Can you earn rewards just by surfing the internet? Take a look at my Gener8 review to see if it really is a safe way to earn and why although it’s good in theory, it does come with a few frustrations.
Gener8
One of my favourite ways to make money is passively… by that, I mean doing as little as possible. I recently joined Honeygain, which pays you when you use your internet. And although it’s a simple enough process, it’s not a big payer. So, I’ve had to look at other money-making ways. This time, I’m taking a look at ads.
Love them or hate them ads have become a necessary part of life. It’s how many companies and publications can cover their costs. For example, I have ads on my site. Not because I like them but because I have to pay Lyrical Host monthly to host my content. It’s not cheap, so having ads helps to cover the cost.
If you’re a TV fan, you may have even seen a company called Gener8 pitch to investors on Dragons’ Den, clearly impressing the panel and securing an investment of £60,000. So today, I’m going to share with you my experience.
What is Gener8?
Simply put, Gener8 is an ads company. They will show you adverts when you browse the internet. But instead of keeping all of the advertising revenue themselves, they’ll pass some of it back to you.
Is it safe?
This is a strange one, as Gener8 actually works a little differently from other online services. Whereas many companies are keen to track your internet usage, their extension can stop this tracking from happening.
Of course, adding any kind of extension to your computer has to come with some trust. And you can never be 100% sure what a company does with your data, no matter what they say. *cough* Facebook *cough*. But after three years of using Gener8, I’ve not had any issues. However, I always recommend that keep all your antivirus software up-to-date.
Gener8 Ads Limited is registered in England and Wales under company number 10903332 and has a registered office at 70 Wilson Street, London, EC2A 2DB.
Also worth reading
Find out how you can make money from searching the internet.
How does Gener8 make money?
When you join Gener8, you let them know your likes and interests. Then, Gener8 will show you ads from companies that fit your preferences. In turn, these companies will give Gener8 money. It’s claimed that you’ll earn 80% of this income, whilst Gener8 will take a 20% cut.
Gener8 also earns income through referrals. In the marketplace, you’ll notice points can be traded for product trials. If you sign-up for these, Gener8 will earn a small fee.
How do I use Gener8?
All you need to do is sign up and download an extension to your web browser – either Firefox or Chrome. And each time you see a Gener8 advert, you earn points. Once you earn enough points, you can exchange them for rewards from the Gener8 marketplace.
But there are a few other steps you can take if you want to boost your earnings.
Gener8 browser
If you don’t fancy adding an extension to your current web browser, you could download Gener8’s very own browser. It’s very similar to Firefox, although I found it a little slower. In the top right of the browser, it will tell you how many trackers ads have been blocked.
However, it doesn’t appear that you’ll earn any more points using this browser compared to using the extension on Firefox or Chrome.
Gener8 app
Available for both Apple and Android, you can connect the Gener8 app to your chosen mobile browser. It will take less than a minute to do and you can start to earn points when you’re out and about.
Receipt Radar
You may like to share with Gener8 the purchases that you make in exchange for points. But to do this, you will need to link your email address and allow Gener8 access to read these emails.
Gener8 referral
You can refer your friends and family by sending them your unique code. You’ll earn 50 points when your first friend joins and 10 points for every friend after that.
Reviews
Leave a review on Google and follow Gener8 on social media, send them a screenshot and they’ll reward you with some bonus points.
How much are Gener8 points worth?
Points aren’t currently set with an exact value. But if you use Amazon vouchers as a comparable value, they work out at:
- 10 points = £1
- 50 points = £5
- 100 points = £10
The Gener8 Marketplace – what’s available?
The most common reward you’ll see on the marketplace are “exclusive rewards”. These will give you discounts or free trials of services. They usually cost just five points.
Next comes gift cards. They are for stores like Amazon, Uber, Just Eat, Greegs and Tesco. A £10 gift card, depending on the shop, will cost between 100 and 150 points.
Finally, there are auctions. These are for more expensive items like wireless earbuds, Amazon Fire TV Sticks, Google Chromecasts, Google Nest Minis, and Amazon Echo dots and game consoles.
I have seen the winning bidder pay over 40,000 points for a brand-new PS5.
The good
In theory, this is a very easy way to earn with little effort. Signing up and downloading the extension is easy, even if you aren’t technically minded.
The extension is fairly customisable. It gives you the option not to show ads on certain pages. So, if you find that Gener8 is causing issues when you visit a certain site, you can just turn it off.
You can also install Gener8 Tabs. This extension allows you to see a new advert whenever you open a new tab on your browser.
The bad
One of the things that put me off is the fact you need to add an extension to your browser. The more extensions you have, the slower your browser becomes and the longer it takes to surf the internet.
I used both a Mac (around two years old) and a Dell laptop (around ten years old). With the extension added, my Mac worked fine, but my Dell slowed down tremendously when browsing sites with a lot of adverts.
The claimed pay seems fairly good. The average user should earn 5-10 points per day. Needing 100 points to earn £9.99, means most of us would earn between £15-£30 per month.
But after using the extension for several months, 5-10 points per day seemed a little too optimistic. I had earned 140 points – an average of 2-3 per day.
And then to the marketplace. Trading your points can be quite difficult. Gift cards have limited availability. For example, there may only be 30 cards available every few days. This makes them very difficult to get hold of as everybody else is trying. And the auctions for one-off items tend to go for well over 3,000 points, making them out of reach for casual users.
