Top 10 Companies That Will Pay You Just to Use The Internet

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Have you ever thought that of all the ways to earn money online, you could get paid for searching the internet? Today, the digital world is so diverse that there are many legitimate ways to earn money just by searching for things on the web.

It’s as simple as that. With a connection to the web, you can jumble together an array of part-time jobs – from renting out a room in your home on Airbnb to running errands or shopping for your neighbors through apps like TaskRabbit, Postmates, or instacart. Heck, you can even buy and resell items (or sell your old stuff) through sites like Craigslist, eBay, and some newer niche outlets.

If you are hooked onto your laptop and get on the web for everything, then this post is going to show you some smart ways to get paid to search the internet.

How to Use The Internet
Uses of The Internet
10 Companies That Will Pay You Just to Use The Internet
10 Sure Ways to Make Money From Your Blog or Website

How to Use The Internet

The internet is a big place, and navigating it can be daunting. Try out our top tips for not getting lost in cyber-space.

1. Use internet search engines

Internet search engines are amongst the most useful tools at your disposal for finding information online, so use them. Rather than guessing the full addresses of websites, simply type the information into a search engine such as Google or Bing.

Not only will this lead you to the information that you require, it will also broaden your search to include other relevant sites. Clear your cookies and browsing history so you can stay private online. Clearing your web browsers cache will also fix temporary internet errors.

Be weary of what you search for on the internet, websites like Google can use your search keywords you use to collect information about you.

2. Bookmark pages

Found an amazing site the other day? Can’t remember the URL now? Always bookmark websites that you find interesting. Bookmarking creates a handy little shortcut in your toolbar to help you return to the site of interest with just a click of the mouse.

Different browsers have different ways of bookmarking pages, but they’re all usually accessed near the top of your browser. If you’re using Internet Explorer, look for the Favourites menu, if you’re using Chrome or Firefox look for the star symbol by the address bar. A simple click will do the rest. Alternatively, pressing CTRL and D on your keyboard, will bring up the bookmark menu whichever browser you are using.

When you want to revisit the page, simply go to your bookmark / favourite menu and you will find the page saved.

3. Upgrade your browser

Whilst there are merits to each of the main browsers, there’s no point in setting yourself at a disadvantage by operating a browser which is not up to date. Keep an eye on these messages to update your browser, they can mean the difference between operating a top of the range browser and a sluggish has-been.

4. User browser shortcuts

Browser shortcuts can save you a lot of time. Instead of finding and navigating the correct menu with your mouse, you could use a few simple keyboard shortcuts.

CTRL F: brings up a search box allowing you to search for a specific word on a page
CTRL D: bookmarks a page
CTRL P: prints whatever you have selected
CTRL T: opens a new tab
CTRL W: closes window
CTRL +: zooms in
CTRL -: zooms out
Alt Home: returns you to your homepage
F5: refreshes or reloads the page that you are on
F11: lets you toggle between full and regular screen mode, a particularly useful shortcut if you are using multiple windows

Get to know your browser shortcuts and surf the web more effectively.

5. Keep browser plugins updated

Browser plugins are handy pieces of downloadable software that help you to use various applications in conjunction with your browser. Watching a YouTube video? You’ll need a Flash plugin. Streaming some music? You’ll need a plugin for that too. Be sure to download the latest version whenever you are required to, failing to do so could hamper your browsing experience.

6. Use tabbed browsing

If your desktop is overflowing with browsing windows and you can’t remember which one contained the vital piece of information that you were searching for, maybe it’s time to use tabbed browsing.

Tabbed browsing allows you to open various different websites in one browser window simply by using tabs. You can open a new tab by either clicking the symbol to the right of the last tab or by pressing CTRL T.

7. Update your antivirus

Often overlooked until it’s too late, a good antivirus program can make the difference between a nice, healthy computer and one which is overflowing with all sorts of computer nasties.

Always keep an eye on your antivirus software and ensure that all its components are in good working order. If not; download an update, it will be more than worth it.

8. Use ‘Tab’ to jump between fields

Whilst a mouse is an undeniably useful device, it’s not always necessary. In fact, not using a mouse can save you a great deal of time. If you’re filling in fields on a web page, rather than clicking on each field in order, simply press ‘Tab’; this will jump between the fields for you.

Clicking tab enough times will cycle back to the beginning of the web-page. You can also use the up and down arrows to select things in drop down menus, saving you even more time.

