying Abroad How Much Can You Make: $50 – $150 (for a 1,250-2,000 word article) Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb): 422.94K monthly visitors How To Become A Writer: Sign Up Here
While not the most aesthetically pleasing website, these guys have tons of articles submitted by people around the world relating to volunteering, working and living abroad. So much so that their “Travel Writer Guidelines for Submissions” page is heavily detailed on what they’re looking from their writers. Overall this is a great place to share that amazing study abroad adventure you had in college and share all those little secrets you learned along the way like don’t buy cheap outlet plug converts or how to use hotel key cards as knives for your PBJ sandwiches. If you have any of those wacky travel stories, consider this one of the first websites that pay you for writing that you try.
What To Write About: Things important to adults going back to college How Much Can You Make: $55+ (for a 1,000-1,500 word article) Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb): 386.82k monthly visitors How To Become A Writer: Sign Up Here
This is an old-school website but maintains high popularity for people interested in going back to college later in life. This site makes money by ads and selling leads to college recruiters. So articles about sharing your personal story about going back to college or how your thinking about going back to college may be ideal. This may be a great place to get paid to write articles if you’ve ever considered going back to school.
What To Write About: Getting paid to travel whether it’s writing, photography, tours, etc. How Much Can You Make: $50 – $200 (for a 300-600 word article) Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb): less than 10K monthly visitors How To Become A Writer: Sign Up Here
This is an interesting writing topic because The Travel Writers Life showcases popular ways people are making money while traveling. So you won’t find any fluffy travel stories here. It’s more about how you paid for your study abroad apartment by working at your landlords banana stand. If you have any stories where you made a little money while traveling, this is a great place to share your story on one of the few websites that pay yforfro writing.
What To Write About: Wide range of topics from life style, culture to family and night-life How Much Can You Make: $20 – $60 Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb): 3.35M monthly visitors
Since this is such a popular website they receive numerous writing solicitations and thus don’t have to offer much money for people looking to get paid to write articles. While they don’t pay much, this may be a good place to start if you’re a beginner writer. If you’re looking to try it out, you’ll have to create a profile on their contributor page and send them your article idea. It’ll take them a month or two to review it and if you don’t hear back, don’t take it personally they get a lot of ideas. Try submiting another idea. When it comes to larger websites like this, it’s a numbers game. Luckily you have the option to write about a wide range of topics on their websites that pay you for writing.
What To Write About: Web development related to code, content, design, process, business, etc. How Much Can You Make: $50 – $200 (1,500 word articles avg.) Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb): 543.71K monthly visitors How To Become A Writer: Sign Up Here
This is a very niche website related to website development. If this topic interests you, send their team your pitch idea (ideally in a Google Doc) for review. They review all ideas once a week and rarely accept pitches on the first draft. However they’ll likely help you develop your idea further making it worthy of their website. They’re currently looking for new writers so if you have a story to share regarding web development or user experience, shoot them an email.
What To Write About: All things WordPress Website related How Much Can You Make: $50 (They give you a list of topics with prices) Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb): 712.64K monthly visitors How To Become A Writer: Sign Up Here
These guys have one of the most efficient ways to get new writers. Beyond their super easy sign-up page where you submit your credentials, they give you a list of topics to write about and how much they’ll pay for each one. It looks like someone on their team realized keywords they want to rank for and added that list for potential writers to write about. Most of the articles they currently have posted only pay $50 per article, but they claim up to $150. Keep in mind, most of the articles they are looking for are related to how to code WordPress websites, so it may be a little niche for most people. If you have the WordPress knowlege though, it’s one of first websites that pay you for writing you should consider.
What To Write About: Trip Ideas, Destinations, Travel Adventures (travel stuff) How Much Can You Make: $50 per article (articles range from 1,200 – 2,000 words) Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb): 160.98K monthly visitors How To Become A Writer: Sign Up Here
This is a site I really enjoyed right after researching. It’s a very indie type travel site where it encourages really exploring your travel destinations over high-end resorts. If you have a travel story/idea that you want to pitch, send it to them after you check out their article guidelines to get paid to write articles. Most of is it pretty basic, but something to keep in mind. If you’re not sure your work is good enough to submit, try their “Guest Post” guide where your article won’t be paid for, but you can submit it in front of their audience. It’s a great way to gain travel writing exposure without much pressure on our list of websites that pay you for writing.
