How much can we make in our spare time?

For some time, Emma has been using online survey sites to generate extra income.  I'd always dismissed it as a waste of time, too much effort for too little money.

Then I took a serious look at the amounts she's receiving and it does add up.  It's not going to make us rich, but it'll pay for our holidays and maybe some Christmas presents.

At this point the geek in me emerged.  I thought I should research this area properly, experiment and record the results.  Refine the method, improve productivity...

Early results are promising, but just how much can we make in one year?  It's good to have a target, so let's aim for £2,000.

Us

We are a couple in our mid 30s, living at Emma's place in East London during the week and my place in Essex at the weekend.  We both work full time and I'm also studying part time for a masters in physics.  Along with the usual hobbies, social life etc, this doesn't leave a lot of time to spare, so whatever we do here has to be squeezed in where we can.

Methods

We're mostly looking at the little things that add up.  Mostly stuff that can be done online.

Naturally we'll be restricting ourselves to activities which are legal, decent and honest.  No shady dealing, no adult content, no con games.  All legitimate income.  Unfortunately this means much of it is also taxable income, but we'll discuss that with the tax man at the end of the year.

We'll be doing surveys, focus groups, microtasks, getting cashback, blogging, anything interesting that comes along.

The internet is full of get-rich-quick schemes which seem mostly to be pretty dodgy.  We avoid those.  If someone really had a method for making two grand a day for five minutes work, they wouldn't be selling it to you for £100.  They would rent an office, get some computers and pay a bunch of people minimum wage to do it for them and make a fortune for themselves.  At least, that's what I would do.

However, if someone tells me I can make £10 a month for a couple of minutes work a day, it seems possible, I'll look into it, see if there's a way to up the return.

I'm generally not keen on paying an up-front fee for membership, but may be flexible if the research makes it look worthwhile, or reliable sources tell me it'll be worth it.