Gigwalk: Get Paid While You Walk!
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Edgar Zuniga Jr. Who said walking had to be boring (and unprofitable)? Now you can get paid to run simple errands while you're out and about. And it's all based on where you happen to be, whether you're inclined to take up a gig, and how much money you want to make. It's Gigwalk! The idea is so simple, yet so amazing. With the confluence of social media, explosive growth in smartphones, and people pressed for time, Gigwalk brings together people who need local information quickly and in-person with people who happen to be mulling about, interested in making a few bucks for a few minutes of easy work. (See also: Walk, Walk, Walk, Walk, Walk)
How Gigwalk Works and Common Tasks
Once you sign up as a Gigwalker, when you look at your app, you'll see a map of local gigs as you move. Some might happen to be on your route to work or the coffee shop. What the heck, why not pop in, complete a gig, and earn some money on the way? Some of the most common gigs are the following:
Menus/Daily Specials
Someone is considering dining out and would like you to take a snapshot of a menu. Who knows, maybe it's even the restaurant's competitor seeing what's being served up. Either way, it's saving the person a trip across town, and it might be worth $4-5 to them (and you as well).
What to Wear
Maybe someone's a bit self-conscious about whether they're going to be overdressed or underdressed at a new venue. They ask you to pop in and snap a shot of what people are wearing. As insipid as this might sound, I can think of many people who would utilize this option.
Is This Place Shady?
Someone's looking for a good restaurant or bar, but they're from out of town and want a snapshot or a quick written review in real time before they waste their time and head over.
How Bad's That Line for the Latest iPad?
Imagine showing up for the latest hot gadget only to find out they just sold out — or the line's wrapped around the building still. Save yourself the time! Just ask a Gigwalker to snap a shot of the line every couple hours and pop over when it dies down.
There is a bit of a meritocracy to the system. As a Gigwalker becomes more proficient and well-regarded via customer reviews, that person moves to the front of the line for new Gigwalks. Depending on the complexity of the task, some gigs can actually pay much more than just a few bucks. As odd as it sounds, there have been cases where a client wanted someone to try on an outfit and take a picture to confirm how it fit, or even more random tasks. As they increase in complexity and time required, gigs pay more.
Where Is Gigwalk Active?
According to the company, they are active with thousands of users in seven cities thus far (Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, and San Francisco), with plans for expansion everywhere. For that reason, I haven't been able to try the service out myself just yet. However, when Gigwalk is available in my area, I'd certainly like to try it out.
Gigwalk Complaints
Since I'm not a current user, I wanted to check out what some of the common Gigwalk complaints were around the web, but all I really came across were complaints that it's available only on the iPhone, and some people were annoyed over the meritocracy. Regarding the device issues, while the company is mum on their website, I have to imagine it's only a matter of time before the app is compatible with other smartphones; most other major apps go that direction. Next, there are complaints over having to earn "street cred" in order to start getting jobs approved more quickly. While it may be viewed as a downside to new entrants, if you think about it, it's also a competitive advantage to early adopters. It's only natural to want to protect customers from poor performers and scammers, so having to earn some street cred first seems like a reasonable constraint up front.
Once it expands to an area near me, I'm thinking of signing up on the other side for when I'm really busy and want to find something out quickly. If time is of the essence and I need to figure out why Google Maps is showing some traffic on my route, it would be nice to know if it's an accident being cleared or just a random traffic jam. Perhaps it could be used for a hot kids' toy around the holidays or even as a quasi-personal assistant for brief and low-risk tasks. There are surely millions of ideas none of us can contemplate at this time, but I suspect you'll be hearing a lot more about Gigwalk in the coming months. There are tons of ways to earn extra income, but this is one of the most convenient and innovative that I've ever come across!
Would you do gigs for cash with Gigwalk?
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Cool, social media is finally starting to sound interesting to me. Too bad it is probably going to take ages for a service like this to arrive in Brazil.
Wow. And we wonder why America is the fattest country in the world. Paying someone to get you a menu?? And people whine about the economy. Clearly if there's a market to pay someone to get you a menu while you sit on your butt, the economy can't be all that bad.