What To Write About: All things related to retiring overseas (cost, living, places, etc.) How Much Can You Make: $75 – $400 Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb): 712.64K monthly visitors How To Become A Writer: Sign Up Here
International Living has both a blog/newsletter (they call it a Postcard) and monthly magazine that they’re looking for contributing writers to get paid to write articles. If your article gets accepted to the Postcard, it’s worth around $75 while the monthly magazine is worth $250 for 840 words and $400 for 1,400 words. If you’re curious what to write about, they love inspirational stories about retiring abroad in your dream location (use SEMrush for popular keyword ideas). They want to know how your money will stretch longer in other countries and how that affects healthcare and other lifestyles. If you’ve ever been thinking about retiring in a small tropical country or somewhere cooler, maybe this is one of the websites that pay you for writing for you.
What To Write About: Anything Pop Culture with a funny twist How Much Can You Make: $100 – $200 Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb): 19.24M monthly visitors How To Become A Writer: Sign Up Here
While most websites actively look for experienced writers, Cracked is all about encouraging new writers to submit ideas with lots of different ways to contribute and get paid to write articles. You can write the long lists they’re known for like “26 Sexy Halloween Costumes That Shouldn’t Exist” or creating funny graphics they can use on their social media accounts. They are heavily reliant on content writers like you can contribute to their online publication. If you think you have a sarcastic or satire writing personality, definitely register as a writer for them and jump into the hilarious world of Cracked. This is one of the most popular websites that pay you for writing on our list.
What To Write About: Articles About Great Photography How Much Can You Make: Likely Around $50, not listed Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb): 151.96K monthly visitors How To Become A Writer: Sign Up Here
This is a really open category, photography. Everyone has tried photography at some point in their life. It’s pretty easy to point and click to great a great image. Either to sell via stock photography, share with your friends or hang up in a gallery. The point is, most people have a photography lesson learned or story to share and Photodoto is the perfect place for topics such as Photography Inspiration, Tips, Gear or post-production. Take a shot at this website to write a guest post, they seem to be very excited to hear about pitch ideas.
What To Write About: Anything to help people save time and money (stretch your dollar) How Much Can You Make: $0.10 per word (Most articles 500-700 words) Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb): 151.96K monthly visitors How To Become A Writer: Sign Up Here
Now, this is a site we can get behind, another personal finance website! If you have some great ways to save money/time this is the place but keep in mind, The Dollar Stretcher has been in circulation since January 1998. They have TONS of articles on how to save money so if you’re going to pitch them you need to be creative, inventive and very specific. They ask you don’t pitch them “7 ways to save on groceries“, but rather “7 ways to save money on ground beef”. If you email them your pitch and don’t hear anything, they likely already have similar content and didn’t bother responding. Try pitching again being more creative, everyone does something cool to save money. It’s a great way to get paid to write articles if you’re able to niche down into specific money saving ideas.
What To Write About: DIY Home Improvement / Interior Design Projects How Much Can You Make: Likely Around $50, you set your price. Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb): 271.60K monthly visitors How To Become A Writer: Sign Up Here
Yay I’ve been looking for a good DIY site where I can get paid to write articles. Curby started as one man’s journey doing home improvement projects and grew into a vibrate community of 271 thousand visits a month focusing on cool home improvement and interior design projects inspiring people. Now they’re one of the top websites that pay you for writing about home improvement projects. If you have a home improvement project that all your friends just rave about, consider pitching Curby to see if it’s a good idea for their site and get paid!
