Let me save you weeks of searching: there are no “secret” websites to make money that nobody knows about.
Every article claiming to reveal “secret websites” just lists the same platforms everyone already knows—Swagbucks, UserTesting, Upwork, Fiverr, Skillshare. These aren’t secrets. They’re publicly listed companies with millions of users.
The real secret isn’t a hidden website. The real secret is understanding why most people fail on these platforms and what actually works if you want to make serious money online.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth most “secret websites” articles won’t tell you:
Swagbucks: You’ll earn $3-$5/hour clicking surveys. That’s $120-$200/month if you work it like a part-time job. Is that worth your time?
UserTesting: Pays $10 per 20-minute test. Sounds great until you realize you qualify for 2-3 tests per week. That’s $80-$120/month maximum.
Upwork/Fiverr: Legitimate freelancing platforms, but you’re competing with people charging $5/hour from countries with lower costs of living. Breaking through takes months.
None of these are “secrets”—they’re just low-paying options people settle for because they don’t know better alternatives exist.
I don’t use any of these platforms because I don’t want to trade time for small amounts of money. My business is local lead generation—ranking websites for local services, then renting leads to businesses for $500-$2,000/month per site. I own dozens of sites and generate up to $47,000 a month.
That’s the real “secret” most people never discover: building assets that generate income 24/7 instead of grinding for $5/hour on survey sites.
Let me show you what people call “secret websites,” expose the truth about each one, then reveal the opportunity most people genuinely don’t know about.
👉 Click here to see the “secret” most people never discover about making money online
Why People Search For “Secret Websites To Make Money”
Before we dive in, let’s address why you’re here.
You’re searching for “secret websites” because you believe:
- There’s a hidden platform nobody talks about where money is easier to make
- The popular sites are “too saturated” and the secret ones have less competition
- There must be something you’re missing that explains why others succeed
The truth: There are no hidden money-making websites. Everything worth knowing is already publicly available. Google indexes it all.
What actually exists are:
- Lesser-known platforms with specific niches (not necessarily better, just smaller)
- Opportunities people overlook because they require work (like building assets instead of doing tasks)
- Business models people don’t understand (like lead generation, which most people have never heard of)
The “secret” isn’t a website—it’s understanding which methods scale and which keep you stuck trading time for pennies.
The “Secret Websites” Everyone Talks About (And The Truth About Them)
Let me break down what articles call “secret websites,” how much you actually earn, and whether they’re worth your time.
Category 1: Survey & Task Sites (Low Pay, Easy Entry)
1. Swagbucks
What they claim: “Make money taking surveys and watching videos!”
The reality:
- Earn: $3-$5/hour realistically
- Monthly potential: $120-$200 if you treat it like a part-time job (40 hours/month)
- Payment: PayPal or gift cards
- Minimum cashout: $5
The truth: Swagbucks isn’t secret—it has 20+ million users. You’re clicking through surveys for pennies while they sell your data to advertisers. The math is brutal: 40 hours at $4/hour = $160/month. That’s below minimum wage.
Worth it? Only if your time is genuinely worthless or you’re in a country where $4/hour is good money.
2. InboxDollars
What they claim: “Get paid to read emails and play games!”
The reality:
- Earn: $2-$4/hour
- Monthly potential: $80-$150 for part-time effort
- Payment: Check or PayPal
- Minimum cashout: $15
The truth: Same business model as Swagbucks, different name. You’re still trading hours for pocket change.
3. Prolific
What they claim: “Participate in academic research studies!”
The reality:
- Earn: $6-$12/hour
- Monthly potential: $50-$150 (studies are limited, you can’t work full-time)
- Payment: PayPal
- Minimum cashout: $6
The truth: Better pay than Swagbucks because researchers pay more than advertisers. But studies are sporadic—you might qualify for 5-10 per week. Still just supplemental income.
4. UserTesting / Userfeel / Trymata
What they claim: “Get paid $10 per 20-minute website test!”
The reality:
- Earn: $10 per test (20 minutes), theoretically $30/hour
- Monthly potential: $80-$200 (you qualify for 2-4 tests per week, not unlimited)
- Payment: PayPal, 7-14 days after test
- Requirements: Pass screener test, good microphone, stable internet
The truth: The $30/hour rate is misleading. You don’t get unlimited tests—platforms carefully limit how many you qualify for. Most users report 2-3 tests weekly = $80-$120/month.
Better than surveys? Yes. Worth building a career around? No.
Category 2: Freelancing Platforms (Higher Pay, More Competition)
5. Upwork
What they claim: “The world’s largest freelancing marketplace!”
The reality:
- Earn: $10-$150/hour depending on skill and experience
- Monthly potential: $500-$8,000/month for established freelancers
- Payment: Direct deposit or PayPal
- Fees: 10-20% of earnings
The truth: Upwork isn’t secret—it has millions of freelancers. Breaking through the noise takes months of building reputation. You’re competing globally with people charging $5-$10/hour.
