Everyone loves making money, and everyone loves making money even more if they can make it from the comfort of their own home. When I say that these are the "best" sites and apps for getting some money on the side, I mean that they are legitimate, simple to set up, and consistent in their payouts. These are just a few websites that worked for me, and I would recommend them to anyone because these are no bullshit sites that don't sell your information, spam your email, or scam you for your work.

UserTesting.com

UserTesting is my favorite on this list, and I have been using it on and off for the past two years. To work as a beta tester on UserTesting, you must install the UserTesting screencasting software onto your computer and pass a short test that demonstrates that you have a good microphone, working internet, a browser and operating system that can handle the tests, and that you are capable of thinking out loud to give a clear and thorough review. Once you pass the initial test, you will receive a rating out of five stars. Your rating is the average of the ratings you receive on your last 12 tests, and the higher your rating, the more test offers you will receive on PC and mobile if you download their mobile app. Payments are sent to your PayPal a week from the day the test is completed.

Pros

• Pay is reliable and on time weekly.
• The pay per task is higher than the usual crowdsourced work websites, ranging from $3 to $10 per normal test.
• There's chances to take moderated tests with the client that can go for much higher.
• The company's support team is awesome and will go out of their way to help you in cases where your test fails to upload or crashes.
• Tests in languages other than English are also available.

Cons

• The mobile app can crash and cost you your progress, so make sure you stay on top of your phone's software updates. Thankfully, the support team is really accommodating if something like this happens.
• Despite having to enter a lot of information for your profile, you'll still get a lot of tests in your dashboard for which you won't qualify. Looking through them could take a little time.
• You can't expect tests to always be available.

Amazon Mechanical Turk

I've been curious about Amazon's Mechanical Turk (also known as Mturk) for years, and this year I finally could join it. This crowdsourcing platform allows "Workers" to fulfill any number of "Hits" (tasks) ranging in size and difficulty for "Requesters" (businesses) from the comfort of their homes for pay ranging from a few cents to a few dollars. Earnings can be transferred to your Amazon Payments account (and from there to your bank account) or Amazon.com gift card balance within 24 hours.

Pros

• Any numbers of hits can be completed at any time.
• There are many hits that can be accepted immediately.
• There is no minimum amount of money you must earn before you can transfer your earnings to your account.
• Money transfers are fast.
• Hits in languages other than English are also available.

Cons

• To become a Worker, you must be older than 18 and have credit or else Amazon Payments won't be able to verify your information.
• The Hits readily available for new Workers pay very little.

Resources

• UserTesting.com
• Amazon Mechanical Turk (Mturk)
• Part 2 in this series

Image credits:

• Photo by Domenico Loia on Unsplash
• Site logos from Google Image Search