What To Write About: Life of a Pet Owner (tips, hacks, pet stories, etc.) How Much Can You Make: $75 per article Monthly Visitors (SimilarWeb): less than 10K monthly visitors How To Become A Writer: Sign Up Here
Many websites that pay writers are related to web development or travel so it’s great to see sites like this that pay for articles that most people have experience with, like pets. This site focuses on connecting pet owners through their site and social media. More importantly, they help animal shelters and rescues connect with a wide range of pet owners for possible adoption. Blog Paws really tries to capture the reality of life with pets and can use writers that can help others navigate that world. If you’re a pet owner that can’t stop talking about how great it is to be a pet owner, this may be a perfect place to get paid to write articles on our list of websites that pay you for writing in 2018.
Consider Writing For Your Own Blog
Writing for others is a quick way to get paid writing and build up your own portfolio. However, you’re working for other people and making THEM money. Consider using our guide to Starting Your Own Blog That Makes Money on Day 1! This is a nice alternative utilizing your writing creativity. Having your own website allows you to display a portfolio of your writing work and earn money for yourself from the awesome content you create!
Get Paid To Write Articles – Our Thoughts
Hope you like our blueprint for starting to get paid to write articles! We absolutely love websites that pay you for writing, helping fellow freelance writers and side-hustlers. While writing this and looking at the criteria these websites are looking for in contributing writers, it’s actually a really easy way to earn extra money. Most of these websites paying between $50 – $150 per article even for beginners, you could write an article every day for a month (30 days) and make $3,000.
Wallet Squirrel is a personal finance blog by best friends Andrew & Adam on how money works, building side-hustles, and the benefits of cleverly investing the profits. Featured on MSN Money, AOL Finance, and more!
If you’re considering driving for Uber, it’s one of the easiest ways to make money. We’ve considered it here on Wallet Squirrel, but first we wanted to ask around how much do Uber drivers make?
As you’ll see below, as an Uber driver you can work whenever you feel and make money per ride. However, you are a freelancer in the eyes of the company and all costs of gas, insurance, accidents, wear & tear and taxes are your burden to pay. So in our examples, we note how much these Uber drivers make and include whether that’s before or after expenses.
Examples of How Much Do Uber Drivers Make
Mr. Money Mustache – $7 per Hour (after gas, insurance & waiting around)
Mr. Money Mustache did a great Uber driver experiment and shared his results after driving people around Boulder, Colorado for a while. He stressed the importance of driving costs and importantly your time. He was surprised with how much waiting around there was waiting for pick up requests, he noted how waiting around doing nothing affected his profit per hour. This profit per hour would be a lot lower if he didn’t receive tips, that is where most of this money came from, not the driving. You should consider this when trying Uber.
RideShareGuy – $15.68 per hour (before gas, expenses, etc.)
Harry who hosts the RideShareGuy, a blog centered around the ride-sharing economy, has been a big advocate of ride-sharing companies like Uber and Lyft hence the blog “RideShareGuy”. In 2017 he did a survey of 1,150 Uber/Lyft drivers on his website. He asked them a range of questions including how much do Uber drivers make and discovered on average, drivers made $15.68 per hour driving with Uber. If your curious, he found Lyft drivers made $17.50 per hour.
MIT Study – $3.37 per hour (after gas, insurance & waiting around)
MIT’s Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research did a survey of more than 1,100 Uber and Lyft drivers on how much they were paid by the ride-sharing companies as well as their expenses such as insurance and repairs. This study was heavily criticized by Uber arguing the questions weren’t worded fairly causing MIT to take down the study, but here are the main points. Researchers found that a median driver generates $0.59 per mile of driving but it costs them $0.30 per mile to drive.
Stanford Study – $21.07 per hour (before gas, expenses, etc.)
A Stanford study focused on the gender earnings gap in the gig economy estimated an Uber driver’s gross hourly earnings at $21.07 before expenses. They even dug down into Uber’s payment formula and discovered Uber drivers are paid $1.70 as a base fare PLUS $0.20 per minute PLUS $0.95 per mile. While they estimated a driver’s expenses at $0.32 per mile.
