How To Get Paid For Searching The Web (Insanely EASY Ways To Earn!)

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We all want to earn a bit of extra dosh, right? Those takeaway coffees and cab rides are not going to pay for themselves.

What if I told you that you could earn a few quid at home without having to set up a business or pay out anything?

As you are reading this, I assume you are on the internet and use search engines at times. If you are already doing this, why not make some money at the same time?

There are plenty of companies and websites out there who will pay you to search the internet. Yes – you really can make money from doing something that you probably do multiple times a day.

Do you want to find out more about how you can get paid for searching the web? Read on for more information!

This post contains affiliate and referral links. That means that if you sign up for some of the opportunities below, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Thanks for supporting my site!

Search engines that pay

The easiest way to get paid for searching the internet is to use search engines that pay you just for carrying out your regular searches. Yep, they exist!

These sites don’t pay a ton of money, but it’s very easy and passive once you get into the habit of using these as your default search engines.

To get started, sign up with one of the GPT (Get Paid To) sites below. They all have their own paid search engines inside their platforms. As a bonus, they all have plenty of other ways to make money online, too.

Swagbucks

Swagbucks has become increasingly popular in recent years and is one of the most well-known GTP sites. This is because it is easy to use, pays out without too much hassle, and is generally very intuitive.

Paid searches are not the only way of earning money with Swagbucks – they have so many ways to earn, including paid surveys, cashback on your shopping, and you can even get paid to play games!

However, for the purpose of this post, let’s focus on the paid searches.

The page has a search function at the top left-hand side of the page. Use that as you would with any search engine – the only difference is that you get paid for doing it this way!

Every time you use the Swagbucks search engine, you earn SBs. SBs (SwagBucks) are the ‘currency’ of the website and can be redeemed for vouchers, prizes, and gifts. They also have a chrome extension that is very easy to use.

You don’t earn many SBs per search, but think how many searches you do in the average day or week? The key here is volume!

Make Swagbucks your default search engine, and you could earn money every month for doing nothing other than your standard internet browsing.

800 SBs can get you a £5 PayPal credit, and there are often offers and sales, meaning you can get a lot more bang for your (Swag) buck.

Inbox Pounds

Inbox Pounds is another Get Paid To site that offers a variety of ways to make a bit of extra money online. This site is specifically aimed at the UK.

You can get paid for taking surveys, reading emails, completing paid and free deals, and the easiest of them is browsing the web using the site search bar. All you have to do is complete your searches and get paid.

It is entirely free to join, and you even receive a £1 sign-up bonus, giving you a bit of a head start. You can claim your earnings to your PayPal or as gift cards.

Just keep in mind that they do have fairly high cash-out thresholds (at least £20), so it can take a while to get there. The rewards are also quite low in comparison to other search reward sites, although every penny literally can help!

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Timebucks

Timebucks is a newer contender in the GPT world. As with Swagbucks and Inbox Pounds, they have a search engine that pays you to search!

They also have lots of unique ways to earn, including getting paid to click on ads, watch videos or slideshows (essentially get paid to watch ads, but there is lots of funny content there too), post on TikTok, complete Captchas and more.

Timebucks is one of the lower paying sites but it does have some different methods to make money online, and it is available all over the world.

There are several other sites that offer paid search engines, but I would just choose one of the above and stick with it. Bookmark it or even set it as your homepage and watch your points build over time!

Get paid to click on ads with Qmee

Qmee isn’t one of the most well-known get paid to sites, but it is a bit of a hidden gem!

Qmee is an app and browser extension which enables you to earn money by shopping, completing offers, and doing surveys. The app is free on both iOS devices and Android and allows you to access your account quickly and easily.

You can find deals with the automatic price comparison tool when shopping online, get notified of new surveys, and request payments directly from the app, so you can make money wherever you are.

But the easiest way to make money on Qmee is to install the browser extension. Then, carry on with your usual Google searches. Occasionally, the Qmee extension will cause some ads to pop up in the sidebar and you can get paid by Qmee just by clicking on them.

Yes, you can earn money by searching Google and clicking on ads. They even tell you how much you can make per ad! Usually it’s just 4 or 5p each time, but it takes a fraction of a second, and soon starts to add up.

