866 – A side hustle anyone can do: Tom interviews Joe Libby on Making Money with Surveys

Episode 866 – Joe Libby on Making Money with Surveys
[00:00:08] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.

[00:00:24] Hey everybody, it's Tom here with episode 866 The Screw the Commute podcast. I'm here with Joe Libby, long time friend of mine. Really interesting guy. You're going to see some of the things he's been doing lately with surveys, but he's got a colorful past. He's quite a funny guy and he does magic and all kinds of cool stuff. So we'll bring him on in a minute. Hope you didn't miss last episode 865. I got to think what it was about. Oh, it was about virtual influencers, right? People that don't exist that influence you. How about that? And, uh, I'm not kidding either. That's a real thing. Uh, some of them, some of these people that don't exist are charging $10,000 for one Instagram post because they have millions of followers and they don't even exist. So so this and I'm not just doing the whole thing to be funny. You can be one of these people with, uh, to be a virtual influencer. If you hate being on video, uh, you can have avatars doing this stuff for you. I mean, it's just crazy the way the world is. And, um, okay, make sure you download a copy of our automation book at screwthecommute.com/automatefree. And if you really want a lot of help with online business from somebody that's been there and done that 30 years now, folks I've been selling online. Uh, check out my mentor program at GreatInternetMarketingTraining.com it's the longest running, most successful, most unique ever in the field of internet and digital marketing. And I triple dog dare anybody to to to, uh, put theirs up against mine. And they won't do it because they'd be embarrassed. So so check it out. It's all one on one and a lot of unique features to it.

[00:02:11] All right, let's bring on Joe. Hey, Joe, what's going on?

[00:02:14] Sorry, I had to unmute my microphone. Tom. Sorry about that.

[00:02:17] That's a good idea.

[00:02:18] It's always a good idea if you want to be heard. How's it going, man?

[00:02:21] I'm good. Good. So tell everybody about your colorful past.

[00:02:26] Uh, well, uh, let's see what. What can I tell you? I live in, uh, I live in San Antonio, Texas. Um, I will tell you that, uh, that that that to help pay the bills. I am a, uh, a test editor for a company called Pearson, which probably a lot of your listeners are familiar with. I probably use some of their testing materials, uh.

[00:02:48] Like tests like. Like like what kind of tests? Like test your blood or what?

[00:02:52] Well, we we, uh, what we do in my division is, uh, we, uh, we call it we call it assessment development, which is a fancy way of saying that we build the test that the little kids take. Oh, okay. A lot of state contracts because.

[00:03:07] You can test a lot of things, you know, people's blood, their urine, you know. So that's true. Well, we do we do, we do some other types of, uh, professional testing as well. But but not in the area that I work.

[00:03:20] Well, I bet that's not as much fun as your other gigs.

[00:03:23] Uh, I'm also a, uh, a magician, a speaker. I got to, uh, uh, a few years ago, I was able to, uh, uh, speak at a at a conference in Sydney, Australia, where, uh, get this Tom the keynote speaker I got, I got to share the stage with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Wow.

[00:03:47] Wow. That's a it better be a big stage, too.

[00:03:51] It was I the funny thing is, is that he he is. I think he's actually, like, a little shorter than I am, but I'm still pretty sure he could bench press me. Oh, you think so?

[00:04:03] But tell me about your magic stuff.

[00:04:06] Um, so I've been, uh, performing as a magician and a ventriloquist for, uh, probably since I was about eight years old, and I'm 61 now, so.

[00:04:16] I don't know about the ventriloquism. That's cool.

[00:04:19] Yeah, yeah, it's a I kind of combine them together and, uh, you know, when I'm, uh, when I'm performing at, uh, at schools or at libraries, uh, you know, the kid I, I kind of, I kind of focus on the magic in my billing because, uh, I think, you know, ventriloquism is a, you know, is is is a kind of magic, another kind of illusion. And, uh, you know, the kids always say, oh, look, there's the magic man. So, uh, you know, they're happy and they, they love the puppets. They love the, uh, the they love the tricks. And, uh, adults love them, too.

[00:04:52] So that's. You didn't know that I do ventriloquism, but it's it's like I got a picture of my face and put it on a card, and and with a stick under it, and then I hold it up in front of my face so they can't. See my lips moving.