For example a 2 mile &, 15 minutes trip could earn the driver $6.60 and cost the driver $0.64 in expenses. A real total of $5.95 for that ride.
SherpaShare Study – $11.33-$12.95 per hour (before gas, expenses, etc.)
SherpaShare did a 2015 study on Uber and Lyft drivers. They created an awesome graphic (below) and made a few assumptions from the data. In the larger cities where there is more frequent Surge time (fewer drivers & more requests = 30% price increase), drivers made significantly more. However, each city has different averages. Depending on where you live may determine if you should take advantage of being an Uber driver or not.
Cities with massive demand like New York had an insane $29.34 per hour for Uber drivers while smaller cities like Nashville had $10.14. If you live somewhere like Fargo, North Dakota, you may have a difficult time making any decent money.
Buzzfeed Study – $10.89 (after gas, insurance & waiting around)
Buzzfeed somehow gained a copy of internal Uber calculations to discover how much do Uber drivers make in three major US markets – Denver Detroit & Houston. It was important to them to include expenses into their calculations and found drivers in these markets earned less than an average $13.5 per hour after expenses.
For example, the average driver in Detroit earns $12.70 per hour or $8.77 per hour after expenses. Uber drivers in Houston earned on average $14.18 per hour or $10.75 per hour after expenses. Denver Uber drivers appeared to earn the most of the three major US markets, Denver Uber drivers earned $16.89 per hour or $13.17 per hour after expenses.
Formula for How Much Do Uber Drivers Make Per Ride
If you’re curious how much you could make, use this formula. The Stanford study above shared their formula for how much do Uber drivers make. Based on this formula, Uber really encourages long trips through heavy expected traffic for drivers to make the most money. The Uber Pay Formula is as follows:
You may notice that this is considerably lower than any taxi fare you’ve ever received. There’s a reason for that, the Uber Pay formula is heavily advantaged for Uber Riders. Meaning Uber is highly cost competitive with taxi drivers so people choose Uber over traditional taxis, giving Uber drivers more driving opportunities at the cost of more money per ride.
Lastly, the biggest variable in the formula for how much do Uber drivers make is TIPS. Tips are not a constant factor in Uber rides so I didn’t include them in the Uber Pay Formula but they’re the single biggest reason some Uber drivers make more money. Next time you’re riding in an Uber, look around and notice the bottles of water and snacks offered by your Uber driver to entice a bigger tip.
If You’re Considering Uber, Make More Money by:
Driving isn’t that lucrative, you’ll honestly make more money using your Uber Referral Code and having your friends to sign up for Uber.
Receive tips for being nice and unique. Since your Uber fare won’t make you much money. You may receive tips from your passenger after a pleasant trip for having a bottle of water on hand or playing their favorite song.
Use an extremely fuel-efficient vehicle. Uber requests you use a car made in the last 10 years (they inspect it), so ideally a 2009 Toyota Prius was suggested by Mr. Money Mustache as the ideal car for lower insurance and high MPG range.
TRY to get longer trips in traffic to make the most money based on this formula ($1.70 base fee + $0.20 per minute +$0.95 per mile). Unfortunately Uber doesn’t tell you the destination until you pick up your passengers so you won’t know the distance or traffic.
Go out during “Surge” pricing. You’ll see a 30% increase in fees during these times and Uber will show you where Surge pricing is before you accept the ride.
Conclusion To How Much Do Uber Drivers Make
We’ve found Uber drivers make around average $10 per hour after all their expenses and, in most cases, Lyft will make you a bit more. If you put this in context, this is the same average wage for McDonald’s.
If you’re an Uber Driver please leave in the comments below how much you make per hour, we’d love to hear from you!
It may not be one of the most profitable ways to make money, but there’s a certain freedom and enjoyment knowing you’re the boss and working whenever you choose. Would you consider driving for Uber for this freedom?
Wallet Squirrel is a personal finance blog by best friends Andrew & Adam on how money works, building side-hustles, and the benefits of cleverly investing the profits. Featured on MSN Money, AOL Finance, and more!