And the “exclusive rewards” are anything but. These offers are available anywhere, so it’s a waste to swap your points for them.
My Gener8 review conclusion
Do you know, I can live with only earning between £5 – £10 per month from this site? After all, it takes hardly any effort and extra income is always welcome.
But it is frustrating that gifts are still very limited, even though the site has been running for a few years. I have been trying desperately to get my hands on a £3 Amazon gift card. And although it says there are 180 available, they go within a second. I’ve got quite a few points now and they aren’t worth anything if I can’t cash them in.
And another word of warning… if you have an older computer that struggles to load internet pages at the best of times, this isn’t an extension that you’ll get along with.
If you want to try it yourself, press the button below. We will be rewarded with ten tokens after you have earned your first one.
If my Gener8 Ads review hasn’t convinced you, why not look at other ways to make money on the side or see some other passive income ideas?
FAQs
Which sites are worth visiting for more points?
To earn more points with Gener8, you need to visit sites with lots of ads. I strongly recommend the Daily Mail and Soccerway.
Is it only available in the UK?
No, Gener8 can be used anywhere in the world. However, many of the rewards are specifically for the UK.
Ian
Wednesday 12th of July 2023
This a completly useless system where they let you cash in a giftcard when you first join, so the company looks great and then they buy your good review!! Its now 2023 and they have been in business 5 years, worth over £10 million and still they say they are in beta and funding the giftcards themselves. I have over 1000 points and can not cash them in for the life of me. I tried again today and they had 180 Amazon giftcards for over 500,000 people to fight over. I don't know how these people are still allowed to be in business. People have become that desperate to cash in there points, they are paying 2000 points for a £15 giftcard in there auctions.... thats £200 worth of points for a £15 giftcard, its digusting they are getting away with this. I just hope the people that are being bought to give good reviews, eventually retract them and give honest reviews when they finally realise what this company is doing.
Mo
Wednesday 16th of February 2022
It's useless. I've followed them since 2 years ago. You sell your data for nothing. It's almost impossible to buy something from their markplace using your collected points, but they get money form selling your data to others. They used to have a live chat on their website, but they have removed it recently because of the high number of unhappy users. I deleted my account in gener8.
Elliboo
Monday 4th of October 2021
Utterly useless currently Worked for first two weeks, traded 50 points each week for £5 at sainsburys then amazon, but last 3 weeks cant get a voucher as they sell out within a second. I calculated last week they had 499 vouchers available worth £2,500 at Argos, Sainsburys, Amazon, Netflix, Spotify & Audiable, for 30,000 users?????? So clearly the more they sign up the less chance you have of spending your points, I now have 187 points but no way to spend them Also they cap you earning more than 10 points in a day, and your only allowed to buy one voucher every 8 days! They are a serious JOKE! They say they are paying us out of their own pockets, that they are still not earning a revenue, they are still using this as a business model 3 years on!!! They state they will start real trading, once they get 50 thousand users..... but with no assurances of how much we can earn joining is pointless. Why cant they be transparent instead of treating us like fools dangling a carrot that we cant see how big it is or how fresh it is. Hopefully another company will out do them Great idea, but as yet only a benefit to the company attaining customers by paying them a few pounds for all our surfing data!
stephen brackstone
Saturday 12th of June 2021
This is not a great system, you get point but nothing to spend them on. They are even buying reviews on Trust Pilot by giving you 50 points (worth £5) to give a 5 star review. This makes all 5 star review point less and bias. It would be OK if there was the occasional gift card to get, but along with this the server does not work on a lot of secure sites. Not great on Paypal, Natwest link not working properly and ebay shopping cart was not working. Makes you then think about how good the security is seeing as the pages do not load properly is your data really secure enough to use this server with no actual rewards. OK its BETA at the moment but you are then the test people with your security and for no rewards. Deleted account
Elliboo
Monday 4th of October 2021
@stephen brackstone, Yeh I was also offered 50 points I was really shocked that they offered points to do a review I didnt give a 5 star review and gave them 4 as I pointed out the issue with not being able to spend. but I suspect most people like me felt they should give at least 4 points if we were been given 50 points.. Ive not deleted yet, holding out to see what happens once they reach 50k users it might become good, but I suspect it will be useless.
jpxsat
Wednesday 26th of May 2021
I find your review negative. You are not even mentioning that at this time, Gener8 is explicitely mentioning they're still in Beta stage. Also, I mean, you earn something by just evolving in the web. What you can get from there, is adding something you didn't have! For me, that's awesome and it's working great so far. Also, I'm running the Gener8 browser on a Macbook pro 2012 - zero struggles and very fast.
Elliboo
Monday 4th of October 2021
@jpxsat, Its funny how people like you can be so supportive of capitalists!???? They have been running for 3 years now They can sell our surfing data for alot of money, currently they have 30 thousand of us. They need to be transparent which they are not being AT ALL!! The fact is if we earn vouchers we cant spend then what is this worth to us? How is this working great and awesome for you lol You can get a fast browser easily, and ones who arnt spying on you which gener8 are doing Why are you so happy to be used for nothing?
Money Saver Pete
Wednesday 26th of May 2021
Thanks for your opinion. Gener8 has been in its Beta stage for quite some time now. But after 2 years, I have built up quite a number of points which I struggle to swap for vouchers. I’m only really earning if I can have something tangible back. And as I said, it works fine on my Mac but struggles on my older Dell.