How I get Paid to Take Surveys

*Not an accurate representation of $30.

Since the dawn of the internet I've heard the legends that people can get paid to take surveys. The story goes you get paid to answer consumer questionnaires and make a fortune in no time! The mythological money making experience has eluded me for the majority of my life...until 10 days ago. While browsing the internet I stumbled upon a forum where people were discussing quick ways to earn cash. Something called "Amazon Mechanical Turk" was mentioned. I skipped over it, because I have a limited attention span. I stuck with my current form of earning extra cash, donating plasma, and went along my merry way. Until, again, I saw "Amazon Mechanical Turk" mentioned again. I gave it a shot and, 10 days ago and now have $30 that can either be transferred to a bank account or turned into Amazon credit. As a Prime subscriber this is gold. Now 30 bucks is hardley the fortune I was initially promised at the ripe old age of 12, but, with Christmas coming up, combined with donating plasma (oh yeah, and working a full time job) it was going to make things a lot easier.

Here's the deal: Amazon has this service that allows businesses and individuals to offer compensation for tasks that people can accept. These tasks (or HITS) are essentially "Micro jobs" that you complete and get anywhere from 2 cents to a couple dollars (more if you put in the time and get certifications for different jobs). It's not much, and to be honest it was a little discouraging completing tasks for pennies. However, it added up. You're on a 10 day probational period when you start, meaning you can't access your balance until 10 days of performing tasks. In those 10 days I managed to accumulate $30 simply by hopping on their website when I had a few minutes to blow and completing easy tasks that computers find hard. Sometimes I was filling out surveys, sometimes I was drawing squares around people in Europe. That 10 day probational period most likely prevented me from spending my balance, forcing me to accumulate the money I have now, which is just about enough to purchase one of the gifts I was going to use my own money to buy anyway. And that's just in 10 days! You put however much time you want into it, and if you get good enough at searching you can score $.40-$.50 hits consistently.

So, if you're interested in earning a little extra scratch head over to Amazon Mechanical Turk and sign up. You'll need to create an Amazon Payments account and be approved (usually takes a day or two) before you can get started. It's all super easy, especially if you already have an Amazon account.