Too Legit To Quit~ earning extra $ on the interwebs

Part of my experiment this year with saving money is also trying to find ways to make a little extra cash. I do have a work from home day job that pays pretty well, but I don't get a lot of hours right now. So I've been spending some time sitting around in my mom jeans, scouring the internet for legitimate opportunities to earn a few extra bucks here and there. My research is far from complete, but I wanted to share a few ways things that I've found.

Pinecone Research. This is a survey company-- there are tons of these out there but this is my favorite so far. Why? They only send you surveys that you're already qualified for-- you don't have to answer questions for ten minutes only to find out you don't qualify for the survey. Why else? They pay a flat rate of $3 per survey, and it's in the mail within days. Or if you prefer you can use Paypal and get the $ even quicker. The downsides--they only accept new users at certain times, and I've only received a survey every few weeks.

Youdata. This site pays you to watch brief adds. You fill in as much personal info as you're comfortable with to help them know which adds to send you. They don't bombard you with annoying emails-- you simply go to their site whenever you want to see if you have any ads available. Every Friday they put whatever earnings you've accrued into your paypal account. The downside-- very infrequent adds. I've made about $2 so far with this. Their main target demographic is mommy bloggers in Texas. Cool idea though.

Swagbucks. This is cool and simple. It's a search engine, powered by Google. You just download their search engine and you earn swagbucks, seemingly randomly, from internet searches you do. You can also earn points by shopping online, taking special offers, recycling cell phones or mp3 players, or pimping out your friends to join under your name, as I've so subtly done here. You can redeem points for gift cards or paypal cash. The downside-- none really-- I generally only get one or two Swagbucks from searching each day, but I try and just forget about them until they add up.

MyPoints. Okay, so you can't get cash at this site, but you can get giftcards to Amazon, Target, and more. There are numerous ways to earn points here, from printing coupons (sweet!) to using their search engine (crappy), shopping online and taking surveys or special offers. The easiest (yet slowest) way to earn Mypoints is by clicking on email links they send you. I've been using this for a few months and am a little past being able to redeem for a $25 gift card, but I'm saving up for a $50.

I'm exploring a few other ways, like writing content for ehow (as evidenced by my new link to my articles there) and I'll let you know how that goes.

What ways do you have of bringing in a little extra cash? Has anybody tried mystery shopping? Side jobs? Answering those creepy Craigslist adds in search of lactating women? Tell me all about it.