I was having a chat with a friend this morning about some of the ways to earn a little extra cash during these tough economic times. Bringing in a little extra side income can make all the difference, so adding a side hustle is definitely something worth considering if things are a little tight for you at the moment.
As some of you might have seen from our six-figure side hustle challenges, some side hustles take a fair amount of work, time, and often a bit of upfront cash to get started. This means that if you’re needing some extra money fairly quickly, then some of the side hustles I have tried are not going to be a quick fix. There are, however, a few side hustles that could get you earning some cash fast. And some of these don’t seem to be that well known yet, so I thought it was worth sharing them with you so you can give them a go!
Please note, for some of these side hustles I am sharing our affiliate links. This can mean that we get a little extra side hustle income when you sign up and participate in the activity that is linked. It would be awesome for us if you do want to sign up and use those links though, as it helps us to keep up the work of sharing our financial freedom journey learnings with you!
Online surveys
I shared a post on our Instagram recently about our experience doing online surveys. Online surveys can be a great little side hustle, and while the income isn’t huge from them they are a side hustle that can put money into your bank account almost straight away. When you’re needing some extra cash, the fairly instant nature of survey income can be quite attractive.
Many of the sites pay you in PayPal credit, which means that you can get the payment into your bank account. Some sites also allow you to get your payment in vouchers e.g. supermarket vouchers. I tended to favour sites where you can get payment via PayPal, just because that then gives you cash that you can use how you like. But I have done a survey where the reward was a supermarket voucher and that was handy too!
There are lots of online survey sites available (albeit only a few are available in NZ), and I’ve found the results to be a bit mixed. Some take a lot of time and don’t have a great return, so I don’t tend to spend too much time on those ones, but I do feel like there are two that really stand out: PureProfile and Prime Opinion.
Pure Profile: This is my favourite survey site so far. Their app has the best functionality out of the sites that I have tried, and I feel like the payments are usually the best of the sites I have tried. Most sites have a process of screening you out if you don’t meet the requirements of the survey, and I find that Pure Profile is quite good at screening you out early in the process if you don’t qualify. Other sites can let you do a lot of the survey and then screen you out, which means that you have committed time without getting the payment (sometimes you get a few cents, but not usually very much if they screen you out).
One of the drawbacks of Pure Profile is that they can take quite a while to pay out. I’ve found that sometimes it can take weeks for the payout to come in, although my last couple of payments have been a bit faster. You also need to have at least $20 in your account before you are able to cash out any payment. If you want to check out PureProfile here is our link: http://referral.pureprofile.com/referrer/TXpNek56VTNNVGMyTmpZNiMxOQ==
Prime Opinion: This is a survey site that works by gaining points that can then be redeemed for rewards. There are a wide range of rewards that you can redeem your points for, including PayPal. There are different points for different surveys, and I have had some mixed results with being screened out. Having said that, I do think that they are pretty fair with the screening out, and it usually happens quite quickly in the survey. The Prime Opinion website says that the average user earns $18 per day, but I think you would have to be doing a lot of surveys to reach that level. I signed up about two weeks ago, and on average I’ve probably done one or two surveys each day. I’ve cashed out $40 of PayPal credit to date. The great thing about this site is that the payment shows up almost immediately in your PayPal account, so you don’t have to wait like you do for PureProfile. Great if you need some cash fast and have the time to do lots of surveys! You do have to have hit a minimum amount of points to cash out, and it did take me a while to hit the first cash out as I had chosen a welcome bonus that meant I needed 2500 points to get a payment. I figured it was worth it for a bit of free money though!
