I am always on the look out for new ways to make a little extra money. In this economy I’ve learned that relying on one source of income can be a little risky, so as well as becoming better at managing my money, I’ve also tried to diversify the ways I make money each month.

When asked which side hustles are the best for beginners, I often advise trying the easiest first to get you into the money-making groove; cashback, receipt scanning and surveys.

Survey sites are usually a simple place to start, as they require no cost to sign up, the only equipment required is access to a smart phone, and they can fit into almost everyone’s schedule.

With AI developing at pace, it’s impacting every area of our lives, including the opportunities available to us to make some extra cash.

I came across Brox Panel (available in the UK, US, Turkey, and Japan) and was intrigued to give it a go, as I am always willing to test out a new side hustle and report back for my readers. Read on to learn more about my experience…

Signing Up

I found signing up to the website to be a very quick and straight forward process. I simply added a few personal details, including my name and email address, I verified my email address, and my account was then up and running.

I completed several profile questions to share a little more about myself, and enable me to be matched with surveys that are likely to be a good fit.

The profile questions were quite broad; here’s an example of one of the questions I was asked about my education history:

To sign up to Brox Panel as a panellist and begin completing your own surveys, click this link.

Once my profile was completed, I was ready to start some surveys!

Completing Surveys

The surveys are selfie based, so there is no extensive typing, or tedious multiple choice questions. Participants are required to complete short 60 second videos of themselves discussing a given topic, or answering questions.

Before starting I worried that I might struggle to fill the full 60 seconds, but I found the time for each question passed quickly. The questions tended to be open ended which allows more freedom when choosing how to answer the question, and which element of the topic to focus on.

Here was one of my questions as an example:

Can you describe your typical meal routine throughout the day, including when you usually have your meals and what types of food you typically eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner?

Once you’ve hit the button and are ready to record, you can see yourself on screen, and you then get another chance to ‘start’ your video, so don’t panic! There’s still time to make sure your camera is working and that you are happy with your video set up.

You can see from the progress bar at the top of the screen how far into each survey you are, which is useful to understand how many further questions you are likely to answer before the survey is completed.

Once you have recorded your video, you have the option to watch back and ensure you are happy, or you can proceed to uploading your video file. This takes just a few moments to upload, before you can move on to your next question.

I left a survey mid way through, and was able to return and pick it up from the same point, which is a handy feature as when using previous survey sites this has sometimes resulted in my progress being lost, which can be so frustrating! 

Brox Panel sends invites to new surveys straight to your inbox, so you can be notified if there are any that are suitable, and you’ll be directed straight to the website. 

Survey Rewards

On the home screen, a reward tracker on the right hand side clearly shows the amount of points collected, and by selecting ‘activity history’ you are able to view your progress, including each survey you have completed along with your corresponding reward.

I thought this feature was super useful to use to keep track of your points:

To cash out, participants will need to earn a minimum number of points equivalent to USD $10 (for example, 1,323 points as of today), converted daily based on the current USD/GBP exchange rate. Points can be exchanged for a gift card.

The range of e-gift cards available was decent; you could opt for a supermarket gift card to put towards your weekly food shop, or perhaps save up for a larger item that’s on your wish list (I’m currently trying to side hustle the funds to buy a barbeque!)

At the current rate, earning approximately 132 points = £1, and surveys are around 300-400 points each, so you could realistically expect to reach the payout threshold by taking a total of 4 surveys. Not bad!

Brox Panel estimates that participants earn between £35 to £140 per month, and as the surveys tend to be around 10 minutes to complete, that’s a pretty good hourly rate.

My Final Thoughts

After trying out Brox Panel for myself, I can see how this could be a great way to make some additional cash for those who are comfortable with talking on camera and giving their opinions. It feels quite different to traditional survey websites, and more similar to market research, which often involves video recording and participants giving genuine off-the-cuff responses and feedback.

As the surveys can be completed via laptop or mobile phone, the site should be accessible to most, and can be completed flexibly depending on each person’s schedule. One tip I can suggest is to try to find a quiet space in your house where you are unlikely to be disturbed, as you will probably feel less self conscious talking to the camera if you know there’s no one in earshot!

I am quite a shy person but I found completing these surveys less nerve wracking than I expected, so I would definitely say that it’s worth a try if you’re looking for a simple way to earn gift cards.

This review was sponsored by Brox Panel, but all opinions regarding the website and my experience are my own.