[00:05:09] That's that's that's the, uh, that's a fool proof way of doing. Yeah.

[00:05:13] And and you know what I do have, though? That's just hysterical. I bought it off of eBay. I know I paid a lot of money for it. It's this little mask that's got these giant lips on it, and it goes over the lips of the your your live real person dummy. Yes. And then you pull a string and it makes the the lips open and close while you're saying something stupid.

[00:05:35] I, I have, I have done that in my act as well. And it's always, uh, it's always a big laugh, especially when it's, uh, if you're doing a corporate event and it's somebody high up in the company that everybody knows. Yeah.

[00:05:48] All right. So so you do a lot of fun stuff, no doubt about it. But you always looking for ways to make money and and you've written books on magic stuff and everything. But tell them about this little side hustle. And I have done this side hustle myself in the past. Made a lot of money. So tell them. Tell them about what we're going to talk about today.

[00:06:06] Well, you know, Tom, I've, I've seen, uh, I frequently see posts on Facebook from people who are asking about, hey, what are some good, uh, work at home jobs that I can apply for? And, uh, you know, and sometimes I'll chime in and say, you know, you ought to think about, uh, completing surveys as a side hustle. And and there are lots of advantages to those is that, you know, if you're if you're working for a company, of course, you have to apply and be accepted, you know, and you, you have to, uh, probably have to work a certain hours even if you're working at home, which is fine. But one nice thing about doing surveys is that you're you're basically your own boss. And, uh, the way you get, the way you get started with them is that you just find the, uh, the survey companies and sign up for them. Uh, you're almost always guaranteed to be accepted, uh, because the the survey companies, you know, they need us and they need the opinion that we can that we can share in the different surveys.

[00:07:11] All right. Now, there's a little caveat to that in that you you may you won't get accepted for every survey. Because you may not be their demographic. Like if, you know, if they're trying to find, uh, you know, stay at home women that do dishes and they want to see about laundry detergent or, you know, dishwashing detergent, they don't really want me, you know, because that's right. Um, because I'm not, you know, I just buy paper plates. Yeah, I know, so so you. So you won't get accepted for every one. But. So. So how much? Uh, tell them about the range of money you can make with these things.

[00:07:51] Well, it it kind of depends, because some of them are, uh, some of them are. They are looking for a broader, um, demographic, and those may not pay a whole lot. Uh, you may you may get, like, you know, uh, 1 or $2 for a, uh, for a 10 to 15 minute survey. Uh, but sometimes if you're if they're looking for a specific demographic and you can and you fit that demographic well, you may be able to, uh, you may be able to get more money, uh, for, for each survey. So it's the kind of thing that, you know, it may not each individual survey may not pay a whole lot, but it all adds up. Well, some of them.

[00:08:35] Might, though, because, I mean, I got offered ones, but I mean, it wasn't a survey as much as as they wanted me to be an online webinar where they could actually ask me questions and those some of those paid 2 or $300 and.

[00:08:49] Some of those will pay. Yeah, some of those pay quite nicely. Um, didn't you.

[00:08:53] Have one where you, you know, it happened to be local, where you could go in person and do it.

[00:08:57] There, there was uh, there was uh, one that and this was one that I found the listing on Craigslist, uh, which is another great source for, you know, finding, finding survey companies, finding research studies, focus groups, things like that. And, uh, I happen to find this on Craigslist. Um, it was, uh, it was kind of a medical based study out at UTSA, which is, you know, far on the north side of San Antonio. They were, uh, they were studying using virtual reality, uh, as a therapy for Alzheimer's patients, um, and also people with certain brain injuries. But they, again, they needed a broad spectrum of people, uh, to, as part of their research.

[00:09:41] So you didn't have to have Alzheimer's to do this. Right?

[00:09:44] I did not have to have Alzheimer's. And I actually and I actually did have brain surgery, but but that was immaterial, uh, to, to this particular survey, but I, you know, we set it up. I, um, uh, I drove out to UTSA, uh, it was it was my first experience wearing virtual reality goggles. So that was that part was very interesting. And, uh, we went through some of the, um, some of the, uh, procedures that, that they wanted to test. Um, at the end, I just filled out a little demographic survey and, um, and they paid me cash, and it was it was very interesting. It was really kind of cool to check out. And they didn't.

