Swagbucks

Swagbucks allows you to earn points (aka Swag Bucks) by searching via their website (which is powdered by Google and Bing). The Swag Bucks points can be exchanged for all sorts of rewards such as gift cards or just straight cash into your Paypal account. You can also earn points by completing surveys and polls, shopping and watching videos.

Get Cashback

Use cashback websites such as QuidCo to get money back when you buy goods online, from insurance to food. Rather than buying direct from a website, buy through QuidCo and you’ll get paid for every purchase!

Surveys

The classic way to make money online: Sign up to websites like MySurvey to make cash in your spare time by completing quick and simple questionnaires. No hard work or long shifts here.

Free Tesco Vouchers

Get a Tesco Bank Credit Card and use it for all your regular purchases. So long as you pay it off each month, you won’t have to worry about interest or fees. As well as improving your credit score, you’ll earn club card points on all your purchases which will turn into vouchers with Tesco, or money off at selected other retailers or organisations under the Clubcard Boost scheme.

Sign up for a FREE lottery

The Free Postcode lottery is just that. A free lottery! The prize is ‘only’ £100, although that can roll over each day if no one claims it. Enter your postcode now at FreePostcodeLottery.com.

Sell your HAIR

Let your hair grow and then you can make cash by selling it for use in wigs and other products. Bloomsbury Wigs’ guide prices range from £15-£60 for 10-12 inches up to £200 for more than 19 inches. > How to make money by selling your HAIR

Qmee

Qmee will pay you just to search the web, simple as that! Sponsored ads accompany the search results and you can build up cash rewards which can either be paid out to a Paypal account or donated to a charity of your choice.

Sell copies of your old revision notes

Note Sale allows you to make cash from your old lecture and revision notes. You can upload your own notes and set a price, ranging from pence to pounds, and will keep 75% of all cash made. The site covers everything from GCSE to degree level, so you may want to dig up your old school work to turn into money!

Becoming a local tour guide to visitors can prove to be an easy money earner in your spare time, especially over the summer months.

via Flickr/OliBac

Websites like Tours By Locals and Vayable provide places to list tours and experiences you want to offer to tourists.

There are lots of experiences you could create from the typical tour of iconic landmarks to tours of backstreets unlocking interesting locations that most don’t know exists.

Tours of street art, unique shops and eateries are also types of outings on offer, as well as an experience visiting London’s public toilets.

Other popular ideas including tours of local pubs and bars, architecture as well as photography trips.

You can use your local knowledge and personal expertise to come up with some unique and and inventive experiences that will interest sightseers and make you money.

While being in a tourist hotspot will of course be advantageous and get you more bookings, there’s nothing stopping you from setting up shop and offering tours anywhere in the country.

via Flickr/Altug Karakoc

We looked into three of the most popular places to trade in CDs, DVDs and Games: Music Magpie, Ziffit and CeX to see which pays the highest prices and the results unfortunately weren’t too clear cut.

Picking a 2015 DVD, CD and PS4 game we saw how much each would pay and the offers were consierably varied.

While CeX came on top for both the game and DVD – by some way – it’s offer for the music CD was just 10% that of the other two websites.

The conclusion, as it often is when it comes to both making and saving money, is to spend a bit of time and COMPARE. Enter the brocades of the products you want to get rid of into each of the three websites and see which will pay the most there and then for what you have.

Or sell privately

While ‘Cash for Stuff’ websites provide an easy, guaranteed payment for old products, you can often make a lot more selling on marketplaces, especially if there is great demand and little supply of what you have to sell.

Consider listing products on Gumtree, eBay or the Amazon Marketplace for greater returns. While these websites may charge a fee you can still often make more money although it does require more work. Remember to also include the cost of postage where applicable.

Sell to a pal

Alternatively, sell to a friend. You may get slightly less but passing a tenner between you for a game is trivial and means instant cash in hand.

Make and sell custom T-Shirts

Websites like Fabrily and CafePress allow you to make custom T-shirt designs with ease and put them up for sale online. You come up with the idea and they do all the hard work from printing to shipping and collecting money.

Sell photos

Into photography and have some cool holiday photos? Or perhaps some newsworthy snaps of a headline making story? You can upload photos to stock websites or news agencies and then sit back. Anyone that uses them will pay you a fee.

