Micro jobs are jobs that can be done within a relatively short time – often within a few hours or much less. With the help of technology, you can perform micro jobs from the comfort of your home and get paid for it – the only thing you need is the Internet. Without much further introduction, here are 15 best micro job sites where you can make money.

Best Micro Job Sites

Swagbucks

Swagbucks is one of the most popular websites for paid micro jobs such as taking surveys, playing games, and watching videos. If this sounds a little too good to be true, Swagbucks is able to do so because it shares a portion of its earnings with users.

Swagbucks partners with companies and developers that want to gauge how their service or product will be received. To achieve this goal, they create surveys and reviewing opportunities, post them on the Swagbucks platform, and wait for Swagbucks users to take part. Swagbucks receives compensation for their platform from companies and developers and decides to share these earnings with their users. In short, Swagbucks needs users to keep the website alive and is willing to pay them to continue participating on the site.

When you complete a task on the website, you receive points that are called Swagbucks. These points can be redeemed for actual cash or gift cards. You can withdraw your money via PayPal or choose gift cards for popular stores such as Amazon or Walmart.

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Survey Junkie

Survey Junkie is popular for paying users for their opinions through surveys. Similar to Swagbucks, Survey Junkie partners with companies and developers that want to get user feedback about their product or service; the Survey Junkie platform provides a platform for companies to reach users who are willing to provide feedback and in return gets some compensation. They choose to share this compensation with users, meaning that Survey Junkie users also get paid for providing feedback.

When you do surveys on the website, you get rewarded with points. Each point is worth $0.01. To cash out, you need to have a PayPal account and at least $5 or 500 points in your earnings. Alternatively, you can choose to redeem points for gift cards. Survey Junkie offers gift cards for popular stores such as Amazon, Sephora, and Target.

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UserTesting

User Testing is a website where users act as an independent tester to receive monetary compensation. User Testing partners with companies that want to receive honest feedback regarding their online services, be it an app, website, or program, from users.

To test a digital service or product, you will need to perform certain tasks specified by the developers. For example, if you are testing a new gaming app, you might need to play the game until you reach a certain level to provide feedback about your experience. Depending on what kind of service or product you review and the tasks you do, the payment will vary; an easy test might only pay a few cents, while a more complicated one can pay $10. Whenever you want to withdraw your payments, you can do so via PayPal or redeem points for gift cards, but only if you have at least $10 in your account.

InboxDollars

There are a variety of tasks to complete in exchange for cash on Inbox Dollars: completing online surveys, reading emails, using search engines, watching videos, and more.

Inbox Dollars is somewhat unique in that instead of rewarding points to users like other websites, they reward you with real cash value for each task you do. Prior to completing any task, you will know exactly how much money you will receive. Moreover, unlike some websites, Inbox Dollars lets you know if you are not qualified for a survey instead of letting you waste your time answering surveys that you are not qualified for and therefore do not get paid.

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Amazon Mechanical Turk

Amazon Mechanical Turn allows users to earn money by outsourcing certain tasks to people like you who can complete them virtually. Tasks on Amazon Mechanical Turk can range from verifying the price of items at a certain store or performing content moderation. Tasks on Amazon Mechanical Turk can pay anywhere from a few cents to a few dollars.

TaskRabbit

TaskRabbit is a platform where you can perform odd jobs such as cleaning, moving, tutoring, and more. TaskRabbit allows you to set your own hourly wage and location so that local people who need a job done can contact you.

To work with Taskrabbit, you must be at least 18 years of age, have a checking account, and can pass a background check. To maximize the number of interested clients, add your best pitch about why people should hire you and try to maintain a high rating.

Respondent

Respondent is perhaps one of the highest-paying websites for micro jobs. Respondent focuses on one-on-one research studies, meaning that you are more likely to be interviewed, either individually or in a focus group with other people, instead of just filling out surveys.

To join Respondent, you will need to be at least 18 years of age. Moreover, you will need to verify your account with either a Facebook or LinkedIn profile. Lastly, you will get paid through a PayPal account, so make sure you have one set up.

Field Agent

Field Agent allows their users (or Agents, wink wink) to perform tasks independently and get paid. These opportunities include in-store surveys, or surveys that must be taken at a specified location; scavenger hunt, or finding UPC labels on specified products; audits, or jobs that require you to verify the status of a product; and more.

