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Can you really get paid to be a virtual friend? The answer is yes. There are plenty of sites out there with people who are lonely or perhaps unable to leave their house that are looking for companionship. If you are comfortable talking with strangers, then getting paid to be a virtual friend may be right for you.
What is a virtual friend?
Being a virtual friend means being friends with someone solely through the internet. Who are these people looking for virtual friends? They could be people who are lonely and find it difficult to meet people in their day to day lives. They could be people who are unable to leave the house and looking for companionship. Or they may be simply just looking for a friend to talk to online. Side note, these sites below are all for platonic friendships meaning there are no romantic or illegal activities with these sites. As always if you’re uncomfortable about a situation, leave and report it.
If you are great chatting and befriending people, then sites will pay you to be someone’s virtual friend. Ready to jump in?
How can you get paid to be a virtual friend?
There are tons of websites online that help connect people with virtual friends and will pay you to become one. Pay varies through the different websites, but most pay out $20-30 per hour, but can be more. The great part is that you can set your schedule, and the more you work the more money you’ll make! If you were averaging 15 hours per week, you could be making at least $1,000 every month- not bad for talking to people.
As with most businesses, you’ll have to build up your reputation by starting on the lower end of the spectrum and building good relationships with your virtual friends. Those relationships can blossom into recommendations and increased prices. Before you set your price, check out the prices of those on the site to make sure you’re in the ball park.
General Overview
1. Create a profile
The first step to becoming a virtual friend will be to sign up on one of the websites listed below or one you find on the internet (do a little research to make sure they are legitimate). When you sign up, you’ll set up a profile that gives a basic overview of you, without giving away any sensitive information. It’s important to make sure that your profile reflects who you are, so that when you are matched with virtual friends you can make genuine connections with people.
2. Make your profile stand out
On the same theme of making your profile an honest reflection of yourself, it’s important to list things about yourself that will separate make your profile standout. Have any interesting facts about yourself? Any cool interests like movie genres, books, sports, traveling? Including those will help others identify potential virtual friend opportunities.
3. Take any quizzes or tests offered
Some sites will even have you take a personality quiz or test to better assess your personality type as well as how you communicate. Be honest on these so that you can be matched with people who will communicate best with you. Virtual friendships are successful when both parties feel like they had successful, meaningful interactions. The results of these quizzes and tests can help with those matches being successful.
Some of the tests will include just having a conversation with people, where you’ll talk to someone who works for the site so they can better understand your communication style. Whatever the quiz or test, don’t stress about it. Just be yourself and have fun!
4. Add your payment details
Most of these sites will pay you through PayPal, which basically means they will send you money to your PayPal account that you can then send to your own bank account. PayPal can be a recommended way to exchange funds, so you don’t give out any bank information. Set up a PayPal account here.
5. Wait for friendship requests to roll in
After you’ve completed your profile and any associated quizzes or tests, the website will begin working to match you with potential virtual friends. If someone is interested in talking to you then they will reach out to you through the website and you can choose to begin a virtual friendship. Most of the websites will offer you different mediums to use for communication, so choose the ones that you are most comfortable with.
Which sites can you get paid to be a virtual friend on?
There are tons of websites that will connect you with potential virtual friends. As always, do you research to verify the site is legitimate and never give out any personal, sensitive information.
1. Rent A Local Friend
Rent a Local Friend is a website that has almost 1,500 online friends from over 300 cities in the world. The website offers a variety of services including being a remote concierge, where the virtual friend provides exclusive tips and tricks for a destination- all done virtually. So, if you live in a place people like to travel you could work as a remote concierge telling people what to do and visit in your city.
Rent a Local Friend also offers local friendship, where people can actually meet up in person and go do things like eat at a local restaurant or go to a favorite local shop. And finally, you can sign up to solely be a virtual friend, where you chat with people all online.
2. Rent a Cyber Friend
Rent a Cyber Friend is a meeting platform that is based on the concept of the pen pal. You can earn money through the site by offering your time at your own chosen rate. You create a profile and add information about yourself, so that others can choose to “rent you”. When setting up your profile, you can specify your preferences as well as the services you offer.
If you have knowledge or expertise in an area, you can offer this expertise for sale- whether it be fixing something, doing a craft, providing knowledge on a certain topic. You can simply sign up to be a virtual friend, to just have a conversation or hang out with someone.
3. FriendPC
FriendPC offers virtual friendship connections to those seeking it. Through FriendPC you can sign up to be a life coach, where you offer people advice. You can also sign up to be a virtual gamer, where you can connect with people while playing video games. This can be a popular and stress-free way to connect with people online if you already love to play video games. And finally, you can sign up to just be a virtual friend, where you communicate and chat virtually with your new friend.
4. Fiverr
Fiverr is a freelance site where people can offer a variety of services from being a virtual assistant to creating book covers to being a virtual friend. To sign up on Fiverr, you create a profile that includes the services you are offering along with your rate. People interested in being your virtual friend will contact you and if you are interested you can accept the friendship.
5. Freelancer
Freelancer is similar to Fiverr in that it is a freelance website. Sign up and create an online profile that details the virtual friendship services you are offering and wait for people to contact you. Both Fiverr and Freelancer have the perks of being larger, more well-known websites that can help you if you have questions about payments or services.
6. RentAFriend
RentAFriend is a website that lets someone rent a friend from all over the world. This is website actually entails the possibility of meeting up, so make sure that this is something you’re comfortable with. RentAFriend enlists people to hang out, go to a movie or restaurant, or show people around a new town.
If you are looking to be an online friend only, specify this is in your profile.
Are there risks?
Safety first
Being a virtual friend should be a platonic relationship, which means no romantic elements or illegal activities. If you aren’t comfortable with how a virtual friendship is going, then remove yourself from the situation and report it to the site if needed.
Never reveal any personal or sensitive information like your home address, social security number, bank account information, etc. Even though you may be a virtual friend to someone, you may not really know who is on the other end of the friendship and they may abuse any sensitive information you provide.
Make sure your payments are secure
Check out reviews for the different virtual friendship platforms to validate that they are legitimate and secure. Check out the site’s terms and conditions or reach out to their contact department if you have questions.
Verify the sites are secure, meaning they have a lock symbol next to the web address. Use PayPal when possible to avoid giving out any bank information.
Should You Get Paid to Be a Virtual Friend?
Getting paid to be a virtual friend can be a great way to bring in some extra income. You can set your own hours and therefore set your own earning potential. Read through the site information above to verify if being a virtual friend is right for you and get started making friends and money.