Make money online when you’re sick

We're not always at 100%.  Here are some ways to make money online when you're nursing a cold …

I'm thankful that we don't get sick very often in our house.  When we do, though, it seems to hang on for a few weeks to varying degrees (like now).

Whether it's because you have a cough that just won't go away or a fever that fuzzes up your head, it may not even be possible to rest well.  Which means you're awake, but groggy, and maybe more than a little ticked.  But there's not a whole lot that you can get done, because you're sick.

Have you felt like this?  Have you been itching to do something but everything you thought of doing took just a bit too much concentration or effort?

Make money online with videos and surveys

Watching videos and taking some easy surveys are something that you can do pretty much anywhere (especially in your pajamas).  Also, it doesn't require that you have your game face on.  A face with a thermometer stuck in the mouth and a tissue on the nose is just fine!

Under normal (i.e. healthy) circumstances, there are better ways to spend a few hours of a day, and certainly more effective ways to make money online.  But if you're otherwise just going to watch TV or sniffle and sneeze and ache, why not make a few bucks?

A couple of these “get paid to” sites pay out pretty well for a few hours' effort: Swagbucks and Fusion Cash.  I've gotten paid from both and I'll explain where the easy-ish money is.

Fusion Cash

FusionCash.net is a “get paid to” site that has been around for over a decade.  I've gotten two payouts from them from (mainly) watching videos and doing some surveys.

Here's how I'd get started with Fusion Cash on a sick day:

1. Sign up with FusionCash and complete the $5 bonus offer.  I can't remember exactly what it was when I did it but it but it didn't cost anything except the time to do it.
2. Sign up to receive the Daily Cash Emails.  Each day you'll get an email (surprise).  $0.02 for clicking on a link and solving a video captcha.  Once logged in, click the My Account box (2a), then click on the Email Preferences link within the Profile & Settings sidebar (2b).
   
3. Fill out the Profile Surveys.  This is worth $0.50 and will save time on later surveys since it allows Fusion Cash to tailor which ones it gives you, and kick you out of ones that aren't a good match faster.  Click on the FC Surveys box (3a) and the Profile Surveys are in the upper left (3b).
4. Try the top surveys on the Daily Survey sidebar.  These surveys are labeled with bars which indicate how often people qualify for the survey (4).  Two of them (OpinionCentral and LiveSample) regularly have three or four bars out of four, and they're worth $1.10 total.  I've qualified for them pretty regularly.  Occasionally I qualify for the Paid Surveys on the main section of the page, but not nearly as often.
5. If you qualified and completed one of the surveys and have earned $0.05 or more today, or later, on a previous day, then you qualify for the Paid to Click $0.15 bonus.  Click on the Earn Cash button (5a), and then on Paid to Click right below the buttons (5b).  Here you just have to click a few links (four pages and a sponsored ad), wait 2 1/2 minutes (play some Sudoku if you want), then view another ad, and solve a video captcha.
6. Check out the Videos page.  Click on the Videos link (6) on the Earn Cash page.  Doing these can be hit or miss but occasionally there is a $0.35 bounty for doing some travel searches, or an $0.18 bounty for entering your ZIP code.
7. Go back to try some more surveys.  You may qualify for a few that are $3.00 or more.  This gets you rolling toward the $25.00 payment threshold pretty quickly.
8. Over the next few weeks, come back to take a survey once a day or so, and use the Daily Cash Mail and Paid to Click bonus for an easy $0.17 to get up to the $25 threshold.  (The bounties expire after 180 days but doing an easy survey a day or so will give you lots of breathing room.)

Swagbucks

Swagbucks is a lot of fun.  They don't take themselves seriously at all, and things are easy to navigate.  I've earned hundreds of dollars worth of gift cards with Swagbucks.

Here's how I'd start out on Swagbucks with a few hours to burn:

1. Sign up for Swagbucks.  This will let you earn points called SB which can be used to get gift cards.  (Amazon gift cards are practically as good as cash so I put these in the make money online basket.)
2. Check out the To Do List on the left side.  Checking off 6 out of 7 of these tasks in a single day (it's not difficult) gets you a 2 SB bonus.
3. The Daily Poll is a one-question (fun) multiple choice poll.  It's worth 1 SB.
4. The Daily Crave involves watching a few videos and giving a thumbs up or down after each.  I find the video engine on Swagbucks to be easy to use.  There are also a lot of videos available, and you can earn up to 500 SB per day watching videos if you want (the equivalent of about $5.00).  Doing the Daily Crave once is worth usually 1 or 2 SB.
5. The Daily Search involves searching the web like you would at a big search engine.  You may or may not earn SB with the one search but eventually you'll get a bonanza.  Yesterday I earned 40 SB on a single search.
6. The Daily Watch is watching more videos with a slightly different player.  If you want you can speed the process and click on the next video after given credit for watching it.  They usually come in 6-, 12-, or 20-packs and each pack is worth 1 to 5 SB.
7. The Daily Discover involves signing up for something, or buying something, or stepping through a slideshow, or watching more videos or ads.  This varies but can be anywhere from 2 SB to hundreds or SB.
8. The Daily Answer is a survey task.  These can pay 40 SB or more if you qualify for them.  I've had fairly good fortune qualifying for them.  These also get you to the Daily Goal (discussed below) pretty quickly.
9. At this point it's likely that you've made a Daily Goal (earning 30, 40, or 50 SB in one day) which qualifies you for bonus SB available for payout at the beginning of the next month.  Progress toward the Daily Goal is up on the header of the website.  To get these bonus SB, just come back a few days into the next month to the same place on the header bar, and claim them.  (By the way, SB don't expire as far as I know, so there's not as much urgency with these.)

Make money online — and then feel better

I recall a while back one blogger used to do these kinds of activities while he was watching TV, which is usually something that doesn't require full attention.  There may be other opportunities to make money online that don't completely supplant your higher-value time.