14 Best Ways To Get Paid For Searching The Web

Using the internet to search for products, content, and answers to questions is something nearly everyone does every day.

What you might not know is that you can actually earn money by searching the web. This is a legitimate way to make money online, with many reputable websites willing to pay you a commission simply for using their platforms to search the internet.

While you won’t make a lot of money this way, the process is straightforward and doesn’t require any special skills or experience. You can utilize your free time to search for answers to your questions and earn money at the same time, making it ideal for college students, stay-at-home parents, part-timers, and anyone looking to earn extra cash.

Next, let’s explore how you can get paid for searching the web. You can also read more about Work From Home Jobs

Why do you get paid for searching the web?

Before I dive into which websites pay you for searching, you should understand why you can earn money through web searches.

Every time you search for something online, you’re providing valuable information that helps businesses improve their operations. Therefore, these companies are willing to pay you for every search you perform.

For instance, when you’re searching the web, they can analyze:

• The keywords you use
• The websites you visit
• The products or services you’re interested in

This information helps companies better understand the needs of their target users, allowing them to optimize their products and enhance services.

So remember, your online searching behavior is more valuable than you might think, and you’ll soon start earning money through web searches.

How can you make money by searching the web?

Here are several ways to earn money through web searches:

Sign Up for Reward Programs
Some reward programs offer points, cashback, or other incentives like free Starbucks gift cards for your searches. You can register on these platforms and easily earn cash rewards while browsing the web.

Install Browser Extensions
Some browser extensions track your online activities and reward you based on the websites you visit and your search queries. By installing and using these extensions, you can earn cashback, gift cards, or other benefits.

Use Cashback Websites
You can also earn money by using cashback websites while searching. These sites give you cashback when you shop through their links, allowing you to earn extra income while shopping.

Participate in Sponsored Content
Some platforms pay you to watch ads, videos, or read sponsored articles. By interacting with this content while searching online, you can easily increase your income.

Become a Search Engine Evaluator
As a search engine evaluator, you can earn money by analyzing the relevance and usefulness of search results. This job involves assessing search outcomes to ensure they help users, making it ideal for stay-at-home moms.

Test Websites and Applications
You can also become a tester for websites and applications, browsing online and evaluating navigation and user experience during the testing process. This method is not only simple but also allows you to earn money while browsing the web.

These methods are perfect for flexible full-time moms, enabling you to earn extra income while taking care of your family!

14 Ways To Get Paid For Searching The Web

Swagbucks

Swagbucks is a top choice among part-time earning platforms. You can not only earn money by searching the web but also participate in online surveys, watch ads, and play games for more rewards. Additionally, you can receive a $10 cash bonus just for signing up for a Swagbucks account.

Registration and usage of Swagbucks are straightforward. If you want to earn money by searching the web, you must use Google Chrome and install the Swagbucks Chrome extension.

This extension will set your default search engine to Yahoo instead of Google or Bing. When you search for anything using the Swagbucks search engine, the points reward system randomly adds points to your account, typically between 1-20 points (100 points can be redeemed for $1). You can redeem these points for cash via PayPal or for gift cards such as Amazon or Starbucks.

Swagbucks was founded in 2008, is headquartered in California, USA, has over 12 million members, and has received a high rating on Trustpilot with 37,300 user reviews.

Swagbucks Quick Summary:

• Earnings: $0.01-$0.20 per search
• Payment Methods: PayPal cash or gift cards
• Minimum Withdrawal Amount: $1 for gift cards, $5 for PayPal
• Signup Bonus: $10

Read More About：My Swagbucks Reviews

InboxDollars

InboxDollars is similar to Swagbucks and has a large number of registered users. You can register for both sites and participate in various tasks simultaneously.

InboxDollars allows users to earn money by browsing the web, reading emails, taking surveys, and playing games. They also offer gift cards from major companies like Netflix and Target.

Founded in 2000, InboxDollars has millions of registered users and has paid out over $80 million in cash rewards, with thousands of top user reviews on Trustpilot.

InboxDollars Quick Summary:

• Earnings: $0.01-$0.20 per search, up to $100 with scratch cards, $0.50-$5 per survey
• Payment Methods: PayPal cash, checks, Visa prepaid cards, gift cards
• Minimum Withdrawal Amount: $15
• Signup Bonus: $5

Microsoft Rewards

Microsoft Rewards offers Microsoft users the chance to earn rewards for searching the web and taking quizzes.