[00:10:22] Stick you with any needles or anything, did you? Not on.

[00:10:24] That one. No.

[00:10:25] But there are some like that that, you know, testing drug tests and things and uh, uh, well, you know, so there's all kinds of things that are out there, put it that way.

[00:10:34] I was contacted about one, um, a while back, uh, the, um, a they were studying for a, uh, they were doing a study for a new, um, a new flu vaccine. And so they said they said, well, you're going to get a flu shot this year, right? And I said, well, yes, I, I was and so they, they wanted to set me, they wanted to set me up for this. Uh, I take the, the flu vaccine and they would check in with me to see if I had any, uh, unusual side effect and they were going to pay me to. So I thought, well, this is great. But as as that particular one happened, something changed in, in the in in what they, what they were looking for as far as test subjects. And so I, I ended up not being able to do that one.

[00:11:17] But yeah, funny if you got the shot and then you left and came back and like wore a mustache or something, you know, and then they paid you again. You got a clown wig.

[00:11:28] Yeah. So I don't know what happens.

[00:11:33] So there's a lot of different topics. Is what you're saying that, uh, I mean, anything you can imagine, there's people that are testing it.

[00:11:41] Yeah. Just about. Yeah, I, I have done, uh, I have done some testing for mobile apps, um, uh, for, uh, sometimes you get to watch a, uh, uh, an early version of a TV commercial, uh, to see if they think if they think it's going to play on the air. Right. Uh, I think I think a lot of people are going to start seeing, especially this year, uh, being a presidential election year, we're going to start seeing a lot of, um, surveys on, uh, on political topics.

[00:12:11] I bet you they did a lot on before the Super Bowl.

[00:12:15] They did? Yeah.

[00:12:16] $1 million for 30s. Or maybe 5 million. I don't know that I.

[00:12:20] I don't, I don't, I don't know. Yeah, exactly. I know that, uh, I looked at I was able to look at several, um, early versions of commercials that were being proposed for the Super Bowl. So, yeah. And since they spend a lot of they spend a lot of money on those, on those, uh, Super Bowl commercial slots, uh, they it does help them to get, uh, to get, uh, some feedback. Yeah. Some feedback on it.

[00:12:47] Absolutely. So do they ever, like, send you products to test?

[00:12:52] Those are some of the most fun to do because first of all, those usually pay better than the usual online survey. And uh, uh, I've tested, like I said, I've tested things like mobile apps, uh, mouthwash, toilet paper, um.

[00:13:08] To keep it a granola.

[00:13:11] Yeah, yeah, yeah. They didn't ask for it back. Um, but but you, yeah, you they send it to you, uh, you know, they, they, uh, they give you the instructions on how to on how to try it, on how to use the product and, um, and then at the, at the end, you'll do a, you'll do an online survey giving your opinion about it. Um, and uh, and then, yeah, if you have any of the product left, you typically you can just go ahead and keep it and use it so that that saves you a few bucks in your budget. In your budget too.

[00:13:42] Yeah. And I got a I got a buddy a spin off of this that they don't pay you, but, uh, Amazon reviewers, you know, like, he's reviewed like something like 6000 products over the years. And, uh, he's got, he got a $5,000 laser printer one time, and it just keep it, you know, so there's a lot of things that could spin off to, to get a lot of free products if you're willing to, uh, to review them.

[00:14:10] To review them. And, um, and in those cases, like you said, you don't get paid. But if it's something that you can use anyway, well, so much the better. And and and if not, maybe you can go ahead and, like, sell it on eBay or, or, uh, or Facebook Marketplace.

[00:14:26] Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I'm not sure if that's frowned upon with Amazon, but I know that I have bought I went to this guy's garage here in Virginia Beach, and it was just packed full of he had 20 he had 20 different dash cams here. And I mean everything you could imagine. He had a whole he opened his garage door and it was just table after table after table. I said, where'd you get all this stuff? Oh, I review for Amazon. So and then he said he, he keeps the box and everything real nice and then sells them off on Facebook Marketplace. Sells them off huh. Yeah. So you can do that now. Uh, so you're not always filling out surveys is what you're saying, right. There's other other things you could be doing.

[00:15:12] Uh, yeah. Um, I mean, that's not, uh. You mean you mean in the in the realm of doing surveys?