One of the other things I quite like about Prime Opinion is that they have gamified it a little bit, so it does make it a bit more fun than some of the sites. You get some additional points depending on the number of surveys you have done, which helps you get to a payout a bit faster (particularly once you have done a lot of surveys). They also have a leaderboard and you can gain extra points if you get yourself higher up the leaderboard. I haven’t done enough surveys to reach these points rewards, but some people do seem to earn quite a bit extra by hitting those targets. Could be worth giving it a go if you have some time on your hands! Here is our link to give it a go: https://primeopinion.com/register?ref=9b6088d8-18fe-4376-bf09-94117b6e6469
In terms of other survey sites that I’ve tried, there are a couple that you could give a go but which I have found a bit harder to earn decent amounts from.
Zap Surveys: My next favourite one is Zap surveys. I do like that they have gamified it a bit by adding rewards for daily logins (only 3c, but hey it’s free $$), but the rewards tend to be quite low. Occasionally there is a higher paying one that is worthwhile. They do also add some bonus amounts, which can be a nice little surprise to boost your balance (I got $2 when I did my last cash out)! They also pay out via PayPal, and I was pleasantly surprised when I got my first payment as the app adds up your payments in dollars, but I didn’t realised it was USD, so when the money came through it was a bit more than I had expected. I do, however, find that this app has more screen outs than the first two and sometimes you get further through before screening out. They do pay out to your PayPal account pretty fast though (usually within 2-3 working days). Here is out link to try them out: https://bdr3.app.link/wCgpIxaogIb
Colmar Brunton: This is well known survey site, and I do occasionally take one of their surveys. They tend to come out less often, but can have higher one off payments. The last survey I did was rewarded with a $20 supermarket voucher, but it did take about 2 hours to do the survey so the payment isn’t super high. Again, worth it if you have some time to kill waiting for an appointment or sitting on the bus!
AttaPoll: The main thing I like about AttaPoll is that they payout fast to your PayPal account, and there is no minimum payout amount (many of the others require minimum amounts of points or $$ in your account before you can get a payout). I have found that AttaPoll does have many more screen outs than other apps, and sometimes you get quite far in before you get screened out. It does also seem to be a bit glitchy, and this can lead to you getting screened out too. I tend to have a go when I see a higher earning survey, but I don’t spend so much time on this one due to the screen outs and glitches. Here is our link if you want to give it a go: https://attapoll.app/join/ddrkn
Referral income from survey sites
This is something that I haven’t really tried until this point, but I might be able to give you an update on this soon if some of you click the links above!!
Many of the survey sites have the option to refer a friend by sending them a link. When you refer a friend via your personalised sign up link you can earn a small commission on the surveys that they do, so it adds a little extra to your income balance from those sites. You just need to make sure that they know to use your link, otherwise you won’t get the commission.
If you are someone who knows a lot of people who would be interested in doing surveys and can convince them to sign up via your link then why not share your links with them. Of course, make sure you tell them how it all works so they know that you’re getting a referral commission.
Pawshake
This isn’t something that I had really though of as a side hustle until recently, but I have used their services before so thought it was worth a mention. Pawshake is an app that connects pet owners with people offering pet care services – usually services like dog walking, or pet sitting.
We used the Pawshake app to find a petsitter to care for our animals when we went on holiday, but you can also sign up to be a pet sitter / dog walker. Once you have set up your profile with your pricing, people can find you and message you to book your services.
Worth a look if you have the time to squeeze a few pet feeds or walks into your day! Have a look at www.pawshake.co.nz
Cashback apps
There is at least one cash back app in New Zealand where you can earn money back from retailers that you purchase from. The app I’m using is called Kiwi Wallet. You can find out more about it here: https://www.kiwiwallet.co.nz/raf/WtyFYDR
The app lists a number of retailers who participate. Depending on the retailer you get varying rates of cash back when you click through to that retailer through the app. Retailers on the app include companies such as Chemist Warehouse, Trip Advisor, MilkRun and New World.
It is essential that you click through the app to get the cash back, but you can get anything from 1-10% of your purchase back through the app, which can then be transferred to you via PayPal or bank transaction.
This isn’t a side hustle as such, but why not get a few dollars back from purchases that you have to make anyway.