9. Drop the http:// and www. prefixes

Whilst explaining to people that http stands for hyper text transfer protocol is undoubtedly a great way to win yourself some friends, putting it at the front of a web address is just an exercise in wasting time.

Drop the http:// and www prefixes as they are simply not necessary. Instead, just type the remainder of the address and press enter. It will work, trust me.

Always check the URL of a website you are about to click on. Make sure the URL is secure by looking at the ‘S’ at the end of ‘http’. Also, check the privacy policy of websites and make sure the URL is spelled correctly. Check out this great link checker guide: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-quick-sites-that-let-you-check-if-links-are-safe/.

10. Search direct from your browser

We’ve already covered search engines and how useful they can be to the modern internet browser, but typing in the address of a search engine can really eat up a lot of time. To create a truly streamlined browsing experience, why not access the search engine of your choice directly from your browser.

You can do this in two ways; the first way is through a customisable home screen, like the one offered by Google, which gives you the option of having a search engine on your homepage. The other is by customising your browser to give you a search bar of your choice.

Use the browser options menu to do this. More advanced browsers will allow you to search eBay, YouTube, Amazon and a variety of other sites simply by selecting the appropriate search option in a drop down menu.

Uses of The Internet

1. Electronic Mail (email)

The first major use of the internet is Email. People thronged to Email for sharing information, data files, Photos, Videos, Business communications, and any other files instantaneously with others.

This had enabled faster communication between people and improve business efficiency. Email has reduced the usage of paper considerably and reduced load on physical mail systems.

Though other latest collaboration tools provide many rich features, they are not able to de-popularize Email and it still rules the official and personal communication.

There are many free Email websites offering mail services and practically every individual has an Email address and connected by Email. Email concepts paved the way for developing many innovative tools for improved collaboration.

2. FTP File Transfer

This is the second major use case for the internet in the early days. FTP is the file transfer protocol that enables data exchange between two stakeholders over internet media in a secure way. The data exchange may occur between two business entities or customers with business and vice versa.

Normally E-mail restricts the size of a file that can be shared and also it is not secured to share sensitive and confidential data across public networks. FTP concept is still in use even today in mobile apps for files downloading.

3. Search Engines

These engines locate the information one seeks, available in whichever server across the globe (world wide web). Google, Yahoo, and MSN are the renowned search engines in use today. One can search on anything in this site and the search question can be in any format. In fact, People have started using the word Google as a generic verb synonymous to search.

4. E-Commerce

The Internet enables the selling of goods and services in online mode. There are many e-commerce platform vendors like Amazon, Ola who aggregate several products/services available in the market and sell them through their portal to customers.

Products are procured by platform vendors, stored in their warehouses, packed and distributed by them in their own brand. Customers get a good discount and they don’t have to visit physical stores.

5. Online Banking

Called as Net banking, it allows doing banking transactions at ease sitting at home or while on mobile. Footfalls in the bank branches have come down appreciably with almost all the services are available in net banking 24×7.

Any amount of money can be transferred instantaneously through this facility. E-Banking supports Electricity bills, Telephone bills, and other services payment.

6. Cashless Transactions

Bill Payment at merchandise outlets through debit cards, credit cards, UPI gateway are on the increase. Cash circulation gets reduced in the system to the extent of the growth of these transactions. It’s growing by more than 50% every year and it is expected to grow by 10 times over the next 5 years.

7. Education

The Internet offers a wealth of educational material on any subject with structured navigation and search facilities. One can seek any reading material and the internet will get it for them from any server in any part of the world and people need not have to go to libraries to go through books.

Those who cannot attend physical (face to face) class can take an online course where they get connected to the teacher, in the other part of the world, in video mode and get taught on the subject backed up other audiovisual tools.

8. Collaboration

Online chat tools like messenger, Skype, and other video conferencing tools help people to get connected 24 x7 and have a hassle-free business and personal discussion. This avoids unwanted travel by people and save their time for productive use. The Internet has also facilitated work from home with seamless connectivity to the office and avoid daily commuting.

9. Social Networking

Internet connects people online and enables them to form social groups. Information, Ideas, views, and opinions on any social/political issues are exchanged. The political and social organization makes use of this platform in promoting their interest among the public.

10 Companies That Will Pay You Just to Use The Internet

If you have a lot of time to kill, you could make some serious side cash – or maybe just a few hundred dollars’ worth of gift cards every month.

Many of these companies simply want to track your behavior online so their clients can better advertise to people in your demographic. Keep in mind, that means not everyone will qualify for some programs — a company may be looking specifically for 25- to 34-year-old men in a certain region or income bracket, for example.

