My system for earning an extra $200 per month

College is back in session and you're in need of some extra beer money (or rent money, video game money, etc.). No problem. Here is an outline of my system where I earn just over $200 per month by investing about 1 hour each day. Be honest with yourself, you can invest this time to earn beer money instead of browsing Reddit, facebook, or downloading torrents.

My Top 5 Beer Money Sites

• Swagbucks - Earn easy points or "Swagbucks" everyday. Answer a daily poll, go through NOSO offers, use the search bar on the site, get the bonus Swagcodes. You can also use Swagbucks TV, do surveys, complete tasks, and watch short clips for bonus points. My average monthly gain = $25 in Amazon gift cards for about 5 minutes of work a day. 
• Check out this post for my Complete Guide to Swagbucks.
• GiftHulk - Similar to Swagbucks, you earn HulkCoins by using GiftHulk's search engine for your daily searches, daily surveys, completing offers, and using the Treasure Box. The Treasure Box is one of the coolest things about GiftHulk where you could get instant prizes such as Amazon GCs and HulkCoins!
• Check out this post for my Complete Guide to GiftHulk.
• 10 minutes of work each day = $25 in Amazon GCs per month.
• Amazon Prime Student - Get a FREE $10 Amazon gift card just for trying out Amazon Prime Student for free when you register through this link! 
• Not only will you get free 2-day shipping on most items sold by Amazon.com, but you'll also get a FREE $10.00 gift card, access to streaming movies, and other goodies just for trying it out. It's great for textbooks, video games, and other necessities. Make sure you take advantage of Amazon Prime and sign up today.
• InstantCashSweepstakes - Answer 3 question surveys and get instant cash in your account to withdraw to PayPal. Sign up through this link and complete the 2 minute tutorial to get $1.00 added to your account instantly. You can cash out at $2.00 to your PayPal account.Each of the surveys are really simple and fun. 
• Get a "prize" for completing each 3 question survey. The prize is usually a few cents, tickets, and coins. The money adds up and you can withdrawl via PayPal. The tickets are used for automatically entering you into the $50 drawing held each day. The coins are used to enter in a drawing held every 4 hours for $2.00.
• Bing Rewards - Simply sign up for Bing Rewards by clicking on the link at the left, make a few searches each day (up to a daily limit) plus do other easy tasks. 
• Spend 3 minutes doing 10 searchers per day = $5 Amazon GC in about 10 days
• Use this Chrome extension to earn Bing Rewards every time you search Google.
• Don't forget to check the "offers" page each day to see what you can click for points that day! It changes every day! Invite your friends and earn more!
• BONUS SITE -- Amazon's Mechanical Turk - A reliable service by Amazon.com, you complete surveys/other tasks for various pay. One of the most popular sites on the web. My average monthly income = $300 depending on the amount of effort that I put into it. Most recently, my goal has been to do about $5-$10 per day which gives me about $150 extra per month.
• Check out this post for my tips on using mTurk.
• Spending 2-3 hours per day on r/hwtf = $8-$15 a day depending on how much effort I want to put into it.
• You can cash out to your bank account or purchase items via Amazon.com! Sign up for an Amazon Prime Student Account today and earn $3 just for trying it out!

Bonus Sites to Earn More Beer Money

• Apptrailers - (iOS App from App Store) Watch very short 10 second clips of game and app trailers and earn Amazon gift cards very quickly. It adds up quickly and you only need to spend a few minutes a day to get a gift card. 
• Enter the referral code "xception" to get an extra 50 points when you sign up using that code.
• GetLivePoints - Want Xbox LIVE Gold codes? Microsoft Points codes? Xbox 360 gamers need to sign up for GetLivePoints because this is the fastest way to get free Xbox Live codes and Microsoft points. Simply sign up and complete a few offers (an investment of 20 minutes a day) and you will be able to redeem for either Xbox Live gold cards or Microsoft Points.
• You could pay for your Xbox Live gold completely by using this site. Currently, you need 935 points for 1 month of Xbox Live gold.
• Get 100 free points when you sign up here!
• Listia - Get awesome stuff without spending any money. It's an online auction site that is more like a beer money site than eBay! You can earn credits to bid on items or sell your own! This is one of my favorite emerging sites.
• SocialSci - Earn easy $5 Amazon GCs by filling out quick surveys. These surveys are actually really fun and you are contributing towards real scientific studies. This is a great place to start because you'll earn a $5 GC in a very short time. 
• AdFoc.us - Make $6.50 for every 1000 clicks on a link. This is very useful if you're a contributor to any web forum where the links are allowed. Consider using AdFoc.us as a way to get paid for clicks!
• Viggle - An app for Android and iPhone where you can "check in" to shows and receive points. This is very good for any show that you watch whether its Primetime TV, sports, or any other shows. You can even check in when you are away from the TV.
• They pay out instantly and is an easy $15 a month by checking in to only a few shows.

