The Funky Blue Dog (coomassie_blu) online earning diary

[The Funky Blue Dog]

April 2014:

I thought it was about time I started keeping a record of my online earnings in the hope it might encourage others to dip a toe.

BTW, my rather obscure username is inspired by a chemical, Coomassie blue, that is used in laboratories as a dye marker to show the presence of proteins. In reality it's a tricky substance to work with but that's another story! Jon cheekily nicknamed me Funky Blue Dog in an earlier post and it has kind of stuck!

I joined The Money Shed in mid-January 2014 having never tried to earn online, other than a couple of cashback transactions through Quidco and TopCashback. With the help and advice offered on here I have gone from pretty much zero to a very welcome online revenue that is not to be sniffed at.

I should point out that I am self-employed in a role that takes me away from home a fair bit, so my online earning activities are intended as a supplement while I establish my new business. Some days I can't spend more than a few minutes online, and if I am at my desk I'm often multi-tasking.

I'm very much in the "look after the pennies and the pounds look after themselves" camp. It doesn't bother me whether or not I'm earning a minimum wage from my online earning activities - any income at all is appreciated. I've always lived frugally, so any extra earnings can go a long way in my house.

I'm coming up to a busy time of year and won't get online so much for a while, so I decided it might be best to work on a quarterly basis, rather than the monthly version some of our other Shedders have gone for.

All amounts shown have been successfully redeemed:

Selling on eBay
April 2014: In the traditional decluttering sense - the profit from a good old clearout (after listing/final value fees, postage, PayPal fees) = £417.67
Mid-year update: I've not listed for a while, but aim to list 20 items a month as that's how many eBay grants with no listing fees these days. I'll also take advantage of the free scheduling for these so that I can upload items at my leisure - when I'm in the mood!
End of year update: I didn't get round to listing any more items in 2014

Completing online surveys
I've limited myself to a select few survey sites to avoid burnout:
Valued Opinions = April 2014: £40 (3 x £10 Argos vouchers, 1 x £10 Flexecode) | Mid-year update: £70 (5 x £10 Argos vouchers, 1 x £10 Flexecode, 1 x £10 M&S) | End of year update 2014: £100 in total
GlobalTestMarket = April 2014: £30 PayPal | Mid-year update: £60 PayPal | End of year update 2014: £90 in total
Pinecone Research = April 2014: £3 luncheon vouchers | Mid-year update: £15 (PayPal these days!) | End of year update 2014: £36 in total
Populus Live surveys through TopCashback at 89p each = Mid-year update: £6.23 | End of year update 2014: £18.69 in total
YouGov = April 2014: working towards 5000 points for £50 payout threshold | Mid-year update: 2500 points | End of year update 2014: £50 in total

"Get Paid To" (GPT) sites/plugins
GiftHulk = April 2014: £14.59 (have now reached Platinum level) | Mid-year update: £55.47 (have reached top Diamond level) | End of year update 2014: £69 in total
Qmee = April 2014: £3.12 | Mid-year update: £4.12 | End of year update 2014: £6.47 in total
SwagBucks = April 2014: haven't redeemed any ££ as yet but won a Kindle Fire HDX in a Swagstakes | Mid-year update: £36 (£21 Amazon vouchers, £15 iTunes vouchers) | End of year update 2014: £56 in total

Cashback sites
Quidco = April 2014: £29.26 (bingo profit after deduction for deposit, ClickSnap) | Mid-year update: lots pending but taking ages! | End of year update 2014: £264 in total
TopCashback = April 2014: £11.26 M&S voucher (printer ink, dog food, Snap & Save) | Mid-year update: £16.55 but lots pending and taking ages! | End of year update 2014: £212.30 in total
Amazon Local = April 2014: £8.00 off a train ticket

April 2014 summary: I'll update again for the second quarter, but won't set any targets as such. My main focus will probably be the cashback site opportunities (bingo, credit checks), as well as keeping the surveys and GPT sites ticking along. I will also look at upgrading to a decent smartphone (Android/iPhone) so I can explore Roamler type opportunities.