[00:15:17] Yeah. Yeah. It says you're not, uh, you know, you're making money without filling out surveys.

[00:15:23] Oh, that. Yeah, absolutely. Because, um, uh, not all survey sites, but a lot of them, uh, will have, uh, a referral program that's built in sometimes it's an affiliate program. You have to, you have to apply for. But sometimes as soon as you sign up, uh, they give you a referral link. And, uh, if somebody, you know, signs up using your referral link, uh, then then you, uh, you make, uh, a little extra money off that so you can make money with survey sites without actually filling out the surveys.

[00:15:54] Oh, wow. Oh, yeah. There you go. Never thought of that. Yeah.

[00:15:56] You don't you don't want to spam them, but, you know, you can put those links on your on your social media. You know, you can put them in your email signature. So. Yeah.

[00:16:05] Yeah. So, uh, but where do you find all these survey sites? Uh, you know, what are they, are they called different things, like if you were going to Google to try to find out the different places, where would you go?

[00:16:18] I would say just you, you could use, uh, survey sites, online survey sites. Uh, uh, just use.

[00:16:24] Google Money with surveys, maybe making.

[00:16:26] Money with surveys. Yeah, yeah. Uh, again use um, uh, you can, you can search for um, uh, different, uh, different sites and uh, groups on Facebook. Uh, a lot of them will.

[00:16:39] Have whole groups for this. Huh?

[00:16:41] Yeah. The. Yes, the groups and sometimes the survey companies will have their own Facebook page and, uh, will, uh, uh, will will post, um, uh, post information about surveys they have coming up. Uh, so that's one, uh, again, Craigslist is also a good place to, uh, to look for survey sites that you can sign up for. So yeah, Craigslist.

[00:17:05] Is mostly local. So it could be one of those deals where you go in to do something to.

[00:17:10] Well, not necessarily sometimes. Sometimes the um, uh, sometimes the big survey companies will will use Craigslist as part of their marketing to.

[00:17:19] To they can pay to be in more than one. See, you know, Craigslist is usually local, but I guess if they're paying, uh, for an ad, they can be anywhere they want.

[00:17:29] Yeah. Right. Right. But but then also. Yeah, if you, if you're, uh, if you like, use a keywords in Craigslist and, and in Facebook for things like, you know, focus group and research study, um, then you may be able to find some of the better paying ones that way. And it it depends, you know, you just have sometimes you'll find you'll, you'll find 2 or 3 that sound really good. Sometimes they just don't have anything, uh, available. So you just, you just go back periodically and search again.

[00:17:58] Well, I answered one on Craigslist one time for adult film model, but they they didn't take me. It was it was in a little warehouse back in back. And you had to you had to knock three times and spin around before they'd open the door. Yeah.

[00:18:16] And if you did that, then you passed the survey. Yeah.

[00:18:20] So, so if they, if they wanted to learn more about this, what should they do?

[00:18:26] Well, uh, I'll tell you, I have, uh, excuse me, uh, I have, uh, an e-book that's available that really goes, uh, goes into detail about just about everything that you need to know for doing surveys as a side hustle, whether you whether you want to, whether you want to do that as, like, almost like a full time job and use it to pay, you know, use it to pay for your vacation or your Christmas gifts or whether you.

[00:18:52] Just want to while you're on vacation, probably.

[00:18:54] Do it. Do sure do it on vacation. Absolutely. Uh, the e-book is called Cash In Now. Um, and, uh, it's a it's a multimedia e-book because, uh, I do have, uh, links to a few survey sites in there. And I also have some links to some videos that kind of expand on, uh, the topics that are in the e-book.

[00:19:19] Um, yeah. So that's, uh, that's a handy, as you say, it's was a PDF form.

[00:19:25] It is a PDF. Absolutely.

[00:19:27] Yeah.

[00:19:27] It's instant instant delivery. Absolutely. Um, and I've got some, uh, I've got some cool bonuses for it. Tom. Uh, that go along with it. Uh, if, if people are interested in buying it, first of all, it's, it's, it's a, it's a dirt cheap e-book to begin with. Um, it's, it's only $27. And, uh, if they go to, uh, this, this website and we can put it in the show notes, it's, uh, JoeLibbyseminars.com/surveytom.