For stock photography try Fotoila and Shutterstock. For news images visit Cavendish Press

Grow your hair, cut it off, then sell it

Let your hair grow and then you can make cash by selling it for use in wigs and other products. Bloomsbury Wigs’ guide prices range from £15-£60 for 10-12 inches up to £200 for more than 19 inches.

Sell ad space on your car

You can make money by selling ad space on your car, earning up to £100 a month with Car Quids. Once the ads have been stuck on, you’re making money day or night without lifting a finger.

Get easy compensation

If you’ve been delayed on a plane or train over the past few years you may be entitled to some easy compensation. Fill out a form, sit back and claim back what’s yours! Find information here for flights and here for trains.

Sign up for a FREE lottery

The Free Postcode lottery is just that. A free lottery! The prize is ‘only’ £100, although that can roll over each day if no one claims it. Enter your postcode now at FreePostcodeLottery.com.

Make and sell stock web content

If you’re the creative type then you could get a steady income from stock content. While you’ll need to be awake to come up with things like web templates, graphics or music, but the Envato Marketplaces allow you to trivially publish them and get paid for every use.

House sit

House sitting is another option for easy money, being paid to look after a house while the owners are away. TrustedHouseSitters.com is a good place to look for opportunities across the world.

Rent your parking space

If you’ve got a parking space you’re not using then be sure to see if you can make some cash by renting it out. If you live near popular attractions such as train stations or football stadiums you can make quite a bit from your unused land!

MORE: > Make money from your driveway by renting it out for cash

Earn interest on savings with a good ISA

A Cash ISA is the best risk-free savings account you can get so even if you’ve not got much cash spare, open one anyway. Always be on the look out for a good deal and don’t be afraid to switch for the best interest rates.

Get a refund on your TV license

You can potentially get a 25% refund off your TV Licence if you go back home for the summer – see TV license refund information here!

Sell stuff

Let’s start off with something simple: Sell up. You may be shocked to find out what people will pay you for.

Music Magpie

Use Music Magpie to make money from everything from CDs to electronics.

Gumtree

Sell pretty much anything (within reason!) on Gumtree.

Sell custom T-shirts

New website Fabrily allows you to make money by selling unique T-shirts and hoodies online from home, with no costs or risks to you. You can raise cash for yourself or for good charitable causes

Sell your books

Hit up the Amazon Marketplace or new students to shift your old textbooks plus any others you might have lying around that you no longer read.

Sell your revision notes

Note Sale allows you to make cash from your old lecture and revision notes. You can upload your own notes and set a price, ranging from pence to pounds, and will keep 75% of all cash made. The site covers everything from GCSE to degree level, so you may want to dig up your old school work to turn into money!

Sell recipes

Submit recipes to Student Eats where you could get £5 for every one that is published.

Sell stories

Newspapers and magazines will pay good cash for news stories and you’d be surprised just what they’ll consider newsworthy, even if you don’t. A frontpage story on the tabloids will make you thousands but even a small piece in a weekly magazine could be worth a few hundred quid.

Check out websites Talk To The Press and Sell Us Your Story who do all the hard work for you.

Cash for Clothes

If you’re doing a wardrobe clear out then be sure to turn your old clothes into cash. Website Return To Earn offers a completely free door step service meaning you don’t even have to leave your house, providing you with bags and taking your clothes away for you.

Sell your HAIR

You can make cash by selling your hair for use in wigs and other products. Bloomsbury Wigs’ guide prices range from £15-£60 for 10-12 inches up to £200 for more than 19 inches.

eBay it

eBay is a great place to sell all sorts but collectables in particular where you can get some serious money. You may also be surprised by just how much people will pay for something, who knew people collected tax discs?!

Get cash for ink cartridges

You can turn ink cartridges into money, whether they’re empty or full. See Ink2Cash for all you need to know.

Sell food

Get baking and sell cakes or other food at local events like car boot sales, fetes, and such. The mark up is huge on what started as a few pence of flour and sugar.

Sell crafts on Etsy

If you’re a creative person, you can make a killing on Etsy with your crafts whether it’s painting, printing, woodwork or knitting.

Get your tweets sponsored

If you’ve got a following on Twitter (and you don’t need to be Kim Kardashian!) you can cash in with SponsoredTweets.com

Trade in old video games and DVDs for cash

Hit the high street with your video games and DVDs and trade them in for money or credit at exchange stores like CEX or Replay.

