Well I started this series with good intentions 8 months ago…and then promptly forgot about it. Whoops! In my defense it has been a busy, busy year but I am hoping from now on to share more side hustles with you as the weeks go on.
I’ve been doing different things to make money for years but surveys were something that had fallen by the wayside in recent years. I dropped the ones that weren’t as quick earning as others and kept the ones that I knew I could cash out on regularly. I try to diversify my income as much as possible so I always have different avenues coming in should the worst happen. Moreover, I’ve developed an interest in understanding how online savings accounts work; they could be another avenue to enhance financial stability.
Until recently I hadn’t been using Prolific Academic to its full advantage. I had heard of people making quite a bit from it but never seemed to be able to find the studies to complete like they did. But the problem was I wasn’t checking often enough. As soon as I made a decision to start checking on a regular basis (every time I logged onto my PC or phone), I suddenly found that I was finding more and more studies to complete. But once those studies are full, you won’t be able to take part.
To get earning with Prolific Academic, all you need to do is answer some prescreening questions to check your eligibility. You then browse through available studies and tasks and participate in any you fancy and then get rewarded for good work! I haven’t shown any of the studies in my screenshots due to privacy but basically researchers who are looking for information put up their surveys for a set price and a set number of participants. Due to your prescreening, you will only see studies that are suitable for you, the rest will be filtered out due to your previous answers. So you know that you can complete all of the surveys available on your dashboard and not be screened out – something many other survey sites could benefit from. Just make sure you are in the first however many the study requires because they can fill up quite quickly and you might just be a millisecond too late.
The payment for studies is based on a minimum rate of £5 per hour. There are some studies which are literally seconds long so you may get paid 50p, others which are a bit longer.
Above you can see how much I have earned to date. Payment can be requested after you’ve hit £5 but I would always suggest waiting until after you’ve hit £20 so you don’t get hit with PayPal fees. Of course, this is nowhere near what some people have earned – Emma and Katy have both had great success with the site – but do remember I am only now starting to use it regularly.
I cashed out £22 last week and am already on over £7 with some studies pending as shown in the screenshot below. Any survey site earnings automatically get put in my savings account as well as the money I save towards tax and then at the end of the tax year, if that money is not needed for tax, I can either save it towards general savings or use it towards something else – nothing frivolous though!
This is definitely one of the sites I visit most regularly now as I know it is a consistent little earner. Earning over £20 a month for completing some surveys is very handy and the fact that they have such a low payment threshold is such a bonus too – some sites (even ones I love using) have thresholds of £50 which can take quite some time to achieve! Also these surveys are generally very interesting and always so different from another – I can be answering questions about the environment one minute or trying to point out different parts of a cell the next.
If you think Prolific Academic could be a survey site for you, you can sign up here – please be aware I will earn 10% of your first cash out but you still receive 100%, I just receive an amount that is 10% of what you cash out paid to me by Prolific Academic. I love this site and will certainly be continuing to use it for the foreseeable future!
Have you ever used Prolific Academic before?
great post I’ve completed surveys before but this site seems far better paid
It really is one of the better ones out there!
I have never used Prolific Academic before but it seems super easy and actually genuine to use. I don’t think i’d ever have much time to do it which is sad 🙁 Are the surveys long?
As mentioned above, some can be literally seconds long for 50p or more like ten minutes for a bigger payout like £2.50 🙂
This is amazing! One of the CEOs was at my university and I saw their startup grow through her FB statuses! Love to see this evolve like this
I haven’t heard of this survey site before. I used to do quite a few of them, but then dropped out due to lack of time and interest. Still do a couple where i can get shopping vouchers.
It’s good that you can make an extra bit of money doing surveys and things like this. Everything little helps x
Good to make some extra money by the side. Always comes in handy one day.
I’ve used other survey sites but not this one, seems worth a try.
I’ve never heard about Prolific Academic before, so thank you for sharing. Looks great! 🙂
We don’t really have time for surveys and always find them a bit of a chore. But it’s good that your time gets compensated.
I did complete some surveys in the past but they were very time consuming and not worth the effort. It is nice to make a little extra money though.
I guess the price is really worth it with the features it offer. A must try!
I’ve never heard of this site before but it seems a great way to make some extra money!
I love this site?, I have made almost £400 since January x
Not tried survey sites before but this one looks interesting
I used to fill out a lot of surveys but found they took a lot of time for very little return. This one look better x
I really need to sign up to this website, I’ve heard so many great things about it.
Before I started blogging I used to complete quite a few surveys and earned peanuts so I gave up and never ventured back but this sounds really good. Might give it a try