Since I came to germany for studying this year and all the prices went up because of the ongooing inflation and repression of the economy I was in need of a method to make some extra bucks. I'm actually working part time as a waiter in a small restaurant but this just fixes my costs for renting a room in a shared apartment. So I searched the web in order to find some method to help me out. Unfortunately there is so much bs beeing told about to get some extra income and the methods listed in reddit's beermoney guide don't work well in germany.

From beermoney I already knew of paidsurveys (dot) net which lists a lot of research panels. The ones I have tried allowed me to make something between 10 and 50 bucks each month on a per panel base. However mostly none of the panels I have been working with in the past do allow german residents to take part on the surveys.

I came a long way researching for real panels that pay real money to german residents. There are a lot of german websites covering the topic of beeing a panelist. Only a few of them are honest to their readers.

I had to learn it the hard way. By registering to various panels that have been recommended by various websites in the survey niche I ended up beeing frustrated. It's the same with us based panels. Only a few panels are lucrative and you really have to know which in order to get a decent return on invest for your time.

After beeing active on some german forums I found a recommendation for this site and this is when the change happened. I tried registering with 3 of their top rated survey sites for german people (at that time this have been talkonlinepanel, casa doe and myiyo - they keep track of the monthly earnings and update their top 10 list every month or so - not sure about the interval but at least it's actively maintained)

So after taking part for one month I was able to get paid for the first time. I received a paypal transaction (20 €) from casa doe after dooing a lot of surveys. The next month I was ready to cash out myiyo. So I really was glad that I found a way to make some € during the evenings or nighttime when I was at home using my laptop.

The money you can make by answering surveys isn't much but I liked the surveys back in my home country. Tbh I just love the process of beeing asked about my opinion on different things and on a lot of occasions I find myself thinking about subjects I otherwise never would have thought about - which somehow enlarges my own horizon.

Maybe it's not so much about earning something but more of a engagement therapy. However I'm really glad that I found some german research panels that don't scam their users.