I fell into one that was really lucrative. I was invited into one of those small private chat groups for people wanting to find creative work and was tipped off. Of course it got shut down since it was too good and drew the wrong kind of attention.

A major bank had a credit card that was paying 5X on every day spend. So I got the card and learned to to use it to buy money orders, which were then deposited into my bank account, thus making it a closed loop. 5X on thousands was several hundred dollars per month...it became so popular that the bank closed that one down.... there were apparently so many people making money off of similar arrangements that those just disappeared altogether. I couldn't leave town at the time, so I was limited...but one guy left for Texas, rented an AirBnB there (because apparently it was an area known to be lax) and he made thousands and thousands over several months time....he even started dating one of the bank tellers so she would allow him to deposit over their limit. He got a visit from the feds, who determined that was he was doing was not illegal, even though it sure looked like it.

I've also done private detective work which I really enjoyed. I was hired to observe people lol, talk to them, get information.... I don't live near really big cities any longer so that work is harder to find now.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/26/2024 10:47PM by BarefootBliss.

Best to stay away from that these days. There was a court case like that some years ago. Here's an article:
[thepointsguy.com]

yeah, it was good for awhile, but eventually, these opportunities fall victim to their own success and get squashed. There are probably stories too around about the Target Red card (the original one) that was a dream card - also shut down. That was a great closed loop.

I knew a guy that was driving around the US doing this, so that any one place wouldn't find him suspicious. Cops pulled him over on a traffic stop and searched his car, out pops boxes and boxes of discarded gift cards. Again, they insisted it looked like a crime, but in the end, it wasn't illegal.

The downfall is the byproduct of being too greedy. It's sort of like gambling, have to know when to quit while you're ahead, or known when to fold 'em.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/26/2024 11:13PM by Okie.

greed ruins just about anything lol.

Not me, but my ex (the first one), used to do the food sample thing at Costco. He did that successfully for a couple years, then he went to work at the Amazon warehouse. I think he finally decided to retire. I still talk to him a couple times a week, we're both being shunned by our son.. lol

My best side gig was egg donation, back in my 20's. I did it six times and made thousands of dollars from it. It was very involved but rewarding.

There was a time where the U.S. Mint was trying to get people to circulate $1 coins so they allowed people to purchase them with a credit card and have them shipped. So people would get credit card points and just deposit the money back into their bank, which defeated the purpose of the program, so they ended the program.

My fave was back in the days of MP3.com.

I became part of a large group of artists on the site who gamed the system to maximize cashflow.

We created cooperatives and agreed to play all the music of any artist who would play all of our music.

It resulted in massive playlists of thousands of songs that we all ran 24/7, with the volume turned down.

Netted over $300 per month.

No wonder the site went bankrupt!

@BarefootBliss wrote:

I knew a guy that was driving around the US doing this, so that any one place wouldn't find him suspicious. Cops pulled him over on a traffic stop and searched his car, out pops boxes and boxes of discarded gift cards. Again, they insisted it looked like a crime, but in the end, it wasn't illegal.

I've actually worried about getting questioned when I'm merchandising the reloadable prepaid cards. If I got pulled over, what are they going to think with all these cards? Although, everything is in packaging and I have a lanyard and can pull up the app to show that I'm just a regular ol' person trying to make some money.

Ehh not really a side gig but focus groups have been great little money makers for me.

I've been doing a vaccine study since 2020 (not covid or flu).
The initial visits paid a few hundred, worked out to be about 2K. Memory is a little fuzzy, but I believe the first 2 years, I had to do 6 visits. They draw my blood and give me a debit card with $60. After that, they extended the study to 5 years and 2 visits per year but for $110 per visit. Now they just extended it to 10 years - no major financial incentive but they send me a debit card around March or April for $60 as an incentive to keep me in the study and give me $110 per live visit which is normally Sept./October. I can quit anytime if I want, but at this point it is just a blood draw and I am curious about whether I still have the antibodies, so I continue.
Generally speaking, I don't want to be a guinea pig for a pharmaceutical company. This particular vax was the 2nd or 3rd round of testing for this vaccine - it had already gone through some testing in Europe - and I believe the research into vaccines is important.

I've always wondered about participating in clinical trials - what are they putting in me that they are not yet ready to put in everybody?

Barefoot, I have a good friend who works in QA for a pharmaceutical company, these things go through a lot of testing before going into anyone but I understand the reluctance.
I have done other studies with my kids that don't involve medication - I participated in some studies with them through a university and they were doing research on various early childhood things - how kids understand spatial difference, how kids recognize sounds, how kids develop speech, etc.

Where I used to live - there was a research company in the mall that would do other things more in the consumer space - things like movie trailer screenings, perfume sniffing, and taste tests. Didn't pay a ton but were kinda fun.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/10/2024 07:45PM by joanna81.

I like doing things like that. Many years ago, I worked on Madison Ave. in NYC, of course where all the ad agencies are and they would do lots of product testing and you could sign up to be on their tester panels...so we did, my friends and I who worked close by.
They didn't pay in cash, but they paid in products.
We would leave to catch the train home after work and be loaded down with Pillsbury brownie mixes, Clairol Hair Dryers, New Cokes, Old Cokes, etc....all kind of Cokes....it was fun and it was glam because their testing labs were on the top floors of skyscrapers.

I have very long, very thick, and a LOT of hair. I used to be a hair model for a high end salon/school. Services like highlighting and blowouts that usually cost me $$$$ PAID me a few bucks to allow the students do showcase their projects and ideas on me.

Every time I have to pay $400 at the salon now I miss those days of walking out with more money than I started with!

