Earnings Roundup - March 2018

So, can you make money from survey and GPT sites? Each month I'll show you what I made the previous month, explain a little about the sites and apps I used, and keep a running total for the year.
Here's the total so far:

January 2018 - £327.88
February 2018 - £203.73

So, March 2018

After a quiet February, march started out pretty well - I took about a week off in total due to work stuff, but other than that stuck to an hour or so a day.

Let's see how things went...

Swagbucks

Swagbucks is my favourite site, probably because it was the first one I joined, and it's the one I make the most from.. It's mainly video apps, surveys, clicks, offers, trials etc. If their advertisers aren't paying much  then there's not always a lot to do. I don't like doing surveys, so I rely on the video apps (which I can leave running while I do other things) and other parts of the site to earn. Some days in March I didn't even get the chance to do that, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that I had managed to cashout £115 in March.

In addition to this, one of the surveys I did on Swagbucks gave me the chance to do a telephone survey which netted me £100! These don't come up all the time but when they do, they're nice.

You can sign up to Swagbucks by clicking here. Read how you can get a bonus in April, then sign up using your email address, not the Facebook option.

InstaGC

I love InstaGC because there's a lot of opportunity for passive earnings (ie not having to do anything). I mainly run videos on here, there are 4 streams of videos to run and I run them all as often as I can. There are also surveys and offers, the same as Swagbucks, and a lot of the surveys are short, which I like. 

It was quiet at the beginning of the month as there weren't many advertisements on the video streams and I had problems running a couple, so I didn't make as much as I usually do. Add to that the days off and I was happy to have cashed out $171.28 to Paypal, which worked out at £120.83

You can sign up to InstaGC by clicking here - if you do, it's worth dropping me a line on Facebook as it can be a little confusing at first and I can help you to get started.

Branded Surveys 

Branded Surveys, which used to be called Mintvine is a bit of an acquired taste these days but I kind of like it. I don't earn as much as I used to from it, but I stick with it because it pays for my Pizza Express addiction.

Like the others, it's surveys and offers - no video options anymore, which means actually DOING something on the site, which is one reasonI don't make as much these days.

In February I cashed out £20, in Pizza Express vouchers. You can also cash out to Paypal, Tesco, Amazon etc, but I use it purely for Pizza Express for a nice treat every month.

You can sign up to Branded Surveys by clicking here - new members tend to get some good surveys for big points and little effort so definitely worthwhile.

Prolific Academic 

Prolific is purely a survey site, but as it's an Academic site the surveys tend to be really interesting and sometimes even fun. There's sometimes an option to earn bonuses, but in general they're one of the better paying survey sites. The only dowside of this site is that they don't email you when a survey is available, so you have to check the site regularly and as such it's easy to miss out on surveys / studies. Payment ranges from pence per study to pounds - in the past I've done stuides worth £16, £20 and more.

Newbies on here tend to get a lot of studies - in my first month I made over £100. This tapers off after a while, and that, combined with the fact that I didn't have a lot of time to be checking in March meant that I only made £16.39 - must try harder!

You can sign up to Prolific by clicking here. Be sure to complete all of the prescreening questions and to check in often.

Minor Earners

I have a few phone apps and other sites that I also use that take up very little time, and I can do while in the car (as a passenger!), watching TV, waiting for the kettle to boil, in queues in shops etc. 

CitizenMe

Short (4 or 5 questions usually) surveys that pay small amounts immediatelyto Paypal. You'll have to search your app store to find it and it's never going to make you rich but every little helps! March earnings - £0.82

Attapoll

Another app that sends out surveys every couple of days - there seem to have been quite a few in Feb so I was able to cashout £5.14. They pay to Paypal within a couple of hours.

You can get Attapoll by clicking here - it's pretty straightforward and will alert you when there is a survey available.

Panelapp

One of the easiest apps I have - simply log in each day to gain points. Occasionally there are short 1 question surveys, usually based on where you have been using data from your GPS. It's most definitely not a big earner, and you can only cash out to Amazon, but I had enough points to cash out £7 this month. You can get Panelapp here.

