GPT vs. Survey and Favorite Sites

I've decided to stick with the bimonthly earnings report. In the mean time, here's some more info on the sites I work for.

As you may recall from my intro post, there are two main types of money-earning sites: Get-Paid-To (GPT) and Survey.

GPT site - A website that allows you to earn money by signing up for offers (advertising, sweepstakes entries, and the like), and occasional surveys.
Pros: Generally more money to earn, offers credit quickly take longer to expire.
Cons: Way more spam possibilities, more tedious work, offers may not credit.

Currently, my three favorite GPT sites (in order of my earnings): Cash Crate, Cash Lagoon, Chillin' Cash

Survey site - A website that allows you to earn money by taking surveys. Surveys are usually created by advertising or research entities.
Pros: Virtually no spam, usually more fun/interesting work.
Cons: Generally less money to earn, surveys take longer to credit and may expire or meet quotas quickly.

Currently, my three favorite survey sites (in order of my earnings): Survey Head, Your 2 Cents, Valued Opinions

February and March Earnings

Cash Crate - $21.20
Datatelligence - $10.00 Amazon gift code
Your 2 Cents - $10.00
Greenfield Online - $8.00
Mindfield - $7.00
Opinion Outpost - $7.00
Lightspeed - $5.00
Cash Lagoon - $2.00

Total for February and March - $70.20

Alas, my computer was out of commission for several weeks in March, so I didn't get to make up for the short month of February. Fortunately, a friend and I were able to save my computer, so at least I didn't end up losing any money on repairs!

Free Survey Stuff

Due to the fact that February is the shortest month, and was quite a busy month for me, I am going to combine February and March earnings into one post. However, in the month of February, I received two free items from two separate Your 2 Cents surveys: a can of corn, and a 12-pack of toilet paper. Insert your own joke for those items. =P

I started thinking back on the half-of-a-year that I've been participating in survey and GPT sites, and I realized I have a fairly impressive list of free stuff now. I have received:

1 small sample of Greenies cat treats
1 small sample of Greenies dog treats
1 pair of shiny, metal dice in a velvet pouch (from a cigarette company, I think?)
1 travel guide for Texas
1 travel guide for Colorado
1 free Remedy magazine
1 can of corn
1 12-pack of Angel Soft toilet paper

Nothing at all earth-shattering, and certainly not as useful as money, but it's still a neat list.

BORING EDIT: I made a small edit to previous monthly/yearly totals. Previously, I had listed Mechanical Turk earnings for December. For most websites, I only list what I've actually withdrawn (not counting any earnings that hadn't reached the payout amount), but somehow, I had been showing as-yet-uncashed MTurk earnings in my total for December and year-end total post. I fixed the totals concerning MTurk so that they reflected the $.60 they sent to verify my bank account, and nothing more. In the month of February, I got my first cash withdrawal from MTurk, and this will show up on the combined totals for February/March that I'll post at the end of this month. That was confusing enough just to explain, so I'm sure you can see why I changed it.

January Earnings

Inbox Dollars - $30.33
Survey Head - $29.00
Cash Lagoon - $8.00
Mechanical Turk - $7.25

Total for January - $74.58

2008 Earnings

I started this endeavor on June 1, 2008. Here are the details of my seven months of earning money online.

Totals By Month
June - $52.55
July - $67.90
August - $55.40
September - $93.75
October - $59.38
November - $50.29
December - $67.09

Totals By Website
Cash Crate - $180.04
Cash Lagoon - $104
Chillin' Cash - $82.43
Valued Opinions - $20
Your 2 Cents - $15
Lightspeed - $10
Mechanical Turk - $7.99
Opinion Outpost - $6.90
American Consumer Opinions - $5
Global Opinion Panel - $5

Mean Earnings Per Month - $62.23

Total 2008 Earnings - $436.36

December Earnings

Cash Crate - $22.10
Valued Opinions - $20 Amazon gift code
Cash Crate - $10 Amazon gift code
Cash Lagoon - $7.00
Mechanical Turk - $7.99

Total for November - $67.09

Some of my daily surveys on Cash Crate credited late, and so all my earnings from December will be carried over into January. Oh well, it'll be a bigger check!

EDIT: Nevermind, looks like they cleared up the problem!

Amazon Mechanical Turk

Amazon Mechanical Turk (named for a hoax chess-playing machine that was operated by a hidden chess master) is a site where you can do all sorts of small paid jobs, ranging from something as simple as putting word tags on an image or evaluating the relevance of search results to writing reviews or short articles. Some of the HIT's ("Human Intelligence Tasks") pay a cent or two each, and others pay up to several dollars.

I usually favor image-related HIT's, like sorting or tagging images. I also like doing short research surveys and evaluating search results. The site allows you to view a HIT and get a feel for the task before you decide whether or not to accept it. HIT's have timers, and some have short qualification tests as well. Mechanical Turk won't earn you as much as a GPT or survey site, but it's a neat change of pace for earning money online.