Student-income.com offers free, impartial advice about how to make money online safely. It has been designed specifically for students, by students. This page contains a list of our most frequently asked questions. If this is the first time, we recommend you visit the 'Getting Started' section first.

Further questions? Email us at help@student-income.com or use the contact form.

Information about Student-income.com
How to start making money online
Paid online surveys
Cash-back help
Free competitions
DVD rentals
Paid to search help
Gambling with casino free bonus
Affiliate networks FAQ's

What is Student-income.com?
Who runs Student-income?
How many other people use Student-income?
Why should I use Student-income?
How can I help spread the word?
How can I contact the people that run Student-income.com?
What about the small print?

What is Student-income.com?

Student-income.com provides students with free, impartial advice on how to earn a bit of extra cash online while they're at university. Take part in online market research and get paid for taking surveys, earn cash-back by shopping at certain sites, earn money by searching the internet, etc...

Who runs Student-income.com?

Student-income.com is not a commercial enterprise. It is not 'owned' by any companies or organisations. It is run by a small, but knowledgeable(!), group of students in their spare time. We are all currently studying for our degrees and have been earning money online for the last few years, so we thought we would try and spread the word with this site. You can help as well!

How many other people use Student-income.com?

Current estimates show that a couple of hundred students a month are accessing the site from all over the world, so you're not alone! This is great news for us; all our efforts have been worth it. You are currently viewing the UK version but we have a USA and Australia version too.

Why should I use Student-income.com?

If you want to earn an extra £500 per year without much effort. Some people earn an extra income of around £800-900 per year. Like anything in life, it just depends on how much time and effort you put in to it. As students, this sort of cash can help immensely with accommodation costs, food costs or just for partying!

How can I help spread the word?

We would love to see more people using the information on this site to make some extra money. If you have any friends or family that you think would be interested in this opportunity, please use the 'tell a friend' tool to send them an email or tell them yourself in person. Lots of people are very sceptical about the possibility of making money online, and there are a lot of scam sites on the internet. With your recommendation, they will know to trust this website.

How can I contact the people that run Student-income.com?

We always like hearing from you. Any comments, suggestions, requests or complaints are welcome.
Email us at help@student-income.com or use the contact form.

What about the small print?

We hate it too, but for legal reasons you can view our terms and conditions, copyright notice and privacy policy here.

Paid online surveys

Introduction to online surveys!
What do the surveys consist of?
How frequent are the surveys?
How are you paid?
How much can I expect to make in a year?
OK, so who can join?
How will I receive the surveys?
How much are you paid?
I've never heard of some of these companies?

Last year companies spent a massive £1.4 billion on market research. By joining the research panels on this site, you can earn a slice of this money for yourself. Market research companies are always looking for new people to become members of there online panels.

What do the surveys consist of?

They are usually in the form of multiple choice questions. Some will include images, music or video material. Make sure you have Adobe Flash Player installed as this is needed to view videos.

How frequent are the surveys?

Most panels send out a few a week. CIAO and Global Test Market send out about one a day, often more. Some panels may only send you a few surveys a year, but these types may pay £20-£100.

How are you paid?

This differs from panel to panel. Most of them just a cheque to you through the post when you reach a certain threshold, usually £20.

Others pay straight into your bank account by direct bank transfer. the payout threshold is much lower. CIAO pays this way and will payout once you are over £5.

Some newer survey sites pay via PayPal, an online payment service that allows money to be transferred securely over the internet. Money in your PayPal account can be transferred into a bank account. A PayPal account is free to open and free to use. Opening an account takes about 5 minutes.

Click here to open a PayPal account. (link opens in a new window)

How much can I expect to make in a year?

As you can imagine, this varies hugely from person to person depending on the number of sites you join and how much spare time you have to complete the surveys your invited too.

On average, about £400-500 per year.

Anyone! That's the great thing about market research. The companies want a panel of people from all different backgrounds and walks of life. Students, firemen, office workers, teachers, part-time workers and the unemployed are all needed to share their valued opinions.

Most panels will not accept children under 16.

When you join a research panel, you provide the website with your email address. Invitations to surveys are sent to this email address. It is a good idea to check your emails everyday, if you don't already. If you are planning to join lots of survey panels, I recommend setting up a separate email account just to use for surveys.

Set-up a new Live Hotmail account free.
Set-up a new AOL account free.

How much are you paid?

This is probably the part you are most interested in!

The amount you are paid per survey varies between different companies and projects. The average is about £3 for a 20 minute survey, although It's Your View, for example, base there payout on a rate of £1 for every 5 minutes.

The trick to earning a reasonable amount of money through doing online surveys is to make sure you join as many research panels as you can. That way you will get a steady stream of invitations to surveys so you will always have some to be getting on with. 

I've never heard of some of these companies?

All of the research panels listed on Student-income.com have been hand selected by our researchers. They have all been extensively tested and verified for there authenticity. All of the survey sites do payout, and they are all run/owned by registered, reputable companies that are all members of the ___ and regulated by the ___.

Most people have probably never heard of many of the panels we feature. Market research companies do not seem to be widely publicised. You may have heard them mentioned during the news on TV. BBC news often source general public opinion information from YouGov.

Cash-back help

Introduction to cash-back site!
How does it works?
An example perhaps!
A word of warning!
How much are you paid?
How much can I expect to make?
So it's possible to receive cash-back without spending any money?

Cash-back sites are a great way of earning some money back for purchases you already make online. They work sort of like affiliate programs, but with a difference - you, the user, get a share of the advertising revenue.

All of the sites listed on Student-income.com are 100% free to join.