OnePulse 

Another app with quick surveys - 2 or 3 questions mostly so very quick. There are paid and unpaid surveys - the more of the unpaid ones you do the higher your payment for the paid ones. I cashed out $5 on this one this month, which worked out at £3.71

Imutual

This is a new one to me. They have cashback offers and daily free clicks. Just by joining and clicking a few times I made £1.25 in March. I'm going to try and remember to do this one every day in April, so we'll see what the free clicks add up to when I do the next roundup!

Total

So that means that March 2018 came in at  £390.14 - not that great, but not that bad either. Hopefully April will give me more passive earnings and a higher total.

That's £531.61 from January - Feb, plus £390.14 in March, making a running total of £921.75 so far this year.

Hopefully April will be better!

*Please note that most of the links in this post are referral links and therefore I will receive benefits if you join via my link. That said, so will you in some cases, and it's in my interests to help you make the most of them, so feel free to PM me on Facebook anytime.

I need a quick & easy earner and I need it now!

I hear it all the time in our Facebook group - at least 3 times a week someone posts "What are the quick and easy earners?" or "I need to make £20 by Friday - what can you recommend that takes no time?" I probably did it myself when I started doing GPT (Get Paid TO) sites.

There are loads of variations on the above two questions, but a lot of people want something that:

a) Takes up no time

b) Pays well

c) They can earn quickly from, and

d) Is easy

And don't get me wrong, you'll get loads of suggestions. And you'll get all excited and sign up to a million sites and apps. And then you'll be disappointed.

I'm going to let you into a secret - when you start out, these sites and apps AREN'T easy. They're often not quick. And until you get into a routine, they don't pay that well.

When I first started on Swagbucks, I made £5 in my  first month or so, and I dread to think how much time I spent on it. Now, I can easily make £200 in a good month from Swagbucks doing about half an hour active stuff a day.

The first time I looked at InstaGC, I thought everyone was lying about how much they made. It took me ages to properly look into it as it seemed such a low earner, especially compared to Swagbucks.

Mintvine confused the hell out of me, seemed boring as hell and then did it all to me again when it turned into Branded Surveys.

I couldn't see the point in apps that you send pictures of your shopping receipts to (and still refuse to do them as I don't have the patience).

People loved InboxPounds - I hated it and only ever cashed out once, which took forever.

BUT, as soon as I realised that, like any new job, these sites and apps have a learning curve, and you need to work each one out, read as much as you can and get advice from other people that DO know what they're doing, I started earning.

In 2016 I made around £1800 from GPT sites but in 2017 I made over £4000 from them. I spent around an hour a day working on them. Some days (even weeks) I did nothing at all. But the best time I spent was reading, learning and listening to others, and not expecting to become an expert overnight.

From the people in our Facebook group I learned things no-one else had told me:

- Running the video apps on Swagbucks every day makes a lot of difference
- Bonuses are worth more than your day to day earnings for a lot of sites
- Some sites you have to check as often as possible because they won't email you
- You don't have to spend hours doing surveys
- Sometimes it's worth spending money to make money
- Sometimes a site just isn't for you
- and so much more.

Don't get me wrong, when I started I wanted quick and easy as well. But until I learned what I was doing, most of the sites simply weren't.

Forgive me, I know I sound harsh, but unless you are willing to put the effort in to learn, and have people around you that can help, quick and easy is the pipedream it sounds...

Get extra points with search wins on InstaGC

A great way to get a few extra points a day on InstaGC is via search wins.

Although I use Swagbucks search as my main search, I often pop over to InstaGC to do a few searches, and can usually get 3-4 search wins a day without too much hassle. You can install a browser plugin that makes InstaGC your default search engine, but as I have Swagbucks search installed, I just visit the search the web page to search.

With wins being worth anything from 1-5 points (in my experience, you may have had more!) it does make difference and takes no time at all.

In order to make it take you even less time, all of the images below link to searches - click on them and see if you win too. If you do, come and let us know in the UK Swagbucks & More Facebook group.