It's pleasing seeing it all written down

Mid-year update:

I addition to the above I've:

- had a go at mystery shopping (see separate thread) which has brought in some extra income and goodies. I started out with Market Force, but have recently signed up to eDigital and ESA
- bought a new laptop and like others on here I've registered with iSoftStone as a Search Engine Evaluator and am awaiting training and qualification tests
- started a new mobile phone contract and acquired an Android handset at last to replace the hopeless Windows effort I had before. It is a Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and a thing of sheer beauty! I love it - but it's taking me a while to get used to it. I have downloaded the Streetspotr, Roamler, and Clic and Walk apps - such fun! (Clic and Walk has earned me £27.55 so far)
- started the online website beginners course kindly arranged for me by TheRewardGuy (cheers Kristian) and intend to set up a website promoting a neighbour's handmade craft business
- thought about starting a blog but I'm still mulling over ideas

I'm very happy with how things have gone so far this year. Thanks again to all Shedders for your advice and support

***End of year update for 2014***

It's been a fantastic year - I've summarised it in a new post below (8th January 2015) along with ideas for the year ahead

 

[simon]

populus surveys pay £1 on vivatic.com get at least 2 a week normally sometimes more.

 

[Jon]

Wow your Ebay profit is VERY impressive, that is after paying the Fees yeah?

Can you tell us some more about GlobalTestMarket

What sort of work is that? Just basic surveys?

 

[The Funky Blue Dog]

Hello Jon - Blackpepper started a thread about GTM so I've posted on there:

http://www.themoneyshed.co.uk/referrals/globaltestmarket/new/#new

Yes it's a basic survey site but it's steady and reliable.

Ebay - yes that is pure profit after all fees, except maybe I've missed a roll of packing tape or two. I am very anal about my eBay spreadsheet so it's accurate down to the pennies!

I had accumulated large quantities of jiffy bags and small boxes over the procrastinating months (and years if I'm honest) that it took me to finally get myself organised. Once I got going I was very disciplined and kept to a strict routine. I've just had a couple of weeks off, but I'm ready to go again with what's left.

The kind of stuff I've sold: some of my Dad's collection of Nintendo games, toys and games from my 1970s childhood (very popular), some dog clipping tools, Cliff Richard magazines from mum, Robertson Golly brooches (also very popular) and various other motley items. It was a true cupboard clearing exercise. A random pencil did very well, as did unused ink cartridges from a printer that blew up, parts for a vintage cine camera, and a knackered old transistor radio.

I have a policy that if something doesn't sell after being listed twice, it goes to the charity shop. I always set the starting price quite low and include free postage - people seem to like this - and I post the same or next day that payment is received, but that's quite easy for me as the Post Office is only a 10 minute walk away (no petrol to pay).

Sadly I won't see eBay income at those levels again as I'm down to the dregs now, but it's been fun. Watching those last minute bids come in every Sunday evening (my preferred auction end time) is quite thrilling - which sounds a bit sad ;D I don't get out much!

 

[The Funky Blue Dog]

populus surveys pay £1 on vivatic.com get at least 2 a week normally sometimes more.

Thanks Simon. I think there are a few channels for accessing the Populus Live surveys.

I decided to go for the TopCashback (TCB) option even though the payout is slightly lower. With Vivatic and similar sites you can't cashout until you reach their payment threshold.

On TCB the 89p tracks within a day. Admittedly it then sits in pending for nine weeks, but you're not having to work towards a payout threshold. The earliest Populus surveys I participated in during January are now confirmed and paying out. You are only allowed to do a maximum of two surveys for them in a six day period - but I don't think there have been more than this available anyway since I've been doing them.

I also get a little bit extra for trading up my TCB cashback to vouchers. For example, I had £10.63 ready to be paid out the other day (which included a couple of Populus surveys) but I traded this up to an £11.26 M&S giftcard. Not a huge bonus, but the extra pennies can go a long way when you head to M&S at 5.27pm just before they shut the doors, to raid the trolley loaded with yummy 10p clearance bargains! I know, because I've been there and done just that ;D

 

[The Funky Blue Dog]

Not happy with eBay. In the guise of "simplifying" their fee structure, they're basically lobbing their listing fee up to 35p from 13th May - so be warned. They're allowing you 20 free listings a month, and still running occasional promotions apparently.

Hopeless if you normally list a lot of items per month at around the £3-£4 mark, as the listing fee will now be 35p instead of 15p - so eBay is carving yet another slice out of any potential profit

Maybe it will suit some, but it doesn't suit me. I'm quite glad I'm nearly out of stuff to sell on there. If you're a seller they've sent details to your eBay account inbox if you haven't seen this yet - the subject line says something about a "good surprise". Yeah right

 

[Jon]

uggh,

ever time I think about getting back into eBay I see yet another price hike.

Is it worth you selling your items on maybe Amazon or Facebook groups?

 

[RedAlix]

Wow that's quite a rise in ebay fees. I try and list on free listing days but don't all the time.

 

[Jon]

Uggh, that is quite some rise in Fees that is.