Fiverr

With Fiverr you can sell pretty much any idea you can think of: One such ‘service’ on offer at the time of writing is a bloke offering to rub chocolate syrup on his belly and sing happy birthday in his underwear… and he’s made over $1,000 from it!

Sell stuff at car boot sales

It’s not just online you can get rid of your stuff, you can make cash by shifting it at car boot sales or garage sales. You can make more, don’t have to worry about fees or bother with postage and packaging.

Shift scrap

Look online for local scrap dealers who may pay for what you consider rubbish. Whether it’s a clapped out old car, broken fridge or just some random metal.

Get money to recycle

Aluminium cans can be turned into money – see here for all the info

Sell gold

You can make money from gold and jewellery with various websites and high street shops. Get quotes and see who offers you the best price before committing.

Shpock

Shpock describes itself as the boot sale app for beautiful things, a way of buying and selling your things quickly to other people around you. Basically an online car boot sale.

Grab freebies and sell them

Pick up free stuff from places like Gumtree and freecycle and sell them on for a profit.

Publish an eBook

This one takes some effort but find a niche and you could do quite well for yourself and. You can publish an eBook online direct through Amazon.

Sell your pictures and videos

Pictures of news events alone can be worth thousands of pounds. Whether it’s a candid celebrity snap, a picture of a crime scene or just a funny animal video, the papers and magazines may be interested.

See INS News agency for somewhere to sell your pics and clips.

You’ve Been Framed

It’s still on the telly and it’s still giving away £250 for every clip broadcast – Upload here.

Sell your face

Some might not believe the bare-faced cheek (GEDDIT?) of the idea, but it has worked. Back in 2012, ex Cambridge students Ed Moyse and Ross Harper paid off their University debts by selling advertising space on their own faces; painting company logos on their cheeks and foreheads.

Sell ad space on your car

You can make money by selling ad space on your car, earning up to £100 a month – check out Car Quids for more.

Get paid for product reviews

Website dooyoo allows you to earn so-called dooyooMiles for posting product reviews. These can be converted into Amazon vouchers or cash.

Sell holiday snaps

You can turn your holiday snaps (or photos in general) into cash via Stock Image websites. They’ll need to be high quality and appealing – so that SnapChat selfie is out – but even if you’re only okay with a camera you can make some money from websites like fotolia.

Sell your old phone

See our guide on selling your mobile phone to find out which site pays the most, you can get over £100!

Random ways to earn cash

We’re not quite sure how to categorize these…

Make money from your blog

Cash in on visitors to your website or blog with ads, check out our making money with Adsense guide to get started and some top tips.

Get easy compensation

If you’ve been delayed on a plane or train over the past few years you may be entitled to some easy compensation. Find information here for flights and here for trains.

Competitions

Search the web for various free competitions. There’s of course no guarantee you’d get anything but most take a second or two to enter and if you do strike it lucky the pay out could be huge.

Earn cash on YouTube

Whether it’s pranks, singing or just vlogging your daily life, upload videos to YouTube and monetise them to cash in on viewers.

Test products

You can get paid to test products or even be given new products completely for free, from phones to beauty treatments. Sign up to websites like ProductTesting.uk.com and cross your fingers you’ll be chosen to test out some of the latest gadgets which will be yours to keep!

Go to the gym

With Gym-Pact you make a commitment to a weekly pact to exercise and eat healthier and you’ll earn real cash for keeping to your regime.

Become a research participant

Profile Academic will pay you to take part in written research studies with payouts of around £5 per each completed task.

Medical testing

You can make thousands of pounds by taking part in clinical medical trials. These can be risky so think carefully before agreeing but you can make £10,000 or more. See some upcoming trials here.

Free lotteries

The Free Postcode lottery is just that. A free lottery! The prize is ‘only’ £100, although that can roll over if no one claims it. Enter now at FreePostcodeLottery.com.

Become a TV extra

While becoming a big screen sensation is unlikely, there is quite a bit casual extra work out there and Universal Extras is casting agency that is free to sign up to, with a minimum age limit of 16.

Taste food… get paid

Join a good tasting panel and get paid to review new food products and meals. Websites to consider signing up to include TastingFood.co.uk and FGUK.

Give away O2 SIM cards

O2’s Start Trader programme will give you 500 free sim cards. You give them away however you please and earn commission on every activation.

Profit from ‘Refer a Friend’ schemes

Use Refer Me Happy to take advantage of companies’ ‘Refer a Friend’ scheme to get cash, vouchers and freebies.