Even so, it doesn’t hurt to apply. So, open your browser, and learn all the different ways you could be earning money for surfing the web.

Swagbucks

What is the most trusted get-paid-to (GPT) site around? Swagbucks.

It has a Trustpilot score of 8.6, it gives out over 7,000 gift cards every day, and it has paid over $271 million in cash back and gift cards till now.

That says a lot about this amazing website. But that’s not all. Of all the ways you earn extra income with Swagbucks, searching the web is the most passive way. Just by downloading the Swagbucks app to your browser and doing your normal searches every day, you keep adding up “SBs”.

Another perk of using this browser extension is you get notified of any cash back or bonus SBs when you shop online.

If you are going to do your usual web searching, then you better do it with Swagbucks because it is giving you a $5 bonus to sign up!

Wonder

As a Wonder researcher, you will be researching things all over the internet and digging out the right answers to the questions asked. This is how it works: you select your question, gather all the data and information about it, and post the answers back on Wonder.

The “Research Assistants”, as they are called, are required to work really hard to find relevant answers that are backed by legitimate sources.

You can apply for the role on the website and fill out your application with basic information. You also need to take a test that is similar to the kind of work you receive after getting hired.

Once you get hired, you need to follow a set of guidelines, and there is a lot of support to help you understand the job. The pay is around $8 to $20 per hour depending on the kind of answers you provide. If you are really through with your research skills, then apply to be a Wonder researcher.

Small Business Knowledge Center

This is a weird one, but it works nonetheless. Basically, a company called the Small Business Knowledge Center will pay you (in gift cards) for your junk mail – both the physical kind that comes in your mailbox, and even your email spam.

You might be questioning the sanity of a company that pays for stuff most of us throw away, but it is legit. Clients in the financial services and insurance industries “use this information for competitive intelligence and product development purposes,” according to the SBKC website.

If you sign up and qualify, you’ll be rewarded with gift cards just for sending your pesky junk mail!

Smart Panel

Ok, this is yet another easy way to earn money passively by browsing.

Smart Panel is backed by Verto Analytics and has been quite popular for earning extra cash without doing almost anything. How does this work? You need to download the app onto your mobile, and it records your data.

The data is anonymous, and it helps brands to improve their products for consumers.

First of all, there is a $5 FREE bonus for signing up, and from there on, as long you keep the app on your phone, you get paid every month ($5). There is also a loyalty bonus for keeping the app.

MobileXpression

It cannot get easier than this. With MobileXpression, you need to download its app onto your smartphone or tablet. The app runs in the background and collects your data (nothing personal) about your browsing history and duration.

This data is studied for mobile browsing trends. As per its website, MobileXpression confirms that the data is anonymous to third-party websites, and none of your calls or texts are monitored.

So how can you earn with MobileXpression?

You earn credits for your participation that can be redeemed for gift cards.

Another simple, and most importantly, passive way to earn money browsing on your phone.

InboxDollars

This is the second most popular GPT site after Swagbucks, that has millions of members in the US and the UK. It has given out millions in gift cards and cash over the years, and one of its biggest earning features is searching the web.

Like other GPT sites, you can do your normal search and earn around one cent (for around four searches). The key to earning more with this is search only using its website.

Apart from searching, it has many ways to put extra cash in your pocket like doing some offers, watching TV, playing games, doing surveys, referring friends, etc.

Qmee

Qmee is a browser extension that rewards you to use your computer every day.

So how does it work? You have to sign up with your email address, download the browser extension, and start doing your online search as you normally would.

Occasionally, a left sidebar comes up with ads, and when you click on the ads, you get paid around 4–6 cents for viewing the ad.

I know it does not sound like much, but because this is something you do every day, you can earn some extra cash to click the ads here and there.

Your earnings with Qmee depend on how many searches you do every day.

Zoombucks

This is pretty similar to Swagbucks as it is a GPT site, and Zoombucks offers a lot of ways where you can earn money on the side. One of the ways is by searching the web.

This site gives you “Zoombucks” to do your usual searches every day through its interface. Though both Zoombucks and Swagbucks operate very similarly, how much you earn with search depends on your frequency of searching for both.

This website also has some other ways to earn like surveys, watching videos, cash back, etc.

It is also open to audiences from all over the world like Swagbucks is.

