Many people have lately taken to finding ways to earn extra money on the internet. While there are literally hundreds of ways to do this, many people don't know where to get started, or even know what's legitimate. There are many article sites online that pay you for writing as well, but what if you don't know how to write, or you're having trouble reaching Google Adsense's minimum payout, and you're just not making any money?

I recently took some time away from internet marketing to try out CashCrate, a website that pays you for completing surveys or promotional offers, then sends you the check at the end of the month after you reach your payment threshold ($20, default). One of the best things about CashCrate is that it doesn't have the usual 18 year old minimum; you only need to be 13, so it makes a great starting point for younger budding businessment to earn some extra cash instead of depending on allowance or struggling to get a part time job.

Unfortunately, it's only available to people in the United States.

How does CashCrate work?

Signing up for CashCrate is completely free. This is important; most sites that ask you for money so you can earn money have a very high chance of being scams. Once you sign up (which should only take 5 minutes), you can see a video tutorial for how the site works. It's short, as the site is very easy to understand.

Simply go to the members area to see the list of offers. Some offers have a cost associated with them, with the potential of a higher payout. I would suggest sticking to 100% free offers instead of risking these-- it's easy to forget you signed up for a monthly payment and then forget to cancel it. You can easily force CashCrate to only show you the 100% free offers with the drop down filter.

The reason CashCrate pays you for promotions is because the companies making offers pay CashCrate if you do it for them; then they pay you to take up the offers, and it's win-win for you and CashCrate.

How much money can I make with CashCrate?

You probably won't be rich. ;) But it's easy to do and a great way to earn a little extra cash to make some ends meet. If you complete one $5 offer everyday, that's an extra $150 a month. Not bad.

Tips for Using CashCrate

1) Clear the cookies on your browser after every offer you complete. This makes sure there's no errors that causes you to not receive payment for an offer you received.

2) Try to stick to higher paying offers. I personally wouldn't ever do something for less than $1.00 unless it was only going to take a couple seconds to complete.

3) The except to number 2 is the "Research Surveys." Those only pay $0.80, but if you like filling out surveys, it can be fun to do, doesn't require any personal information, and you can do two of them a day. That's almost an extra $50 a month for surveys.

4) Get a secondary email address for CashCrate. You need to enter accurate information, but you don't have to use the email you signed up with. This lets your secondary email catch all the email offers and newsletters you get so you don't have to fish through them in a more private or business oriented email, and you know what account to check if you are actually interested in the offers.

If you'd like to earn a little extra money on the side, then sign up for CashCrate. Spending just a few extra minutes a day on the right, higher paying offers and there's no reason you can't put an extra $100 in your pocket a month for just minutes every day.

You can find even more information about how to make money on the internet with Rain Linwood's Internet Part Timer, a free ebook on getting started with a one-man internet business.