Matched betting

Matched Betting is a pretty complex but once you get the hang of it it’s guaranteed money, taking advantage of introductory offers from bookmakers. There are lots of resources online but Wikipedia is a good starting point.

Solve a challenge

Websites like Innocentive and Idea Connection offer BIG money (like up to MILLIONS OF POUNDS BIG) for solving research problems. They’re extremely technical and require lots of expertise, but if it happens to be your field and you’ve an idea to fix the issue at hand you could be set for a while.

Pose as a life model

If you’re comfortable enough you can earn some good money by posing as a nude life model, although it’s harder than it looks.

Shopitize

Shopitize gives you cash back just for doing your usual grocery shopping! Take advantage of their offers in stores, snap a picture of your receipt to prove the purchase and earn cash rewards. Money is paid out via Paypal after reaching a £5 minimum.

Share your internet history

If you’re brave enough, the ScreenWise Trends panel will reward you for sharing your internet data with them for the purposes of research: £15 for for the first 30 days and £5 for every 90 days after that. You needn’t do anything more than just instal an app your computer!

Become an ‘underage’ shopper

18 or 19 year olds can become secret ‘underage’ shoppers to test shop’s ID asking protocols. Company Serve Legal pays teens to buy age-restricted products such as alcohol and tobacco from bars and supermarkets, and to test if they are asked for ID when placing bets and buying lottery tickets.

Become a tour guide

If you’re up to the challenge, you can offer tours of your city to tourists for cash. Find out more on vayable.com.

Get cash back online

Cashback sites like QuidCo pay you to shop through them giving you a percentage of any products or services you buy from groceries to insurance. See our guide to the best cashback sites for more tips.

Rate music

Earn some extra cash by writing music reviews for websites such as Slice The Pie which has paid out over $1,000,000 in rewards already.

Work

Making money isn’t always easy.

Get a student job

From stewarding one-off events to waiting in restaurants, there’s plenty of short term, temporary student jobs around that you get into instantly. See our student jobs guide for some top websites to search for work.

Make and sell stock content

Whether it’s web templates, photos, graphics or music, the Envato Marketplaces allow you to publish and sell stock web content for use by professionals in various projects.

Create a mobile app

Could you make the next Flappy Bird? Mobile apps can make MILLIONS if they take off so if you’ve got a good idea and are into programming, be sure to consider it.

Become a mystery shopper

Make cash by becoming a UK mystery shopping for market research companies like MarketForce. You can make around £10 per trip, plus you can often keep the products you buy (for which you’re reimbursed for!).

Teach English online

You can become an English (or other language) teacher for cash all online, giving lessons over video chat to people all across the world. Apply on iTalki.

Be a Microworker

Take on rather boring and repetitive but simple tasks like data entry on Microworkers, with a $9 payout limit via PayPal.

Work for a charity

Fund-raise for charities and you can earn a commission on sign ups. See Wesser for current job opportunities.

Design logos and graphics

If you’re into graphic design check out 99designs where big money is offered by companies looking for new logos or branding. You submit your pitch and if it’s picked get paid.

Copywrite

From blog posts to recipes, write content for the web with Copify.

Work as a TaskRabbit Tasker

Whether it’s washing, ironing, painting or decorating, do casual work around someone else’s house for cash with TaskRabbit. Currently London area only.

Become a freelance interviewer

Earn up to £10 an hour as a freelance interview with NatCen. You’d conduct personal or phone interviews on a variety of topics.

Enjoy being a club promoter

Make cash by promoting club nights. Check out for such jobs in the local newspaper, Gum Tree, or a club’s website or Facebook page.

Be a model

Make money by becoming a model without having to ever hit the catwalk. You can make cash from posing for art to becoming a ‘dummy’ for make up artists or hair stylists.

Busk

If you can sing or play an instrument, try a bit of busking. Depending where you live you may need a license and/or may only be able to do it in certain areas, so check first. Once you’ve got the okay then you can make quite a bit of money for a day’s work… if your talent is up to it!

Test websites and apps

UserTesting.com offers $10 to test websites or mobile apps for around 15 minutes.

Fruit picking

Get seasonal farm jobs like fruit picking or warehouse work over the summer months – check out websites Fruitful Jobs and Picking Jobs for roles.

