Earn Honey

Earn Honey is probably my favorite site to use right now in terms of how much money you can make in as little time. In the span of 3 days I earned enough HD (Honey Dollars) to redeem a $25 Amazon gift card. Earn Honey is extremely passive as well, which is always a plus. You must have a computer in order to use the website since you will be playing videos. You receive credit after the viewability meter turns either red or green. Your meter is basically telling Earn Honey that your window is in focus (or it's an active window) and it's able to detect you're playing the video ad. You receive a lot more points when it's able to detect that. I wouldn't have more than 2 windows running side by side since you won't receive many points if it can't detect an active window; not to mention it may slow down your computer by having too many videos playing at once). You are receiving points for the ads that play, and not the actual video content. For some reason Android & iOS phones/tablets aren't capable of playing the ads, but they'll play the videos just fine, though you wouldn't get any points. You can run the website on a Windows phone, tablet or PC. The plus side is that you can play videos on multiple devices. For example, I have videos running on both a laptop and desktop computer. I leave both computers on and running 24/7.

In addition to earning money passively, you can also boost your earnings by downloading apps, completing offers and taking surveys. In the past whenever I would download apps from Swag Bucks I would almost never receive credit. The same does not hold true for Earn Honey. I am credited for about 90% of the apps that I download, which makes me more like to download them. I generally only leave them open for about 1-2 minutes, then I delete them. Sometimes you'll have special tasks to complete in order to receive credit, such as reaching level 7 in game. Those apps typically pay a lot more. I'll also complete offers that don't require much time.

Supported devices: PC. I'm unsure if it runs on Mac or Linux, but I would suspect it would run on Mac.

Earn Honey has a referral system. Currently you will earn 10% of what your referrals earn for life. The only catch is that your referral earnings won't appear in your account until the 5th of the following month. So if you earned from referrals in September, you won't be credited until October 5th. Click to join Earn Honey

AppLike

AppLike is a new awesome app that I recently discovered and it is extremely passive. The premise behind the app is that you earn mCoins after running an app for the specified time. As you earn more and more coins, the longer it will take to earn coins. If you have old phones that you don't use, AppLike would be a good use for them. You can either play the games if it's a game you like, or you can just leave the screen on without interacting with the app, and you still receive points. Tip: your screen will automatically time out after up to 10 minutes and can not be changed within the settings. There is a neat app found in the Play Store called No Screen Off and it will disable the screen time out options. You'll be able to leave the app running and your screen won't turn off.

Once you have enough coins, you can request payment from Amazon and PayPal. I received both my payments so far the very next day. It took about 14k coins to get $2.50, but the coins add up. I currently have the app running on 2 different phones I don't use anymore.

Supported devices: Android

AppLike does have a referral system. For every new person you refer you will automatically earn 250 points. In addition, you'll earn 25% of what they earn and vice versa. Sign up with my referral link and you'll start off with 4,440 mCoins. Start earning today!

Perk TV

Perk TV is an app that pays you to watch videos. It's probably one of the most passive ways to earn money. I like to leave Perk TV running while I'm at work to accumulate points. You typically earn 2-3 points per video.

Perk does have other apps that you can earn points such as TV Show Pop Quiz and Scratch and Win, but I'm a fan of doing nothing while earning rewards. We're all busy, right?

You can cash out when you have as little as 500 Perk points, but those start at $0.25 and I prefer to save for the $5 at 5,000 points since you're paying more for the low value gift cards.

Referral system: Once your referral redeems their first reward, you can earn up to 500 points. Use my code bfedbae9 and get 50 bonus points! Join Perk TV today

Supported devices: Android, iOS

Check Points

Check Points is an app where you earn points by checking into locations, scanning products in the store, watching videos and completing offers.

I'm a fan of passive earnings so I like to just let the videos run on loop. The store check in's and product scans are easy, too.

The minimum reward you can redeem is a $1 Amazon gift code for 335 points. Other cards you can redeem for are Walmart, Target, Best Buy or even PayPal. You can also save up for higher dollar items such as a Playstation 4.

Referral system: Check Points referral system is somewhat limited. You do earn 100% of the points from anyone you refer, but only within a 2 week time frame. There is no limit on how many people you can refer, which is nice.

Join Check Points and start earning! Type in my referral code punchxcore and earn free points after registering.

Supported devices: Android, iOS

Swag Bucks

Swag Bucks is an all-in-one app/website to earn money. Earlier in the year I was earning $25/week by watching videos, taking surveys, downloading apps and completing various tasks. The currency of points are known as Swag Bucks.

The only passive way of earning Swag Bucks is through watching videos on the app. You can let the videos play while you go about your day. If you use SBTV on your computer, then you'll need to click on every video.

Once you reach 450 SB then you can redeem a $5 gift card. This is the only value gift card you receive a price break. You will receive a price break on a $25 gift card, but that can only be used once a month. Once you have enough SB to redeem, it usually takes up to a week to receive the code in your email. The Swag Store isn't only limited to gift cards, but that's what I prefer.

