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3-On Your Side: Get Paid For Giving Your Opinion

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- These days, many people are looking for ways to make some extra cash. 3-On Your Side Consumer Reporter Jim Donovan shows us how some are getting paid for their opinions.

Rebecca Wallace enjoys sharing her opinions. So much so that she's turned it into a part time job! She says, "There is just tons of market research companies that need people to be opinionated and express their thoughts"

Rebecca's says that she has made up to $800 in a month by testing everything from new phone apps, to teeth whitening products and even websites. She says, "You try out the website and try different tasks and give feedback and basically talk as you explore the website"

"Very large websites have discovered that it's valuable to put real users like their target customers in front of their websites and watch people try and actually do the things they're supposed to do on the website," says Darrell Benatar, founder of UserTesting.com

He says finding opinionated testers like Rebecca can be time consuming and costly for companies. Benatar says, "So the solution we came up with was to build a panel of users who would record their screen and their voice as they use the website"

Testers make a 10 minute recording and get paid ten dollars. While clients like Wal-Mart, & Google get valuable feedback. According to Benatar the average tester earns $100 to $200 a month, all from their home computer.

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But Rebecca warns that the money is not always consistent. She says, "There are the great months where I'm just making hundred of dollars and I just have a focus group everyday, but those are extremely rare.

Keep in mind that jobs like these do create lots of scam opportunities where people will try to charge you upfront fees, or steal your credit card, bank information and even social security numbers. Legitimate companies like UserTesting pay you through PayPal and won't ask for your social security number until you've earned enough to be taxed on.

Reported by Jim Donovan, CBS 3

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