I needed a fast side hustle with huge returns last year after being diagnosed with “Broke AF” during Late March, 2022. One of the most lucrative I discovered was paid studies. I ended up doing 37 studies with a profit of $4686.10, which comes out to $127 per study. Each of these studies took about an average of 3 to 4 minutes to apply to, and the studies themselves were an average of 68 minutes to 75 minutes each.
What is a paid study?
A paid study is a research study project that uses your input.
You provide researchers and marketers with insight and feedback in exchange for money.
These usually have high payouts for a short amount of time on your part.
There are many different kinds of paid studies
What are the type of paid studies?
Video Interviews — Answer questions and give feedback to the interviewer.
Video Screenings — Watch a video, film, commercial, etc. and give feedback.
Focus Groups — Participate with a group of people online or in-person, and give feedback to questions, products, and more.
Message Boards — Post on message boards like Doodle and Blackboard for a couple of days and get paid for it.
Product Tests — Test out products, and give feedback.
Taste Tests — Go onsite or get sent food and/or beverage, and give feedback.
Software Tests — Test out software and give feedback.
Game Play Tests — Play games and give feedback.
Clinical Trials — High pay, but requires more of a time commitment.
Test Drives — Take a vehicle out on a test drive, and give feedback.
And more….
Who are they looking for?
Essentially there are studies for anyone because these paid studies encompass a huge variety of demographics.
I have seen studies for finance professionals, for people in Thailand, for disabled people, for incredibly fit people, for overweight people, for low income people, etc.
They look at a wide variety of factors, you most likely fit into one
Where do you find studies?
Some of my favorite sites are Respondent, User Interviews, LE Research, and more.
There are some sites you should avoid, like Product USA which has given me alot of spam calls
I made a list of good studies on my (admittedly ugly looking and very much under construction) website here: https://www.fastnao.com/fast-paid-studies
Types of sites
There are sites that post studies and then you can apply for them
Occasionally you can automatically qualify for some of these
And there are sites that will email you studies or call you about them once you sign up for them
And then there are sites that do both
I recommend doing both, but it’s up to your style
What do you need to participate?
Computer or Desktop, or Phone
Private and Quiet Location
Bank Account
Sometimes they will ask you for your ID and address for payment and NDA reasons
I recommend making a Paypal and Square account if you have not already so you can transfer money into your bank if you’re paid via those methods
Studies will pay you via:
Direct Check
Zelle (Directly to your bank)
Paypal (Transfer Fee)
Gift Cards (Like Amazon for example, you can sell them online on sites like Raise or Gameflip)
I used Gameflip, I wish I didn’t
Prepaid Gift Cards (Charge to your own Square account to get access to the money)
Transferring money
Sometimes you will find yourself transferring money alot, especially if you need the money in your bank, or if you sold gift cards.
Here’s how the fees added up when I sold a gift card on Gameflip (Do not use gameflip!)
Get $100 Google Gift Card for a research study
Sell it for $90 on Gameflip
Instant Transfer $90 Gameflip earnings to Payoneer as Gameflip does not has no bank access
$90 is now worth $82.00
Instant Transfer from Payoneer to your bank
With instant transfer and yet another transfer fee
You make a profit of $76.19
Keep in mind that 1 hr of work for $76.19 is amazing.
Look for other places to sell your Gift cards online.
How much I earned in 2022
Video breakdown here**:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toASzDhAOjw
In My Bank
$4,376.10 for 30 studies
($145.87 per hour)
Avg of 75 min spent during study
Not In My Bank (Gift Cards)
$310.00 for 7 studies
($44 per hour)
Avg of 46 min spent during study
Unknown (Not sure if this was money I received from paid studies, but most likely was)
$1,119.36 for 9? Studies
($132.93 per hour?)
Average of ??? spent during study?
So depending on how you look at it. I made the following last year with paid studies:
$4,376.10
$4686.10
$5,882.46
Not all sites keep track of what you apply for, so my estimation is about 250 studies I applied for, with each taking 3 to 4 minutes. That’s 12 and a half hours of applying, but spread out through 8 months. I usually did this in bed, on the elliptical, or on a commute.
Note that I:
I started the last week of March, 2022
I had weeks where I applied a ton and weeks where I didn’t.
Due to Non Disclosure Agreements, I can’t tell you which specific companies I worked with, but some were big tech companies you know, and some were quite local.
Some sites record which studies you participated in, but there’s nothing stopping institutions from finding you on these sites and reaching out to you via email for a study
Once paid, you might not even know which study you got paid for, it might say something generic like “sent by Lake Research Group Inc”
I spent hours searching through my Email, Square Acct, Paypal Acct, Gameflip Acct, and Study sites to figure out how much I got paid.
Essentially what I’m saying is I tried my best to figure out what I earned!
Additional Tips and Tricks
Set up your site profiles to full detail — so your profile gets more paid studies coming to you, this saves you time
Check if a study is regional — This increases your chances of getting into a study
Use Autofill Software to save time — Browsers usually have this feature, this will fill in your info for you
Put answers into word doc — Some screenings ask the same questions over and over again, put your first time answers into a document so you can just copy and paste in the future
Aiming for high paying studies — Become an expert or fan of it and in just months, you can get accepted.
Make a separate email — You will get alot of study offers, get a separate email or make some filters
Watch out for bad study websites — Some are just an excuse to market to you.
Any feedback is welcome and good luck on your paid study side hustle journey!