Job Spotter

What: Take photos of help wanted advertisements 

Expected pay: pennies per picture

Husl$core: $$

Where: Nationwide

Requirements: A smart phone; the Job Spotter app; if you earn more than $600 in any given year, you’ll also need to provide Job Spotter with a W-9 form, so they can report your income to the IRS.

Review: If you regularly wander around retail locations that might be advertising for help, you can probably make a few bucks taking photos of help-wanted signs with your cell phone. Job Spotter wants a photo of a help-wanted sign; the company that’s posted it; and both photos must be taken while the GPS tracking is functioning on your phone, so people can find the employer later. (Job Spotter is a division of job-search site Indeed, which uses the app to find jobs that would not be posted by its normal contingent of corporate employers.)

You get paid in points –usually 5 to 150 — which are worth a penny a piece. Payouts are provided in gift cards. You won’t know the value of your photo until Job Spotter accepts your photos and makes a determination. The only guidance the site provides is that genuine (and fresh) opportunities from small businesses are more valuable than more generic help-wanted signs posted by larger companies that are nearly always hiring. The site pays nothing for duplicates. If another Job Spotter posts your opportunity before you, you’re out of luck.

Not surprisingly, this isn’t a highly-paid side hustle. The typical user gets paid less than $1 per pair of photos.  But it’s also a pretty easy gig, requiring a few minutes (at most) per post. Reviewers sometimes complain that they’re sanctioned by the site for “spamming” — sending multiple photos of the same opportunity in less than a 30 day period. (You can also get kicked off the platform for sharing accounts, creating duplicate or multiple accounts and submission of material that is defamatory, fraudulent or obscene.) If your account gets closed for violating Job Spotter’s terms, you lose any accumulated points/earnings. The uncertain — and low — pay, coupled with the loss of accumulated earnings for those that Job Spotter kicks off the platform, earns the opportunity a low Husl$core. However, the fact that Indeed is using this innovative approach to find and list jobs that would otherwise go unnoticed, is why Indeed is extremely highly-rated on our site. 

What their users say: (From Google Play)

“I’ve accumulated almost $7 but every time I try to redeem the credit the app says they are experiencing technical difficulties. EDIT: There is an issue where you can start submitting jobs even if you have not selected a user name. When you try to cash out it gives you the technical difficulties error rather than making you choose a user name. I uninstalled and reinstalled the app and chose a username this time, and the problem was fixed. -1 star for this bug in the app.”

“Easy and intuitive. Starting up the app goes immediately to the camera so you can job spot right away. It’s a quarter here and there, sometimes a dollar. They also make it competitive, there’s a leaderboard per month.”

“Quick to take photos and INCREDIBLY fast at verifying them! One flaw us that my ‘submissions’ take a while to load, but I won’t consider this enough of a flaw to affect my rating. Good job devs!”

“Great app. Was able to accumulate a good amount of cash in a shirt space of time. Only downside is a couple rejections due to submitting more than one jobs from the same store which is silly as the aim is to make people aware of the jobs available.”

“I love this app. It can be finicky at times but I really love the concept and hunting for help wanted signs before work. Fun way to earn a few extra dollars and motivate you to walk around.”

“I have found this app very good generally, though today I have travelled out of my home town to find some jobs but the app isnt working. I am missing out today. So I’m not happy. This was a one off visit and have travelled some distance. … For the past 4-5 days there have been major problems with this app 👿… I cannot send messages to complain about the problem. I cannot redeem my Amazon voucher. The amount I have earned is reducing as the days go by. Grrrrrrr. What is going on??????”

“DONT BE SCAMMED!!! DONT WASTE YOUR TIME. An apparent inconsistency with this app is no one receives their gift cards, and support seems unwilling to address these issues. I think it’s someone back by a name as recognized as indeedjobs would be more aimed at addressing these concerns. Shady attempt at getting extra traffic for their site SMH Indeedjobs. I cashed out at $9.55 almost 3 weeks ago. It says to wait for the confirmation email. But I have still yet to receive any email or anything in the mail. I’ve tried to get in contact but have not received any response to my various emails.”

“This app is a scam. They won’t pay me because they think I spammed. They owe me over 80 bucks”

“It says they received to many spam reviews from my account or device and that is not true. I walked around the mall and took pics and now I lost the $45 i worked to get”

“It’s a easy way to earn a little extra in gift cards. It has glitches sometimes, but for the most part it is great”

Try Job Spotter