Never join any sites that charges registration/membership fees. Cash-back and Survey websites PAY YOU to shop or fill in surveys, DO NOT PAY THEM! There are an increasing number of sites saying they will give you access to lists of hundreds of survey sites, enabling you to make thousands of pounds per year, just for a one-off joining fee. DO NOT TRUST THEM. The information they sell is freely available on the internet anyway - on Student-income.com!

How it works in detail:

There are 5 steps to the process:

1. Companies advertise their services on a cash-back website.

2. You join the cash-back website and click on the advert.

3. You are directed to the advertisers website where you sign up to or buy whatever they sell.

4. The advertiser pays the cash-back website for referring you to them.

5. The cash-back website gives you a share of this revenue.

An example to demonstrate:

This example is taken from My Shopping Rewards. I have signed up for free and I am browsing through the advertisers sites. I notice there is £2.25 cash-back offered for signing up to the National Lottery website. (The one where you can buy Lotto tickets online.) I have read the terms and conditions and they say in order to get the cash-back I must register and deposit at least £1. So I register and deposit £1. The next day the £2.25 is added to my cash-back account!

Notice that it says "deposit" not "spend" So the following day, if I wanted too, I could withdraw the £1 from the Lotto account. this way i have spent £0 and received £2.25 cash-back!

A word of warning!

Before you go heading off to register, here are some things to consider:

Always write down important dates you need to remember: If you forget to cancel the magazine after the third issue, you will be charged £9.99 (for example) for the next 6 months of issues, so you will lose money.

Always, always reading the terms and conditions carefully: Don't get caught out by the small print!

How much are you paid?

It is not possible to earn as much as doing online surveys, but cash-back sites are free to use so you have nothing to lose by giving it a go!

What you are paid varies from 20p for signing up to a newsletter to £50 for opening a bank account or taking out car insurance.

The trick to earning a reasonable amount of money is to make sure you join lots of different cash-back sites. That way you will get a steady stream of invitations to surveys so you will always have some to be getting on with. 

How much can I expect to make?

From each site you can comfortably make £20, which is usually the minimum withdraw limit. Certainly with My Shopping Rewards, it is easy to exceed this hugely, without spending any money, because they have such a large list of advertisers. they even have sections called "easy cash" and "free cash."

So it's possible to receive cash-back without spending any money?

Absolutely! There are lots of perfectly legitimate loopholes like the demonstration above. But remember; you can still make money even if you have to spend a small amount:

For example: Subscribe to the magazine using the cash-back website with the "3 issues for £1" offer. Cancel the magazine after the third issue, collect the £2.50 cash-back, and you are up £1.50 (plus you got the 3 magazines!)

Free competitions

Good question. When you enter a competition you will usually be required to fill out a very short survey, normally just a few questions long. The data collected from this survey is then sold market research companies or other organisations.

What do I have to do to enter?

Usually you will be required to fill out a very short survey, normally just a few questions long.

DVD rentals

How do online DVD rentals work?
How long can I have the DVDs?
Can I get it for FREE?
How much will I save?

How online DVD rentals work:

There are 5 steps to the process:

1. Browse this page and join a DVD rental site for a free trial.

2. Log into your account and select DVDs you want to rent.

3. They will send you them in the post.

4. When you have watched them, send them back in the prepaid envelope they provide.

5. More DVDs are sent to you.

How long can I have the DVDs?

As long as you like. There are no late fees!

Can I get it for FREE?

Yes! There is nothing stopping you signing up for a free trial and then cancelling it just before the trial ends. Then you can join a different free trial rental service and do the same thing!

How much will I save?

This depends on how many films you rent. Typically Blockbuster charge £4 for a 2 night rental, so if you rent 2 films a week, you will be saving £32 a month by using free trials.

Local council run libraries in the UK charge £2.50 for a 2 night rental. So if you rent 1 film per week, that's £2.50 a week, which is £10 per month and £120 per year.

Paid to search help

Introduction to Myhpf.co.uk
How it works in detail:
How am I to be paid?
How much are you paid?
How much can I expect to make?
Who provides the search results?
Who are 'My Homepages Friends?'

This is a great way of making some extra cash just by doing an everyday task: searching on the internet. We all use search engines, why not get paid to do it?

How it works in detail:

There are 5 steps to the process:

1. Click on our link here and create an account.

2. You get your own personal search box in the top right of your browser and can set your search engine as your homepage.

3. Continue to search as usual.

4. At any time, log into your account to check how many searches you have done and how much you have earned.

5. When you reach £20 you will receive your money.

How am I to be paid?

You are paid by PayPal or Bank Transfer once you have reached £20.

How much are you paid?

You are paid 2-3p per search.

How much can I expect to make?

This, of course, depends on how much you use the internet each day. They say the average person can expect to earn £50 per year. Obviously there will be people that exceed this greatly.

Say you make a modest 10 searches per day. You will to paid about 30p per day. That's £2.10, which is just over £100 per year. Not bad for just doing what you would do anyway.

Who provides the search results?

Currently they are using Yahoo! which is the most visited website in the world. Before they used the Google search engine, it is uncertain if they will change back.

Who are 'My Homepages Friends?'

What's this all about?

To try and entice you in, online casinos give you £10/$20 or so to play with for free. If you win you keep the winnings as soon as you make a deposit, usually a minimum or £10/$20. So, theoretically, you can make money without risking any of your own, if your lucky. Casinos have caught on to the fact lots and lots of people are doing this and then closing their accounts and have put measures in place to stop this. Spoil sports. It is still possible on some casinos and bingo sites, but be careful.

WE DO NOT PROMOTE OR ENCOURAGE GAMBLING. RISKING YOUR OWN, HARD EARNED MONEY WILL NEARLY ALWAYS RESULT IN LOSS.

When is this going to be added?

This section is currently being developed. To be the first to know about all changes and additions to Students-income.com UK, please sign up to receive updates via email here.