You simply need to use Bing for web searches or Microsoft Edge to accumulate points, which can be redeemed for various rewards like gift cards, sweepstakes entries, and charitable donations, but cannot be directly exchanged for cash. 1,000 points can be redeemed for a $1 gift card.

Microsoft Rewards has two levels. At level 1, you earn about 5 points per search, and at level 2, you earn five times that amount. You can earn more by searching on mobile devices or using Microsoft Edge compared to using a computer.

Microsoft Rewards Quick Summary:

• Earnings: 5 points per search (level 1 users can earn a maximum of 5 points per day or 150 points per month; level 2 users can earn a maximum of 20 points per day or 600 points per month)
• Payment Methods: Points can be redeemed for gift cards, sweepstakes entries, and charitable donations
• Minimum Withdrawal Amount: Varies by redemption method

Nielsen Rewards

Nielsen Rewards allows registered users to earn money by completing specific tasks. It works similarly to Swagbucks; you just need to register and install the Nielsen browser extension to earn money by searching the web. For additional points, you can upload your opinions and insights on TV networks, shows, and movies.

To upload your feedback, you need to download and use the Nielsen Digital Voice app and complete tasks within it to earn extra points. Once you accumulate enough points, you can enter Nielsen’s monthly giveaways, where lucky app users can win $10,000.

Nielsen Rewards Quick Summary:

• Earnings: Up to $50 per year
• Payment Methods: Points can be redeemed for PayPal cash or gift cards
• Minimum Withdrawal Amount: $5 (requires 800 points for redemption)

MobileXpression

MobileXpression is a data collection app available on Android and Apple devices, with a large user base of over 2 million members worldwide. You just need to download and install the MobileXpression app, which passively collects data in the background without gathering any sensitive or personal information.

The information collected includes device model, camera usage, overall usage time, messaging service usage, browser activity, video streaming, and the pages you click and visit. If you’re comfortable with this data collection, you can start earning right away.

This platform currently only accepts members from the UK, US, and Canada. All members must be at least 18 years old to register.

New users automatically receive a $5 Amazon gift card during their first week and can earn about $5 in points each month. You can redeem your points for Amazon gift cards, charitable donations, or enter sweepstakes.

MobileXpression Quick Summary:

• Earnings: Approximately $5 per month
• Payment Methods: Points can be redeemed for gift cards

Savvy Connect

Savvy Connect, established in 1999, is another app that collects your online data. It gathers search data, shopping information, entertainment trends, and also offers online surveys for which you get paid.

After downloading the Savvy Connect app, you only need to spend one minute registering an account. It will run in the background automatically, requiring no further action from you.

Savvy Connect Quick Summary:

• Earnings: Approximately $5 per month
• Payment Methods: Checks
• Minimum Withdrawal Amount: $1

Appen

Appen is a task platform that offers various tasks you can complete for payment, including search engine evaluator jobs where you search the web and rate search result pages.

Tasks generally take days to weeks to complete, with hourly earnings typically ranging from $4 to $14.

Appen’s tasks include: media evaluation, social media evaluation, translation services, surveys, data collection (short projects lasting 15 minutes to 3 hours), linguistic specialties (like text-to-speech, computation, phonetics, pronunciation, annotation), dictionary annotation, speech evaluation, image annotation, and transcription.

Appen Quick Summary:

• Earnings: $40-$140 per day
• Payment Methods: PayPal or Payoneer

InstaGC

InstaGC is a marketing-focused platform where you can earn points by searching the web, completing surveys, watching videos, shopping online, visiting partner websites, and signing up for memberships. Points can be redeemed for gift cards.

One of the biggest advantages of InstaGC is that you only need to deposit $1 in your account to redeem any gift card, though the downside is that payments are only available in gift card form.

Founded in 2011, InstaGC has hundreds of thousands of registered users and has distributed over $1.5 million in rewards. Since its inception, InstaGC has built a good reputation, and its parent company has an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau (BBB).

InstaGC Quick Summary:

• Earnings: $5-$20 per day
• Payment Methods: Gift cards
• Minimum Withdrawal Amount: $1

Qmee

With the Qmee app, users can earn money anytime and anywhere. By answering survey questions, users can earn cash or exclusive discount codes for specific products. Qmee provides online market survey questionnaires based on users’ profiles, making it a great way for students, stay-at-home moms, or anyone who enjoys sharing opinions to earn some extra cash. The app is completely free to use, with no initial investment required.

Additionally, Qmee offers a simple way to earn money by playing online games. Just download the specified games and earn rewards. Since its establishment in 2013, Qmee has issued over $45 million in rewards.

