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!
Can You Really Make Money with Your Voice?
Anh Nguyen
Nathaniell,
This is yet another awesome topic about what the ways you can make money. I guess texting is not the best or most ethic way to make money online, especially nowadays when the topic seems to be dying out.
On top of that. I’m pretty sure the texting job itself must be quite boring and you don’t really learn something new from sending a bunch of texts.
I guess the better way to make money online is to either be an affiliate marketer or launch your own products.
Thanks for sharing!
Cheers,
Anh
Rene
Thank you Nathaniell for this review.
I never heard of making money with texting services before.
It seems to be easy at first to write some messages but at the same time it is not well paid and obviously quite time consuming.
ChaCha uses an interesting business model but for me it wouldn’t be interesting to answer other people’s questions all the time.
So I agree with you that it is much more satisfying to create your own websites on topics you are interested in.
Best Regards
Rene
Nathaniell
The cool thing about building your own websites versus answering questions with ChaCha is that you get to talk about something you’re passionate about (or at least interested in). Answering other people’s questions on random topics could be fun, but you wouldn’t get to dig deeper into the answers. With a website on a specific topic, you can become an expert in any field you choose.
Alec Terry
Man I loved this post because I definitely remember ChaCha. It was exactly like you said. Back before we all had smartphones Cha Cha was what we texted in case we wanted to know something. It was really weird now that I think about it that we were just texting this random person and asking them whatever was on our minds. But at the same time that was kind of cool.
Great Post!
Nathaniell
Ohh, yeah, that’s a bit creepy. Imagine if you texted them something very private! I’m sure the writers behind ChaCha went home with some really funny stories. I know that the comments on my blog are very entertaining sometimes. Although, sometimes they can be quite nasty too. The internet is a weird place where everyone has a very strong opinion about things!
coughlanmaureen
Very indepth review on texting to make money.
It’s seems like a bit of a scam to me you probably have to spend hours writing texts and doing research with very little financial returns.
Like many other online scams to make money money it’s sounds like just another waste of time and energy!
Nathaniell
Pretty much Maureen. I think most people, even if they do get involved with the texting thing, tend to figure out pretty quickly that this isn’t worth their time. For the people that just wanted a quick fix, their interest wanes and they give up and move onto the next quick-rich thing. For the people that are really interested in making money, they start to change their search terms from things like “how to make money fast”, to “how to make legitimate money online” or “how to start an online business”. Something like that.
Smart people figure out pretty quickly that easy work means less money. Even if they don’t end up getting involved in working online, they may take their career more seriously or try to improve their financial situation by getting educated and starting a new job/career.
Anh Nguyen
Very well said, Nathaniell! It’s true that the folks who search for “how to make money fast” or even “how to make money free” are most likely not interested in something long-term. In fact, they are not that different from tire kickers. 😛
Will
You provided great content on your site and I felt your opinions were genuine. Making money texting sounds pretty relevant to the culture today because we are moving to a more digital aware society. Looking at the payout and the amount of texts in order to make a small profit doesn’t seem worth the time. Especially when you factor in the amount of time researching and doing things you’re “not okay” with. The other links on how to make money online was very informative and I enjoyed browsing your site.
Nathaniell
The thing is, work and profit are almost always related. If you want to earn money from simple things like texting or watching tv, then you aren’t going to make money doing it. But if you are willing to put in a large amount of work, then well, anything is possible.
You can get a better education, job and thus pay. Or you can start a business. Or you can just move up in the ranks of your company. It all starts with a willingness to move away from time-killer activities and move towards something productive!
I think a lot of folks want to do the texting thing because it sounds easy. They can relax on the couch and text or do it on the subway on the way home.
Oh well. But I hope that this article inspires some people to take some initiative and learn how to earn money online in a more legitimate (albeit harder) way 🙂