I participated in a medical transdermal patch study many years ago while I was living in Houston. The patches didn't have medication - they were testing the adhesive on the patch. I think I went over once a week for six weeks to have the patch changed and my skin examined. I never had any reaction to the adhesive. It was $600-700 if you completed the entire study. Easy money.

Focus groups are usually enjoyable and pay well. Lately I have been inundated with invitations both web based and in person. I have not responded because I can't commit due to my full time job and other obligations.

I've never found any reasonably well paying focus groups or benign medical studies, but I'd like to.
Where do you see these listed?

All I get in my feed are ads to get paid to sell plasma....don't even know what that's all about.

Bare, I don't recall how I used to come across them. It was the early days of the internet, so I most likely asked Jeeves about medical studies in Houston or something along those lines.

Selling plasma doesn't pay a huge amount of money, at least here. If you do it as often as permissible, you may rack up $100-150 monthly. I've tried it a couple of times, but I couldn't handle it and had to be "unhooked" before they completed the process.

@BarefootBliss wrote:

I've never found any reasonably well paying focus groups or benign medical studies, but I'd like to.
Where do you see these listed?

All I get in my feed are ads to get paid to sell plasma....don't even know what that's all about.

I believe there's a massive listing of things on clinicaltrials.gov
For focus groups, I signed up years ago with some companies when Craigslist used to be more popular. It was usually under the Gigs section.

Yeah, I heard it made your memory a little fuzzy,,,

@joanna81 wrote:

Ehh not really a side gig but focus groups have been great little money makers for me.

I've been doing a vaccine study since 2020 (not covid or flu).
The initial visits paid a few hundred, worked out to be about 2K. Memory is a little fuzzy, but I believe the first 2 years, I had to do 6 visits. They draw my blood and give me a debit card with $60. After that, they extended the study to 5 years and 2 visits per year but for $110 per visit. Now they just extended it to 10 years - no major financial incentive but they send me a debit card around March or April for $60 as an incentive to keep me in the study and give me $110 per live visit which is normally Sept./October. I can quit anytime if I want, but at this point it is just a blood draw and I am curious about whether I still have the antibodies, so I continue.
Generally speaking, I don't want to be a guinea pig for a pharmaceutical company. This particular vax was the 2nd or 3rd round of testing for this vaccine - it had already gone through some testing in Europe - and I believe the research into vaccines is important.

Best side gig I found?

Investing in public companies. So far this year, 20.49%. It's provided a greater increase in assets than working for a W2.

Even better, IMO, just invest in the broad indices and sit back....crack open a cold one.

FYI, Chase is mailing out (probably online too) $900 bonus offers right now...for opening checking and savings.

I did the Chase offers earlier during the summer, and I think it was the same amount. I believe I got paid within a week or two of completing the terms.

Remembered this thread when I woke up and found an ad from a company called CSL Plasma, claiming to pay $700 for only a few visits.
With cold weather settling in, will have more time at home....I have a bunch of higher end leather goods I'd like to sell....going to figure out how to do sell them on eBay...they're niche, so I doubt anyone local....

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/20/2024 10:28AM by BarefootBliss.

@BarefootBliss wrote:

Remembered this thread when I woke up and found an ad from a company called CSL Plasma, claiming to pay $700 for only a few visits.
With cold weather settling in, will have more time at home....I have a bunch of higher end leather goods I'd like to sell....going to figure out how to do sell them on eBay...they're niche, so I doubt anyone local....

CSL allows you to donate twice a week. It was $50 per visit about 4 years ago. Usually they paid more for the second visit of the week to incent you to come back. Then if you did 8 visits in a month a bonus. New donors get a bonus for their first couple of donations. It can take an hour once you get to the donation table. They have TVs with movies playing while you're donating. I used to bring a magazine to read.

First two weeks of the month when everyone gets their government checks there is normally not a wait to get screened to donate. Last two weeks of the month, when that money is gone, you could wait up to an hour to get screened. Different times of days and the city bus schedule also play into the wait time for screening.

@maverick1 wrote:

Yeah, I heard it made your memory a little fuzzy,,,

@joanna81 wrote:

Ehh not really a side gig but focus groups have been great little money makers for me.

I've been doing a vaccine study since 2020 (not covid or flu).
The initial visits paid a few hundred, worked out to be about 2K. Memory is a little fuzzy, but I believe the first 2 years, I had to do 6 visits. They draw my blood and give me a debit card with $60. After that, they extended the study to 5 years and 2 visits per year but for $110 per visit. Now they just extended it to 10 years - no major financial incentive but they send me a debit card around March or April for $60 as an incentive to keep me in the study and give me $110 per live visit which is normally Sept./October. I can quit anytime if I want, but at this point it is just a blood draw and I am curious about whether I still have the antibodies, so I continue.
Generally speaking, I don't want to be a guinea pig for a pharmaceutical company. This particular vax was the 2nd or 3rd round of testing for this vaccine - it had already gone through some testing in Europe - and I believe the research into vaccines is important.

I didn't mention the vaccine or what it was for.

@BarefootBliss wrote:

Remembered this thread when I woke up and found an ad from a company called CSL Plasma, claiming to pay $700 for only a few visits.
With cold weather settling in, will have more time at home....I have a bunch of higher end leather goods I'd like to sell....going to figure out how to do sell them on eBay...they're niche, so I doubt anyone local....

My husband has done plasma donations before - make sure you have protein and stay hydrated if you do this. Usually the bonuses are structured so you have to donate a certain amount in a month to get the bonus (I.E., 2 visits per week for 4 weeks)