Qmee Quick Summary:

• Earnings: Survey rewards range from $0.10 to $1, with additional earnings from games, searches, and other activities.
• Payment Methods: PayPal
• Minimum Withdrawal Amount: None

Amazon Mechanical Turk

Amazon Mechanical Turk (commonly referred to as MTurk) is a crowdsourcing platform launched by Amazon in 2005, designed to provide opportunities for businesses and individuals to complete simple tasks, including data processing work that requires searching the web and evaluating the accuracy of search results for payment.

If you want to earn higher rewards on MTurk, you can choose relatively more complex tasks. However, generally speaking, tasks on MTurk are quite simple and time-efficient, making it ideal for stay-at-home moms or those looking for flexible work arrangements. You can log in at any time and choose tasks that suit your schedule and needs.

Amazon Mechanical Turk Quick Summary:

• Earnings: $3-$30 per hour (some simple tasks may only yield a few dollars per hour, while more complex tasks or specialized skills can earn $10 or more per hour)
• Payment Methods: Amazon gift cards, bank transfer
• Minimum Withdrawal Amount: $10

Telus International

Telus International is a company that allows you to earn money through online rating work and web searching.

You can complete tasks such as searching the web, analyzing and evaluating search results, and reviewing the language and tone of webpage content using your personal computer or smartphone.

Telus International Quick Summary:

• Earnings: $14 per hour
• Payment Methods: PayPal, bank transfer

Clickworker

Clickworker is a crowdsourcing platform similar to Amazon Mechanical Turk, where you can find various tasks to complete for payment, including earning money through web searches.

Typically, it requires you to search for address data for various companies and organizations online.

Clickworker Quick Summary:

• Earnings: $5-$100 per hour, depending on the tasks you choose
• Payment Methods: PayPal, Payoneer
• Minimum Payment Threshold: Weekly transfers

Work as a Search Engine Evaluator

If you want to develop a career through web searching, it’s entirely possible. You can even earn a decent income, but you’ll need to learn some specialized knowledge.

Search engine evaluators are responsible for analyzing search engines and scoring search results to improve their quality and relevance.

Many well-known search engines, such as Google and Bing, hire search engine evaluators to perform this work. You typically need to follow specific guidelines to complete tasks.

While some jobs require certain qualifications, beginners also have opportunities to find relevant work.

If you want to become a search engine evaluator, you can look for jobs on platforms like Glassdoor. You will need to pass an exam and have a basic understanding of search engines and web searching. Your job will involve analyzing search engines, assessing the relevance of search results, and providing optimization suggestions.

This career is interesting and offers many growth opportunities. As you progress, you can apply for better positions and become an expert in search engine evaluation.

Work as a Data Researcher on Upwork or Other Freelancing Platforms

If you want to be a search engine evaluator but don’t want to work full-time, there are other options. You can treat it as a part-time job by working as a data researcher on freelance platforms to earn extra money.

Upwork is a popular freelancing platform, and there are other options like Fiverr, SolidGigs, Freelancer, PeoplePerHour, and Hubstaff Talent.

If you have experience in search engine evaluation and data research, you can find clients on these platforms. The key is to fill out your profile carefully, listing your skills and experiences.

Once your profile is complete, you can browse relevant job listings and submit your applications. After completing projects, remember to ask clients for feedback (like reviews) to make your profile more attractive, helping you secure more projects and increase your income. Since you’re earning online, consider moving your financial management online for easier transfers and better control of your finances.

FAQ

Can I Make Money Searching the Web?

Yes, you can. Almost anyone can earn some extra income by allowing companies to collect data on their search habits.

If you have specialized and extensive knowledge in search engine operations, you can turn it into a career and earn a substantial income, such as becoming an SEO professional with an annual salary exceeding $50,000.

How Much Money Can I Make Searching the Web?

Searching the web doesn’t yield very high earnings, so you can’t rely on it to make a lot of money. However, it can provide additional income in your spare time. Data surveys indicate that search workers generally earn between $3 to $10 per hour, depending on the platform, with variations in income. You can look for higher-commission platforms to boost your earnings.

Can I Be a Professional Search Engine Evaluator?

Yes, you can. However, to become a professional search engine evaluator, you’ll need to systematically learn about search engines. It’s advisable to participate in some specialized online training courses to enhance your industry experience. As your experience grows, you can eventually become a professional and provide services to clients on freelancing platforms like Upwork.