Rewards are either paid out as cash in your PayPal account or as gift cards. The best thing about Qmee is that the cash payments are almost immediate, and there is no minimum withdrawal amount. You can literally withdraw 1p if you want to.

This means Qmee is ideal when you need to make money fast!

Search engine evaluation jobs

As well as getting paid to use search engines, you can also earn money through evaluating search engines!

It is less passive than the above options: this is a proper part-time job, and you have to commit time to it, rather than earning from your regular searches.

But if you have a few spare hours here and there and can work to a set of guidelines, it can be quite an interesting way to make money online.

The way these work is that you literally look at search engine results to see if they are relevant. So, for example, you may be asked to search for ‘women’s running trainers.’ You would then be given a checklist to make sure that the results that the search engine throws up contain the information and details that the searcher is looking for, and flag up any spammy or irrelevant sites.

The main providers of this sort of work are Lionbridge and Appen. Both pay around $14 an hour. However, they share the same clients so I would apply for each of them just one at a time, as the clients (think big search engines beginning with G or B) don’t like to see multiple applications from the same IP address.

There are other companies offering search engine evaluation jobs, which you can find by searching the usual online job sites.

Some search engine evaluation ‘projects’ may take you just a couple of hours, so perfect for a bit of additional pocket money while the kids are at school or on your days off. Others may be much bigger and more time-consuming.

You can’t just waltz in and expect to earn money doing search engine evaluation straight away. Like most jobs, there is an element of knowledge, training, and commitment involved.

You will have to read through some training modules or information, and some of these roles may ask you to sit a test before sending work in your direction.

However, it can be a sweet little earner. Some people earn several hundred pounds per month with this work!

So it’s well worth the effort involved in taking the training, with the added benefit that once you are on the system there are other well paid rating tasks you can do for them.

Get paid to search the web with Serpclix

SerpClix is a website where you get paid to search online and click on certain results.

You have to sign up on their website and install the SerpClix browser extension. Then, you click on the extension icon to see a list of jobs. You will see a list of terms to Google, and the websites they want you to click on in the results.

The extension monitors your activity, and you get paid between $0.10 and $0.05 per click.

It really is that simple! You can also earn money from referrals.

SerpClix pays out automatically to your PayPal every month, so long as you earned over $5 that month.

Earn money for researching online

Some people can’t or do not want to spend hours researching things online, so they are happy to let someone else do it on their behalf. You can be that someone, and you can get paid for it.

One site that hires internet researchers is Wonder.

The concept is incredibly simple. Someone wants to know the answer to a question. They submit a request to Wonder for their researchers to answer. You are the researcher – you go online and search for the answer and reply.

You will have to pass a quiz and trial assignment to get the job. Once you’re in, it’s a flexible gig with no fixed hours.

Simply log in to your dashboard whenever you’re ready to work, and pick up an assignment that fits your interests and capabilities. Research your answer, type it up and submit it for approval.

Another site that pays you to research online is AQA – Any Question Answered.

The great thing about this is you can specify the hours that you want to work and the sort of subjects you work with.

If political history in 18th century France is your jam (it has to be someone’s!), then you can let AQA know to direct those questions your way. If you don’t know a cambelt from a crankshaft, you can tell them that they probably should find someone else to answer questions about cars.

To apply, send a CV to the email address on their site.

Get paid to share your data while browsing the internet

Now, this one can be a little controversial, but you know, desperate times and all that.

Some places, such as Nielsen Computer Panel, want to see what you have been looking at online. Simply download the app, then do your normal thing on the internet, whatever that may be. The app will share your internet data with them. They will reward you in return.

Now, this is not for everyone as you might be concerned about privacy and data protection, but still, if you are happy to share it, you can earn money passively for doing so.

Honeygain is a similar company. It shares your computer bandwidth and you can earn money over time. Not a lot, but again, it doesn’t take any effort on your behalf other than downloading the app.

Conclusion

There are plenty of opportunities to earn money online through web searching, and many of them require nothing more than changing your default search engine or downloading an app.

Whether you have all the time in the world to spend clicking and answering questions or want something that earns you a couple of quid a week in the background, there is something out there for you.

Remember to do your research and read reviews before you sign up and commit to anything to make sure it is legitimate.

Good luck!