Kids party entertainer

Whether it’s dressing up as princess, face painting or a magic act, you can make money on the side by entertaining kids (or even adults) at parties.

Answer questions

Get paid to work for websites like ChaCha, answering questions to boost your monthly income.

Shift catalogue products

Sign up to programmes like Avon or MyShowcase and sell their products to friends and neighbours.

Be part of a focus group

Get paid anywhere from £40 to £400 for taking part in product focus groups, see ResearchOpinions.co.uk to sign up.

PostLoop

Get paid for just talking? Sure! PostLoop will pay you for posting messages and comments on forums and blogs across the internet. The exchange puts commentators in touch with website owners looking to build content and interaction on their forums and blogs.

Become a tutor

Turn your knowledge into cash by offering up lessons. Whether it be just some casual help to your family friends, or starting your own full business, becoming a tutor can make you some easy cash in just a few hours. Post jobs on sites like First Tutors for free to find extra clients and parents who may be looking for help for their children in the local area.

Become a ‘Mechanical Turk’

If you’re really bored then this could be an opportunity to turn that boredom into cash. Not lots of cash, but cash none the less. You’re paid to complete basic tasks as requested, with a few pence in reward. The tasks don’t usually require much effort or time, and the money can quickly build up for an hour’s work. get more info at Amazon!

Work as an exam invigilator

Check out local job listings in the summer to become an exam invigilator in your local school, college or university. These temporary jobs can pay surprisingly well, usually need no qualifications or experience, and it’s pretty easy for an afternoon’s work if very boring.

Baby sitting

Baby sitting is a typical job for youngsters and can pay quite well. They’re jobs that pretty much anyone can do on a casual basis for family and friends to make some quick cash. Be sure to network and build up some good references to get more jobs in future.

Pet sitting and walking

If you’re good with animals pet sitting and walking for friends and strangers can be a money maker. Check out Tailster for jobs with dogs in particular.

House sit

House sitting is another option for money, being paid to look after a house while the owners are away. TrustedHouseSitters.com is a good place to look for opportunities across the world.

Become a freelancer

Turn your talent into a job by becoming a freelancer. Whether it’s photography or web design, you can make money doing work for others and boost your CV at the same time, and you never know it may even turn into a full time job for you too. See our being a freelancer tips.

Rent stuff

When it comes to parts of your home or flat, if you rent then always check with your landlord and/or letting agent first.

Rent a room on AirBNB

You can make cash by renting out a room in your home or even your garden on AirBnB to visitors.

Rent out space for storage

If you’ve a spare room, attic, shed or garage then you could rent it the space out as a storage locker. You can post an ad for free on StoreMates.

Rent your items

Rent My Items allows you to rent out pretty much anything: From pressure washers to cameras, PA and sound systems to costumes.

Rent your friendship

Yup, you can rent your friendship. The website RentAFriend.com does exactly what it says in the URL and allows you to sell your time as a pal, purely platonically.

Rent your parking space

If you’ve got a parking space you’re not using then be sure to see if you can make some cash by renting it out. If you live near popular attractions such as train stations or football stadiums you can make quite a bit from your unused land!

MORE: > Make money from your driveway by renting it out for cash

Rent your home for filming

You can rent out your house or flat for filming, but check with your landlord first if you’re renting. See My House Your Shoot for more information.

Make money on your mobile

Various apps to make cash from!

FieldAgent

FieldAgent (App Store link) is a mobile app that offers users mini jobs to complete. Tasks you can take up include taking photos, checking prices of products in shops or scanning barcodes and QR codes

AppTrailers

AppTrailers shows you short video trailers of new apps you may want to download and install. Each trailer that you watch earns money,

Roamler

Roamler is all based around anonymous product and service testing, to check a brand or product’s success in the marketplace.

Get money with photo missions

Almost every one has a camera in their back pockets nowadays with smartphones and apps like Clic and Walk (App Store link) allow you to earn money by completing ‘photo missions’ in stores or at home.

Surveys

The classic free way to make money online.

MySurveys

Available from desktop computers, laptops, tablets and mobiles, MySurvey is the go-to website for money making surveys with payouts in cash or vouchers.

YouGov

YouGov’s surveys generally take 5-7 minutes to complete and will reward you with so-called YouGov points. And what do points mean? PRIZES! You can enter your points into a monthly prize draw to win up to £2,000 in cash.