When you are just getting started with your blog things can get overwhelming. I do not blame you, we used to be there as well. One question often asked is what are the best affiliate marketing programs for beginners?
Luckily for you, Andrew and I have already tried out several affiliate programs allowing me to compile a simple list to help you get started.
Since you have a lot to do, let’s get started without wasting any more time.
Amazon Associates
Personally, I believe that Amazon Associates is the best affiliate marketing program for beginners right now. Why? Well, you have the enormous power of Amazon behind you.
Really, you should not even hesitate about signing up for the Amazon Associates program. It will give tremendous flexibility.
ShareASale
ShareASale is arguably one of the best affiliate marketing programs out there. It is a massive network of over 3,900 merchants. We recently just signed up for ShareASale to have access to the Tailwind affiliate program.
Why is this one of the best affiliate marketing programs for beginners? To simply put it, because the program is so big! With over 3,900 merchants it is easy to find an affiliate program that will work for you.
The negative of this program is there is an approval process. This process only takes a day or two to get signed up. Personally, I was used to programs that allowed you to sign up right away so I was not ready for the wait.
Last year (March 2017) we moved over to Bluehost for Wallet Squirrel’s hosting services. There have been some ups and downs throughout the year but there affiliate program for beginners has eased the pain.
Why is this program so great for beginners? Well, it is very simple to sign up for. Andrew was able to get everything set up within 10 minutes. Bluehost even has customer service reps that noticed the link provided was not working correctly. They promptly reached out to us to help us get that working properly.
SEMRush
Andrew and I have been using the free version of SEMRush for over a year. Now we are paying customers and absolutely love the power of the product. Even though their service is expensive, I believe it is a great value for what you get. For more information of what you can do, check out Andrew’s review here.
Not only do they have a great product, they also have a great affiliate marketing program for beginners. This is because they give you commission on the sale for each month the person signs up for. So, if they sign up for 12 months, you get 12 months worth of commision. Is that not awesome!?!?
VigLink
There is a reason Andrew and I have been using Viglink for the past four years, it is amazingly simple! We started using it for the first niche website that we created together.
Because VigLink makes affiliate marketing so simple for beginners we were able to start earning money within the first month we implemented it.
Why do we love VigLink? When you are new to affiliate marketing it is tough to catch all of the affiliates. Viglink can scan for links within new articles you write. If it finds that the link points to an affiliate it will automatically make your link an affiliate marketing link. It does not get much simpler than that.
Now, because Viglink is a middleman, they do take their cut of your affiliate earnings. This is why it is best to go directly to the affiliate program a company has set up such as Bluehost or SEMRush. Typically, you will earn more money that way but VigLink is a great place to get started!
Since we could, we decided to sign up for their affiliate marketing program as well. This has helped us earn even more money!
Ebates
Ebates is another one of those super easy affiliate marketing programs to sign up for. They will give you a bonus $50 for your first two referrals. After that, it is $5 per referral.
Yeah, you are right, that is not much but it can add up. We know people that are making close to $1,000 a month from this referral program.
Conclusion to the Best Affiliate Marketing Programs for Beginners
Overall, these are what I feel like, are the best affiliate marketing programs for beginners. They all should give your new blog a great foundation to start earning more money.
What is your favorite affiliate marketing program?
Well, what are you waiting for? Go ahead and start earning!
Wallet Squirrel is a personal finance blog by best friends Andrew & Adam on how money works, building side-hustles, and the benefits of cleverly investing the profits. Featured on MSN Money, AOL Finance, and more!
This is not one of those typical ways to make extra money article. This article contains side hustles that Andrew and I have either personally tried or we have interviewed someone who has. Like others, this list was not thrown together without thought. We wanted to make sure that you, the reader, actually can make more money.
This list contains real ways to make extra money.
Some of these will earn you more money on the side than others. Some also require more effort than others. But these 15 ways to make extra money on the side will earn you actual money because we filtered out the ones that do not.
