What set me on the app review journey?

Since Kindle Vella (another serial platform) ended, I entered a phase of re-publishing stuff. During that time, I also commissioned several audiobooks. That resulted in many hours of audio files to review. While fun, audio review doesn’t leave me with a lot of mental bandwidth for writing fiction.

Something similar happened during the pandemic, so as I did back then, I pivoted to nonfiction. Basically, I’ve spent the last 9-ish months researching various apps that promise money for doing random stuff.

Quick assessment:

Yes, it’s possible to make money. I’ve made well over $1000 in about six months.

The big but is that there’s actual strategy involved in the process. The second big but is that if you’re not careful, you could lose money.

The commercials are everywhere!

If you’ve ever played any kind of “free” mobile gaming, you’ve probably already seen hundreds of ads. Usually, a game will rotate three soul-sucking ads for a time then move on to others. The ones I’ve been seeing lately have been Freecash, Scrambly, Kalshi, Match Factory, and Atlas Earth.

What do you need to know before starting the journey (to make money by playing mobile games)?

• Doing some research can save you some heartaches and headaches. I got lucky in that I had a friend who had started doing this way before me and had some good suggestions for games to start with. Since that time though, I’ve also taken to asking AI for suggestions. The more you can tell the AI, the better your results will be.

• Keep track of everything. I naturally keep notes just because I am a curious soul, but they come in handy if you have to dispute something as well. Notes are great, but also take screenshots of specific leveling milestones and purchases.

• While you can make money for free, it’s a lot easier if you can invest small amounts of money at the beginning of each game. When we get to game evaluations, I’ll walk you through what I bought and if I’d recommend doing the same.

• Keep in mind that money isn’t the only thing you’re investing. A lot of this comes down to time. In many cases, the apps are very thinly disguised ad farms. They get paid by players buying junk but they also get paid by advertisers, so the more excuses they can come up with to shove an ad in your face, the more money they make.