Here’s a sure-fire way to earn a little pocket money. Use your smartphone to snap a photo of a restaurant or scan a barcode in a store. You can earn cash or gift certificates. Companies pay for such information, often because they want to know how their stores and products look in the real world. Here are five free smartphone apps that can earn you money.
1. Gigwalk
Gigwalk is a free iPhone application that notifies its users when “gigs” are available in their area. A gig can range from taking a photo of a restaurant menu or street sign to confirming that a product is in a store and pays between $4 and $7.
The more gigs a Gigwalker completes, the more “Gigwalk Streetcred” one earns. Streetcred helps unlock higher paying jobs, which can pay up to $90.
Gigs are available in eight major US cities: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Miami, and Seattle. The app uses Google maps to guide a “Gigwalker” to each gig.
“As I walk home, I probably pass 1,000 gigs and I choose the ones I like,” says Jennifer Silver, a human resources manager at a Boston architecture firm. She uses the money she earns to pay her $140 monthly phone bill. “It’s a really easy way to do what you want when you want to do it,” she adds.
2. Field Agent
By using a free iPhone app, “field agents” nationwide can find jobs in their area. Agents perform jobs like going into a retail store and snapping a photo of a display, or going to a gas station to note the conditions of the building, signs, or candy display. Companies want to ensure that a display is set up correctly and an aisle in a chain store looks the same in every location. Essentially, agents function as the eyes and ears of a company by completing each job.
“You can say that a product is out of stock, but when you see a picture and see 12 slots out of stock and in disarray … the photos take it to the next level,” says John Bull, founder of Field Agent, based in Fayetteville, Ark.
A job generally pays between $3 and $8, but it can pay more depending on the difficulty. Some jobs, like surveys, can be done at home, while others can be found using a built-in Google map.
“It’s my favorite secret,” says Janelle, a stay-at-home mom who lives just outside Phoenix. “I’ll go out in a day and can make $100 in five hours.” Since she joined in April this year, Ms. Cavangh has earned $987 and won an iPod touch in one of the company’s social media competitions.
“It could not be any easier,” says Keith Celia who lives in the Chicago area and has earned $630 since downloading the app. “It’s actually kind of fun.”
There are currently about 120,000 agents in the US. Field Agent apps are also available for the United Kingdom and Australia.
3. CheckPoints
CheckPoints is an iPhone and Android app that allows users to get points by going to stores – electronic stores, pharmacies, supermarkets, and so on. Then they check in through the free app and scan barcodes of products. After a scan, a digital coupon or interactive marketing message can pop up. The idea is to reward people for coming into a store, and boost the chance that they’ll buy something featured on the “virtual endcap” – advertised products on the to-be-scanned list.
The points can be used to redeem gift certificates to stores and restaurants, airline miles, or a donation to a charitable cause. Gift certificates are available at CVS, GameStop, and Fandango, among others. To win even more points – without going to another location – users can scan a designated “featured product” and earn a coin. Coins can be used to play games in the bonus area, which can result in thousands of points for a single win.
4. WeReward
With an iPhone, Android, or BlackBerry smartphone, you earn points every time you check-in on the WeReward app. Every point equals one penny, and once a user earns 1,000 points, the cash can be redeemed via PayPal.
Each business decides the number of points a check-in is worth, which could be five points or 200 points for a check-in and photo at a certain restaurant. Points can also be earned by completing designated tasks in any location, like snapping a photo of someone, or you, drinking a Jones soda.
To use the application, you must have a Facebook, Twitter, or FourSquare account.
Points can also be earned by referring friends to WeReward. Each friend who then joins earns you 10 percent of all of their check-in points.
5. MyLikes
MyLikes allows you to create endorsements for products and services, and then share them using your social media account on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, or YouTube. An endorsement can be a sponsored tweet, a self-created video, or a sponsored Tumblr post.
The amount of money per click or per view is based on a “social score.” The score is calculated using engagement metrics such as likes on Facebook or retweets on Twitter, and how often your friends or followers clicked on previous endorsements.
The app is available for the iPhone and Android. Using the technology of their phones, MyLikes users can take photos of favorite products or check into locations, which they can then endorse.