Let’s find a side hustle that fits you so you can start making extra money right now!
1. Create an Affiliate Marketing Website
This side hustle for extra income is not an easy task but if done right it has the potential for the highest returns compared to other options on this list. An affiliate marketing website is a site that focuses on particular products by reviewing them or just advertising them. The site points the visitor where to buy the product, the visitor buys the product from that website, then that website pays you a commission for sending them a paying customer.
Starting a blog is very similar to creating an affiliate marketing website. Instead, you pick a subject that you want to write about, such as finance or gluten-free recipes. Then you start writing and marketing your content.
Typically, you will make money from advertisements, sponsored posts, and affiliate income. Here is the full story on how you can start your own blog today!
3. Monthly Dividends
Andrew loves dividend stocks because he can make extra money from these payouts that companies give him each month. This gives him about an extra $10 to reinvest back into more stocks. This starts a snowball effect earning him more money each month only to reinvest more each month.
We have fellow blogging friends that are making hundreds or even thousands of dollars each month just from monthly dividends.
This side hustle is so cool! One of my friends is an illustrator for a greeting card company. She had an amazing idea and decided to write and illustrate her very own children’s book!
Overall, this side hustle takes several years to complete but sounds like an adventure for anyone who is passionate about writing or illustrating. Here is how Leah became a children’s book author and illustrator.
Photo courtesy of Leah Gilbert.
5. Use the Ebates App
You are not going to get rich by using Ebates, but you are certainly going to earn some extra cash. So what is Ebates?
Ebates is a platform that has partnered with thousands of stores. When you make a purchase through the Ebates platform from a store like Amazon, Amazon will pay Ebates a 4% commision. Then Ebates passes part of that commision back to you.
Essentially, Ebates is an affiliate marketing platform that passes some of that affiliate money back to you!
Andrew has had a lot of great success writing articles for Seeking Alpa. This website accepts articles from freelance writers about stocks, bonds, assets classes, ETFs, and investment strategies.
They are understandably very strict about the quality of the articles you write from them but once you start to figure out what they are looking for the writing gets easier. To find websites like this for your niche you should do a Google search or see if any fellow bloggers are doing the same thing.
7. Sell Stock Photography
I love photography. I got into it about 10 years ago on a trip throughout the Pacific Rim. Over the years I have taken about 50,000 photographs and some of them have turned out okay.
With so many photos stored up, I wanted to see if I could earn some money from them. I decided to upload about a dozen and hit the jackpot with my St. Louis Arch photograph.
Over the years this photo has made over $1,000 by just sitting on a few sites.
The Achievement App allows you to earn points for exercising. Once you earn enough points they give you cash.
To be honest, this is the least lucrative venture on this list. You will not earn much money at all. The reason I put the Achievement application on the list is that it is truly passive. You do not have to do anything outside of exercising to earn the points. The application does it all so you might as well sign up!
9. Selling T-Shirt and Swag Designs
Teespring is an awesome website that allows you to put your custom designs on t-shirts and other swag. Then you get to sell everything you put that design on! Teespring takes care of all the order process and shipping once items sell then they send you a check.
There are so many different ways you can sell your unwanted stuff now. The most popular is by selling things on Craigslist and eBay.
I was able to help pay our car off quicker by selling about $500 worth of things my wife and I did not need anymore. These items included our second TV, an old camera, and some old computers.
What would you sell on Craigslist or Ebay?
12. Start a Drone Photography Business
A little while ago, one of my old high school teachers was given the opportunity to fly a Phantom 4 drone. He decided at that moment he wanted to earn money on the side by shooting aerial imagery.
Soon after he started up his own business called WHaerial and is now shooting aerial videos from companies around the Cedar Valley area in Iowa. If you are in the area, I would check out his work!
Photo courtesy of WHaerial.
13. Rent Your Stuff
Here in Denver, there is a small startup that created a service that allows you to rent out gadgets, cars, tools, and so on to others in your community.
