Looking to earn some cash at home in your spare time? Forget online surveys. There is a new market research platform that’s perfect for anybody with smartphone and doesn’t mind filming themselves.
Influence, previously known as Voxpopme, is a market research app that pays you to film answers to questions.
I’ve tried lots of traditional survey websites and always found them inconsistent and frustrating when it comes to actually earning anything meaningful.
Influence is completely unique, and a game changer.
Here’s how Influence works:
Download the Influence app for Iphone
Register an account and you’ll be asked a few questions about your lifestyle to start building your profile. If you sign up via my link you’ll get a bonus £1 too.
Your very first question should pay you at least 25 pence.
The great thing about this app is you can only record an answer of between 15 and 60 seconds.
Yes, you can re-record before you upload your response. But, for the most part, you probably won’t need more than a couple of minutes to read a question, record a quick answer and upload it to be approved.
Some key things to note:
1) Most questions pay between 25p and 63p.
You’ll get a mix of standard one-off questions which pay 25p per response.
For a more specific topic, you could get 2-4 questions of a similar theme that each pay 63p.
For example, I’ve recently answered 4 questions all about hair products which earned me £2.52 and took me less than 10 minutes to record.
2) You can only cash out your earnings when you’ve made at least £10.
If you’re consistent with your recordings, you could achieve this amount in a month.
Earnings can only be withdrawn to a PayPal account, so make sure you have one.
3) Turn on notifications
You do need to be quick. So make sure your notifications are turned on so that you know when a question is available.
Most questions close once a certain number of responses have been uploaded. So don’t miss out!
4) Put in the time to do the free questions and surveys
Sometimes you’ll get questions that don’t pay you anything. At first I wasn’t bothered about these, but submitting them boosts your chances of getting more paid questions.
I’ve found the app to have a bit of a snowball effect…you start getting offered more questions once you’ve submitted a few answers.
You’ll also get surveys. These are different to paid questions. When you answer surveys, you’re essentially giving the app more details about your lifestyle. This means more chances of getting paid questions. So always answer the surveys.
5) Occasionally you may get products to physically review
This is where the money can grow.
I recently was paid £13 to review a new yogurt from a big UK brand. The whole process took me less than 10 minutes.
Again, make sure you answer the surveys so the app gets to know more and more about you.
6) Don’t worry about recording a perfect response
Each question will have a main question, with a few sub-questions to help guide your answer.
While the minimum recording length is 15 seconds, I tend to aim for 30 seconds just to make sure I’m giving enough detail. Try not to aim for bang on 60 seconds as you don’t want the recording to cut off mid-sentence.
Make sure your full head is in shot and the lighting is clear.
Don’t overthink your response. Just speak clearly, look at the camera and have a couple of key points in your response that directly answer the question.
I’ve submitted over 40 videos and only had 1 get declined because my face wasn’t clear enough.
My review
As I mentioned, I’ve tried lots of these online survey sites and never made more than a couple of quid. So at first I was sceptical.
But I’ve been using Influence for 2 months and earned nearly £30 already.
It’s so much easier than having to fill in a load of questions online. And I’m not that comfortable in front of a camera.
It can be tricky if you can’t answer questions that quickly. The best time to record answers are when you’re at home and have some spare time. So it does depend on how busy you are and how quick you’re able to submit a recording once a new question is available.
That said, you can record an answer walking down the street, sat in the car, on the toilet. You literally need 2 minutes at the most.
So even though you might think 25p is nothing, it takes you a couple of minutes at the most. And you'll probably get some higher paying ones too.
Give it a go. It’s a really handy app that you can use to make a little extra cash in your genuine spare time.