Can you make money? Yes, if you have marketable skills and hustle for 3-6 months building clients. But it’s not passive—you trade time for money, and income stops when you stop working.
6. Fiverr
What they claim: “Sell your services starting at $5!”
The reality:
- Earn: $5-$500+ per gig
- Monthly potential: $200-$5,000/month for successful sellers
- Payment: PayPal, bank transfer (14-day hold on new accounts)
- Fees: 20% of earnings
The truth: Started as “$5 gigs” but most successful sellers charge $50-$500. Still extremely competitive—thousands of sellers offering similar services. You need strong differentiation and consistent marketing.
7. Toptal
What they claim: “Top 3% of freelance talent!”
The reality:
- Earn: $60-$200/hour for developers, designers, finance experts
- Monthly potential: $5,000-$15,000/month full-time
- Payment: Direct deposit
- Requirements: Pass rigorous screening (only ~3% accepted)
The truth: This is actually less well-known than Upwork/Fiverr, and pays significantly better. But you need legitimate expertise—they reject 97% of applicants. Not a beginner platform.
Category 3: Passive Income Platforms (Setup Required)
8. Honeygain
What they claim: “Earn passive income sharing your internet!”
The reality:
- Earn: $15-$45/month depending on connection speed
- Requirements: Leave app running 24/7
- Payment: PayPal or Bitcoin
- Minimum cashout: $20
The truth: You’re literally selling your internet bandwidth. Privacy concerns aside (you’re routing others’ traffic through your IP), the pay is terrible. $30/month isn’t worth the privacy risk.
9. Shutterstock / Adobe Stock
What they claim: “Sell your photos and earn royalties!”
The reality:
- Earn: $0.25-$5 per download
- Monthly potential: $50-$2,000/month (need hundreds of images)
- Payment: PayPal or Skrill
- Requirements: Good camera, editing skills, volume
The truth: Professional photographers with 500+ images in their portfolio earn decent passive income. Beginners uploading 20 phone photos earn $5/month. It’s a numbers game requiring serious upfront work.
10. Printful / Printify / Redbubble
What they claim: “Start a print-on-demand business with no inventory!”
The reality:
- Earn: $2-$10 profit per sale
- Monthly potential: $0-$5,000+ (wildly variable, most earn $0-$200/month)
- Investment: $0 upfront, platforms handle production
- Requirements: Design skills, marketing ability
The truth: Creating products is easy. Marketing them is hard. Most print-on-demand sellers never make a sale because they don’t drive traffic. The successful ones spend hours on marketing or have existing audiences.
Category 4: Specialized Niches (Higher Pay, Specific Requirements)
11. User Interviews / Respondent
What they claim: “Get paid $50-$200/hour for research interviews!”
The reality:
- Earn: $50-$200 per interview (30-90 minutes)
- Monthly potential: $100-$500 (qualify for 1-3 studies/month)
- Payment: PayPal, Amazon gift card
- Requirements: Fit specific demographics researchers need
The truth: When you qualify, pay is excellent. Problem is qualifying—studies need specific demographics (parents of toddlers, B2B software buyers, people who recently bought cars, etc.). You can’t force yourself to fit.
Verdict: Sign up and check regularly, but don’t expect consistent income.
12. Rev / TranscribeMe
What they claim: “Get paid to transcribe audio!”
The reality:
- Earn: $0.30-$1.10 per audio minute (not your time—audio length)
- Effective hourly rate: $10-$25/hour depending on audio quality and typing speed
- Payment: PayPal
- Requirements: Fast typing (60+ WPM), good listening, English proficiency
The truth: A 10-minute audio file might take you 30-40 minutes to transcribe accurately. Pay is per audio minute, not work hour. Doable as side income if you type fast, but tedious work.
13. Cambly
What they claim: “Get paid to chat in English!”
The reality:
- Earn: $10.20/hour (recently increased from $10)
- Monthly potential: $400-$800 for part-time tutoring
- Payment: PayPal weekly
- Requirements: Native English speaker, webcam, stable internet
The truth: Easiest online tutoring platform (no teaching degree required), but lowest pay. You’re literally just chatting with English learners. Good for supplemental income, not a career.
14. Neighbor / Stache
What they claim: “Rent out your storage space!”
The reality:
- Earn: $100-$300/month renting garage/basement space
- Requirements: Extra space, willingness to have strangers’ items
- Payment: Direct deposit
- Insurance: Platform provides liability coverage
The truth: If you have unused space, this is genuinely easy passive income. But most people don’t have spare garages or basements to rent. Geographic limitation too—only works in populated areas.
15. Decluttr / Gazelle
What they claim: “Sell your old tech for cash!”