When you click on a job, you will see exactly how much you will get paid upon the job’s completion as well as an estimated time it’d take to complete said job. After receiving your payment, you can cash out by directly depositing your payment to either a checking account or a savings account or a credit/debit card.

Appen

By partnering with Appen, you are contributing to the future of technology by empowering artificial intelligent systems and helping them become, well, more like a human. There are many things humans can do that machines cannot do. For example, in understanding hints, ambiguity, and picking up on cues, humans outdo machines and AI. This performance gap is where people like you come in.

By doing tasks on Appen such as speaking a phrase or evaluating media posts, you help AI learn how a human would behave or react. Because you will be working with technology, you will need to be able to work with programs and apps and have access to a digital device that can connect to the Internet. Stress not about working with tech, however; Appen will provide clear instructions for each task you do.

Freelancer

Freelancer.com claims that the website is home to the largest number of freelancers compared to other similar websites. While this means that Freelancer is a popular website, it also means that there is intense competition among freelancers.

Freelancer.com allows freelancers the ease of looking for a job. Freelancers can look at posted jobs and bid on jobs that they like. Alternatively, they can enter competitions and win monetary prizes. To withdraw cash, you can either withdraw via a PayPal account, to your bank account, via a Skrill account, or via a wire transfer.

Truelancer

Truelancer is one of the best websites for freelancers to find work due to its fee structure, which means that Truelancer has lower service fees than most similar websites. Truelancer charges anywhere from 3% to 10% of a freelancer’s compensation, depending on your membership plan. For example, with a Pro membership plan that charges you $10 a month, you get charged an 8% service fee on each project you complete and can send over 100 proposals each month, making both the fee structure and membership plan advantageous for freelancers.

To withdraw cash, you can either withdraw via a PayPal account, Payoneer Account, or Payoneer Global Bank Transfer.

ySense

ySense is a get-paid-to website that is similar to Survey Junkie, Inbox Dollars, and Swagbucks. You can watch videos, take surveys, play games, and more to earn some extra cash. The age requirement to join ySense is also lower than many other websites: you need to be at least 13 years of age if you live in the United States and at least 16 years of age if you live outside the United States.

When it’s time to redeem your rewards, you can cash out via PayPal or choose a gift card. ySense offers gift cards for popular stores such as Best Buy, Amazon, and Bath & Body Works.

Scribie

Scribie is a website especially for audio and video transcription opportunities. By partnering with Scribie, you can often make between $5 to $25 an hour. However, you need to pass a test to be a freelance transcriber on Scribie.

When you apply as a freelance transcriber on Scribie, you enter a waitlist for people who are waiting to take a transcription test. If you pass the test, the test file you submitted will be paid and you are officially hired as a freelance transcriber. If you did not pass the test, they will return the file with notes detailing what you did wrong and how to improve. Fortunately, Scribie lets you test up to 10 times, so it’s not a big deal if you fail a few times.

Fancy Hands

Fancy Hands have micro jobs you can perform to get paid such as booking a flight or managing a website’s content. You can make anywhere between $3 to $7 for each completed task.

Yet, there are some downsides to Fancy Hands. First of all, you can only cash out using a Dwolla account instead of the popular option of PayPal. Secondly, Fancy Hands is only available for U.S.-based virtual assistants, so you will not be able to utilize this website if you live outside the U.S.

CrowdTap

Last but not least, CrowdTap is another popular website where you can answer surveys and questions to accumulate points that can be redeemed for cash (or in this case, gift cards).

After you have signed up on CrowdTap, you will get to browse opportunities that are available to you and how many points each opportunity presents. Since 1,000 points get you a $5 gift card, 200 points equivalent to $1. Unfortunately, CrowdTap does not pay you in cash but instead lets you redeem your points for gift cards.

How Much Can I Make with Online Micro Jobs?

More often, micro jobs come with micro pay. Many people find themselves getting paid an hourly rate that is below the minimum wage when performing micro jobs. When you think about it, a survey that takes about 15 minutes of your time may only pay a few cents. Not to mention, some websites will not let you know that you are not qualified to take a survey until you are several questions in, meaning you have wasted your time for nothing.

If you are fine with earning a few dollars a day from doing trivial tasks like watching videos in the background, answering some surveys, or playing a few games, these websites are a great option. However, they are best to be done in your free time and you should not expect a stable income from them.

