Online Surveys and Market Research:
There are a variety of companies offering various incentives, vouchers and sometimes cash for survey participation - you're not going to make your fortune but a few pounds here and there or the odd freebie can make a difference.
Toluna - test products, take part in paid surveys, for points which can then be redeemed into vouchers or the chance to win £1000 in cash every month.
IPSOS - prize draws for survey completion and products to test.
Lightspeed UK - surveys rewarded with redeemable points and £2000 prize draw entries.
Consumer Lifestyles - £5 or £20 Virgin Wine vouchers plus competition entry for survey completion.
Mi-info - slightly different this one. You are rewarded with High st. shopping vouchers for viewing adverts.
Valued Opinions - earn 'cash' redeemable for vouchers - payout when you reach £10.
The Great UK Survey - 5 minute survey for £5000 competition entry.
- prize draws, special offers and rewards in return for survey completion.
- earn points that can exchanged for goods.
American Consumer Opinion - pay cash and do accept UK users - send you a cheque in Sterling when you reach about £5.
Pinecone Research are a superb panel to get involved with paying £4 either in luncheon vouchers or paypal for each survey - you receive payment within days too - sign up closed just now, but watch this space!
Cashback for shopping etc.
Line My Pocket - cashback for online shopping and free trials.
Free Fivers - cashback site which credits you with £5 on joining.
Top Cashback - one of the largest and best known cashback sites.
eCashBack - offer cashback for online shopping with over 600 UK shops including Amazon, Comet and WHSmith - you get £2.50 just for joining.
Free to Enter Competition Sites:
Get Me A Ticket
Loquax - detail lots of UK competitions.
UK Competitions - usually listing over 1000 UK competitions.
Car Boot
Sales:Have a look around your
house and loft. Is there a load of stuff that you
don't want anymore? Try not to be too sentimental
about this and do not dismiss stuff as 'rubbish'
- you could earn several hundred doing a few car
boot sales with it.
Old
videos and CDs are popular items and you can
fetch £2 or £3 for them. Books are quite good
sellers too (though check Amazon Marketplace or eBay
below first - you could probably get more for
them there unless very tatty) - asking prices
seem to be around 50p for paperbacks and £1 for
hardcovers. Toys are popular too - children will
lead their parents over to your stall! Hideous
(very) clocks, pictures, vases and ornaments will
sell fast and people may even fight over them! If
you grow plants these will sell also at around
50p each.
Obviously
you make more money at the bigger regular car
boot sales especially if you are willing to brave
the cold. Summer weather means you will have a
lot of competition. Watch out for the large group
of resellers (sometimes fondly referred to as
vultures) who will descend on your boot as soon
as it is opened - it is good to have someone with
you - one of you to unload and one to watch the
clientelle!
eBay.co.uk
and Amazon
Marketplace are good online places to sell
off your unwanted books, videos, CDs etc. (and in the case of eBay just about anything else as well!!) Both are easy to sign up for - make sure you give accurate descriptions of your goods and package things up carefully with bubble wrap to avoid unhappy customers and negative feedback. About once a month eBay have free listing days - worth looking out for.
Making
Money from Your Website:
This
is possible but it takes a lot of work initially
if it's going to take off. You may build a
beautiful website but unfortunately the 'if you
build it they will come' thing doesn't work here!
Getting listed in the main search engines is
important - especially the DMOZ (listing
is free but make sure you choose the most
specific category for your site) as this will
ensure you get into the Google Directory. You
will need to get lots of other sites linking to
you to rank well in searches - we do have a 'readers sites' section on our links page -
if you have a site let us know! A great webhost
is oneandone.co.uk who sell
domains cheaply (free website addresses do not do so well in the search engines), have hosting packages starting
at about £2 a month though for about £5 you can
have as many domains as you like hosted on the
same package - they also have a free
website-creator so even if you don't know html
you can build a good site.
There are some good affiliate sites that have many different advertisers to choose from:
Webgains
Paid On Results
AffiliateWindow.com
There
are one or two other ways to have a small website
without being able to build one (but these will
still need heavily promoting to do much):
CafePress
(based in America but ship everywhere) will
create an online store for you free and they
manufacture and send everything too - you design
the logos and pictures to go on the t-shirts,
mugs, mousemats...check out our own little Frugal Living in the UK shop to see how it works!
Spreadshirt is a great company for designing custom t-shirts - you can also open a shop with them.