Referral system: Swag Bucks has a nice referral system in place. You'll earn 10% of your referrals earnings. Join Swag Bucks today

Supported devices: Android, iOS, PC

Points Panel

Points Panel is somewhat a passive earning app, but not really. The first 10 days you have to complete a diary answering questions about what you did every 30 minutes of your day. It's pretty monotonous, but at the end of your 10 days you'll receive 2500 points which is equivalent to $25 which is paid via PayPal.

Here comes the passive earnings part. In addition you'll receive 10 points per day for the first 15 days then 25 points per day the rest of the month. I was also told by support that you receive 3 points per day that you enable VPN, but it's not required.

Points Panel does not currently offer any referral incentives.

Supported devices: Android

Panel App

Panel App is a passive data collecting app that runs in the background on your phone. Given that most apps of this type generally pay pretty decent, Panel App doesn't pay nearly as well. I keep it installed because it's free money that requires zero effort. You earn 33 points daily and in addition to that, you'll receive what are called Place Surveys. Your location must be enabled as they are location based questions . The questions entail where you were at a specific time. You receive points equivalent to one day. 

The points system is 1,000 points are equal to $1. Points can be used to enter sweepstakes or redeem them towards guaranteed rewards such as PayPal or Amazon gift cards.

Referral system: You can have a maximum of 1,000 referrals and you will earn 10% of their earnings. With how low you earn per day referring people to the app will yield a lot more money faster. Check out Panel App

Supported platforms: Android and iOS

Gift Crush

Gift Crush is a passive data collecting app that you run in the background on your phone. The interface is appealing because it tells you how many days until you receive your next reward. Users are automatically given a $1 Amazon gift code one day after running the app. In my opinion, I think this is to ensure users that they do pay. After 30 days of app usage, you're eligible to receive $5.

Gift Crush does not have any referral incentives.

Supported devices: Android

App Optix

App Optix is a passive data collecting app that collects information on how your phone in used. In exchange for that data, you will earn 25 points per week by just letting the app run on your phone in the background. Once you reach 300 points you will automatically be sent an e-mail to redeem your gift card in the amount of $10. It takes 3 months to get enough points for the gift card, but it's free money, right?

App Optix does not have any referral incentives.

Supported devices: Android

Cross Media Panel (formerly Screenwise Trends Meter)

Cross Media Panel is another passive earning app that collects data on how you use your phone, what websites you visit, etc. It is formerly known as Screenwise Trends Panel. Initially when you sign up you will receive $2.00 per device you have installed. You can install the app on a tablet and smartphone (Android, iOS) as well as an extension on Google Chrome, Firefox or Internet Explorer (Google MUST be your default search engine).

After your initial registration period you can expect to earn $1.00 per week for each qualifying device. I am currently earning $3.00 per week with Cross Media Panel. Since the upgrade to Cross Media Panel, they have changed how you are paid your rewards. Previously you had to wait until you earned $25 to request payment. Now you can request it at $5, $10 and $25. You can request payment in the form of gift cards. There is a pretty good selection as far as gift cards go. Amazon, Target, Starbucks, Walmart, Best Buy and Chipotle just to name a few.

Cross Media Panel does not have any referral incentives. 

Supported devices: Android, iOS, PC

Media Insiders

Media Insiders is among one of my favorite apps as it's another app that falls under the passive earning category. Media Insiders are a company that collect data on the TV shows/movies you watch. You receive points per week by simply having the app installed and it detecting your TV activity. In addition, if it can detect when you're watching TV, it will send you TV surveys asking about the shows you watched. You may only receive 1 or 2 surveys a week, but they are worth 50 points. I typically receive 150-200 points per week through the app. Some weeks I might not receive any TV surveys, but that's pretty rare.

A breakdown of points earn for me usually entails of:
-50 points for TV activity
-50 points for MI activity
-50 points for having the app installed on 2 devices
-50 points for TV Show Survey

In addition, if you have TV Activity for 3 days a week for the entire month, you'll receive a bonus of 150 points. You will also receive a bonus after having the app installed for 13 weeks. I believe it's a loyalty bonus of 800 points.

Media Insiders does not have any referral incentives. 

Supported devices: Android

Mobile Performance/Experience Meter

Mobile Performance/Experience Meter is an app created by Embee to collect data on how you use your phone and the Internet. It's known as passive data collection which means you don't have to do a single thing in order to get points. You just leave it running on your phone and you make money. Pretty cool, right? I've been using this app for a couple years now and I've earned close to $200 in Amazon gift cards. Depending on your location and phone, you'll earn anywhere from 5-20 Meter points a day (I earn 20 on Performance Meter and 5 on Experience Meter). You need 500 points for $5, 1000 points for $10, etc. Along with receiving daily meter points, you'll also receive pop up surveys that are worth 150 points. These take a whopping two minutes of your time.

Referral system: Mobile Performance Meter has a limited referrals incentive system. You can only refer people to earn 300 points unless you download the Embee Invites app where you send invites via text message. Unfortunately you can't use a referral link in a blog to obtain referrals since the person you invite MUST click on the link sent in the text message to download from the Google Play Store.

Supported devices: Android