Thing is I can't see anything else coming along to compete with eBay in terms of offering what you sell to an audience. Shoving things up on Gumtree is nice and all but unless someone is looking for your particular item in the town you live in they won't even find it. eBay works because it doesn't matter where the people lives in the UK who you want to buy the item from, they can get it to you.

 

[The Funky Blue Dog]

Unfortunately it is the audience size that keeps me selling on eBay - not just nationally, but internationally.

My objective is to earn money from clearing out cupboards, as well as stuff my family has collected over the years, so it serves two purposes. I'll cram some more stuff on there before the fees go up I think.

 

[Jon]

How are the earnings looking bluedawg?

 

[The Funky Blue Dog]

Here's a mid Q2 update (from now on I'll keep my signature updated as the ££ come in!)

eBay: I'm sulking about their selling fee increases so nothing listed recently

Surveys: I haven't done quite so well on these recently as I've been out of the house more - so they've often closed by the time I get to them. I'm sticking to my original choices of Valued Opinions (VO), GlobalTestMarket (GTM), Populus Live (via TopCashback), Pinecone Research, YouGov. I'm aware that other Shedders do well on other sites but my survey tolerance level is not what it was, and tackling any more than these would drive me nuts! Nearly at payout thresholds for VO and GTM

Get Paid To: I've upped my Swagbucks activity as I've discovered that a lot of this can be run in the background while doing other things. GiftHulk - I'm having a Big Push to reach the top Diamond Level (hopefully by the end of May) to unlock the enhanced earning potential there, but then I'll step back from that a little to concentrate on Swagbucks. Qmee has stopped working since the latest Firefox update and I haven't had a chance to fiddle with it yet

Cashback: Had some juicy bingo cashback and other bits and pieces. I'm taking it slowly with the bingo to catch the high cashback rewards when they come round - they fluctuate a lot. I'll start a separate bingo thread when I get a chance - it's been fun!

Traditional mystery shopping: Not strictly online so I won't include this in my signature, but I'll keep you updated with my adventures via the mystery shopping thread

And so to the next stage:

Picking up an Android phone tomorrow - goodbye hopeless Windows Phone with your woeful lack of apps - hello Roamler, Clic and Walk etc etc. I can't wait!!

But even more exciting - I bought myself a new laptop with my online earnings!!!!! Impulse buy: £40 reduction at Argos, £50 vouchers from Valued Opinions surveys, £30 from GlobalTestMarket surveys, £50 from Quidco/Topcashback, £30 GPT sites, £90 online bingo winnings (not pure gambling, just a happy by-product of cashback opportunity ;D)

;D Original Argos price £290. The Money Shed price £0 ;D
​

My new laptop will be dedicated to working for Lionbridge as they have kindly allowed me to give this another try - I've foolishly neglected this opportunity

So that's where I am, but things have been pretty busy out there in the real world so online stuff has had to take a back seat

I'm very impressed by how well all you other diary keepers are doing - keep it up

 

[Blackpepper1]

Here's a mid Q2 update (from now on I'll keep my signature updated as the ££ come in!)

eBay: I'm sulking about their selling fee increases so nothing listed recently

Surveys: I haven't done quite so well on these recently as I've been out of the house more - so they've often closed by the time I get to them. I'm sticking to my original choices of Valued Opinions (VO), GlobalTestMarket (GTM), Populus Live (via TopCashback), Pinecone Research, YouGov. I'm aware that other Shedders do well on other sites but my survey tolerance level is not what it was, and tackling any more than these would drive me nuts! Nearly at payout thresholds for VO and GTM

Get Paid To: I've upped my Swagbucks activity as I've discovered that a lot of this can be run in the background while doing other things. GiftHulk - I'm having a Big Push to reach the top Diamond Level (hopefully by the end of May) to unlock the enhanced earning potential there, but then I'll step back from that a little to concentrate on Swagbucks. Qmee has stopped working since the latest Firefox update and I haven't had a chance to fiddle with it yet

Cashback: Had some juicy bingo cashback and other bits and pieces. I'm taking it slowly with the bingo to catch the high cashback rewards when they come round - they fluctuate a lot. I'll start a separate bingo thread when I get a chance - it's been fun!

Traditional mystery shopping: Not strictly online so I won't include this in my signature, but I'll keep you updated with my adventures via the mystery shopping thread

And so to the next stage:

Picking up an Android phone tomorrow - goodbye hopeless Windows Phone with your woeful lack of apps - hello Roamler, Clic and Walk etc etc. I can't wait!!

