All about the Benjamins
April 11, 2010 1:13 PM Subscribe
Help me make bank.
Inspired by one of the answers on this post, I'm trying to think of ways to make quick money fairly easily that isn't too sketchy (I could probably pay for my entire degree by donating eggs a couple times, but...). Consumer surveys sound promising, as do medical trials. I looked on craigslist for consumer surveys and didn't find anything too promising. Where else can I find links to surveys and trials? Any other ideas that are flexible, relatively well-paying and preferably in cash? (ahem, besides the obvious)
By the by, I'm a female college undergrad student in good health.
Thank you in advance for the beer money.
Inspired by one of the answers on this post, I'm trying to think of ways to make quick money fairly easily that isn't too sketchy (I could probably pay for my entire degree by donating eggs a couple times, but...). Consumer surveys sound promising, as do medical trials. I looked on craigslist for consumer surveys and didn't find anything too promising. Where else can I find links to surveys and trials? Any other ideas that are flexible, relatively well-paying and preferably in cash? (ahem, besides the obvious)
By the by, I'm a female college undergrad student in good health.
Thank you in advance for the beer money.
fMRI studies pay $35-75 for an hour or so of your time. Call your university's psychology department, neuroscience department, and medical school to see if they're running any.
posted by Meg_Murry at 1:18 PM on April 11, 2010
posted by Meg_Murry at 1:18 PM on April 11, 2010
check out cater waiting (a college classic!) you'll find their expectations are pretty low (i.e. it's pretty brainless, and even though you're supposed to be in formal wear, you can really get away with the cheapest, most ill-fitting stuff from the thrift store) and they're always looking for people on the weekends...
posted by sexyrobot at 1:23 PM on April 11, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by sexyrobot at 1:23 PM on April 11, 2010 [1 favorite]
Don't look to Craigslist for focus-group opportunities, most of the ones I see there (while looking for other things) are severely underpaid. What you want to do is register with market-research companies, the people who hold real focus groups. Look in your yellow pages, Google, or the yellow pages of the nearest largest city. You call them up, tell them what you're into and what you're good at, and they call you if something comes up. $100/hr was not uncommon 15 years ago when I was doing this.
posted by rhizome at 1:26 PM on April 11, 2010 [3 favorites]
posted by rhizome at 1:26 PM on April 11, 2010 [3 favorites]
Tutoring?
posted by mmf at 2:00 PM on April 11, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by mmf at 2:00 PM on April 11, 2010 [1 favorite]
If it's just for beer money, check out some of the suggestions on this post for ideas. Do you have a truck? You could also go in with a friend and help people move stuff that they buy on Craigslist.
posted by _cave at 2:13 PM on April 11, 2010
posted by _cave at 2:13 PM on April 11, 2010
As a female undergraduate student, you can make a decent amount by buying panties, wearing them for a day, then selling them (unwashed) on eBay. It's a bit sleazy, but it's not sketchy.
posted by LSK at 2:18 PM on April 11, 2010 [2 favorites]
posted by LSK at 2:18 PM on April 11, 2010 [2 favorites]
Don't look to Craigslist for focus-group opportunities, most of the ones I see there (while looking for other things) are severely underpaid. What you want to do is register with market-research companies, the people who hold real focus groups.
Nthing this. I happened to have stumbled into the focus group arena by accident; as it happened, my co-worker was the spouse of a person who worked for a local marketing company which recruited folks for focus groups, and at that particular time she was in desperate need of people aged X-Y willing to sit and listen to an hour's worth of song snippets and rate them from 0 to 5. (From the looks of the assembled crowd and the songs that were played, it was easy to figure out that the client was some Classic Rock radio station honing their playlist.) Anyway, I was paid $50 for that session and then asked if I minded being placed on the company's "call list." What that meant was that they listed my basic statistics (gender, age group, geographic area, etc) into their database and when a client requested a focus group comprised of certain statistics, they could call on me at short notice to participate. I eventually got called for so many groups that I had to start turning down work, even though $50 for one assignment was the lowest amount of money offered. I would suggest Googling marketing/promotional companies in your area, and then refining that search to the various individual companies and adding "focus group" to your criteria.
posted by Oriole Adams at 2:24 PM on April 11, 2010 [5 favorites]
Nthing this. I happened to have stumbled into the focus group arena by accident; as it happened, my co-worker was the spouse of a person who worked for a local marketing company which recruited folks for focus groups, and at that particular time she was in desperate need of people aged X-Y willing to sit and listen to an hour's worth of song snippets and rate them from 0 to 5. (From the looks of the assembled crowd and the songs that were played, it was easy to figure out that the client was some Classic Rock radio station honing their playlist.) Anyway, I was paid $50 for that session and then asked if I minded being placed on the company's "call list." What that meant was that they listed my basic statistics (gender, age group, geographic area, etc) into their database and when a client requested a focus group comprised of certain statistics, they could call on me at short notice to participate. I eventually got called for so many groups that I had to start turning down work, even though $50 for one assignment was the lowest amount of money offered. I would suggest Googling marketing/promotional companies in your area, and then refining that search to the various individual companies and adding "focus group" to your criteria.
posted by Oriole Adams at 2:24 PM on April 11, 2010 [5 favorites]
"Guinea Pigs Get Paid (http://www.gpgp.net/) has tons of info about participating in clinical trials. I did this a bunch of times during grad school and typically got paid $1200-2000 for giving up a couple of weekends, some blood, and some time for short follow up visits.
posted by sevenyearlurk at 5:40 PM on April 11, 2010
posted by sevenyearlurk at 5:40 PM on April 11, 2010
but...
But what? Free money. Antipodean backpackers in the UK doing medical trials to make rent would love the opportunity.
posted by pompomtom at 10:33 PM on April 11, 2010
But what? Free money. Antipodean backpackers in the UK doing medical trials to make rent would love the opportunity.
posted by pompomtom at 10:33 PM on April 11, 2010
Ta for that, please excuse my ignorance. I feel all educated now...
posted by pompomtom at 9:30 PM on April 12, 2010
posted by pompomtom at 9:30 PM on April 12, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
Bartending, event gigs, modeling, restaurant work.
posted by Hurst at 1:16 PM on April 11, 2010