Top 4 Frugal Ways to Fill Your Dorm Room or Apartment

Throughout my years as a college student, I've learned many ways to be frugal and still have all of the bare necessities as well as having some extra beer money to spend on video games, books, and well... beer. Why buy any household necessity new? What if you could get like new items (or, in some cases, even new items) from friends, family members, Craigslist, or strangers for a fraction of the cost? This blog post will provide you with some tips for filling your dorm room or apartment by spending a lot less than you would at Target or Wal-Mart during their "back to school" and "dorm days" shopping campaigns.

1. Local "Free" Stores. Call up your "no-name" thrift stores (not Goodwill or Salvation Army) and tell them that you're a college student on a limited budget and need to get a few pieces of furniture or household items. Ask them what kinds of discounts they have for college students or if they know of any items that you could obtain for low or no cost directly from them. This has worked countless times for myself and for friends of mine. Start early (2 months before classes start), be persistent, and be nice! You might not get lucky the first time, but you will within your first few tries! See 3 more...

Use this Chrome Extension to Earn Bing Reward Points by Searching Google

Bing Rewards is an easy way to earn an easy $5 Amazon GC about every two weeks. You may earn more or less depending on the amount of searches you do, your referrals, and how many extra point earning opportunities you take advantage of. One way to ensure that you're reaching your maximum points each day is to install Bingo, a handy extension for Google Chrome.

If you haven't signed up for Bing Rewards yet, sign up here first then download the Bingo extension. How does Bingo work? Bingo sends a search request to Bing in the background. Because it appears as if it is being sent directly from your browser, there isn't any way to detect it as a "bot" (which are very dangerous to use, by the way - you risk losing all of your points if you use a bot). To clarify, this is not a bot. Here is additional information on Bingo from their installation page. I posted it here for your convenience...

Wanna collect Bing rewards? Also wanna stick with Google Search? This is the right tool for you. It lets you use Google Search while collecting Bing rewards. Basically, when you search from omnibox or from Google website...

Amazon's Mechanical Turk Tips that Increase Earnings

I've been "Turking" on Amazon's Mechanical Turk, or mTurk, for about 2 months now and have made a little over $200 (with another $25 pending). Mturk is a site where humans get paid to do various "Human Intelligence Tasks" such as completing surveys, searching Google, or finding photos. Many of these tasks are really helpful to colleges and universities that do research and need to get some legitimate (and honest) results from humans. In my 2 months of using mTurk, reading up on tips for earning more, and learning how to spot a scam HIT using the browser plug-in TurkOpticon, I've learned a lot about ways to increase your earnings using mTurk.

Fast Ways to Find Good (and highly rated) HITS

Fastest way to increased earnings through searching (click to enlarge)

The best paying (and fastest) hits are surveys. How do you find them? Many colleges and universities put their surveys up for you to do at $.25, $.50, or over $1.00 so that they can get fast results. In order to find these, all you have to do is go to Amazon's Mechanical Turk interface and input the following in the search box:

Viggle - Watch TV, Earn Points, Get Rewards! Extra Points during the 2012 Olympics!

