GET RICH QUICK... NOT!!!

In this day and age, the typical scene in a subway station, before the train arrives, consists of many people, if not all, with the nose glued to the screen of their cell phone.  Same thing while the train is in motion.  Many people are probably playing some connect-three games, the more annoying ones are watching movies or video clips without a headphone so that everyone nearby has to here the clips too, and the others perhaps do Facebooking or what-not.  Maybe, just maybe, some are making beer money with the down time.  You don't necessarily have to be a beer-drinker to make beer money.  It's just a phrase to refer to some minimal amount of money one can make on the side.  You have the gig economy like Fiver and Uber then you have a whole cottage industry for people with smartphones to make nano-pennies on their "free time".

• I'll get straight to the best one, in my opinion.  None of that "watch to the end" or "you won't believe it" click-baiting...  So there is this king-of-the-hill search engine called Google and Microsoft wants to get into the game.  MS came up with its own search web site, Bing, supposedly short for Bing is not Google.  To attract users, MS, with its deep pocket, offers Bing users rewards points for using the new search engine.  Bing is not new any more but the battle between the two titans still rage on and you can get Amazon gift cards, albeit slowly or however quickly you use Bing, just by using Bing, either via the web site, the smartphone app, or even the Edge browser.  You don't necessarily have to use it as a search engine.  Read the news, take quiz of the day, it's actually pretty useful.
• Next we have the Shopkick app.  As the name implies, you are supposed to go shopping via the app.  There are different categories of stuff to shop for, or just window-shopping, and sprinkled here and there are "surprise" buttons you can click to earn a point.  There are also video clips you can watch to earn three or more points each.  If you happen to walk by a sponsor store, you can get even more by just walking into the store (with the app enabled), by scanning particular items as instructed by the app, or by buying certain things as the apps dictated.  Not a good app to have if you are a shopaholic, but it's always a battle out there.
• Last, and least, is Swagbucks.  It is a combination of both of the above, and more.  You can search with it, via the app or the web site, but it's throw of a dice if you'll get any points with the search.  You can watch video clips but it takes much work to get a few points.  Not only you have to watch the clips, you have to interact with the text articles dispersed among the clips.  There are different categories of video clips but they are not useful at all.  For example, the News category should really be called Historical as the news shown is nowhere current.  The Music category has just Country Music, if that's what you like more power to you.  The only thing that I use Swagbucks for is the Daily Poll.  Just one question with multiple choice answer, you can get a quick buck with the Poll.  I am sure they can build a profile of me over the many days I answer the Poll, but it's less harmful than those surveys that promise to take only 15 minutes or so.

MAKE MONEY WITH YOUR SMARTPHONE

Would it not be nice if you can make some money from all those hours you spend on Candy Crush and its ilks?  Well, you cannot, or at least I don't know that, but there is a group of apps, under the mPoints umbrella, that can actually make you some money.  Note that I did not say the apps will make you rich.  If there is one, I don't know yet.  But these mPoints apps can make you, say, $5 every few weeks.

I first learned about the mPoints network while playing What's The Phrase.  The game is sorta like Wheel of Fortune, where you take turn guessing letters of a phrase and solve it.  Let's say you play a game with someone and lost so you started a new game.  The action earns you a few points.  You play some more games and guess the correct phrase with just a few letters revealed.  That is called a Dedicated Achievement and earn you even more points.  Just opening the app at least once a day gets you 5 points.  You get the idea.  Just using the app as you normally would and you get points that accumulate toward different rewards.  I mostly go for $5 or $10 Amazon gift cards but if you have the patience you can save enough for Chromecast and other high-point items.

Next I started using Challenges, which tracks distance one covers on foot etc.  For me, it's basically a GPS tracker to help me log kilometers as I run or walk.  The app also supports an honor system whereby you can enter manually distance you walk or run etc.  I'm too lazy for that and rather just use the apps outdoor and let the gyroscope do the calculation.  As you may have guessed, yes you earn points for open the app at least once a day but you also get extra points for greater time duration.  For example, running 30 minutes get some points but logging an hour gets you even more.  Other Achievements include working out in the early hours, on the weekends, x days in a row.  Just use it and you get points.

While Challenges offer many activities to choose from, I use mostly Running, Walking, and Cycling.  Sometimes having too many choices turn you off, if that's the case you can use Pedometer by Runtastic.  Pedometer only records walking and is great for using indoor.  You can just hold the phone in your hand and swing it around to simulate motion but of course you would only deprive yourself the exercise of walking.

Crackle is another mPoints app that I use, although not as frequently as I want.  You basically watch movies and TV shows with Crackle to earn points.  You end up investing more time, at least 20+ minutes with shows and upward of an hour and a half with movies.  Yes, shows and movies have ads wedged into them so your watching experience is interrupted, but it is a small price to do things legit.

All mPoints apps have the check-in functions whereby you can log your presence near stores and such on a map to earn points.  Some businesses offer more points than others, so sometimes I would plan my exercise runs to pass by the high-point places.  I suppose the app's goal is to get you to patronize the business but you don't have to.  Right in my house I can log into a Rite Aid and a 7 Eleven every hours until the daily limit is reached.  Sure I buy stuff from them as needed, but you don't have to buy anything each time you check-in.

The check-in function must be popular enough so that mPoints spin it into its own apps, mPlaces.  mPlaces doesn't do anything too useful other than let you check-in.  Sure it provides a map that may be able to help if you are lost, but the whole point of mPlaces is checking-in.  Unlike the old check-in that limits 15 visits per day, mPlaces allow up to 25 visits.  There are also many ways to earn bonus points inside the app.  My favorites are the Challenges, whereby you need to visit certain locations as specified by the challenges.  For example, one past Sports Challenge required visiting a sports arena in addition to finding special coins that review certain sports ball.  I walked a little extra distance to visit Madison Square Garden but strangely it didn't register.  Luckily, before the Sports Challenge ended, I happened to be in St. Louis and was able to walk by Edward Jones Dome to clinch the challenge.  I love walking around in new places so mPlaces along with either Challenges or Pedometer do me much good.  If you drive though, mPlaces is smart enough to not allow you to check into places.  Good thing, we have enough distracted drivers as is.

Now go forth and earn some beer money with the various mPoints apps out there!

http://getmpoints.com/mpoints-apps/