Survey Junkie

Like some of the other options on this list, Survey Junkie pays you to…..wait for it…..take surveys! Signing up is free and you can be on your way to answering important survey questions for companies in no time. When you do, you’ll earn virtual points you can redeem for Paypal funds or electronic gift cards.

But, how much can you earn? It depends. You earn between 100 and 200 points for most surveys, but you can’t cash out your points until you reach a threshold of 1,000 points, which is worth $10. So, on the high end, you’ll get paid $10 for completing five surveys. While that’s not a lot of money, it’s too easy to mess up.

User Testing

User Testing is another online survey site that rewards its members for giving their opinions on marketing tactics and products. Worldwide, more than 34,000 customers and companies rely on UserTesting to figure out marketing techniques and strategies and to gain insight into the minds of their users.

Signing up is free and easy. Just for visiting a website or testing a new app, you can get paid $10. Of course, participating in multiple campaigns can help you earn more and more cash over time. And each time, you’re paid $10 for about 20 minutes of work or less. It doesn’t get any easier than that.

10 Sure Ways to Make Money From Your Blog or Website

Making money from your website isn’t easy. These ten tips are probably your best bet to get started.

1. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular if not the quickest ways to make money from your website or blog.

Start by finding a product you like and would recommend. Then on your website, you endorse the product and promote it to your website visitors and email subscribers. If the product or service resonates with these people, they’ll click on your affiliate link, purchasing the product (while you get a split of the sale price).

The commission might be anywhere from 30% of the product or service price, up to as high as 70%. For example, if the split is 50% and you promote an e-book that costs $100, you’ll get $50 for simply referring the buyer. Pretty sweet deal, huh?

Where can I find products to promote?

Commission junction – offers reliable products with on-time payments.
ShareASale – mostly clothes, accessories, and other offline goods.
Clickbank – high percentage payouts, but there’s a lack of GOOD products to promote.

2. “Pay Per Click” Advertising (Google Adsense)

AdWords are the advertisements that show up on the top of Google search result pages.

AdSense is the reverse, allowing publishers to tap into Google’s immense advertising network so that other advertisers can run ads on their website.

The best part about this system is how simple everything is.

Once you sign up, Google will place a simple code on your website that will identify the content of your site and start displaying relevant advertisements. For example, if your site is about pets (dogs & cats), Google AdSense will start showing your visitors ads for cat food, dog training, and more.

You get paid each time someone clicks on the ad. (Yes, it’s really that easy!)

Your cut might be anywhere from $0.50 to $5 per click. When your site has enough traffic, you can make hundreds (if not thousands of dollars) each month.

How to apply for Google Adsense?

Apply for AdSense – Before applying, make sure you keep up with their latest Terms Of Service. Google has very strict rules, so it’s hard to get (and stay) approved.

3. Sell Ad Space

corporating Google’s AdSense on your website is just one way to make money from online advertisements.

Another is to simply sell your own ad space directly to companies looking to sponsor different blogs. You can come up with a price for each space, for example: “Sidebar banner ads will cost $xxx per month”.

You can get paid depending on how many visitors you get. Typically it’s quoted as a dollar amount per one thousand impressions (or CPM). You might see it as $5 CPM. If the website gets 100,000 visits a month, that ad price translates into $500 bucks.

The good thing about this approach is that if your site gets a ton of traffic from different sources, your simple banner ad pricing can go up to as high as $5000 per month! The obvious downside is that if your site doesn’t get a lot of traffic, you can’t expect to earn much either.

The other common method when selling ad space directly from your website is a simple direct price. You simply name a price (based on what you think it’s worth, relative to what the competition might be charging), and get paid upfront at the beginning of each month. This pricing is also generally a simple flat fee, not tied to a Cost Per Click like AdSense.

Where can I let others know that my website is selling ad space?

BuySellAds – The most popular environment to let everybody know you’re selling ad space.

4. Sell Your Own Digital Product (Ebook for Example)

You have the potential to make the most money on a per-sale basis when you can sell your own directly.

That’s because there’s no middle-man or person in between you and the buyer that’s taking a ‘cut’ from the money earned.

This approach seems fairly straightforward because you can simply sell these products directly through your website and get paid immediately. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple in reality.

Creating good products that are well made and polished requires a ton of time and additional resources (like design, content, etc.). There’s a lot of ‘hidden costs’ in both time spent and the contractors to collaborate with. Selling your own products on your site also brings up problematic issues like payment gateways, shipping, and taxes.