[00:20:03] That that will take them to the sales page. They can see all of the information about it. Um, and even better, if they click the, uh, click the buy now button, they go to the shopping cart to, uh, to get the e-book. If they use I want to make it a real a really good deal for your listeners. Tom if they use the coupon code Tom at checkout, they get 50% off on the e-book and all the bonuses.

[00:20:57] Yeah. I mean, you make more than that on your first survey.

[00:21:00] Uh, yeah. You I mean, you'll make that money back really, really quick. So that makes it only 1350, uh, to get the, uh, to get the e-book, uh, with that coupon code.

[00:21:11] Beautiful, beautiful.

[00:21:12] Yeah.

[00:21:12] All right, so it's JoeLibbyseminars.com/surveytom. We'll have that in the show notes. And, um, well, thanks for coming on, man. That was, uh, that's very cool. I, I made a lot of money with this in the past and kind of got away from it, but, uh, it's, uh, it's definitely a side hustle. You can, like I said, you can be on vacation paying for your drinks is doing surveys.

[00:21:34] Sure. And it's the kind of thing, you know, uh, you you very likely won't get rich doing surveys, but you can you can make some nice extra money doing that. And if you, you know, if you stick with it, uh, you know, you, you, you could, you could be paying for your Christmas gifts or, you know, birthday gifts or paying for your vacation or, you know, paying your mortgage bill with it. So, you.

[00:21:59] Know, you could you could get rich if you like, uh, got a flu shot and, like, it gave you some bad disease and you sued him.

[00:22:07] Well, one thing, they.

[00:22:08] Probably make you sign a disclaimer.

[00:22:10] One thing we didn't mention. And again, this this is kind of specialized, but they're, you know, one one thing that kind of falls into this realm is, uh, medical studies. And again, you can find out about you can do searches and find out for the find out about those if you qualify for one of those, um, those those can pay really, really well. And, um, uh, you know, you get you, you know, you get, uh, the, the whatever treatment is being offered and you get good medical care from it, too. So, uh, that's a that's a real win win if you're if you're able to qualify for, uh, for one of those.

[00:22:45] Beautiful, beautiful.

[00:22:46] And, uh, so disclaimer if you die from this, you can't sue. Screw the commune.

[00:22:52] That's right, that's right.

[00:22:53] But you might have died anyway, you know. In fact, I'm sure everybody listening to this is going to die one of these days.

[00:23:00] So sooner.

[00:23:01] Or later.

[00:23:01] Yeah. One thing.

[00:23:03] One thing I did want to mention in the book is because, you know, I call I call the book Cash In. Now, it's about, you know, making money with surveys today. Um, and so I want people to read the book to, to make some money really quickly. So I have, uh, in my, in the book, I have my choices for, uh, a handful of survey sites that I really like and that have very that have relatively low payouts. Um, in fact, uh, one of them, the lowest payout is, is $0.25. You fill out a you seriously? I mean, that's not much, but you do a one question survey. It pays you $0.25 almost instantly into your into your PayPal account. And, um, you know, if you.

[00:23:52] Do, if you do, give me an.

[00:23:53] Example of a question they might ask.

[00:23:55] So sometimes they just want to know if you've, um, if you bought a certain brand of chips in the past three months.

[00:24:03] Um, or.

[00:24:04] Seriously and um, and I, uh, that is from a, that is from a, uh, a survey, a mobile survey app called one Q and, um, uh, it's one of my favorites because it's, it's right there on your phone. And when a new survey pops up, you get a notification, um, you you do have to get on it pretty quickly because, uh, after a certain point, um, they're going to have enough data from people answering the survey, and then they'll just close it out. But if that if you miss that one, there's always another one.

[00:24:39] So yeah, if I was going to do that, I'd, I'd ask I'd ask a question. What are you wearing? I'll pay you a quarter to find out. Oh, man. So this sounds like a lot of fun. Some side hustle money. Uh, great. Great deal. So thanks for coming on, man.

[00:24:57] Hey, thanks for having me on Tom. I appreciate it.

[00:25:00] All right, everybody, JoeLibbyseminars.com/surveytom. And use the coupon code Tom. And, uh, like I said, you can't pass up a deal like this because like you said in A11 survey, you'll make more than that.

[00:25:14] All right, so we will.

[00:25:15] Catch everybody on the next episode. See you later.