Ever Thought Of Working As An Agent For The KGB?

Have you ever seen that TV commercial that advertises a service where you can text message a question, any question, and receive a timely answer? Well, this service is provided by KGB. IIIII have just recently signed up as a Secret Agent for this company. I havn't began working yet, but I'm midway through the hiring process. This seems like it could be a legitimate way of making money!

KGB pays its members on a per-answer, to a question basis. As of now, the rate is 10 cents per answer. To become a member, you must start by taking the Secret Agent test, which took me a few times to pass. It can be taken here http://kgb.com/index. After that, you will be allowed to apply for the position, pick your preferred hours, and then begin training. Working for this company requires a 6.5 hour/week minimum work time, which isn't too bad considering there are 168 hours in a week!

In the coming weeks, I will post how my experience as a full fledged secret agent has been!

http://kgb.com/index

Ever Heard Of IFW?

Thought I went missing did ya!? Nope, it just took me a little while to get adjusted to the dorm life once again. Anyways, I have recently stumbled upon a very interesting way to make a few dollars on the Internet. Recently, (or perhaps for quite sometime) people have profited through the use of “Incentivized Freebie Websites.” Veterans of these websites shorten the name to IFW.

First, I must explain how these websites function before I explain how money is to be made. These “IFW” websites are paid by other companies to advertise for them. These companies offer the IFW website a certain amount of money, for a certain amount of “leads.” From here, the IFW takes a portion of that money received from the company and offers it as a prize. In order to win this price, an individual must sign up for that paying companies service (In most cases, it is a free or inexpensive trial). Along with this, the individual must refer other individuals to sign up. When the original person gains enough “referrals,” the IFW then gives away the price.

From this explanation, one can see that the IFW website profits from the extra cash from the companies, the companies receive the subscriptions it seeks, and the individual received the price from the IFW website. What about the people that the individual refers? They are paid a portion of the price that is received from the IFW. This way, EVERYBODY PROFITS.

Have you heard of Project Payday? Project Payday claims that by becoming a member, they will let you in on a BIG secret way to make money. That BIG secret way of making money has been explained above! Project Payday, in my own opinion, offers the consumer absolutely nothing that they can’t find and research themselves.

Give it a try if you are interested. To get started, sign up at http://www.freelunchroom.com , where you can match up with people to complete these offers. One Warning however, Carefully research the company you are signing up for to make sure they are a legitimate company. Also, remember to cancel before your trial subscription is up. If you would like some more info, or would like to do this with myself, send me an email. I’m definitely no pro, but I have a pretty good grasp on it.

Ideas From One Cash-Strapped Undergrad, to Another

I was at Crimson Cafe, which is the newest cafe on the BSC campus, and a friend of mine and I were having a dead-end conversation, as usual. The topic of the day was, what can we do to make extra money, with minimal effort. Needless to say, that conversation didn't get too far. But it did spark my imagination, to think of lucrative ideas requiring minimal effort. Below, i've combined what I already do for extra money, along with ideas that I have researched.

Online Surveys - Let me just start with this, you won't become rich by doing online surveys. However, if you ever find yourself with extra time, this may be a viable option. I've been taking online surveys for about two months now. I personally do the majority of surveys while I sit at work, but im sure that you can agree, us undergrads have no problem with finding spare time. Check my last posting, where I rate my two favorite Survey Sites.

Help out a classmate with notes, papers, and knowledge - Next time a semester comes to a close, think twice before burning your class notes and papers. There are undergrads that are very desperate to pass classes, so desperate that they will pay you for your notes. For example, at student of fortune, undergrads post questions, request notes, and need tutoring. The best part is that they are paying money for it. If tutoring is more your thing, E-tutor might be the way to go

Become a Freelancer - Before last week, I didn't know what freelancing meant. It basically means, you don't have a set job, and you are willing to work different types of small, under the table jobs. Now it is easier than ever to sell your services. Websites such as Barefoot Student and Odesk, offer a vehicle through which you can post your services. Services can include, helping a student move in, transportation, cleaning, babysitting, and much more.

Make a funny Video - If your weekends are as crazy as mine at school, there are countless occurrences, that if recorded, would make for a very funny video. At Revver, you can post videos that you create, and based upon how many views it receives, you will get paid. You also get paid through people clicking on the advertising that is on your video's page. If I had a Digital Video Camera, I would be all over this, but I only have an analog camcorder.

