Here’s something today for the hustlers and the bloggers.

Peek: For the Bloggers

If you own your own website, you probably wonder what people think of it, how easy it is to navigate and whether or not you’re coming across the way you intend to.

I recently read Ruth Soukup’s How to Blog for Profit Without Selling Your Soul and one of the niftiest tips in the book was to go to a website called Peek to have them evaluate your site for free.

It’s extremely easy to do. You provide your site name and email address and within 24 hours your have a 5 minute, narrated, screen captured video of a total stranger interacting with your site. They evaluate how the site looks, whether or not it’s easy to navigate, if it looks like something they would want to read and any other opinions they have.

It was kind of fascinating. And you can do it completely for free and once a month. You can even have them test the mobile version of your site or a mobile app.

So if your hustle is blogging, it’s a great tool to utilize.

After watching my video though, I thought, who is this chick? So I went back to the Peek website to poke around a little and found that Peek is a subsection of a group called User Testing.

Want to pick up a really easy $10 occasionally?

 

User Testing: For My Other Hustlers 

User Testing is like online mystery shopping – except you don’t have to get off your couch or get dressed. You need a functioning computer with a microphone that works (the built in one is fine).

When you sign up, you’ll be asked to download a small program called Screen Recorder that records your desktop when it’s turned on. Keep in mind that it records your entire desktop, not just the page open for the User Testing work, so don’t leave open anything you wouldn’t want a stranger to see.

During the sign up process, you’ll watch a sample video, read through their requirements and take a practice run at being a tester that you are not paid for. It’s helpful though since you get to understand how the program works.

After you go through the sign up steps, it will take you to the dashboard where Available Tests pop up. The easiest way to get tests is to just leave your dashboard open in the background while you do other things and flip over to it when you hear the ding of a new test.

The majority of tests are worth $10 and take about 20-30 minutes. The Peek tests that take 5 minutes are only worth $3 and go fast, since only 1 person does them. The $10 tests are biggest companies who are looking for several people to test their site.

There are additional tests that you have to pass a screener to do, since the companies are looking for a specific demographic – for instance, it might be a remodeling company and they’re looking for people who just did a remodel or are thinking of doing one and want their opinions.

You can also download the User Testing app on your phone and continue racking up the cash while commuting.

The first test I did was help up for 48 hours for review before they released the $10 and during that review time, I couldn’t do any other tests. But the first time, the review period was shorter and I could completely other tests in the meantime. The $10 pays out about 24 (business) hours after completion of the test.

This hustle is great for those just looking to pick up a few extra bucks, with more time than money. As someone who has spent embarrassing amounts of time just binge watching TV this summer, it would’ve been great to find this back in May. I’d only say I average about $50 a month on it, but it’s $50 more than I had just watching TV and I don’t really put in a lot of effort.