TV reviews

Have your say on what you watch on the telly and hear on the radio with Gfk Media View and a bunch of prizes, vouchers or cash could be coming your way.

Get paid to search

Qmee will pay you just to search the web, simple as that! Sponsored ads accompany the search results and you can build up cash rewards which can either be paid out to a Paypal account or donated to a charity of your choice.

Swagbucks

SwagBucks also allows you to build up rewards by watching adverts, searching the web and even playing games. These rewards can be turned into plain cash (via Paypal) or vouchers for various online stores such as Amazon.

Toluna

Give your say on brands and products with Toluna who reward you with gifts, cash, and test products.

Opinion Outpost

Opinion Outpost is another survey website and pays out at just £2.50 via Paypal.

Inbox Pounds

As the name would suggest, Inbox Pounds allows you to make money just be reading emails! You can earn more cash online easy by just completing surveys, as well as by watching video ads and searching the website. Paid surveys will reward anything from £1 to £5.

Google Paid Tasks

This won’t get you direct cash in hand but for Android users you can get Google Play credits with Google’s own Opinion Rewards App: Download Google Opinion Rewards for Android

Qustodian

Qustodian will sent you ads and offers tailored to your interests which is nice and all but what is really, really good – and why it features on this list – is that you get paid just for looking at them.

Tax & Savings

Get a good ISA

A Cash ISA is the best risk-free savings account you can get so even if you’ve not got much cash spare, open one anyway. Always be on the look out for a good deal and don’t be afraid to switch for the best interest rates.

Get uniform costs paid for

If you have to wear a uniform as part of your job you can claim a tax debate.

Get a tax rebate

If you’ve been working as a student you may have paid more tax than you need to – see the Gov.UK website for more information.

Get tax relief if you work from home

If you work from home as part of your job you can claim tax relief. If you work more than 25 hours self-employed a month, you can claim expenses.

Supermarket saving clubs

Christmas savings clubs at Supermarkets can pay far more interest than most bank savings accounts, especially if you hit your yearly ISA limit. You typically put in £10 or so every month or week then cash out your savings, plus extra at Christmas.

Get a refund on your TV license

You can potentially get a 25% refund off your TV Licence if you go back home for the summer – see TV license refund information here!

You can have your say in all sorts of questionnaires from the latest political poll to your favourite cheeseburger.

YouGov’s surveys generally take 5-7 minutes to complete and will reward you with so-called YouGov points.

And what do points mean? PRIZES! You can enter your points into a monthly prize draw to win up to £2,000 in cash.

Alternatively, you can exchange your points for cash directly with 5,000 points equating to £50.

The great news is that you can also use YouGov on your tablet and mobile too, meaning you can make money as you’re just walking along or on the bus home.

Want to get started? You’ll get 100 points just for signing up! > JOIN HERE NOW!

Have your say on what you watch on the telly and hear on the radio with Gfk Media View and a bunch of prizes, vouchers or cash could be coming your way.

The company claims it’s “your chance to share your thoughts on the things you watch on telly and listen to on the radio”

On signing up, you’ll be asked to provide some demographic information before being invited to take a survey daily, giving programmes you watched on TV or listened to on the radio a rating.

Those opinions and ratings will “shape the future of TV and radio”, ‘citing!

But (and let’s be honest, the real reason you want to take part) you’ll also stand the chance of getting your hands on great prizes such as cash, vouchers for the likes of Amazon, gadgets and experiences.

Give it a go here!

After all, why pay over the odds when you can put the money saved to better or more entertaining uses? However saving money with your phone is only half the story, the savvy amongst you may already be using your mobile phone to make money.

Richard Patterson of mobile phone advice site The Dog and Bone talks us through some of the best ways to make money with you mobile for those of you who have already exhausted our previous list of money making apps.

Apps that reward

Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to get paid just for using your mobile? In fact, there are plenty of apps for Android and iOS that do just that. And because there are lots of ways to get paid these days (such as PayPal, Google Wallet, Amazon credit or iTunes vouchers), it’s never been easier to earn cash or rewards for completing some easy tasks. You won’t get rich quick by using these apps, but you could earn enough to pay for a few great nights out, or even a new phone.

If you are keen to make spare cash by using apps, make sure you read their privacy policy first and check out what type of information is collected. It’s also important to only download apps from trustworthy and reliable sources such as Google Play or the Apple App Store, and never download any app from a link in an SMS.

