Turning things around

Justdesserts

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I've been lurking on the site since I started my journey on the 2nd of Jan this year and have decided it's time to step out of the shadows so to speak! I have completely thrown myself into earning from home this year and am doing ok but want to do even better! I started with survey sites, swagbucks and selling clutter and then thanks to this place I managed to get accepted by and start work with Leapforce on 28th Feb. This has made a big difference to my earnings but I could only get the Nile project and working for the max time 7 days a week I am earning around £300 a month from this, which is great but a little bit frustrating when I keep seeing people say they are making £500+ just from Leapforce - different project I assume!

Anyway I don't want to waffle on too much as it's late (again, I am struggling to know when to leave it for the day at the mo!) but I'll come back in the next day or so and list what I'm currently doing, my earnings so far and what my goal is. Just want to say thank you to everyone who runs and contributes to the site, it is potentially life changing!

Justdesserts. x
 
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Jon

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Hey @Justdesserts

Sounds like you are doing amazingly well so far and it's so great to see you come out of lurker mode and join in with the community

Do you have a target in mind for how much you want to earn each month or maybe something else you are aiming for?
 
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Justdesserts

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Hi Jon, thanks for the welcome. I don't know about amazingly well but I'm doing better than I have in the past - I'm actually no stranger to surveys etc having dabbled on several occasions in the past but then I used to make a few hundred a year just to help with Christmas etc and now the goal posts have moved somewhat.

I started out in the New Year by calculating what I'd be able to make working part time in a 'proper' job which came out at around £500 per month. My first aim was to match this although at the time that seemed wildly ambitious. In January I totalled £142.40 (£99.40 cash/£43 amazon vouchers). February being a shorter month and having half term in it was £132.75 (£92.75 cash/39 amazon). March was better at £179.82 (£115.82 cash/£64 amazon), at this time I was working for Leapforce but obviously hadn't had a payday yet. That was responsible for the big leap in April, which even with the 2 week Easter holidays came in at £459.01 (£382.01 cash/£77 amazon). The invoice that I've just submitted to Leapforce is much the same as the first one and with half term not until the very end of the month I'm hopefully on track to hit my target this month for the first time.

As you can see the school holidays are significant. My youngest is now at school and I've tried other things since he started but life gets a bit complicated here with my husband working long hours/overtime incl nights and weekends/travelling a lot and the kids having a lot of different appointments between them on top of the usual school/college, sports, hobbies etc. Two of them have referrals for autism (they have a variety of difficulties) and the third has some health issues and without much of anything in the way of a support network (very little family etc) me working outside of the house quickly becomes a logistical and literal nightmare lol! So during term time I get more time to focus on money making, albeit punctuated by all the running around and everything else that needs doing. School holidays are already proving more difficult but I consider myself lucky to be here really, for mine and the kids' sakes. I have developed a tendency to work late to fit everything in though which I realise isn't a great plan longer term. The general stress and bustle of life is exhausting enough so I will have to watch that one I know.

Anyway as I get close to the initial target I set myself I'm predictably already looking beyond it! I primarily want to be able to go private for some of the stuff related to my kids needs (NHS sadly now equals years long waiting lists and no guarantees when you get to the end of them) and that is the real driving force behind this for me. On top of this we have a significant amount of debt accumulated over difficult times that is coming down but more slowly than I'd like and less importantly (but still something I'd like to change longer term) we have been living for just shy of 9 years in a house we bought as a '5 year house' after the economy fell over and our circumstances changed. In all honesty life has been very difficult indeed over the past 8 or so years with one horrible situation after another, the title I gave the thread says it all really, it's time to turn things around. There are obviously a lot of things money can't help with but an awful lot more it can as I see it so that is my mission now. I want to earn as much as I can really and the only thing I won't give a go is the matched betting. That's a no go for personal reasons but most anything else I'm open to, my plan was to try pretty much everything and drop what doesn't work for me. Will list what I've already tried and what I'm currently doing in my next post as this has got much longer than I intended.

Thanks for reading if you got all the way through that brain splurge!

Justdesserts. x
 

katykicker

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Hi @Justdesserts welcome to you! There are lots of great resources here that aren't matched betting. I've got some links in my signature, also the TMS blog has some guides etc too.

