Qmee: Earn Money For Doing Web Searches. Yes, Really.

I’ve always had an interest in programs that provide rewards for using them. As early as 1999, I spent a lot of time investigating programs that would reward me for using a toolbar, clicking ads, or signing up for things. I even had an atrocious-looking Angelfire website with links to all these programs I was participating in, complete with a Midi of ABBA’s “Money Money Money” set to autoplay in the background. 😉 Some of the programs I used included one called CashFiesta, a toolbar with an animation of a man in a sombrero walking along. You earned a miniscule amount of money as long as the man was walking, but if the browser detected no activity for a period of time, the man would sit down and take a siesta; you’d have to start using your browser again to wake him up and continue using money. No, I’m no making this up.

But as open and curious as I’ve always been, I am ever a skeptic and quick to dump these type of programs if they aren’t worth the time. Usually, the pitfalls involve high minimum cashout amounts (So you have to use the program for a year just to get $10) or a low compensation rate for the amount of time realistically involved. Still, I have used reward programs to my benefit enough times to be interested whenever there is a new one. So when Qmee invited me to try out their new cash rewards program, I naturally had to check it out!

Qmee works by the same principle as many other programs I’ve used: You install the browser app, and Qmee sits in the background, ready to analyze searches you conduct on sites like Google, Amazon, and eBay. When you punch in a keyword that Qmee has relevant results for, it pops up a little sidebar with ads you can click on, along with how much you will earn for doing so. However, there’s one crucial difference between Qmee and other programs of its ilk: There is no minimum cashout amount. Meaning, if you earn ten cents, you can cash that out to your PayPal account immediately. This really had me interested, so I tested the app out in Chrome to see what it would be like.

The program works in the background on every search, but only brings up offers occasionally, so seeing ads is somewhat sporadic. Although it says there is no limit on how many you can click, I got several results on one page but was only able to click on a few before the Qmee popup disappeared; and no, you can’t open them in new tabs in order to click them all. I also found the clicking process to be a little confusing at first – it seemed like my credit didn’t go through the first time, perhaps because I hit the back button too soon before it processed my click; but I was able to click again and had no subsequent problems. I was able to click a couple of results and net .34 cents, which I then cashed out to my PayPal. The money was in my account right away – here’s proof:

This is pretty revolutionary for this type of program, as they’re usually set up to have some unobtainable cashout amount like $50 so you never realistically collect on your work. The proof is in the pudding with this one and I will continue to use it for sure.

Now, there are the standard privacy concerns to be aware of – Qmee does say that they store the search terms you conduct, although not your browsing habits. Qmee does say that their code is open for you to view, with details on how to do so, and invites users to post a comment if something concerns them. I do like this attitude – you can click here to read the full privacy statement. Personally, I opted to install this on my secondary browser (Chrome) and leave my primary browser (FireFox) Qmee-free for now, so I can decide how much information I want to share. After all, I conduct really personal Google searches for things like “Does nutmeg ever go bad”. 😉 Jai always shakes his head at all my browser plugins for coupons/points, but at least Qmee seems to be a fairly small program and it only shows up every once in a while.

Want to try Qmee for yourself? It’s currently invite-only, but lucky for you, I have 20 invites to share! Click here to sign up via my link and snag a Qmee invite. If you try it, let me know what you think of it!