How do you earn extra money? Extra income can come in a variety of opportunities so don’t make the mistake of feeling confined to just a single type of income stream.
An interesting and low-effort way to earn money along with freebies and credits is through referral bonuses. The power of word-of-mouth can pay off big time.
If you like a product or service and recommend someone you know to join, you could earn money or a credit if they sign up. You may not think referral bonuses are worth the time or maybe you don’t want to come off to your friends and family members as sleazy, but you might want to guess again.
Two years ago, a coworker and I were talking about health insurance coverage and how the prices were so high. He recommended I join a health sharing ministry and I did. What he didn’t know, was that the particular health sharing ministry he referred me to join had a referral program that paid out $100.
I ended up referring two other people to join and earned two $100 gift cards that I plan to use when I take my son to Disney World later this summer.
It was the easiest $200 I ever earned. If you’re ready to start earning extra money and credits too by referring people to use trusted products and services, check out these 10 websites that will pay you referral bonuses
1) Ebates
Ebates is a popular site that pays you cash back for shopping online. There are thousands of stores and retailers that you can shop with to earn cashback from Ebates. Many of us shop online these days so there is literally no reason why people shouldn’t sign up for Ebates because it’s free and there’s nothing to lose.
Ebates has a referral program that currently allows you to earn $25 when someone signs up and makes an online purchase and they’ll earn $10.
2) Swagbucks
Swagbucks is a loyalty rewards program that allows you to earn Swagbucks (which are points) for taking advantage of offers shown on the site, taking surveys, playing games, watching videos, and shopping online.
Swagbucks also serves as an app so you can earn points on the go. Once your Swagbucks total reaches a certain threshold, you can cash in your points for gift cards to popular retailers and restaurants.
Right now, Swagbucks has a referral program in place that allows you to earn $3 plus 10% of any Swagbucks they earn for life.
3) Be Frugal
Be Frugal is a site similar to Ebates which pays you cash back for shopping online. Be Frugal is connected to more than 5,000 retailers and provides up to 40% cash back offers.
Now only will you receive a competitive cash back rate when using Be Frugal, you can also take advantage of their referral program and earn $10 per referral and whoever you refer will earn $10 as well.
4) Ibotta
Ibotta is a shopping rewards app that allows you to earn cash by submitting your shopping receipts via the app to verify your purchases of certain products.
Ibotta is great for anyone who goes to the grocery store or buys goods for the home regularly – all of us! You can use the app to browse through product categories then choose your retailer of choice. This will unlock Ibotta’s rebates bonuses. After you go shopping, all you need do it take a picture of your receipt with your phone and upload it to the Ibotta app to verify your purchases. Then, you get cash delivered within 24-hours of reaching the $20 minimum threshold.
When you invite friends to join Ibotta with your referral code, they’ll receive a $10 welcome bonus and you’ll get $5.
5) Uber
I love Uber. It’s a great ridesharing app for people who don’t want to pay high taxi fares to get around. Uber has become so popular in recent years that as long as you download the app, you can request a ride any time of the day so it’s very convenient.
If you know someone who’s never signed up for Uber before, you can refer them to join and they will get a free ride (amount varies by location). Once they use their free ride, your next ride will be free (amount varies by location).
6) AirBnb
If you like to travel, you’ve probably heard of Airbnb. Airbnb allows people to rent out rooms in their home or their entire home to travelers at a rate which is much more affordable than most hotels.
Travelers can enjoy a more local experience when using Airbnb and use features of the home like the kitchen and laundry to cut some of the costs associated with their trip. If you refer someone to try Airbnb, they’ll get $40 to put toward their first stay and you’ll earn a credit after they’ve booked their stay.
7) GrubHub
GrubHub is a food delivery service but we all know that ordering takeout can get pricey.
You will receive $12 off your next app order when you refer friends to sign up for GrubHub and they place their first order. They will get $12 off their first app order of $15 or more.
Odds are, you may already use some of these websites and services. Why not earn a little extra money by referring people you know to sign up as well?
What’s great about most of these referral programs is that they not only offer a payout to you as the referrer but they also provide an incentive to the person you are referring as well so you both can receive a bonus payment or credit. A win-win for everyone involved.
This is a great side hustle because it doesn’t take much effort. For example, even if you simply went through this list and signed up you would have made some extra cash and received a discount/credit to services. But if you refer others on top of that you will expand your earnings.
Have you ever used any of these websites or earned a referral bonus? Are there any other websites you can think of that would be a great fit for this list?
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Great list Chonce! We’ve used a number of these in the past, or do so currently. We commonly look for a referral service when buying a service as it only makes sense to get something back for us or someone else if we’re going to buy it anyway.
That’s a good practice to get into the habit of doing.
I’ve never heard of a few of these. I’m heading over to check it Be Frugal now. Great round-up, Chonce!
Awesome! I hope you like it!
Ebates, Thredup, and Capital One 360 are three products my wife & I use on a daily basis. We have had the most success with referring our family & friends to Ebates because you can earn cash back on almost any purchase. I just used it today to book a hotel room!
Running a business ourselves, word-of-mouth is the best source of advertisement and these referral programs give an incentive for the new customer to sign-up. It’s a “cheap” cost of business!
I use all of those a lot too, I love how Ebates has a handy popup for my browser so I can activate it and earn cash back on whatever site I’m on without having to remember to go back to the Ebates website and opt in.
interesting
Thanks for reading Giulia! I hope you keep these websites in mind if you use them and know of someone who could benefit from signing up.
This is such a great and helpful list! Thanks for sharing it with us! :)
Thanks for reading!
Great list and I use a couple of them as well. Ebates is pretty cool especially during the holidays because they sometimes offer bonus referral rewards so you get a bigger referral bonus.