EarnByVideo – I Tried It For 3 Months So You Do Not Have To
Alright, let me just get this out of the way – I am a sucker for side hustle stuff. I have tried survey sites, mystery shopping, selling junk on eBay, the whole nine yards. So when I came across EarnByVideo.com last summer, I figured why not give it a shot? Watch some videos, make some cash, sounds easy enough.
Here is what actually happened.
What EarnByVideo Actually Is
The basic idea is you sign up, watch videos, sometimes answer questions about them, and you get points. Those points turn into real money eventually. The site claims it is helping advertisers get eyeballs on their content and you are getting paid for your attention.
Makes sense in theory. Advertisers need views, you need money, everybody wins. Right?
Setting Up Was Easy Enough
Signing up took maybe 3 minutes. Name, email, some basic demographic info. They wanted to know my age, location, and interests – presumably so they could match me with relevant videos. No credit card required or anything sketchy like that, which was a relief.
The dashboard is pretty straightforward. You see available tasks, your point balance, and how much you need to cash out. Minimum payout was $10 when I used it.
The Actual Video Watching Experience
So here is where it gets… interesting.
Most of the videos were ads. Like, straight up commercials. Some product launches, some promotional content for apps I had never heard of, occasionally a movie trailer. The length varied wildly – some were 30 seconds, others were 5+ minutes of torture for like 15 extra points.
You could not just let them run in the background either. There would be random pop-ups asking you to click something or answer a question to prove you were paying attention. Miss one and you do not get credit for that video. I learned that one the hard way when I tried to multitask and ended up wasting 10 minutes on a video that gave me zero points.
Some tasks had me write short reviews or answer survey questions after watching. These paid more but took way longer. I probably spent 6-7 minutes on one task that paid about 50 points. Do the math and it is not great.
The Money Situation (This Is What You Actually Want to Know)
Let us talk numbers because that is what matters.
Points converted to roughly 100 points = $0.10. Yeah. A dime per hundred points. Most videos paid between 10-30 points. So we are talking about 1-3 cents per video watched.
In my first month, being pretty dedicated about it, I made… $14.37. I probably spent 15-20 hours total doing this stuff. That works out to less than a dollar an hour. Yikes.
Month two I got a bit smarter about picking higher-paying tasks and made about $18. Month three I honestly got bored and only made like $8 before I gave up.
Total earnings over 3 months: Around $40. For probably 40+ hours of work. That is below minimum wage pretty much everywhere.
Cashing Out – Did They Actually Pay?
I will give them credit here – they did actually pay. PayPal option worked fine. First withdrawal took about 5 business days, which is normal. No surprises there.
I have seen some complaints online about people having trouble cashing out, but I did not experience that personally. Maybe I just got lucky? Or maybe they have improved things since those complaints were posted.
The Stuff That Bugged Me
Task availability was super inconsistent. Some days I would log in and there would be like 50 videos available. Other days? Maybe 5-10, and half of them were those long survey ones that take forever.
The points values felt arbitrary. Why is this 30-second video worth 25 points but this 2-minute video only worth 20? Never made sense to me.
Also, and this is important – you are giving them a decent amount of personal data. They are tracking what you watch, how long you watch, your demographic info. I am not paranoid about privacy stuff but it is worth knowing that you are the product being sold to advertisers here.
Who Might Actually Benefit From This
Look, I am not gonna say EarnByVideo is a total scam because it is not. They do pay. The money is real. But…
If you have literally no other options for making extra money and you are just gonna sit and watch random YouTube videos anyway, I guess you could do this instead and make a few bucks a month. Maybe you are stuck in a waiting room a lot or have some dead time you cannot use productively for some reason.
For students who cannot work traditional jobs due to visa restrictions or scheduling, the flexibility might be appealing. No commitment, do it whenever you want.
But if your time is worth anything to you – like if you could babysit, walk dogs, do DoorDash, or even just work overtime at your regular job – you will make way more money doing that.
The Verdict
EarnByVideo is real but it is not worth it for most people. I made about $40 in three months for hours of mind-numbing video watching. That same time spent on Fiverr doing basic tasks or even flipping free stuff on Facebook Marketplace would have netted me way more.
I am glad I tried it so I can confidently say: move on to something better. There are legitimate ways to make money online but watching videos for fractions of pennies probably is not the move.
If you do try it anyway, at least be strategic. Go for the higher-paying tasks, cash out as soon as you hit the minimum, and do not spend hours chasing points that barely add up to pocket change.
