7 Simple Ways to Earn Extra Money While at Work

1. Get paid to do what you already do online

If you’re one of the millions of people around the world that uses work time to do some web browsing – then you could make some real cash out of it.

You can do this using Swagbucks.

Swagbucks is primarily a survey site that rewards users with points that can be redeemed for cash and gift card codes. So, if you have time to fill out a few surveys during work time, then do so.

You can earn money simply by browsing the web as you normally do with Swagbucks. It’s a reputable site with an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau, which can help you earn a real side income. The site also pays you for watching TV, testing websites, and shopping.

If you join Swagbucks now, you’ll get a free $5 sign-up bonus.

2. Get paid to search the web

If you can’t access Swagbucks at work—some employers block it due to its popularity with employees—then try out Bing.

Bing is a search engine that’s often neglected in favor of Google. But, if you switch to Bing to do all of your web browsing, you could earn some rewarding points.

Through the Microsoft Rewards program, you earn points for searching. You can then redeem these points for merchandise or gift cards. For every two searches, you’ll earn one point. When you have enough points, you can redeem them—for example, 475 points will earn you a $5.00 Amazon gift card.

3. Get paid to shop via Rakuten

A lot of people (whether they like to admit it or not!) do their online shopping while they are at work. But, most people don’t know that they could actually make money from it.

Using Rakuten, you can earn cash-back on all of your online purchases. Essentially, Rakuten is a cash-back website and shopping portal that allows you to earn cash-back on purchases at more than 2000 retailers.

So, if you buy stuff via Rakuten, you can earn between 2% to 4%, and sometimes even up to 25% of your spending back. That can really add up over time. Plus, the site also offers you $10 just for signing up!

Join Rakuten now to get your $10 bonus.

4. Watch TV or listen to radio

Media Rewards app pays you to watch TV. You can either watch TV or listen to radio to earn.

For every minute the app runs in the background, you earn points which you can redeem for cash and prizes. They also pay you up to $10 for taking surveys.

Plus, it’s a fun way to pass the time at work!

5. Take pictures on your phone

If you spend a lot of time on your smartphone at work anyway, why not get paid for it?

An app called Foap pays people for photos. So, if your cell phone has a pretty good camera and you’re a decent photographer, you could earn some cash from your images.

After you upload your images to Foap, the site puts them up for sale to others. If someone purchases one of your photos, you’ll get paid $5 for it.

Best of all, Foap accepts a wide range of images—whether it’s a photo of a desk or an office flower pot—meaning you don’t have to worry about finding subjects to photograph at work. Just make sure your photographs are high quality, and they’ll accept your images regardless of the subject.

It’s an excellent passive income stream. Once you’ve uploaded the photo, you don’t have to do anything more—just wait for the money to come in.

6. Amazon Mechanical Turk

Amazon Mechanical Turk is a platform that connects requesters—people who need tasks completed—with workers. I’ve talked about making money with Amazon Turk before.

As a Mechanical Turk Worker, you complete random tasks referred to as Human Intelligence Tasks or HITs—such as editing transcripts or typing text from images—and get paid in return.

You can work from wherever you want, take on as much or as little work as you want, and choose your own working hours.

While it won’t make you a millionaire, completing a few easy tasks during your downtime at work can earn you a nice little side income.

7. Make money with Get Paid To programs

Online, there are tons of websites that will pay you to simply complete a variety of tasks.

These sites are known as “Get Paid To” or GPT programs.

Most GPT programs ask you to complete simple tasks that you are probably already doing, like browsing the Internet, shopping online, watching videos, and giving your opinion in surveys and polls, among other random tasks.

For example, EarningStation will pay you to complete surveys, and UserTesting.com will pay you to test out websites.

Wasting Time at Work

Obviously, we’re not advocating you skip your duties at work to earn extra money using these methods. Not to mention, you can use these methods on your break as well.

But let’s face it, most of us do have a few minutes here and there at work where we do other stuff besides work.

And if you’re anything like the over 3000 people who responded to a survey by Salary.com, you probably spend parts of the day surfing the Internet on websites unrelated to work.

If you’re already doing that, wouldn’t it be better to use that time to earn some extra cash?

Think of your time like money—you can choose to spend it however you want. You can waste it or use it wisely.

Consider your time at work a “sunk cost”—essentially cash that’s been spent and you can’t recover, regardless of what action is taken.

If you work a 40-hour week, then you spend 40 hours at work. That doesn’t change. You can’t go home early or arrive late. Your working hours are set, so your time is already spent, and you can’t change that.

So, why not use the time you’re already spending at work to make more money?

After all, you’re already getting paid to be at work, so if you’re sitting around bored, why not earn some more cash on the side?

It’s an excellent way to increase your income—just follow these simple tips.

Rather than being bored at work, why not utilize your downtime and maximize your profits? By following these tips, you’ll boost the amount of cash you earn during your work time.