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Want to Make Extra Money?

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Money making apps are a great way to earn some extra income in your spare time. They provide a quick way to get cash on the go without much extra effort. But you want to know the best way to earn money from these apps? Referring your friends.

Some apps give a specific percentage per referral, and some give a specific cash bonus – as much as $10 per friend referred.

Not only that, but once your friend signs-up using your referral link or code, all of the work is left up to them, meaning you don’t have to do a thing to earn some extra cash.

Here are our top 10 choices for money making apps with the best referral programs (and thanks for using our referral links!). See one that’s not on the list and should be? Let us know in the comments below.

Table of Contents

1. Ibotta
2. Swagbucks
3. Ebates
4. Checkout 51
5. Boom Gift
6. Amazon Shopping App
7. AppMan
8. CashPirate
9. FreeAppsFast
10. Slidejoy

1. Ibotta

If you’ve been following the FFL blog for a while now, you’ve probably heard of Ibotta. Not only is it one of the easiest ways to earn cash back on groceries, but it has one of the best referral bonuses I’ve seen.

Ibotta is available for both Android and iPhone devices and pays you to scan your grocery receipt. If you buy a specific product that matches one of the groceries that Ibotta sponsors, you can get cash back for your grocery purchase.

Earn anywhere from $.20 cents to $10 per item. On average I’d say you can get about $.50 cents per product.

New product offers are presented each week, and I make an extra $10 – $20 per month with a limited amount of effort.

Highest Paying Apps That Pay You

The Referral Bonus

The best part about Ibotta is their referral bonus at $10 per referral – Incredible?!?! When your friend uses your referral link to sign-up and scans their first receipt, you get $10, and your friend also gets $10. It’s a win-win situation.

A great way to spread the word is on Facebook, and since the app is so great anyways it’s usually not difficult to convince them to join under me.

You won’t find an app that gives such a high referral bonus for such a simple task. It’s no wonder we feature this app in our sidebar. There’s no cap to the amount of referrals earned.

2. Swagbucks

If you haven’t heard about Swagbucks from FFL, you’ve probably heard of it across a thousand other blogs on the web. This is one of the best money-making programs out there and it’s not going away any time soon.

Swagbucks makes it incredibly easy for you to earn some quick cash online. You can watch videos, take surveys, participate in daily polls, shop online and much more to earn extra cash.

Each time you complete a task, you’re given points called Swagbucks that can be exchanged for cash prizes such as gift cards or PayPal withdrawals.

Making money with Swagbucks is so easy that we even put together a passive guide to earning $70 watching Swagbucks videos from your phone.

The reason for this is because you don’t need to click anything to go to the next video since they start automatically.

The Referral Bonus

While the referral bonus for Swagbucks isn’t as high as any of the other apps we’ve previously mentioned, it’s still quite good. You earn 10% of whatever your friends earn, and it doesn’t matter how they earn their Swagbucks.

What I personally do is show my friends how easy it is to let your phone autoplay and earn points from Swagbucks videos. They earn points quickly, and I get 10% of that amount. It’s a win-win situation.

I’m not sure why, but I tend to have a tough time getting people to stay with it. It’s most likely because most people think they have to participate in surveys and other tasks to earn cash. I personally only do videos since I see every other task as time consuming.

Friends don’t need a referral code but rather use a link to sing-up under you. Usually I can at least get an extra $.50 cents per friend I refer. It’s a goldmine when they decide to stick with it.

3. Ebates

Some people consider Ebates to be more of a website than a shopping app, but we couldn’t not put it on this list. If it were a more popular phone app we’d probably rank it at #1 due to their incredible referral program.

Ebates is an online shopping portal that gives you money for using their referral links to different retailers that they’re partnered with. For example, Ebates has a relationship with Walmart, so let’s say you want to go shopping there.

Click on the Walmart link on the Ebates page to be redirected to the Walmart website. Buy something and Ebates earns a small commission. Instead of keeping this money to themselves, they give it all back to you in the form of “cash back.” If this sounds a bit confusing (because it is), you can read our full shopping portal guide.

Ebates doesn’t have the best cash back rates around compared to other shopping portals, but depending on the retailer they can have some good rates. Furthermore, they often hold promotions in which they double cash back for certain stores. You also get a free $10 gift card just for registering as a new user.

The Referral Bonus

As mentioned above, Ebates has one of the best referral programs out there. Their program works around a tier-based system, meaning the more you refer, the more you earn. Here’s what you can earn:

Refer 1 friend and get $10
Refer 2 friends and get $40

Keep in mind that if you refer 1 friend, the second friend has to be referred within a 3-month period for you to bump up to a total of $50 in referral bonuses from both. If you refer a 3rd friend it goes back down to $10, the fourth to $40, etc.

Not only that, but for each friend you refer you’ll also be entered in their vacation giveaway. Right now they’re giving away an all-expense paid vacation to Disneyland for two. While it’s highly unlikely you’ll win, it’s still a nice touch.

In order to receive your referral bonus, your friend will have to receive cash back from at least one store. Ebates now has the option to earn cash back in-store as well, one of the only shopping portals that currently provides this option.

4. Checkout 51

It wasn’t until recently that Checkout 51 became a top contender for one of the best money making app referral programs. Until as of a couple of weeks ago, they didn’t even have a referral program. You could use the app all you want, but there wasn’t any incentive to really spread the word.

Like Ibotta,

Apps That Earn You Money 2018