But even more exciting - I bought myself a new laptop with my online earnings!!!!! Impulse buy: £40 reduction at Argos, £50 vouchers from Valued Opinions surveys, £30 from GlobalTestMarket surveys, £50 from Quidco/Topcashback, £30 GPT sites, £90 online bingo winnings (not pure gambling, just a happy by-product of cashback opportunity ;D)

;D Original Argos price £290. The Money Shed price £0 ;D
​

My new laptop will be dedicated to working for Lionbridge as they have kindly allowed me to give this another try - I've foolishly neglected this opportunity

So that's where I am, but things have been pretty busy out there in the real world so online stuff has had to take a back seat

I'm very impressed by how well all you other diary keepers are doing - keep it up

That is really good to get all your earnings to pay for a laptop!
Just shows what can be done. I have funded my Android Smartphone and also a really good microwave through my online earnings. You have joined the best of the Survey Sites, Valued Opinions and Global Test Market and YouGov are my main ones that send surveys on a regular basis.
If you do Swagbucks anyway you get a few surveys through there.
Keep us updated.

 

[Jon]

Here's a mid Q2 update (from now on I'll keep my signature updated as the ££ come in!)

eBay: I'm sulking about their selling fee increases so nothing listed recently

Surveys: I haven't done quite so well on these recently as I've been out of the house more - so they've often closed by the time I get to them. I'm sticking to my original choices of Valued Opinions (VO), GlobalTestMarket (GTM), Populus Live (via TopCashback), Pinecone Research, YouGov. I'm aware that other Shedders do well on other sites but my survey tolerance level is not what it was, and tackling any more than these would drive me nuts! Nearly at payout thresholds for VO and GTM

Get Paid To: I've upped my Swagbucks activity as I've discovered that a lot of this can be run in the background while doing other things. GiftHulk - I'm having a Big Push to reach the top Diamond Level (hopefully by the end of May) to unlock the enhanced earning potential there, but then I'll step back from that a little to concentrate on Swagbucks. Qmee has stopped working since the latest Firefox update and I haven't had a chance to fiddle with it yet

Cashback: Had some juicy bingo cashback and other bits and pieces. I'm taking it slowly with the bingo to catch the high cashback rewards when they come round - they fluctuate a lot. I'll start a separate bingo thread when I get a chance - it's been fun!

Worth mentioning that I got an email from TopCashBack the other day saying they were putting their referrals back up to £15 again, so worth getting your referral links out there again.

Traditional mystery shopping: Not strictly online so I won't include this in my signature, but I'll keep you updated with my adventures via the mystery shopping thread

And so to the next stage:

Picking up an Android phone tomorrow - goodbye hopeless Windows Phone with your woeful lack of apps - hello Roamler, Clic and Walk etc etc. I can't wait!!

If you find you need a Roamler invite as you are in a busy area drop me a PM and I will sort you out.

But even more exciting - I bought myself a new laptop with my online earnings!!!!! Impulse buy: £40 reduction at Argos, £50 vouchers from Valued Opinions surveys, £30 from GlobalTestMarket surveys, £50 from Quidco/Topcashback, £30 GPT sites, £90 online bingo winnings (not pure gambling, just a happy by-product of cashback opportunity ;D)

;D Original Argos price £290. The Money Shed price £0 ;D
​

Add a picture of it to this thread http://www.themoneyshed.co.uk/earn-money-online/need-some-inspiration-what%27s-your-biggest-online-success/

It's great when you pay for things in that way. My £500 Roamler cashout to cover my PS4 was a happy day lol

My new laptop will be dedicated to working for Lionbridge as they have kindly allowed me to give this another try - I've foolishly neglected this opportunity

So that's where I am, but things have been pretty busy out there in the real world so online stuff has had to take a back seat

I'm very impressed by how well all you other diary keepers are doing - keep it up

 

[The Funky Blue Dog]

I'll update my first post on this thread in a mo, but in the meantime I'm bringing my signature up to date with mid-year earnings. I'm not including mystery shopping earning for now - partly because the majority is not done online (up until now anyway), but also because the MS companies don't like you discussing fees online.

These are amounts that I have actually received in my grubby little hand - there is more on its way

I have rounded figures down to the nearest pound.

2014 online earnings successfully redeemed as at 18/05/14 30/06/14

eBay: £417 profit after fees/postage
Surveys: Valued Opinions £50 £70 | GlobalTestMarket £30 £60 | Populus Live (via TCB) £6 | Pinecone £3 £15
GPT: Swagbucks £24 £36 | GiftHulk £31 £57 | Qmee £3.12 £4
Cashback: Quidco £67 | TopCashback £9.74 £16.55
Apps: Clic and Walk: £27

I'm quite happy with this as it is all extra income I wouldn't have had otherwise