Making Money Online
How I Made $880 Testing Simple Websites on UserTesting
The definitive guide to user experience testing online
We’ve all heard of different ways to earn some extra cash on the side. Among the most popular ones are surveys, task apps, delivery services, and user experience testing
UserTesting is one such website where you and I can test websites, mobile apps, and more.
User Experience and Customer Experience are seeing a massive boost in importance. In the 21st Century, it is not enough to have the cheapest product or service, not even the best customer service.
There is a significant shift in focus towards a better User Experience more than anything else.
You want to find a new investment service app; what do you do? You Google investment apps, then click on a few websites from the search results. Now you start to compare the features of each one with their price to find the best alternative.
But subconsciously, the website’s design and convenience play a vital role in making you feel that one site is better than the other. That’s why a part of your brain starts to compare the website layout and design, indifferent to the content.
Although it is not the only factor, the ease of using a website can become a tie-breaker when two companies seem to offer similar services. That is because we want what’s easy to use and not something that we need to learn.
What happens on UserTesting?
UserTesting and similar websites allow web and product developers to test their designs and content before releasing them.
All new products undergo many stages of testing — Alpha is when people test the product within the company. Beta is when the product testing is outsourced either to a CX agency or a CX platform like UserTesting.
The advantage of Customer Experience (CX) testing on a platform like UserTesting is the availability of organic feedback from real customers.
With each product test request sent to UserTesting, the customer can send a set of demographic requirements, ensuring that only people who are similar to the target audience can provide feedback.
It would be a waste of time for an employee in the HR department to give feedback on new software designed for Data Scientists.
UserTesting prevents this by implementing screener questions. These are a bunch of queries that will let you know if you qualify for a particular test. If you do not meet the requirements, you cannot take the test.
How do I take tests?
The first thing you do when you apply as a new tester is to take a qualification test. In the qualification round, you will have to perform specific tasks and explain why you did what you did. You will not receive payment for the qualification test.
If the UserTesting team finds your ability to think out loud satisfactory, you start receiving tests based on your demographic. Then you can take the first test.
After your first test, a member of the UserTesting team will rate your test on a scale of 1 to 5 stars and give you helpful comments on the things you can improve.
Once the first test has been reviewed, you start getting more tests every day.
How much can I make?
There are many different types of tests on UserTesting. They vary in length of time taken to perform them as well as the reward you get.
$10 tests are short tests that can range from 5 minutes to 25 minutes. Some might take longer than 30 minutes, but this will be mentioned in the screener before accepting it.
Some tests that might take longer, up to 60 minutes — which is the maximum amount after which the app stops recording — usually offer bonuses of $10. Some slightly longer tests provide bonuses based on performance as well.
$30, $60, $90 and $120 tests are usually interviews conducted live. These can be much more worth your time because you get paid $1 for 1 minute.
Yup! The $30 session is for 30 minutes, and the $60 study is for one hour and so on.
In an interview, a moderated study, you can select a time when you’re free and speak directly to a representative from the company.
They may ask you questions about yourself, your experience, their product, and your impression of their product.
They may ask you to perform some tasks on their platform while watching a recording of your screen to understand why you might do it in a certain way.
But don’t worry, the people who take these interviews are usually amicable and don’t make you nervous at all.
Surveys for future tests
Apart from the tests, you can see on your dashboard, every once in awhile, you will see surveys at the top. These are in-fact screeners for future studies.
Some are for diary studies that require more than one day, and a few others recruit you to receive special tests on a specific topic.
It’s always good practice to keep answering those screener surveys.
What devices do I need?
A majority of tests are conducted on a laptop or desktop device. Either a Mac or a Windows computer is enough to receive tests. You could also add your smartphone to take more tests.
There are sometimes tests for tablets, smart TVs, and Voice Assistants as well. You will be able to add all of these details when you create your account.
How does the money come to me?
That is what we have all been waiting for, isn’t it? UserTesting uses PayPal to distribute funds to testers, so it is essential to have a PayPal account.
If you don’t, create a new one now.
Every time you complete a test successfully, which includes doing the test and then uploading it through the app, the payment due is added to your account.
