People try all sorts of things to make money from home. Seeing as how texting has become the preferred way to communicate for just about everyone, it only makes sense that we would try to make money from it. But can you really make money texting people?
I noticed a lot of searches around this topic lately, so I decided to dig in and see if it was possible.
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Making Money Texting People – Is The Idea Realistic?
It turns out, there are a few places that promise to pay you for sending text messages. Unfortunately, most of the ones you might find are no longer around.
I researched this topic for quite a few days and found almost nothing that was current. In fact, there aren’t many ways at all for getting cash from simple online tasks.
All my Google searches displayed results from blogs and forum posts dated as far back as 2007. I followed those posts as far down the rabbit hole as possible, but just about every one of them led to websites that were no longer working.
However, there are a couple of websites that still seem to be in operation: ChaCha and Text121.
Now before you go and sign up, let me explain what these websites are all about and how they work. You might be surprised. I was.
Text121
It actually took me quite a while to dig up this website. When I did, I realized why it was so hard to find. The reason?
Text121 is pretty much an adult texting service.
They also have another side to their business, but it has nothing to do with texting. It’s for bilingual phone operators. Maybe I’ll do a review on that soon.
The main service they offer is texting…mostly adult-oriented stuff as I said. In their own words, Text121 offers:
- Clean SMS
- MMS Chat
- Tarot
- Trivia
- Adult
- Domination
- BBW
- Fetish
- Anything (yes, it really says that)
I don’t know about you, but that last one is kind of scary.
As you can see, they offer other types of services, but mostly adult-oriented text messaging. There’s nothing wrong with that of course if that’s what you want to do. But I don’t see myself sending text messages on any of those topics.
Of course, I’m probably not part of their ideal demographic. If you are, here are a few things you need to know:
Text121 pays $0.07 per message, with a 2,000 message minimum in order to receive your payout. They pay monthly, via paper checks as long as you hit the required two-thousand message minimum.
Text121 Reviews
With any company/website or opportunity you are thinking of trying out, the best thing you can do is search for reviews. So that is exactly what I did for Text121. Unfortunately, there is a lot of negative comments and reviews.
Here is one comment I found:
Of course, there were a couple of positive posts about the company here and there. But out of the hundred or so posts and comments I saw, only a handful — three to five — that had anything positive to say about Text121.
Ultimately, it will be up to you to determine whether this is an opportunity you want to try out for yourself. Before you make up your mind though, there is one other company I found that promises to pay you for texting people.
ChaCha
If adult texting isn’t your thing, then ChaCha might be a good alternative for you.
ChaCha workers are called “guides”. Unlike Text121, ChaCha workers send text messages based on questions and searches from ChaCha app users. So things like trivia, research, and random questions will come from app users and be forwarded to ChaCha guides. As a ChaCha guide, it will be your job to research the correct answers and reply to the user within a given time.
But many of the questions come from ChaCha’s “affiliates relationship” users, not from random web surfers. ChaCha says they have relationships with several Governments, businesses and other organizations that rely on ChaCha guides for their answers.
I guess this makes sense when you think about it — someone surfing the web could just as easily find their answers with a quick (and free) Google search. But the organizations that rely on ChaCha do so because they don’t have the time, manpower, or simply don’t want to do the searching themselves. This is actually a pretty interesting business model.
ChaCha’s pay structure is very similar to Text121.
They pay $0.07 per message, with a $100 minimum payout. You can be paid via paper check, PayPal or direct deposit.
ChaCha Reviews
Although ChaCha is very different from Text121 in the type of messages they send, the reviews for the company are very similar. If you are thinking ChaCha sounds like a good opportunity, you might want to see what others have to say first.
Here is one comment I found:
Again, whether or not you choose to try this out for yourself, going with ChaCha or Text121, is going to be entirely up to you. If you simply want to get paid for texting then either of the two can offer you that.
So, yes, it is possible to make money texting people, but is it worth it?
Final Verdict?
Sending text messages for money sounds great because it seems easy, but as you have just seen, it’s going to require you to do some things you might not want to do (like Text121), or at the very least, a bunch of research (ChaCha). For plinking away at a keyboard and earning a few bucks on the side, here’s my recommendation.
There are better ways to make money from your home.
If you are really into apps, devices, and mobile in general, there are plenty of ways you can make money online based around that interest. I’m sure you have seen reviews of tablets, phones, games, cases, and all sorts of other stuff related to the mobile industry. A quick look on YouTube and you will see millions of them.
Well, most (if not, all) of those are monetized, thanks to affiliate marketing.