Fluid App is super easy to use and provides a $1 million insurance in case anything goes wrong. Andrew tried the Fluid App out for us. He had some issues with people canceling on him but once he found a reliable person to rent from, he had a great time.
14. Become a Photographer
A good friend of Andrew and mine started her own photography business several years back. It is amazing what she has turned this little business into.
What is even more amazing is she agreed to share with us how she started off in the photography business. With a lot of hard work and perseverance, she has turned this into her career and guess what. So could you!
Photo courtesy of Britney Brown Photography.
15. Domain Flipping
Domain flipping is a fun side hustle. Here you find domains that are for sale then flip those domains for a profit. Some domains have flipped for millions of dollars!
Do not expect to get that from the domain you buy but you could get hundreds or even thousands of dollars! This side hustle will take time for research, patience for the right buyer, and about $20 every year to maintain the domain.
Do not hesitate, it is time for you to go out and make extra money. Most of the options above are very easy to get started on so you could be making some extra money by this afternoon!
What is your favorite way to make extra money on the side?
Is there nothing on this list that is appealing? That is alright! We have TONS of other ideas located in our Ways We Make Extra Money page. This page has other side hustle ideas we have tried that I did not mention today as well as other ideas Andrew and I have not tried out yet.
If you’ve seen our little pop-up or emails, we made a deal with our readers. We promised if you signed up for our email list, we’d do a drawing and a lucky person would win $100 to start investing. We’re doing this!
Remember these pop-ups?
Why Are We Doing This?
Lots of websites do different give-a-ways to encourage people to join their email newsletter. We wanted to try this, but actually, do something cool.
We didn’t want to create a “90 Ways To Save Money” pdf to give away or anything like that for new sign-ups. Frankly it was overdone and in reality, the easiest way to save money is not to spend it. There, that’s my free pdf.
So I asked myself, what do our readers actually want. Well, they want more money to invest with and pay off bills. So what if we gave (PayPal) someone $100 to use to invest. If they used that money to invest, it would grow to a lot more than $100.
I liked this idea.
How The Competition Worked
It was easy, if you signed up for our email list at any point, and still a member by the end of 2017, you would be eligible to win. We would do a drawing at the end of 2017 (actually this week) and whoever was selected, we would PayPal you $100 to do whatever they wanted.
Yes, you could use that $100 to invest, pay down bills or buy new shoes. We obviously can’t control what you will spend that money on, but we will STRONGLY encourage you to invest it. Investing is cool!
I’m going to do something no one ever does. Share how many email subscribers they have. It’s a bit scary sharing this because if it doesn’t seem like a lot, you can easily judge us based on how many other people subscribe. So vulnerable moment, go!
We currently have 290 email subscribers to Wallet Squirrel. All of them are eligible to win the $100!
To select a winner, I went to Mailchimp and reviewed the complete list of email addresses we had. This is how I discovered we had 290 email sign-ups. That is freaking awesome!!!!!
Then I went to Google’s Random Generator, basically, just typed “Random Number Generator” in Google, try it here! At the top of the page, there is a generator where you enter the min/max amount and hit “GENERATE. I got “17”.
So at this point, I scrolled down Mailchimp’s list to locate number #17.
I’m now shooting them an email to let them know they won! Plus to see if this email works for their Paypal account. So check your email because I may have money for you!
Is The Competition Now Over?
Not even close, I REALLY like this idea. It’s a great way to encourage people to sign up for our email list and everyone gets a chance to win some money to do what you want (investing suggested). =P
In 2018, we’re doing this again but it’s for a chance to win $200 at the end of the year. Sign up and enter!
Wallet Squirrel is a personal finance blog by best friends Andrew & Adam on how money works, building side-hustles, and the benefits of cleverly investing the profits. Featured on MSN Money, AOL Finance, and more!
Who does not love to earn extra money while laying on the couch watching Netflix and playing games? I thought the same when I started playing with appKarma.
Spoiler alert: I really did not enjoy this application but this is because of my personality. I really do not enjoy playing games on my phone anymore. I would rather be reading or working on our Pinterest strategy (article to come later this year).
