Fitbit profit? Seven ways to earn money with your fitness tracker.
I'm not a pro athlete, but I get paid to work out. I keep my Fitbit聽on me at all times, logging all of the steps, workouts, calories聽that slowly but surely earn me a little extra cash on the side.
Wait. Full stop,聽you say.聽Your fitness tracker is earning聽extra cash? Is that actually a real thing that exists? Can I get a piece of that action?
Yes, yes, and OH YES YOU CAN.
There's a whole host of websites and apps out there that connect to fitness trackers like Fitbit and Jawbone, along with other tracking services you may use like RunKeeper or your Withings scale, and the more聽you聽steps you take, the more food you track, the more health data you feed them, the more points you earn to cash in for things like gift cards.
Achievemint
Hook up your聽tracking devices, apps and social accounts up to聽聽to聽put your healthy habits to work earning points towards a $50 check. Walking works out to 1 point for every 125 steps on average, but it's on a sliding scale so walking more earns more points per step, and less works out to less. My average of 6,400-6,600 steps on weekdays when I don't go for a run works out to 51-53 points per day.聽Although聽it聽can take awhile to accumulate the 50,000 points required for a payout, it's hard to argue when聽annoying your friends with tweets about your聽lunch聽is passively adding to your total points. Also, if you use both聽Fitbit and MyFitnessPal,聽connect them to double dip on points when you weigh in.
Achievemint currently syncs with 38 apps:
- 101 Pregnancy Safety Tips Free
- ActiveBeats
- AllAboutMe
- AnyTimer Pill Refill Reminder
- BodyMedia FIT
- Cessation Nation
- CBT Diary
- DailyMile
- Depression CBT Self-Help Guide
- Excel at Life
- EyeDROPS
- FitBit
- FitBug
- Garmin
- Jawbone UP
- Lifely
- MapMyFitness
- MapMyHike
- MapMyRide
- MapMyRun
- MapMyWalk
- Misfit Wearables
- Moves
- MyFitnessPal
- Personal Workout
- Quit Smoking Assistant
- RunDouble C25K
- RunKeeper
- Sleepy
- SpotMole
- Stop Panic and Anxiety Self-Help
- Strava
- SweetBeat
- Water Habit
- Weight Snap
- Withings
- Your Medicine 1-2-3
That's a pretty intense list, eh?
There's currently a waiting list to sign up, existing users who didn't previously connect Facebook and Instagram no longer have the option, and fans have reported payout delays which Achievemint's correspondence indicates is due to being overwhelmed by demand.聽If there's a catch here, it's that Achievemint appears to be聽a victim of its own success. Put yourself on the waiting list and be patient.
Higi
Like Achievemint,聽聽syncs with your fitness apps and trackers to earn points, which you can then cash in for healthy rewards, mostly discounts like $30 off $65 shoes at Bucketfeet or $35 off $75 fitness apparel at 2XU. So it's kind of like Brad's Deals, if we made you go for a run before letting you access the deal.
You can earn extra points by聽stopping at a Higi Station, located in some retail pharmacies, to track your weight, BMI, pulse blood pressure. Although Higi Stations are getting pretty common, they are聽not聽everywhere. But don't let that stop you - using a station isn't required.
Higi connects to 15 apps:
- BodyMedia
- Endomondo
- Fitbit
- Foursquare
- Garmin
- Jawbone UP
- MapMyFitness
- Misfit
- Moves
- Nike+
- Omron
- RunKeeper
- Strava
- Striiv
- Withings
Pact
If聽you find the idea of losing money to be a good motivator, then you'll like using聽聽to track and encourage your fitness goals. The tagline here is "Earn real cash for living healthily, paid by the members who don't!"
The idea is that you place聽a bet, say $20, that you will meet your fitness goals for the week. If you don't do it, you're out $20. But if you do, then you'll get your $20 back, plus a piece of the pie from everyone who did not. The site claims that rewards typically range from $0.30 to $5 per week.
Pact syncs with:
- Fitbit
- Jawbone UP
- MapMyFitness
- Moves
- MyFitnessPal
- RunKeeper
Walgreens Balance Rewards
If you frequent your neighborhood Walgreens at all, you probably already have a聽account. Connect your Fitbit or other fitness tracker to your account from your Dashboard to earn points for your daily fitness activities. 5000 points聽is worth a $5 store coupon.
And yes, it is crazy hard to find the page where you sync up your apps, so I'm including a shortcut. Log in, then go here:聽
Walgreens Balance Rewards syncs with:
- Atari Fit
- BodyMedia FIT
- Fitbit
- GenieMD
- Glow
- HoMedics
- iHealth
- Jawbone UP
- Jivayu BP Coach
- The Johnson & Johnson Official 7 Minute Workout App
- LifeTrak
- Lose It!
- MapMyFitness
- Misfit
- MyFitnessPal
- Omron
- OneCare
- Qardio Arm
- RunKeeper
- Sqord
- Walgreens Activity Tracker
- WebMD
- Withings
Bounts
聽is聽a UK聽site sponsored by Oxford University and the European Space Agency, but it's available in聽several countries including the USA. You then use your points to buy credits, and use credits聽for stuff in the rewards shop. Because it's so UK-centric, users based in the US have pretty limited options for cashing out since most rewards are for UK vendors, but the iTunes gift cards should work on both sides of the Atlantic, and Best Western seems likely to work as well. Just remember聽that聽you can't use聽Amazon.co.uk gift cards at Amazon.com. Silly, but true, and a painful mistake to make.
One of the more interesting things you can do with your credits is buy a spin on a wheel to win聽rewards or "money can't buy experiences", or聽you could聽just lose all your points. Premium members earn points faster and have access to special Premium rewards that free users can't get.
One thing to note about Bounts is that they make you work for your points. For example, you won't get anything out of a Fitbit unless you log more than 7,000 steps.
Bounts syncs with 10 apps and trackers:
- Fitbit
- Jawbone UP
- LifeFitness
- MapMyFitness
- Misfit
- Moves
- Mywellness
- MyZone
- RunKeeper
- Strava
FitStudio
If you're a big fan of Sears and Kmart, then聽聽is made for you. Connect your fitness accounts聽to your Shop Your Way account and earn points聽you can spend at Sears.com or Kmart.com.
The catch to FitStudio is that it's a high maintenance program, requiring a lot of attention. It's really tough to accumulate points that amount to anything truly meaningful since points expire and drop off your total. I have it connected to my Fitbit, RunKeeper and MyFitnessPal, and I have 5800 points (worth $5.80). I got 5,000聽of those for logging in today so I could聽get the list of connecting apps. So unless you live and breathe Sears, I'd just set it up and not worry about it,聽and maybe you'll get $5 off something sometime.
FitStudio syncs with 8 apps:
- BodyMedia
- Fitbit
- Jawbone UP
- MapMyFitness
- Moves
- MyFitnessPal
- Nike+
- RunKeeper
- Withings
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