Recycle Cans like a Bum - Collecting cans isn't the most sought after job, but if you can rake in $40+ dollars over the course of a weekend, can collecting, can prove lucrative. This is extremely practical if you, or a friend, has a party house on campus. Last year, my Roommate and I went every Sunday, after three days of hard partying, and collected $40 - $50 dollars worth of cans, which we would split 50/50. Don't waste your time at Stop&Shop, redeeming cans one by one. At a redemption center, you can bring pre-counted bags full of cans and they will give you cash.

Be the Local Dorm Laundromat - I have not tested this out personally, yet. But my Fraternity is considering this idea for a fundraiser. All that needs to be done, is to set up posters around the dorm advertising your service for a particular date. You charge each client an extra dollar or two, and they can bring their laundry down to you, you wash it, dry it, (perhaps iron it for an additional fee) and then bring the finished laundry to their room. If you plan on trying this, I would try to create a team that can help you. Offering to wash peoples laundry, by yourself, may come across as creepy haha.


Finally, Throw a Party! - This is something that I am very experienced with, and has proven time and time again, to be EXTREMELY lucrative. I will give you a personal example. Last Halloween, I presented a proposal to my friends who had an off-campus house, which outlined, in detail, exactly how the party would be run, who would run it, and how we would profit. After expenses, which mainly was purchasing cheap Keystone Light thirty racks, we profited around $300 dollars. In ONE NIGHT! I won't get into detail on the actual specifics of the execution (maybe a future post will be dedicated to explaining exactly how to plan, and execute, a profitable party).

I'm not trying to explain exactly what you should do, to make money on campus, I am merely proving ideas through which you can brainstorm with! For more info, check out TheSimpleDollar, which is one of my favorite financial blogs, it has a lot of good financial advice, for the common person!

Survey Sites are NOT Created Equal!

Ever thought about doing surveys? I never thought about trying them, until one day, when I was at work, sitting at my lonely cubicle. I work at a livery company (limos & such) and with the current economic situation, not many people are calling to book reservations. For the past year or so, my cubicle has been used for: writing school papers, getting lost in wikipedia, and researching various topics that I find interesting at the moment.



My experience with taking online surveys have been mixed, but overall, I have been extremely happy with the experience. It is obvious that one cannot become rich through taking online surveys, but the way I look at it, I have a lot of freetime at work and there are not many other ways to make extra money, while chained to a cubicle. Out of the 7 survey sites that I applied for, all at the same time, there has been two that I have used on a consistent basis. Below I'll give you my experiences with these two legitimate sites.



Opinion Outpost - This site is within my top 2 favorites. It takes under 10 minutes to sign up, and then you are ready to start surveying. They have a "profiles section," in which you complete "mini-surveys," which are used to match you to real surveys the site finds. In any given week, I receive about 10 to 15 survey opportunities, with payouts ranging from $1.00, all the way up to $20.00! In my experience, the most I have ever made from one survey on this site was $10.00, which was a fun survey about beer. It took me about 50 minutes, and I made 10 dollars. They do have a threshold, one has to meet, in order to cash out and it is $5 dollars. About two weeks ago, I requested a check for the amount I have gained, which was $22. Just last night I received a letter from opinion outpost, with a check for that amount! https://www.opinionoutpost.com/


Pros
- Legitimate Survey Site

- More often than not, you are not disqualified from surveys

- Surveys generally take the amount of time that they say

- When you request a check, (in my experience) it arrives a lot sooner than the 4-8 weeks they say it does

Cons
- Not really any I can point out, aside from the fact that they cannot pay via paypal.

Lightspeed Consumer Panel - This is possibly my favorite online survey site. There is a quick signup process, and from there, I receive anywhere from 10 -30 survey invitations, in my email, per week. Although I disqualify from quite a few of them, I have made in total around $35 dollars in the past month. $35 doesn't seem like much, but I like to look at it like it is overtime pay. Lightspeed also has surveys where they mail you free products to try and then take a follow up survey. Just last week, they sent me a box of trojans to try out. http://us.lightspeedpanel.com/

Pros
- Legitimate (not a scam)
- Many survey invitations per week
- Get paid through Paypal, which I have done 4 times so far.
- The threshold for payout is only $5 dollars.
- It takes about 3 - 4 business days from the time you request payment, until the time the money shows up in your paypal account.
- Some interesting surveys, generally the hardest surveys to qualify for, are the most interesting.

Cons
- There are more low paying surveys at this site, compared to Opinion Outpost.
- The screeners that Lightspeed uses, to match you to future surveys, are somewhat tedious.