I don't blame you wanting to pay privately with regards to the NHS I too am a victim to those long waiting lists, and now my daughter too! So frustrating sometimes and makes it easier to justify spending the money.
 
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Justdesserts

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Hi Katy, nice to 'meet' you! Yeah it's a real shame about the NHS and I can't see it recovering somehow. That and the education system are two things I feel very strongly about and both are letting us down, in an ideal world I'd homeschool and have private healthcare for everything but unfortunately we're a long way from being able to do either. Maybe one day!

Ok so this is where my earnings to date have come from, might be useful to anyone else reading as well as hopefully showing anything I've missed:

Currently using
Leapforce
Swagbucks
Prolific Academies
Pinecone Research
Qmee
Opinion Outpost
Instagc
Pure Profile
Crowdology
Global Test Market
I-say
Populus Live
Panelbase
Your Say Pays
Mintvine

All of the above are what I'm using at the moment. Leapforce I make my priority to do daily as it's my biggest single earner. I'd love more work from them but applied for Yukon at the same time as Nile and didn't hear anything unfortunately. Swagbucks I've been on for years and go through phases of using it. This is currently my 2nd biggest earner as my husband also has an account that I 'look after' for him. I've been withdrawing in amazon vouchers the last month or so because of the sale on them but prefer paypal when there isn't such a big gap in the number of swagbucks needed. It's by no means a good return for the time but is so familiar and takes no concentration or effort so I'll stick with it for the foreseeable. The others are a mix of accounts I've had for ages and new things I've signed up for this year but at the moment I check all of them every day as well as going through all the emails they send me.

Signed up to but yet to earn from
Edigital Research
What Users Do
Spare 5
Paidviewpoint
Pondengo
Saros Research

All of these are recent sign ups and some are already looking to end up on the below list but I want to give them a fair chance, especially the top two and bottom one as I think they have the potential to be really good. If I can get any work lol!

No longer using
Gbonus
Clixsense
Surveynetwork
Neobux
Yougov
Shop & Scan
Surveydownline

I drop a company if I either can't get anywhere with them at all, feel it takes too much time/effort for too little, I've had technical or some other actual problem with it, if I replace them like for like with a better option or if the payout level just took too long to get to, in which case they go after first payout. Pureprofile and spare 5 will definitely be joining this list as soon as I reach the payout threshold on them.

I also applied to work as a Captioner with Rev but after passing the first exam I got rejected on the 2nd unfortunately. Other than this I enter the odd comp here and there from the comps board on the other money forum, mainly ones with a cash prize. I check the freepostcode lottery, dob lottery and ashleighmoneysavers cash draw daily, just in case. Several times a year I check and switch the household bills to try and do the best I can for them and also have a clear out to get rid of unwanted stuff via ebay/facebook/ziffit/carboot. Always shop through cashbacks sites for anything I haven't got Amazon vouchers for lol! Most of this isn't new to me so doesn't feel like all that much effort but what I really need is something else along the lines of Leapforce to bump my earnings up to the next level, ie upwards of £500 per month. Any ideas welcome. :)

That's it for the massive posts now, I shall endeavour to update my diary as my journey continues.

Justdesserts. x
 
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Jon

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Just caught up on this thread @Justdesserts

You seem REALLY organised which I think will really pay off as you drop off the lower paying stuff and pick up more higher paying work for your time.

What does being a Captioner with Rev involve? I've never heard of it before.
 
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Justdesserts

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Thank you, yep being organised is kind of my 'thing' - which is just as well given the amount of juggling/multitasking I have to do lol!

Rev was basically writing subtitles for videos, the first one they make you do is quite straight forward so that one was submitted and approved without any problems but after that they ask you to do a further two which are much more complicated. I gave it my best shot and thought I'd done quite well but apparently not. Shame as I really want something else like this to sit along side the Leapforce work. The pay was ok, not amazing but defo more than surveys! This is the site incase anyone wants to take a look, please remove if I'm not supposed to post links.... https://www.rev.com/freelancers/captions

One thing I forgot to mention in my waffle is that I only possess a very battered old mobile so am unable to do any of the app task type stuff for now. I'm planning on buying a new one hopefully later on this year so that'll open up new earning potential there I hope, but I can't really justify buying a phone just for that purpose at the mo.