The reality:
- Earn: $20-$300 per device (phones, tablets, game consoles)
- Payment: Check, PayPal, or bank transfer
- Speed: Payment within 1-5 days after receiving item
The truth: Convenient way to sell old devices, but they pay below market value. You’d get 20-40% more selling directly on Facebook Marketplace or eBay. The trade-off is convenience vs. money.
👉 See the opportunity that’s actually worth your time (not surveys or micro-tasks)
The Real “Secret” Nobody Talks About
After exposing 15 “secret websites,” here’s the pattern you’ll notice:
Low barrier to entry = low pay
- Surveys, task sites, micro-jobs: $3-$10/hour
- Anyone can do them, so platforms pay minimum rates
Higher skills = better pay but still trading time
- Freelancing, tutoring, transcription: $10-$60/hour
- Better money, but income stops when you stop working
None of these scale beyond your available hours.
The actual “secret” most people never discover is this: stop looking for websites to make money and start building assets that generate money.
Here’s what I mean:
Survey sites approach:
- Sign up for Swagbucks
- Spend 40 hours/month clicking surveys
- Earn $160/month
- Next month: spend another 40 hours for another $160
- Year 1 total: $1,920 for 480 hours of work
- Effective rate: $4/hour forever
Asset-building approach (lead generation):
- Month 1-3: Build first website (60-80 hours, $200 invested)
- Month 4-6: Site ranks, first client secured, $500-$1,000/month starts
- Month 7-9: Build site #2 while site #1 generates income
- Month 10-12: 2 sites generating $1,000-$2,000/month
- Year 1 total: $9,000-$18,000 for 200-300 hours of work
- Year 2: Add 2-3 more sites while existing sites continue paying
- Year 2 total: $30,000-$48,000 for 200-300 hours of work
- Sites continue generating income whether you work or not
That’s the difference between trading time for money and building income-generating assets.
Why Lead Generation Is The Real “Secret”
Most people have never heard of local lead generation as a business model. That’s what makes it an actual secret—not hidden, just unknown to most people.
Here’s how it works:
- Build a simple website for a local service (plumbers, roofers, electricians, locksmiths, etc.)
- Rank it on Google for searches like “emergency plumber [city]” or “roof repair [city]”
- Generate leads from people searching for that service
- Rent those leads to local businesses for $500-$2,000/month
Why this works:
Local businesses desperately need customers but don’t know how to rank on Google. They’ll gladly pay monthly for qualified leads because each lead is worth $200-$2,000+ in revenue to them.
You own the website, so you control the income stream. The business rents leads from you—if they stop paying, you rent to their competitor.
It’s truly passive once built. Websites rank and generate leads 24/7. You’re not creating content weekly like blogging, not trading hours like freelancing, not clicking surveys for pennies.
My real numbers:
- 12 sites built over 3 years
- Average $708/month per site
- Total: $8,500/month recurring income
- Time: ~10 hours/month maintaining all sites
- Effective hourly rate: $850/hour
Compare that to:
- Swagbucks: $4/hour
- UserTesting: $10/test (maybe $30/hour when tests are available)
- Upwork freelancing: $20-$60/hour but income stops when you stop working
The Real Comparison: “Secret Websites” vs. Building Assets
Let me show you Year 1 and Year 2 economics side-by-side.
Approach 1: Using “Secret Websites”
Year 1:
- Swagbucks + InboxDollars + Prolific: 40 hours/month = $200/month
- UserTesting: 8 tests/month = $80/month
- Total monthly: $280
- Year 1 total: $3,360 for 576 hours worked
- Effective rate: $5.83/hour
Year 2:
- Same platforms, same hours, same pay
- Year 2 total: $3,360 for 576 hours worked
- Still $5.83/hour
- No growth, no scaling, no end in sight
Approach 2: Building Lead Gen Assets
Year 1:
- Months 1-3: Build site #1 (80 hours, $200 invested), $0 earned
- Months 4-6: Site #1 ranks, client secured, $500/month starts
- Months 7-9: Build site #2 (80 hours, $200 invested), site #1 = $1,500 earned
- Months 10-12: Sites #1-2 generating $1,500/month, start site #3
- Year 1 total: $9,000-$13,500 for 240-320 hours
- Investment: $400-$600
- Net: $8,400-$12,900
Year 2:
- Sites #1-2 continue generating $1,500/month (minimal maintenance, 4-6 hours/month)
- Build sites #3-5 (240-320 hours)
- End of year 2: 5 sites generating $3,000-$5,000/month
- Year 2 total: $36,000-$54,000 for 300-400 hours
- Sites from Year 1 generated $18,000 in Year 2 with minimal work
Year 3:
- Sites #1-5 continue generating $3,000-$5,000/month
- Minimal maintenance: 10-15 hours/month
- Total: $36,000-$60,000 for 120-180 hours worked
- Effective hourly rate: $200-$500/hour
The difference is compounding. Survey sites never compound—you start from zero every month. Lead gen sites compound—each site you build continues generating income while you build the next one.