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Nathaniell
What's up ladies and dudes! Great to finally meet you, and I hope you enjoyed this post. My name is Nathaniell and I'm the owner of One More Cup of Coffee. I started my first online business in 2010 promoting computer software and now I help newbies start their own businesses. Sign up for my #1 recommended training course and learn how to start your business for FREE!
Nicole
Hey I am curious I recently heard about these sites and was curious if the privacy of the participants is protected… I am assuming that the people who are paid have to supply a photo of themselves to attract clients and that is easily searched in google…
I’m just curious if this is a safe way to supplement income.
Cameron
Text 1-2-1 are terrible. They have lasted over a decade by bleeding operators dry. 7c a text is poor in comparisson to other companies and the small print states if you don’t reach 2000 messages a month then you default your earnings. Bare in mind 2000 messages equates to 8-10 hours work a week IF they are busy, double that if not.
No you dont use your own mobile, you use a laptop and log into a browser to reply, similar to using a live chat software.
There are still better paid companies than them but having worked in the industry 13 years I would say 3 things need to give you a reality check before applying…..
1 – It is nearly always adult, sex related conversations 90% of the time, and while most is generic sexy chat, 10% of it is pure vile stuff. No company allows illegal sex chat, but there is a lot of legal stuff that can turn stuff, and often they can send you pics you need to view and comment positively about. It WILL at some point shock you how disgusting or nasty some people can be, and you have to be nice to them throughout.
2 – It never pays as well as it once did. 10 years ago you could easily turn over £400 – £600 a week, even Text 1-2-1 paid 10c/text back then, but Whatsapp/facebook/Snapchat has all but crippled it and staff wages were the first to suffer. Now you barely hit minimum wage, often below it. A 35 hours worth of work a week will realistically net you about £100 – £200 a week. You can earn far more in even the lowest paid regular jobs. Its purely a top up job now, topping up regular earnings from home.
3 – What you do is morally dubious. Lets make this clear…. text jobs are purely to con men and women out of cash. Most companies have so much small print that they can legally get away with it, but although legal, it is still immoral and every customer believes the fake character you are pretending to be is a real person who they often fall in love with and want to meet. At no time do the companies allow you to tell the truth about it being fake as that doesnt keep them paying to chat, so you have to keep lying no matter what. Most of the time its fine as perverts just want to chat weird fetishes, but the occasional lonely guy who just wants to be loved will make you feel guilty inside that you are participating in a lie for a few cents a message.
Finally, it is not a secure job. You must treat it as a full time real job rather than a hobby or they boot you with no chance to defend yourself. If you don’t write in a certain style your sacked. If you talk about the wrong things your sacked. If you dont hit minimum targets your sacked and so on. If you work hard and to their exact standards you can keep your job with just occasional warnings, but most people don’t try hard enough expecting it to be easy work and money and rarely last a couple of weeks. Staff turnover is stupidly high with no end of applicants waiting to replace you so you are expendable.
If you are desperate for money, can handle porn conversations and willing to work hard for little reward their are companies out there still with better pay and work than text 1-2-1 but you wont get rich and won’t pay bills as a main income, but just supliment your main one. That is the reality of text work.
Ash
So what are some reputable sites ?
Kristen
I make money texting for an adult chat service and I made nearly 400 dollars my first week and I didn’t even do 10 hours of work to be honest. I made 138 this past week and I logged on to work probably less than 5 hours for the entire week. I was very surprised that I made that much by texting but it is possible.
Anonymous
Care to share the name of the site?
angel
yes plz share
Anna
How???
Ash
Where??
Anonymous
Yes Kristen could you share the site you work for please and thanks
C
What company did you make this money at?
Chrissy L Lewis
How
Hannah
Can i have the name of the site please?
Thea
I’d like to know too please
Chartara
Can you tell me what that chat is I would like to do that same thing I do not want to do can or anything like that .
Ellen
Hi Kristen. Which is a good adult text service site to work for?
Celeste
Great Post. To be honest I didn’t think that you can make money from texting. You mentioned that you make 7c per message from ChaCha. This is very similar to inboxdollar where you get paid to read emails. Personally I wouldn’t try texting to earn extra money. Wealthy Affiliate is great. They teach you how to build and manage an on line income.
Audra
Hi, Nathaniell. I appreciate the research you put into this post! I also research WAH jobs for my readers. I see that these type of jobs are popular because there is really no skill required, but as stated in the reviews from previous users, is not a method to pay bills or be at all dependable with regard to support (not enough earnings). This should definitely be considered a micro-job and not anything other than that. A micro-job allows you to earn by completing small tasks, of course the pay is small as well. There are tons of micro task websites out there. Thanks for the info! 🙂