Viggle is an app for iOS/Android where you check in to TV shows and movies on TV (or if you're watching on your computer). You can either check in to shows via their audio check in or via an audioless check-in. All you have to do to get started is to sign up and download the Viggle app. It's very easy. You just check in once and you're done. It's really an easy to way to quickly earn GCs to Amazon, Starbucks, Burger King, and more. This is going to be awesome during the Olympics because it's basically free points all day long. Best of all, they pay out instantly!


Here are some tips for using Viggle:

• You can even check in to shows when you are away from the TV and not have to verify or check in again!

• There are bonus points for specific shows each day. That really makes this app worthwhile! You'll get an extra 200-300 points if you check in to certain shows - go to your app and flick to the left to see all the current shows with bonus points available.

• You can also earn via ads (bonus 50-200 points when you're checked in to a show, or when not checked in).

• If you download the shows via torrent, watch on your DVR, or via a streaming service such as Hulu you can check in to shows also!

• Check in to baseball games, morning talk shows, or other long 3-5 hour shows and get all the points even if you don't watch it (meaning you don't have to "verify" or "re check-in").

• You can earn more points via referrals. 1000 points per referral during the Olympics!

GiftHulk - earn Paypal cash, Amazon GCs, and more!

Gifthulk is another one of my favorite earning sites. If you know about Swagbucks, then you have to check out Gifthulk. Instead of Swagbucks, you earn “Hulk Coins” and I find that you can earn these at a similar rate to Swagbucks if you’re on the site daily. It will take you between 3-4 days of being on the site for 20 minutes or so to earn enough for your first reward which is a $5 Amazon gift card.
 You only have to redeem 439 Hulk Points for the $5 Amazon GC. Gifthulk’s best rewards are direct payments via Paypal and Amazon gift cards. You earn 50 Hulk Coins just by signing up. One of the main reasons that you should sign up for GiftHulk now is because of Gifthulk TV, which is finally available in the U.S (and will be available to those outside the U.S. soon). The great part is that other coin earning opportunities are available outside of the U.S. Just like Swagbucks, there are several other ways to earn coins each day. Here’s what my daily routine on GH includes:

Daily Poll & Searching
First, fill out the Daily Poll. There is a new one each day that will yield you 1 Hulk Coin per day. Next, I do the daily search. Usually, I’m paid for 2 or 3 searches a day throughout the day. They give you prizes such as...

Selling on eBay from a College Town: A Complete Guide for College Students

As a college student, you’ll figure out that there are many methods to acquire valuable items. Whether you come across a Super Nintendo system (or even SNES controllers), a pile of used college textbooks, or a vintage camera, believe it or not, there is someone who may pay you more than you paid for it. In any college town, you will find some hidden gems in thrift stores such as Goodwill or Salvation Army, or by going to garage sales and yard sales on the weekends. Furthermore, you may have some old stuff lying around your dorm or apartment (or some of your textbooks from last semester) that you could flip on eBay or Half.com for a profit. This blog post will be dedicated to providing some great tips for beginning eBayers and provide some insight into what types of items your college town may have for you to take advantage of and flip on eBay.

When browsing for items at garage sales or thrift stores, it’s important to be able to have a sense for what an item could be worth. One of the most important factors in flipping items on eBay is your knowledge or resources on what an item is worth so that you can make a good offer and create a nice profit margin for yourself. Throughout the past several years, I have been focusing more on eBay and have made a average of $6,000 a year.

Personally, I’ve found my niche areas in video games, cameras, shoes, and miscellaneous collectibles. Since I’ve been selling on eBay since 1999, I’ve sold all sorts of items for a hefty profit. In 2012, it is a little easier to gauge the value of an item because of the eBay iPhone app when you're in your local thrift store or checking out garage sales over the weekend. To make sure that my iPhone stays protected while I'm on the go, I use the Lifeproof iPhone Case. It's an awesome case and I highly recommend it for any iPhone user. 

Determining Value and “Saleability” 
The eBay app gives me a look into what the item could bring. First, you’ll want to see what the completed items went for. Do your research and learn about random items that you come across. You may be surprised about what could sell on eBay for some big money. Hundreds of dollars profit are to be had and it only takes a second to look it up!

• Do a search for completed items that actually sold...