Websites that allow you to work as a freelancer or independent contractor are more likely to generate a better income stream. Some of those websites are TaskRabbit, Freelancer, and Truelancer. Yet, generating reliable and decent income from these websites is no less challenging due to often intense competition as well as “getting your foot in the door”. As a freelancer or independent contractor, it can be difficult to find your first jobs and establish a long-term relationship with clients. Moreover, competition from other freelancers and contractors means that some clients will prioritize someone who is less skillful than you are and less experienced just because they charge a lower fee.

Yet, if you want to generate income that you can live on, you should utilize websites that let you work as a freelancer or contractor. While getting started will be challenging and even discouraging when no one responds to your bids, proposals, or profile, once you have established a long-term relationship with clients, it will be much easier to generate a livable income.

Are Micro Jobs Worth It?

It depends on what you are looking for. If you are looking for a part-time or full-time wage, they are probably not the best places. Get-paid-to websites often pay a rate as low as a few cents for your time, meaning that it can take a long time before you can reach a monetary amount even as low as $10. Many websites also charge a fee when you cash out, so some of your hard-earned money will not go to your wallet. While these websites are great for getting paid for things you probably are already doing such as playing games or reading emails, you should not have high expectations.

Websites that let you operate as a freelancer or independent contractor have a higher earning potential but also have drawbacks. First of all, one of the most common drawbacks is the service fee. Many websites charge a service fee of around 10% to 20% of your earnings. If you perform low-paying gigs, such as $5 or $10 gigs, this does seem like quite a significant cut from your paycheck. Not to mention, after paying self-employment and/or income tax, you may be left with only 60% of your earnings.

Secondly, price competition is often intense on such freelancing or independent contracting websites. Many impatient starters will charge a low rate, which results in 1) exploitation of freelancers or contractors, 2) intense price competition that results in qualified and experienced people lowering their rate, and 3) the ease for clients to pick from the lowest rate(s) offered. Now, there are many clients out there who prioritize qualified and experienced freelancers or contractors even if they do not have the lowest rate. This is a great thing if you are experienced. Yet, let’s say you a student that just graduated, you will find yourself pressured to lower your rate to find clients as well as competing against other freelancers or contractors who are much more experienced than you are (or at least claim they are).

Thirdly, your location may or may not be advantageous. From my experience, clients and job postings tend to favor freelancers and contractors from the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom more than other countries. If you are from a country such as China or India, you may be disadvantageous in the hunt for clients. There may also be opportunities that are exclusive for freelancers or contractors who are based in a certain country, making it even more difficult for all freelancers and contractors to have an equal chance of getting the best clients.

Lastly, you are not allowed to refer your clients to your own website or service at websites for freelancers and contractors. Even though the desire to refer clients to an external website is there to avoid the service fees, doing so may result in your account being banned. If you do not want to pay the service fee, it might be better to not use such websites in the first place and instead build your own client base through another digital service/product that is yours.

Some Websites Sound Too Good to Be True. Are They Scams?

The websites listed in this article have been verified and checked against multiple sources, including user reviews, to ensure that they are not scams. If you look up reviews on each individual recommended website, you will find some negative reviews. However, these reviews are often from frustrated clients who have had their accounts closed for knowingly or unknowing violating a website’s terms of service or are disqualified from doing certain things such as taking a particular survey.

That being said, there are many micro job websites that are scams. To avoid getting scammed, please do the following things before signing up and participating on a website:

1. Browse the website. Does the website look professional, well-maintained, and are suitable for a business environment? Does it glitch a lot? If the website looks unprofessional, has many spelling and grammar mistakes, or does not offer any way to contact a representative, it might not be the most reliable website
2. Check user reviews. However, don’t limit yourself to one user review source. Check reviews in app stores (be it the Apple or Google app store), on websites such as Trustpilot or Sitejabber, and the website’s or app’s social media page (if any) to avoid being influenced by just one source
3. Be aware if a website asks for information they shouldn’t ask for. If a website asks for your social security number or bank account and cannot justify why, it is a good idea to not trust the website
4. Be wary if a website begins with “http://” instead of “https://”. The “s” here stands for “secure”, which means website-related information are encrypted and therefore protected. Even though a website that starts “http://” does not mean it is a scam, you should avoid entering personal information on such a website

Conclusion

Micro job websites are a great way to make some extra money from doing tasks online from the comfort of your home (in most cases). Whether you are just looking to earn a few extra bucks or are looking to become a freelancer or contractor, I hope the websites recommended in this article will help you achieve your goal. Micro jobs often come with micro pay, but at the end of the day they still let you earn some extra cash and who is going to complain about that, right?