We all need a little extra cash every now and then and one of the easiest ways to do that is by leveraging your smartphone.
The phone you’re holding in your hands right now can be one of two things, a waste of time or a money-making machine.
The good news is there are a number of legit free apps that give you a fun way to make real money from the comfort of your own home right from your phone.
Here’s How to Make Money From Your Phone
Here are 12 easy ways to make money from your phone in your spare time:
- 🏆 Take Online Surveys
- Earn Cash Back
- Use an Investment App
- Play Online Games
- Sell Your Data
- Sell Old Stuff
- Sell Old Textbooks
- Sell Photos
- Participate in User Testing
- Get Paid to Walk
- Utilize Gig Apps
- Manage Social Media
1. Take Online Surveys
Taking online surveys may seem like a waste of time. However, you can rest assured that it’s perfectly legit.
MyPoints, Swagbucks, InboxDollars, and Branded Surveys are some of the most well-known survey sites on the internet. Sign up for all four, and you can get paid extra cash to sit on your sofa and fill out surveys asking for your opinion on various items.
Swagbucks also pays users for surfing the internet, watching movies, and playing games. Spend some time on the sites and you’ll see just how lucrative and fun they can be.
This is something anyone can do while watching Netflix or unwinding after a long day. You can also use these apps on your lunch break or when waiting for a bus or airplane.
2. Earn Cash Back
Ibotta is one of the best cash back apps that can provide money back on everyday purchases at your favorite stores, including groceries, gas, travel, and apparel. Simply search for offers on Ibotta and get cash back when you buy stuff.
Ibotta is now offering a sign-up bonus for downloading the free app and completing certain tasks. You can use Ibotta on your smartphone or over a web browser.
3. Use an Investment App
One of the best ways to make serious money with your phone is to invest with a brokerage app. Now, this won’t get your money right now, but it will help set you up for a better financial future.
These apps offer powerful investing tools that can provide users with a range of financial services, making investing easy and intuitive.
Of course, investing is risky, and it pays to know what you’re doing.
Some great investment apps to look into are Acorns, Betterment, and Robinhood.
4. Play Online Games
Love playing mobile games? Who doesn’t?
Now you can get paid to play games through sites like MyPoints, a cashback program that incentivizes mobile game playing through cash rewards.
This is the perfect thing to do when you’re waiting in line at the grocery store or on the bus. Bust out your phone, play some games, and collect great rewards. What’s not to like?
5. Sell Your Data
Nielsen is a global market research firm that helps its business partners better understand consumer trends.
One way to make money through Nielsen is to use their Computer and Mobile Panel service.
Simply sign up and install the app on all your registered devices and then start using the internet like you normally would.
The app will then work silently in the background, collecting your internet and mobile usage data and then reporting it back to Nielsen, which in turn gets shared with Nielsen’s clients.
You will immediately start earning after downloading and installing the app.
6. Sell Old Stuff
When was the last time you cleaned out your closet or basement? Chances are you have tons of unwanted electronics, old media, and toys sitting around collecting dust and taking up space.
Download the Decluttr app and get some money for these unwanted objects. Decluttr will send you a box, pay for shipping, and give you cash payments. They’ll either recycle and wipe your unwanted tech or turn around and sell your items on their online marketplace.
Trust us: You’re never going to use that old screen again or watch your Aqua Teen Hunger Force DVDs. Get rid of that stuff!
7. Sell Old Textbooks
There’s nothing like the feeling at the end of a college semester knowing that you’ll never have to read that textbook ever again and that you can potentially sell it online.
One app that can make this happen is BookScouter. Simply download the free app, search through more than thirty buyback vendors, and compare prices and seller feedback. Then, ship the item for free and the company will pay you. It’s that easy.
You can get good money for your textbooks. It’s much better than letting them rot on your bookshelf or putting them into the trash. Check out BookScouter and start profiting today.
8. Sell Photos
Your phone most likely has a powerful camera built-in that’s capable of taking high-quality images.
It’s time to start making money from your photos using a site like Shutterstock. Open an account through Shutterstock and submit a series of photos for review.
Once you get accepted, you can earn royalties any time a site uses your work. Shutterstock is a great way to turn photography into a money-making opportunity.
Foap is another photographer community that enables photographers to sell images to brands for private use. Download Foap, submit pictures and get paid for your work.
9. Participate in User Testing
UserTesting pays you to leave a review of products that help brands understand how to make their products better.
Fluency in English is a must as you’ll be providing verbal feedback through a microphone. You can carry out tests on a computer or a mobile device.
With each test taking about 20 minutes of your time, you can easily work from anywhere. The amount you earn depends on the test type, your dashboard will always show you the amount you’ll get paid for each test before you choose to participate.
10. Get Paid for Walking
Sweatcoin is a rewards app that pays you just for walking. Download the app, and it will pay you in digital currency every time you take 1,000 steps.
Once you start racking up Sweatcoins, you can redeem them for currency in the app’s online marketplace. This is available on both Apple and Android devices.
11. Utilize Gig Apps
Steady, TaskRabbit, and Gigwalk are gig apps that can connect you to people in your community who need help with household tasks.
Download the TaskRabbit app, create a profile, and start applying for jobs in your community. You can get paid to mend fences, paint walls, mow lawns, and perform things of that nature. Complete jobs and you’ll get paid and reviewed through the app for a seamless experience.
Searching for gig jobs is fun and can lead to steady work if you’re willing to hustle. This is a great option for people who live in metropolitan areas where there are a lot of users.
12. Manage Social Media
Some companies will pay you to manage their social media accounts. If you’re savvy with a phone, you can do this from any location — tweeting, updating Facebook, and responding to customers when they make inquiries.
The cool part about this is that you can essentially get paid to be the voice of a company. Companies across all markets, especially small businesses, are looking for help with their social media profiles, and that’s where people like you come into the equation.
If this sounds interesting, you can start searching for social media jobs on an app like FlexJobs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are the most frequently asked questions about making money from your phone.
Can you really make money from your phone?
Yes, you can actually make money from your phone. Some of the simplest ways to earn extra money from your phone for cash or free gift cards is by participating in online surveys or playing games.
What is a side hustle?
“Side hustle” is a hip way of describing a job that brings in extra money apart from your full-time profession. There are all sorts of side hustles ranging from social media work to dog walking to completing jobs on TaskRabbit.
Working a side hustle can be a lot of fun and lead to some great new opportunities and career paths that you never knew existed.
Plus, you’ll be part of the growing gig economy. Any way you slice it, there is a lot of upsides to starting a side hustle.
What should I do with gift cards?
The obvious option is to treat free gift cards like cash with participating retailers. The other option is to sell them using an app like CardCash, which can give you cash in exchange for your unwanted cards.
This is a great way to put some extra cash in your pocket if you’d prefer cold, hard cash to something like an Amazon gift card or Walmart gift card.
Which is the Best Way to Make Money from Your Phone?
At the end of the day, there are countless ways to use your phone to make money. If you need more money in your bank account, then it’s time to put your phone to work.
The most important takeaway is to stop wasting time on your phone and start using it to bring in bucks. A phone gives you an easy way to earn extra income. And some apps are so easy to use that they’re essentially like getting free money!
You can get paid for merely opening your phone, shopping, and trying new apps and services. It’s just a matter of discovering opportunities and pouncing on them.
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