Some mobile phone apps are free while others are paid.  Wouldn’t it be great if you can earn money and rewards simply by using mobile phone apps?  These aren’t scams or get-rich quick schemes.  There are actually companies that reward you money by using their mobile apps.

Here are some mobile phone apps that pay money and rewards.

Stringfly

Stringfly is a free mobile app that lets you earn money, discounts and rewards by completing assignments from your phone or mobile device.  You can use Stringfly to connect with your friends and family using Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. while earning rewards for interacting with different brands.  For example, if you like a particular product, you can earn points by interacting with that brand by updating your status, uploading photos and videos or participating in online games.

Installing Stringfly is pretty straightforward.  You can use your Facebook or Twitter login or you can sign up using your email address.  Once logged in, you can search for new assignments to complete.  The assignments state the rewards that you get by completing them.

Stringfly was originally developed from the concept of citizen journalism where news events are captured by ordinary people. Stringly realized that through citizen journalism, they can help brands understand how consumers use their products.

Seth Elliot SVP, Chief Strategy Officer of EMT, said, “This year, we recognized that StringFly and our Engage.Me platform was ideal for enabling brands, market researchers - indeed and enterprise or organization - to invite users to complete 'tasks' in return for rewards.”  

“Essentially, we offer a 'tasking and rewards' platform that enables enterprises and organizations to reach consumers via their mobile devices and foster behavioral change via Call To Action assignments. Brands, market researchers, broadcasters etc. send an 'assignment' via our platform - usually involving users producing photographic or short video content, answering survey questions, performing secret shopping and similar tasks. StringFlyers then receive these assignments via push notifications on their iPhone or Android device. Users can choose to respond or decline these assignments. When they respond, they complete the requirements by producing the relevant content (which often involves the user entering a specific retailer or venue, often interacting with a particular product) and uploading that through the app in order to finish the task. Upon completion, the user is eligible to receive the incentive offered.”

Gigwalk

Gigwalk is a mobile phone app that allows you to earn money by doing gigs as well as post gigs.  Gigwalk was launched in May 2011 by co-founders Ariel Seidman (now CEO) and Matt Crampton (now CTO), who were frustrated by the dire economy and the lack of flexible work options for both employers and workers.

Gigwalk boasts of 180,000 gigs in 1,405 cities.  Some of the gigs include field audits, photography, real estate services, office administration, event staffing, mystery shopping, technical installation, store audits, focus group/panels, delivery, canvassing, mobile application testing and more.  

To start, you only need to build a profile so that businesses can see what kinds of skills you have.  Once you complete gigs, you can get feedback and endorsements from your customers.  By consistently doing good work, you can unlock higher paying gigs.  

According to a Gigwalk representative, “Using the Gigwalk app, people searching for a second paycheck can find flexible work in their areas. Businesses can post a job that meets their needs anywhere in the country (Gigs have been completed in every state). They can also scale to as many locations and people as required; select workers; manage and monitor the workstream; collaborate with workers; and rate and pay workers.”

“Gigwalk’s platform helps businesses find, train, manage, and pay local, temporary workforces. A few other companies have built these types of work platforms, but they focus on slightly different parts of the market. We focus on the professional side, so everything we’ve built is designed to make it easier for businesses to get work done. Gigwalk is a flexible platform that can handle any job posted by anyone who visits our website.”

“Gigwalk’s clients (typically businesses) pay for the work plus a fee to Gigwalk when they post a Gig.  Gigwalkers are treated as 1099 contractors with Gigwalk. We can handle all types of payments to workers, including lump sum, hourly, tips, and integrations with in-house payments.”

 

Field Agent

Field Agent is a mobile phone app that offers small "jobs" and pay in cash for work completed.  They leverage the power of crowdsourcing to accomplish tasks anywhere in the world.

To earn money, simply sign up as an agent.  A quick questionnaire helps the mobile app find jobs suited for you.  Once signed up, you can search for jobs near you.  Agents can help in research (quick surveys, in store experience, product reviews, at-home research and ethnographies, polls), local business information (local photos and intelligence, verify business locations, research local events like concerts and shows), retail (retail audits, in-store photos, out-of-stocks, price checks, new item analysis, mystery shopping), and real estate (verify signage and brochure placement, property conditions, neighborhood exploration and research).

Donny Epp, marketing for Field Agent, said, “As business people and researchers, we saw the need to collect information from many different locations around the world at a low cost and high speed for our own businesses and our clients. With the invention of the iPhone we saw an opportunity to empower consumers with mobile technology to complete small jobs at specific locations for these clients.”

“First, a client defines a need for a particular kind of information (this could be a picture of a storefront, a product on shelf, anything). They can either create the job themselves or we can assist in deploying the jobs. We make these jobs available to our "Agents" , iPhone users, who can complete them for cash, ranging between $2 - $15 for each job.”

“Our ability to pay Agents depends our client's needs for information and our Agents ability to do the work. When a job is completed, we compensate for the work done by the Agent.”

 

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