AppTrailers (iPhone and Android)

AppTrailers shows you short video trailers of new apps you may want to download and install. Each trailer that you watch earns money, and if you actually download and use the recommended apps, you can earn even more. The more you watch the more points are awarded, which can then be redeemed using PayPal or converted into gift cards. It’s a fun and convenient way to earn money, and is extremely simple and intuitive to use. If you love apps too, it’s a no-brainer.

Instant Rewards (iPhone and Android)

Instant Rewards is an incredibly popular app at the moment, and lets you choose either an Amazon gift card or cash via PayPal as a reward. The app includes several ways to make money, for instance by watching app trailers, liking a page on Facebook, or taking short surveys. The company claims that it pays out more than competing apps, but you could always install several different ones to see which is the best.

Roamler (iPhone and Android)

If you have ever heard of the term “mystery shopper”, you’ll be instantly familiar with the idea behind Roamler. It’s all based around anonymous product and service testing, to check a brand or product success in the marketplace. Roamler has turned the idea into quite a fun pastime that you can perform on a social level. It’s actually quite addictive, and the more you do, the higher your experience level becomes, leading to larger payouts for completing tasks.

Assignments might include things such as taking a photograph, filling out a checklist, or reviewing a product’s presentation – some of it is at home and some tasks need you to go and find the items, for example in stores or restaurants. Roamler is a lot of fun, and offers users rewards for continuing to interact with the app, and the tasks are mainly things that we spend our time doing anyway.

You can find out more about Roamler at http://www.roamler.co.uk.

Surveys and polls

These type of apps typically payout for completing online surveys or polls on a variety of topics. The reason is that many firms pay a lot for market research, and what better way to collect it than an army of smartphone users? Survey apps typically pay out different amounts based on factors such as the length of the survey, how many qualified people are taking a survey, and whether it requires special knowledge or expertise.

Maximiles (iPhone and Android)

Maximiles is a survey website and a mobile app, which allows you take surveys and short polls to earn points. Furthermore, there are plenty of different types of rewards, such as DVDs, magazine subscriptions, gift cards and more.

MySurvey (iPhone and Android)

MySurvey is one of the most popular online survey companies, and it’s hard to beat MySurvey in terms of reliability because it’s one of the first survey panels that started paying people for their opinions. The first step requires you to sign-up on their website by filling out some simple forms.You will be asked to fill out some of your personal details and demographics. Once this is done, you can start answering different surveys right away.

There is a video that explains how it works on the company’s website and here on YouTube.

Freelance work and blogs on a smartphone or tablet

Aside from the small selection of apps that we have listed, which could help you earn some well deserved extra cash, there are other ways to use your mobile phone with even higher earnings potential. Here are just a small selection of ideas.

Create a blog and get Google to pay you

These days, it’s extremely easy to create a professional-looking, interesting blog (as long as you have something vaguely interesting to say, of course!) using free tools like WordPress and Joomla. You could start by purchasing a website domain name through a company such as GoDaddy, and set everything up there in just a few clicks. Alternatively, take the quicker route and have your blog hosted on sites like WordPress.com – you can always move it later on.

If you do decide to start a blog with the aim of making money, you need an interesting topic or at least something interesting to say that will get readers coming back for more. But the great thing about blogging is that it’s easy, quick, and with a bit of luck can build up an audience in no time.

How do you make money this way? You could either sell advertising space to companies that wish to put a banner somewhere on your site. Another way is to create a Google Adsense account and get ads automatically displayed on various pages, which means every time someone clicks on an advert, Google will pay you — typically a small amount — but this could reach hundreds of pounds every month with a bit of work and promotion on social media sites.

The beauty of blogging is that you can do it on your smartphone or tablet, using apps such as WordPress that let you blog directly and publish, or just use a standard word processor to create the content and upload it later on. You can blog about any topic imaginable – shopping, technology, student life, movies, or video games – the possibilities are endless.

There are thousands of resources online to get started writing a blog – you just need a little inspiration to get going, but when you do, why not get paid to write for fun?

Freelance writing or web design…

If you don’t fancy starting a blog and trying to figure out how to earn money from it, you can use popular freelancer sites such as PeoplePerHour and Freelancer.com to generate some extra income. If you have any in-demand skills (such as writing short articles for blogs or web design), there are literally thousands of jobs popping up each day.