*** PLEASD NOTE - InstaGC is much more strict on fequent searches than Swagbucks - I'd suggest doing 2 or 3 and making sure you click on a result for each one if you don't get a win. Once you have a win, leave it for a few hours before trying again.

Not on InstaGC? I made over £4000 from this and other GPT sites in 2017, with roughly £80 a month coming from InstaGC since October - come and join me! 

How to get around the dreaded eCode 20 on InstaGC and Swagbucks

If you've been on InstaGC for any length of time, you're sure to have come across the dreaded "Ecode 20" that appears on Playlist 4 & 6 videos from time to time. It's what they call a 'soft ban' and can last anything from a few hours to a few weeks. No-one knows for sure why it happens, and there's nothing you can do to avoid it unfortunately. It can also affect Toolbar TV on Swagbucks.

BUT, all is not lost - there are a few things to try - work your way through this list and see if one of them works for you:

1) Clear your cache and cookies

Installing something like CC Cleaner on your laptop/PC makes this process easy. I run CC Cleaner at the beginning and end of every day, sometimes more often. It's a good thing to do anyway to ensure tracking works on offers that you do.

2) Restart your router

Sometimes restarting your router resets your IP address, which removes the soft ban. You may be lucky and just have to switch it off and on again, or you may have to leave it switched off overnight, but it's definitely worth a try.

3) Use your phone data (tether your laptop/PC)

This one usually works where others don't. Create a wi-fi hotspot on your phone (it should be in the settings somewhere) - this asks you to name the hotspot and should give you a password. Go to your PC/laptop and disconnect from your house wi-fi. Look in your wi-fi connections list and find the hotspot you created. Connect to that and then start up playlists 4 and 6. Wait until they are running a video, not an ad, and then reconnect to your home wi-fi. This should allow you to run the videos with no problem. Note that you will have to redo this step as each playlist ends it's run.

4) Use your phone data as a last resort

If all else fails, try running th videos on your phone data. This is only advisable if you have unlimited data as the videos do use a lot.

Hopefully one of the above will work for you. I found that after a day of doing step number 3, I also got e20 on my phone data. However, I used my partner's phone to create a new hotspot and continued through that, so there is usually a work around :)

Have you successfully gotten around an e20 soft ban? Come and let us know how in the UK Swagbucks & More Facebook group!

InstaGC Minitip - bookmark Tap Research for quick and easy points

A great way to earn points for InstaGC is to be disqualified from Tap Research surveys. Although you only get 2 points per DQ, those points soon add up and it's a quick and easy way to build up points.

The problem is, Tap Research surveys don't always show in your survey options.

A quick and easy way around this is to bookmark the Tap Research page when you DO have it, so you can go directly to it in future.

To do this, you need to navigate to your surveys page (under 'Earn') when Tap Research IS showing.

Click on Tap Research and BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING ELSE bookmark that page (on mobile you can 'add to desktop' as a shortcut).

Once you have it bookmarked, just complete the Tap Research options you have, as usual.

You'll find that in an hour or so, when you navigate to your surveys page, you probably won't have Tap Research available:

Simply click on your bookmark / shortcut to go directly to Tap Research:

You won't have surveys there all the time, but I'm finding that 3 out of 4 times I click on my shortcut, there are 2 or 3 surveys I can click on - my aim is to be DQ and get the 2 points, yours might be to complete the surveys (I find them very low paying and not worth the time but your mileage may vary). Either way it's a quick and easy way to get surveys you wouldn't usually see.

Hopefully this will help you to get those few extra points each day that might make a difference!

Not on InstaGC? I find it a great way to earn between £70 - £100 a month simply by running videos, completing the odd short survey and, of course, those all important DQ points from Tap Research ;) Join me now to get started!

You found the free points code! IGC-UKSBandMore_Nikk3r5

Want more hints and tips on InstaGC? Pop over to our Facebook group where over 8000 members share their secrets for InstaGC, Swagbucks, Prolific and more.