You can check this under pending payments. Any bonuses will be provided once the customer views your feedback.
For interviews, it might take a few days to show up on your account, but if it doesn’t show up after many days, you can sort it out at the support center.
The payments get sent to you precisely seven days after the test.
My journey to $1000
To date, I have completed 86 tests and will soon reach $1000. Here’s what I have learned.
It’s not easy to get tests in the beginning
If you’re worried about not getting tests, don’t worry; just give it time. If possible, keep the dashboard open at all times and allow the website to send you notifications.
Then you will be informed every time a new test is available. But trust me, as you do more tests, you get more and more opportunities since you become a good and reliable tester. It only gets better.
Always give your best
I cannot stress this enough. Always give your best! The customer can rate every test you take on a scale of not helpful to extremely helpful.
And if you seem to be very helpful, you only get 4/5 stars. Extremely helpful is not the same as very helpful.
One lousy rating could reduce your cumulative rating in the long run, thereby reducing your chances of getting more tests.
Unfortunately, I got one such lousy rating and stopped receiving screeners altogether. It took me a month to start receiving new tests.
Luckily, I had gathered enough good ratings that I could get back, but trust me, that was one of the worst experiences.
If the customer rates you a 1 or 2 stars, someone from UserTesting will cross verify to make sure that you deserve such a low rating.
If you did a good job, but the customer was ruthless, you have nothing to worry about.
Technical issues cost you
Make sure you have a decent internet speed, 50 Mbps would be good enough, and 10 Mbps should be the minimum requirement because if it was any slower, it would take forever to upload.
I’m speaking from experience; I had 5 Mbps at one point in time and couldn’t upload any tests.
You don’t want to lose out on tests because your internet wasn’t fast enough.
Keep your apps up to date
The Android and iOS apps for your smartphones and the UserTesting recorder app for your computer need to always be up to date.
You will receive a mail every time they launch a new app update; all you have to do is download the updated app.
Why I don’t use Google Chrome
Alright, here’s the thing, I don’t hate the browser, its just that I had some bad experiences with the UserTesting extension.
There are two ways you can record your tests on your computer — the app or the extension for your Chrome browser.
In the past, many bugs caused the browser to upload unsuccessfully, and I had no choice but to quit the test.
The advantage of the computer app is that all the files saved offline can be accessed by a tool called “unfinished uploads,” a companion app that can upload failed tests to the UserTesting server.
That way, you get the money, and the customer receives helpful feedback. Although the browser extension has improved, I prefer using the app.
It’s not great hourly pay
The website says that you can make $10 for every 20 minutes. Doing some math, you can make $30 an hour. That’s excellent pay!!
Except, it’s not an accurate representation of what happens in reality. Let me break it down for you.
To qualify for one test, you attempt at least 15 screeners, each of which takes about 2 to 3 minutes, including the website load times.
Then you take the test, which is usually for 20 minutes.
Right after that, you wait for the video to upload. This depends on your internet speed, but for me, it takes approximately 10 to 20 min depending on the video. So let’s say 15 min.
After this, I can continue answering other screeners. You cannot attempt screeners while your test is uploading.
Quick math: (15 x 2.5) + 20 + 15 = 72.5 min
Summing it all up, it’s going to take you around 73 minutes for 1 test.
Thats $8.22/hr
Oh, and let me remind you that there will be days when you don’t pass any screeners but spend time on them anyway.
Are there other sites?
There are many sites similar to Usertesting. To name a few; Validately, Enroll, TestingTime, TruMyUI, UserZoom, and UserLytics.
Since they don’t work in India, I haven’t been able to try them out. So I cannot comment on them.
Takeaway
In the end, all I can say is that UserTesting is excellent because you can earn extra cash while reviewing products from known companies before they launch.
Its fun, exciting and lets you buy a few more coffees or maybe a pair of shoes. It’s an additional source of income, something that might help us all during this crisis.
The only thing you have to remember is that you cannot do this as a full-time thing. It’s going to remain a side hustle.
That being said, go on and become a tester. You’ll love it!