Will have another read around the site when I get the chance incase there's anything I've missed.

Justdesserts. x
 
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katykicker

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I'm sure once your earnings pick up you'll be able to justify buying the phone. There are lots of other things you can do with an iPhone besides those paid tasking apps :)
 
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Jon

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I'm sure once your earnings pick up you'll be able to justify buying the phone. There are lots of other things you can do with an iPhone besides those paid tasking apps :)

Oh yeah have to agree with this. Once you get access to Task360 on your iphone you can earn a bundle!
 

Justdesserts

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Thanks guys but I can't see an iphone ever coming into it, I was thinking just any half decent smartphone but even that is now in jeopardy as the cost of the private diagnosis for my eldest is going to cost significantly more than I first thought. Don't really have a choice but to proceed for several reasons but it's sure gonna hurt! Really, really wish I could get another task with Leapforce at this point!
 

Jon

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Thanks guys but I can't see an iphone ever coming into it, I was thinking just any half decent smartphone but even that is now in jeopardy as the cost of the private diagnosis for my eldest is going to cost significantly more than I first thought. Don't really have a choice but to proceed for several reasons but it's sure gonna hurt! Really, really wish I could get another task with Leapforce at this point!

Have you looked into uTest at all? People seem to earn a good amount working for them.
 

Justdesserts

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May total £511.67 (£425.67 cash/£86 amazon vouchers), that's my target hit for the first time! :D

I have signed up to utest as suggested and also assosia so waiting on those two. Pondengo has moved onto the currently using list as I finally got accepted into a focus group through them but all the other 'yet to earn from's remain the same. Having problems with work availability on Leapforce which means the invoice I've submitted today isn't for as much as the last two but apparently it is a problem they are aware of and looking into so hopefully it's not going to dry up just as I start to get into the swing of it! Hoping to more or less match May in June.
 
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Jon

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May total £511.67 (£425.67 cash/£86 amazon vouchers), that's my target hit for the first time! :D

I have signed up to utest as suggested and also assosia so waiting on those two. Pondengo has moved onto the currently using list as I finally got accepted into a focus group through them but all the other 'yet to earn from's remain the same. Having problems with work availability on Leapforce which means the invoice I've submitted today isn't for as much as the last two but apparently it is a problem they are aware of and looking into so hopefully it's not going to dry up just as I start to get into the swing of it! Hoping to more or less match May in June.

£511 is a FANTASTIC total to earn in one Month so HUGE Congrats for earning that!
;);););););)

With leapforce are you doing social media work or is it full on web search evaluator work?
 
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Justdesserts

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Hi, thanks for the reply. Unfortunately it is just the social media work as that's all I could get, it seems from the agents chat we are all having huge problems with batch sizes. Hoping they get it resolved soon. :)
 

Jon

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Hi, thanks for the reply. Unfortunately it is just the social media work as that's all I could get, it seems from the agents chat we are all having huge problems with batch sizes. Hoping they get it resolved soon. :)

Well social media work is better than nothing ;)
 
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Justdesserts

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Absolutely, until it dried up lol! Been putting some time into getting going with utest today so hopefully something will come of that as July's earnings without anything much coming from Leapforce are going to be most depressing otherwise. :/
 

Jon

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Absolutely, until it dried up lol! Been putting some time into getting going with utest today so hopefully something will come of that as July's earnings without anything much coming from Leapforce are going to be most depressing otherwise. :/

How are you finding utest.

Folk on here used to earn some great money by working for them but I wonder if it's still the same?
 
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Justdesserts

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It's a bit tricky to get your head round, a LOT of information to take in initially but just done my first job for them and hoping I get more. :)
 

Justdesserts

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June came to a disappointing total of £389.71 (£289.71 cash/£100 amazon vouchers), nowhere near target. :(

This was mainly down to the lack of LF work which went even further downhill in June so this months pay will be even lower. Am applying for other work in several places to bridge the gap as I've just had a massive clinical psychologist invoice to pay and want to buy some therapeutic equipment next. Every penny is better than nothing but I can't deny it's frustrating to have got to target once and then had it slide through my fingers.... crossing everything something else turns up soon. :)
 
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