How to Get Paid by Pretending to Care About Bing

So… Microsoft is so eager for people to engage with their search engine Bing, that they’ll pay you to use it.

In a world where saying, “I am going to Google it,” is synonymous with pursuing information online, this move makes sense.

It’s a sweet little arrangement, actually.

I get about $10 a month in Amazon gift cards in exchange for less than four minutes a day playing around on Microsoft Edge.

If you want in on this, all you gotta do is:

1) Sign up for Microsoft Rewards

2) Download Edge when prompted (now you’re a real edgelord)

3) Install the toolbar icon for easy access

4) Select your reward (all kinds of gift cards, charities, or you could throw it all away on sweepstakes)

5) Check out the reward dashboard, and perform all the tasks that earn points (new tasks appear at the 1st of every month)

Then every day:

6) Do the daily set, which consists of three tasks.

The first is usually just reading some random fact (10 seconds or less).

The second is some form of quiz or challenge (anywhere from 30 seconds to a couple minutes tops).

The third is a poll with only two possible answers (5 seconds or less)

7) Earn points doing Bing searches.

ProTip: The most efficient way to do this is, type in, “Songs by_________ (insert name of band you like)”

Assuming your selection is known enough to be archived in Bing, a list of their top songs comes up. Click your way through the list, nabbing 5 points for each one.

Or search for, “Cast of________ (insert movie or show)” and click your way through all those headshots.

Max out your search points easily in under a minute.

You can get points for web searches on a computer, and separate points for mobile searches.

My $10 per month comes from computer searches only.

I don’t bother with mobile, because I don’t want to spend more than 5 minutes a day on this.

But if you do, you can accumulate points all the speedier.

There are other ways to gain points too.

Monthly challenges. Renting movies and downloading apps.

I don’t mess with any of that. But it’s there, if that’s your jam.

Bing It On, Edgelord

And who knows. You might just discover that Microsoft Edge is a decent little browser.

Search engine-wise, if there’s anything broken about Google’s wheel, Bing doesn’t fix it.

It does have some neat bells and whistles though.

I have yet to have my, “Come to Bill Gates,” moment that uproots me from my established browser and search engine habits.

And I doubt that’s happening any time soon.

But if Microsoft wants to reward us for dicking around with their product, more power to ’em.

To recap:

Get $10 a month for Amazon (or other outlet of your choice). $120 a year.

Four minutes (or less) per day.

Some of those quizzes and trivia are tight. You might even learn something new to impress your friends and colleagues with.

As far as efficient ways to pull in some extra value online, you could do way worse.