If it doesn’t sound like enough work already, you’ll also need a well designed, persuasive landing page to make sure your product has a strong conversion rate. A list of best landing page builders can be found here

5. Accept Donations From Visitors

If you don’t have a ton of monthly visits, but you do have a strong, engaged community? Simply ask your readers to donate!

Accepting one-off donations isn’t a fast road to wealth, but it can help you cover expenses in the short-term if people like what you have to say and want to support your journey.

For example, PayPal offers little donation buttons that only take about ten minutes to add to your website. These buttons offer you a quick way to recoup what you might want to be spending on a good web hosting, new product creation, research, and all of the other costs to maintain a healthy, active blog.h

For example, web.archive.org makes a lot of money from donations (most likely due to their millions of visitors per month).

How to set up donation buttons?

How to take donations on your website

6. Sell Sponsored Posts

One of the common ways to make more money from your website means getting those visitor numbers UP.

Once you’ve done the hard work of building steady traffic to your site with an engaged community, there are a few different ways to monetize your hard work.

For example, many companies go out of their way to look for blogs that will feature their sponsored content. ‘Native advertising‘ like this works well because it lines up with your site’s primary content and it comes across as relevant and transparent.

You can also review the products from a company in an ‘advertorial’ that’s part content, part advertisement. For example, if your website is all about the latest iOS games for iPhones and iPads, the creator of one of those ads would LOVE to have you review and feature their app to your fans.

When done right, this can create a win/win scenario. However – done poorly, with irrelevant or inauthentic site content, it can erode all of the reader’s goodwill you’ve worked so hard to create in the first place.

7. Generate ‘Leads’ for Other Companies

Businesses thrive on new leads coming in their doors to inquire about their products or services.

It’s no surprise that they’re always on the lookout, searching for creative ways to find new sources of leads to help them grow.

For example:

Let’s say you have a website about teaching math skills. Your reader’s information (like their email address or phone number) would be of great value to different online schools who’re looking to sell their courses to eager, proactive students.

Basically, you’re connecting the dots; playing the matchmaker by introducing two parties who can benefit one another. While it’s similar to how affiliate marketing works, in this case, it doesn’t actually matter if your reader ends up purchasing their product or not. They’re just looking for an introduction at this point.

Where can I find such offers?

8. Build an ‘Email List’

Spend any amount of time reading blog growth tips, and you’re sure to come across people saying “the money’s in the list“.

They’re referring to your email list, which comprises your most loyal readers. The objective is to convert as many strangers who visit your site for the first time into passionate followers who want to stay up-to-date on your latest work or content.

Admittedly this is a long term strategy (and you definitely won’t get rich overnight). But it’s one of the best, long-term methods to profitably growing your blog into a full-fledged, money-making enterprise.

Never lose sight of creating relationships with your followers. Offering great information or free help is a perfect way to start. Spamming people with unsolicited offers is one of the fastest ways to abuse the reader’s trust and sabotage your long-term goals

9. Set Up an eCommerce Site

Websites don’t just have to be about content. They can be centered around tools or products on an online store.

Be forewarned:

There are literally hundreds of thousands of eCommerce websites or online stores. Make sure that yours is filling a unique niche, with a detailed strategy and the latest marketing techniques to stand out from the crowd.

How do I create a successful online store/shop?

How to Make a WooCommerce Shop (WordPress)
How to Make Shopify E-commerce Store (Shopify)

10. Flip Your Websites

Believe it or not, there’s almost always a market out there for your website.

That means if you’ve built up a following (or possibly even sold a few products or included advertising on your site), you might be able to sell it to someone else and make a quick buck.

To be honest, we typically don’t suggest people plan on flipping their website or blog (we’re a bigger fan of creating something for the long term).

You can’t deny how lucrative it can be. For example, if your website is making $500 per/month through selling ad space, you might be able to sell the site for $5,000 – $10,000 (which is about 12x – 22x monthly income).

Another interesting option is to sell ready-made sites, These are MUCH cheaper, but there’s still some money to be made.

Where can I sell my site?

Flippa – The most popular website market.
We Buy Websites – Another popular marketplace.
FEinternational – Mostly for high-end websites.

Finally

If you want to earn some extra cash, the internet has paved the way to more options than most people realize. Just by answering survey questions, watching television, or doing your regular online shopping, you can earn real cash rewards or, at the very least, gift cards that can be used to buy the stuff you want.

Every site we covered here is absolutely free to sign up for, although not everyone will qualify all the time. Still, if you want some almost-free money for doing stuff you were planning to do anyway, it’s hard to complain.