So do not stop reading yet! First, let’s find out if appKarma is meant for you or not.
Who is appKarma?
AppKarma is a rewards application that was created by a small software development firm, Darkfield Software, out of California. Darkfield was co-founded by Andrew Lin and Adebayo Olowoyeye.
To be honest, there is not much more information about who appKarma or Darkfield are. I could not even find information about the data they collect except the data about who you are. As a data guy, they have to be collecting more information than that. If not, they are leaving a lot on the table.
Even though this sounds really sketchy, I do believe they are a legit company.
Andrew, not this Andrew, seems very active with the application. Plus, they have over 1 million downloads in the Google Play Store with a 4.7-star rating.
Even though they are small they do seem like a real company.
What is appKarma?
As mentioned above, appKarma is a rewards application. You will earn reward points for playing around with applications you have installed on appKarma.
Basically, you earn points for playing with applications on your phone. Then you can use those points to purchase gift cards.
Throughout the whole process, you can earn Achievement Badges which will give you bonus earnings each time you complete an app offer. These badges can be earned by reaching particular milestones such as installing 5 apps, watching 25 videos, and so on.
You can also earn more through referrals as well!
If you click on this particular link to sign up, I will earn 30% of what you earn! That is awesome!
YouTubers that generate over 1,000 views a week get to upgrade to VIP. This requires you to promote appKarma through your own video. Then you will earn 50% of what your referrals earn compared to the normal 30% rate. The more views a week you get, the better your referral gets.
Do note, since I get this question a lot on my Achievement App article, AppKarma is available to users worldwide except for Vietnam.
Do I like it?
To be honest, I do, to a certain degree. This app, like many others, is not a way for you to earn extra money to get rich fast. You are going to only earn a small amount of extra money to companies like Amazon.
I would compare this service to Google Opinion Rewards. You can read more about that service and how you can earn very little money in 30 seconds or less here. The big difference is that it only takes seconds to earn rewards on Google Opinion Rewards. On appKarma, it takes awhile, you have to level up pretty high in the games to earn the reward.
Enter that spoiler alert I mentioned in the opening. I do not like playing mobile games that much anymore. I do not know what happened but I find 99% of mobile games super annoying. The “Free, With In-App Purchases” platform really bugs me and has turned me off in recent years.
Because of this, I did not find it enjoyable spending time to earn the rewards. BUT! This should not turn you off from trying appKarma if have not had the fun sucked out of you like me. If you still enjoy mobile games, appKarma is the rewards app for you.
Get Signed Up!
It took no time to get signed up.
All I did was hop into my phones app store to download/install appKarma. From here I just followed the instructions after opening the application for the first time. These were the stereotypical instructions, enter your email, username, and password then confirm your email. Nothing out of the ordinary.
The next step I did was start checking off the beginner rewards such as confirm your email, watch the tutorials, enter the referrer code (mine is amolson819), and so on. Before I knew it I was already at 606 points!
Now, once you earn enough points, you can redeem them to earn extra money in the form of gift cards. You can see the different options by clicking on the little present icon in the top right-hand corner of the application. These cards are from many major companies such as Amazon, PayPal, Starbucks, Steam, and so on!
It takes a lot of points to earn the gift cards though. For Amazon, you can get a $5 card with 5,000 points. With my 606 points, I am 12% of the way there!
Conclusion
Overall, I do think AppKarma is worth it. It is a good way to earn some extra money throughout the year. This is something you can do while watching a show on Netflix or Hulu.
Minus Andrew, he cannot multitask while watching a show to save his life.
Just remember, you are not going to get rich while using this app. You will earn some extra money to save some money on Amazon.
When you use my referrer code, amolson819, you will get 300 bonus Karma points! Be sure to do that if you decide to get signed up.
Is appKarma not for you but you still want to earn more money? Check out our Ways to Earn More Money page. Here Andrew and I personally review as many different ways to earn extra money as we can to help you decide if it is right for you.