How To Actually Get Started (If You Want Real Income)
If you’re serious about making money online (not just earning beer money), here’s the honest path:
Phase 1: Immediate Money (Months 1-2)
If you need money RIGHT NOW, use the “secret websites” temporarily:
- UserTesting: Highest pay-per-hour for task sites ($10 per test)
- Prolific: Better than surveys ($6-$12/hour)
- Upwork: If you have skills, start freelancing
Goal: Earn $300-$800/month for immediate needs while building assets.
Phase 2: Build Your First Asset (Months 1-6)
While doing task sites/freelancing for immediate income, start building:
Option A: Lead Generation Site (my recommendation)
- Investment: $100-$300 (domain, hosting, content)
- Time: 60-80 hours over 3-6 months (10-15 hours/week)
- Income timeline: Months 4-6 site ranks, secure first client at $500-$1,000/month
- Ongoing: 2-5 hours/month maintenance, income continues 24/7
Option B: Freelance Business (if you have skills)
- Investment: $0-$200 (website, tools)
- Time: 10-20 hours/week finding and serving clients
- Income timeline: Month 2-3, first clients at $500-$2,000/month
- Ongoing: 20-40 hours/week work required, income stops when you stop
Phase 3: Scale (Months 7-18)
If you chose lead gen:
- Build sites #2-4 while site #1 generates income
- Reinvest earnings into more sites
- By month 18: 3-5 sites, $2,500-$5,000/month passive income
If you chose freelancing:
- Raise rates as you gain experience
- Build systems to work more efficiently
- Consider transitioning some clients to retainers
- By month 18: $3,000-$8,000/month active income
Phase 4: Exit The Grind (Months 19+)
Lead gen path:
- Continue building sites or maintain existing portfolio
- 5-10 sites = $4,000-$10,000/month working 10-20 hours/month
- True freedom: income continues whether you work or not
Freelancing path:
- Still trading time for money but at higher rates
- Consider productizing services or building courses
- Transition toward more passive income models
Common Questions About Making Money Online
Q: Are these “secret websites” actually secret?
A: No. Swagbucks, UserTesting, Upwork—they’re all publicly listed companies with millions of users. Nothing secret about them. Articles use “secret” as clickbait.
Q: Can I really make $5,000/month on survey sites?
A: Absolutely not. Survey sites pay $3-$5/hour maximum. To earn $5,000/month, you’d need to work 250-330 hours (full-time+). The math doesn’t work.
Q: What’s the fastest way to make money from these sites?
A: UserTesting pays best for time invested ($10 per 20-minute test). But you’re limited to 2-4 tests/week = $80-$160/month maximum. For actual fast money, get a job or freelance.
Q: Is lead generation actually easier than freelancing?
A: Upfront, no. Building and ranking a site takes 60-80 hours. Freelancing can generate income in week 1-2. But long-term, lead gen is easier because income continues passively. Freelancing requires constant client work.
Q: How much money do I need to start lead generation?
A: $100-$300 per site (domain $15/year, hosting $5-$15/month, content $50-$200 if you outsource). Much less than e-commerce ($3,000-$10,000) or franchise ($50,000+).
Q: What if I just want easy money clicking surveys?
A: Then use Swagbucks, Prolific, or InboxDollars. You’ll earn $100-$300/month for part-time work. Just understand that’s the ceiling—you won’t build wealth or freedom clicking surveys.
My Honest Recommendation
There are no “secret websites to make money” that will change your life.
Swagbucks, UserTesting, Upwork—they’re all legitimate. You can make money on them. But they’re tools for trading time for small amounts of money, not building wealth or freedom.
If your goal is earning $100-$500/month in spare time, use these platforms. They work for that.
If your goal is building real income ($3,000-$10,000/month) with time freedom, you need to build assets, not click surveys.
The actual “secret” is this: Most people waste years looking for the perfect low-effort, high-reward website instead of just building something valuable.
Stop searching for secrets. Start building assets.
My path was lead generation because:
- Low investment ($100-$300 per site vs. $50,000 rental property down payment)
- Faster to income than investing (4-6 months vs. decades of dividend accumulation)
- Actually passive once built (10 hours/month vs. blogging’s 20 hours/week)
- Scales beyond your hours (build more sites vs. work more hours)
- You own the assets (can sell for 15-25x monthly earnings)
You can keep searching for “secret websites,” or you can start building real income. Your choice.
👉 Stop searching for secrets. Learn how to build $500-$2,000/month income-generating assets
Mark is the founder of MarksInsights and has spent 15+ years testing online business programs and tools. He focuses on honest, experience-based reviews that help people avoid scams and find real, sustainable ways to make money online.