The amount you get paid varies, but if you can find several small jobs that pay regularly, you can be earning hundreds of pounds quite easily and do the work when it suits you. Many of these freelance jobs (such as travel writing) only take a few hours each, and can be done on a tablet, laptop or smartphone – literally anywhere in the world. Imagine that you have successfully bid on a job to design a logo – there’s no reason you can’t do that on your smartphone with image editing apps and a little skill.

Most of the freelancer sites work like this – you register your details and create a profile, outlining what skills you have. You can then bid on jobs against other people, and typically have a limit to how many you can bid for each month. It’s not always the cheapest bids that win either, as the people that need the work doing will look at your previous work and how highly rated you are. The more work you do and receive positive feedback, the higher your rating will be. They also pay out directly to your bank account or PayPal, but note they tend to take a percentage of the work (up to a certain amount each month).

For this type of work, it usually takes a little while to get going if you’re new, but once you’ve completed a few jobs (usually at a lower rate, to begin with), you gain feedback, ratings, and can start to charge more. It really is a great way to generate additional income, and established freelancers can earn thousands every month, depending on what type of job is required.

For more information about freelance work, it’s worth checking out popular sites such as:

• PeoplePerHour.com
• freelancers.net
• Fiverr

Final words

It’s a lot easier than you might think to make money using your mobile phone. Whenever you have a few hours to kill, you could put that time to use by completing surveys, doing small tasks, or simply watching the latest app videos.

If you have any more suggestions for fun, interesting or simple ways to earn extra cash using your phone, please let us know…

And some might say there’s a reason for that…

Most know about how to make money from surveys and the like, but here are some quite different methods of boosting your bank balance.

Sell holiday snaps

You can turn your holiday snaps (or photos in general) into cash via Stock Image websites. They’ll need to be high quality and appealing – so that SnapChat selfie is out – but even if you’re only okay with a camera you can make some money from websites like fotolia.

Become an ‘underage’ shopper

18 or 19 year olds can become secret ‘underage’ shoppers to test shop’s ID asking protocols. Company Serve Legal pays teens to buy age-restricted products such as alcohol and tobacco from bars and supermarkets, and to test if they are asked for ID when placing bets and buying lottery tickets.

Pose as a life model

If you’re comfortable enough you can earn some good money by posing as a nude life model, although it’s harder than it looks.

Sell your body

No, we don’t mean like that. Everyone from big pharmaceutical companies to your fellow students will likely be willing to pay for your time and your body.

Drug testing can earn you literally thousands of pounds, but of course is highly risky. Fortunately there are more reasonable options where you know, you might not actually die. Check out notice boards at Uni for other students – generally those writing their dissertations or PhDs – who may want to experiment with you (SCIENTIFICALLY SPEAKING).

Obviously be sure to read exactly what it is expected of you before you agree, but you may be able to bag £20 or so for half an hour’s work.

Sell your hair

Girls, make cash from your locks by selling your HAIR to wig makers, with companies offering up to £200 for 19 inches.

Become a tour guide

If you’re up to the challenge, you can offer tours of your city to tourists for cash. Find out more on vayable.com.

Sell your face

Some might not believe the bare-faced cheek (GEDDIT?) of the idea, but it has worked. Back in 2012, ex Cambridge students Ed Moyse and Ross Harper paid off their University debts by selling advertising space on their own faces; painting company logos on their cheeks and foreheads.

Read more: > How to make money by selling your FACE

Rent your friendship

Yup, you can rent your friendship. The website RentAFriend.com does exactly what it says in the URL and allows you to sell your time as a pal, purely platonically.

How to make money with online surveys

Websites like MySurvey allow to turn your time idling away on your computer and laptop into quick cash.

All you need to do is voice your opinion on their surveys to build up points.

And what do points mean? PRIZES! You can exchange points either for a cash payout (via Paypal) or for free vouchers and giftcards at a number of top internet retailers including Amazon, Debenhams, Homebase and more.

The best online survey website?

We suggest MySurvey as a great starting survey site for students in the UK. It’s not a fly by night operation and has been going years; the website has quite literally paid out MILLIONS of pounds in rewards.

And it’s absolutely FREE to sign up, so you can start making money online easily right away.

The best bit…

The MySurvey site is available from desktop computers, laptops, tablets and mobiles which means you can be making money online wherever you are. You could suddenly be turning that daily dull bus ride from University into time well spent and make a profit.

Sign up now

Click here to sign up to MySurvey and to start making money!