I earned a $5 virtual credit card by completing a survey.

On the evening of November 1, 2025, I received an email from OnlineCheckWriter.com with the subject "Virtual Card Capterra Review Campaign," as shown in the image.

Basically, all I need to do is spend 2-3 minutes leaving a short review for them on Capterra, and they'll give me a $5 gift card.

I guess I was bored at the time, so I just clicked on it and completed the survey using ChatGPT, hoping to receive a $5 gift card.

Just when I thought I had wasted my time again, I received an email.

After clicking "CLAIM MY GIFT CARD", I received a $5 virtual credit card as shown in the picture:

If you don't want to receive a virtual credit card, there are other options, as shown in the image:

It turns out that choosing the virtual credit card was a mistake. This card can only be used in the US, and I tried Openai, but it didn't work. I currently don't know where to spend it. Choosing the Amazon gift card is probably the best solution.

This experience reminded me of the research I did more than ten years ago. It took a lot of time and effort, but I didn't earn much money; it was like manual labor, with very low hourly wages. Earning $5 an hour was considered a lot. Of course, some people have made a lot of money from training programs based on this kind of project.

These kinds of projects seem wonderful: you can earn money from home, just by using your phone or computer and clicking a mouse. Doesn't that sound tempting? But in reality, it's a time trap where the effort put in is disproportionate to the reward.

The model is very simple: companies pay to buy user data → the platform takes orders → we get a share of the profits. We think we are "part-time workers", but in reality, we are just passersby providing data.

Our attention, opinions, and time are all packaged and sold by the platform. From a business perspective, this is certainly reasonable. But from a personal perspective, it's a form of "exploitation due to information asymmetry": we give up entire periods of time and receive only a few dollars in psychological comfort in return. Of course, this is voluntary; no one forces us.

Even with low returns, many people still persist in conducting surveys. The reason is simple:

• Instant gratification : You see your points increase with each completed task;

• Zero barriers to entry : No skills or experience required;

• Idle time compensation : making boring time "look valuable";

• The sense of accomplishment from earning small rewards .

It's actually a psychological game—we know we'll earn less, but the tangible reward makes us feel like our efforts weren't in vain. It's similar to crowdsourcing or playing games where real-time feedback provides a great sense of accomplishment.

Online surveys are actually a huge "attention industry":

• Businesses use surveys to understand consumers;

• The platform makes money through traffic and advertising;

• Participants are at the very bottom, exchanging time for a few dollars.

This isn't a scam; it's simply a legitimate, inefficient ecosystem. Within this ecosystem, the lower the efficiency and the more decentralized it is, the more the platform earns.

Of course I wouldn't make money this way, because time is the most expensive cost. Although I'm currently doing nothing, I don't want to spend my time on this kind of physical labor. Wouldn't it be better to lie down and drink a cup of coffee?

The surveys might earn me some money, but they won't make me stronger. There's income, but no growth, no compounding.

Not all "easy money" opportunities are worth doing. Some things are easy because the value has already been taken by someone else.

There's nothing wrong with doing surveys; they can supplement your pocket money, but they don't change anything. Instead of struggling with questionnaires, it's better to use that time to learn something, write an article, or record a video—because those things that can be accumulated will give me real compound interest, and that's how I grow.