Side Hustles That Work: Review Websites, Get Paid

Side hustles are such a great way to help supplement your income to pay off debt, build savings, save up for a special occasion, or to help pay bills. What I love most about side hustles is the freedom that comes with them. Having a full-time job outside of the home is just not feasible in our world right now, so my side hustles are a great way to help bring in some much-needed extra cash.

Side Hustles That Work: Review Websites, Get Paid

Side hustles are such a great way to help supplement your income to pay off debt, build savings, save up for a special occasion, or to help pay bills. What I love most about side hustles is the freedom that comes with them. Having a full-time job outside of the home is just not feasible in our world right now, so my side hustles are a great way to help bring in some much-needed extra cash.

It took me a shamefully long time (*cough cough* I just started them in January *cough cough*) to learn about side hustles and how great they can be. I’m here to help make sure that the same thing doesn’t happen to you, too!

I’m going to share my first ever side hustle: telling companies how much you love or hate their sites online!

It’s called Usertesting and it’s amazing.

The Cliff Notes version of it is that companies want to know what people think of their sites’ color, layout, menu design, and ease of use, from real, normal people before they launch it to the general public. So the companies will pay for your opinion, to the tune of $10 per survey that takes around 10 minutes (usually takes around 5 minutes after you’ve done it for a while)!

My goal is to do at least 3 surveys each week. Some weeks I’ve done 10 surveys, and some I only do 1. It all depends on which surveys are available, which you qualify for, and which you can get to before everyone else does.

On average, I bring in $30 each week from Usertesting alone. Meaning that in a year, I bring in more than $1,500 of pure extra income in 26 hours in the whole year. In other words: $60 an hour.

Related Post: Make a Full-Time Income Proofreading

Here’s how it works:

1. Make your UserTesting account
2. Take your first sample survey
3. They’ll either approve or deny your account (I don’t know anyone who’s ever been denied)
4. Then you can take the regular surveys
5. When a survey becomes available, click the link to see if you qualify
6. You’ll answer a question (or 5, depending on how in-depth the surveyor is)
7. If you don’t qualify, it tells you and sends you back to the main page where you can see if you qualify for other tests
8. If you qualify, it will take you to the test and start the screen recorder.
9. You read the instructions out loud and follow them, all while thinking out loud so that there’s no silence to let the client wonder what you’re thinking
10. When you’re done, you end the survey and then you’ll see that you have $10 in your “pending payments”
11. They’ll pay you in 7 days from the time you finished the survey!

Yes, it’s actually that easy!

No, you’re not going to go out and quit your day job to do UserTesting full time. But it’s an extra $120 or so each month! That could be your “fun money” in the month, or a special present for yourself, or a bill payment, or it might even be able to pay for gas for your cars!

Pro tips:

1. Keep the window open on your computer all the time! I keep about 800 tabs open at any given time, and Usertesting is always one of them. Why? Becuase when tests become available, I want to be able to try to take them right away rather than having to wait for an email (that they hardly ever send out). The tests are on a first come, first served basis. So the first person to meet the requirements and take the survey gets to make the money. Since I work on my computer, I keep my Usertesting tab open and my sound on, and I wait for the bing to see if there’s a test I can take.
2. Install the mobile app. There are mobile tests that you can do as well as the computer tests. I’ve been told that these are longer and sometimes more difficult tests, but you can do it from basically wherever.
3. Make sure you meet the requirements! If they’re looking for a Hispanic male in his 50s and you’re an Asian woman in her 20s, they might not even pay you and you’ll get a poor rating which will affect your rating for other surveyors.
4. Be thorough. Pick the whole site over with a fine toothed comb. The more thorough you are, the better rating they’ll give you.
5. If you don’t sound like a crazy person talking to yourself, you’re not talking enough! They want to hear ever. little. thought. in your head. Everything. “Why is this down here? It should be up here” I HATE this color! It’s too bright!” “There’s too much text and not enough pictures.” “That’s a dumb question.” They want to hear it all! Again, this is the way for companies to get to know what people think of when they first visit the site, the first 3-second impression that is the make-or-break moment for a new visitor.
6. Make sure that your microphone is working. Somehow my mic volume had been on so low that the surveyor could barely hear what I had said. It’s also important that the background noise is minimal. I have to go upstairs to keep the kid noise out of the recording.

Bonus about Usertesting for bloggers or small businesses:

If you have a website, you can hear what people think of your site for free with Peek by Usertesting. Sometimes the tester is less than helpful (I got one once who couldn’t read cursive, and spent the entire time trying to figure out what my logo said instead of answering the questions… I’m not kidding). But you can keep trying until you get someone who can actually give you some good feedback!

Looking for more ways to make some money on the side and from home? Check out some more ideas HERE.

Have you tried Usertesting? What did you think about it?