Wow, someone's in a bad mood! Honestly, if you can afford to go out to dinner, an extra $5 is not going to break the bank. There are enough good reasons why someone would want a menu before going out. Maybe a new place just opened up and you want an idea of how expensive the place is before you go. Maybe you or your dinner mates have special dietary needs (vegan, diabetic, kosher, gluten-free, etc) and you want to make sure that everyone will actually be able to eat something when you get there. Secondly, if this app does get taken up by a lot of individuals, I imagine the people paying will fall into two groups: those with more money than time and those who just think the idea is neat. The former will always exist in ANY economy. The latter are pretty likely to sign up to do gigs for others as well. If I pay you $5 to snap a photo of the menu at that new sushi place near your house, and you pay someone else $5 to snap a photo of the attire at the new bar near their house, you've lost $0 and made two people's lives a little easier. Or you could sit on your butt on the internet and whine about what other people choose to do with their spare time and pocket money.
Yikes, bitter. These are some of the ways that people are trying to jumpstart our sluggish economy and there are some people who can really benefit and might just get out a little more while looking to make a few extra bucks.
I have been signed up with Gigwalk since the beginning of the year in the Miami area. I've done one restaurant which happened to be in my neighborhood and I was going there for lunch. It was a fun way to earn $5. I'll look every once in a while to see if there is anything else going on in my neighborhood, but usually when there is it's snapped up pretty quickly. I'm not going to go out of my way to get Gigs, but I know there are some people who do. The last time I looked, which was today, most of the Gigs were to check to see if roads are closed or blocked. These pay $3. There are a few near me so I might do them. Payment is made via Paypal and I got my $5 within a week of submitting my Gig. I, personally, have not seen any Gigs described in this article where an individual is looking for quick information.
Have you checked out the Field Agent app?
I would love to do this...perfect for a soon-to-be unemployed mom of three teenagers! Alas, no iPhone.
i started doing these july 11. to earn street cred i did 10 for them. should have earned 200 street cred. (only 20 needed to start paying gigs). they say their customer (in this case MS bing) has 5 days to approve it. it's now july 20. very disappointed.
Wow, I'm definitely going to look into this. Thanks!
Lately I’ve noticed a trend in apps that offer rewards like Gigwalk such as Shop Kick , Check Rewards, and iPoll. I have to say although they’re all innovative iPoll has to be my favorite , the app just offers so many opportunities to earn rewards, I have already made a couple hundred bucks off of them.
http://www.ipoll.com/go1.html
Sadly for some, the whole business model has changed. It's no longer about an easy check-in or bit of photo taking when you're out someplace where you were going to be anyway. It's become a temp agency for mostly menial jobs like shelf stocking and price labeling--sometimes you have to know how to operate tow motors and other warehouse equipment. You can probably make more money this way if you're diligent, but you do have to be *approved* for gigs, just like a traditional temp agency. You don't find out in a timely manner if you are approved for a gig, so you do it basically at their pleasure. You may have to be ready at a moment's notice to drop whatever you're doing and hie yourself to the gig--you basically have to organize your life around Gigwalk, rather than it fitting seamlessly into yours.
In urban areas gigs often seem to be rather out of the way. In L.A. they are usually far from the Metro; in NYC they usually seem to be in out in the boroughs.
Interesting! I have done quite a few mystery shopping gigs and one of the things that is frustrating is all the paperwork that needs to be filled out. Since this is using a smart phone does that mean, they don't have to do 5 pages of answers for a simple oil change? I would be interested in that. All that paperwork and printer ink was not worth the $11 for the oil change (plus they paid for the oil change).
saw on ABC news with Diane Sawyer and it sounds like a good way to make extra cash.
I just signed up three days ago in NYC. There are thousands of places here to Gigwalk, so it can be a full time job here. Once you complete two gigs, they promote you to a 5-gig max and depending on the client, once your submission is approved, you can do 5 more, and you can get the payment to Paypal within hours, and to your bank from Paypal in 2-3 days, so if you're not lazy, it can be well-paying.