Make Money as a Test Subject
Product developers initially use human substitutes like lab rats to research and develop their products. At some point however products meant for humans will be tested on actual humans to determine their real world effectivity and safety. This is especially true for personal care and medical products.
The Payout Can be Good
The payout can be very good for becoming a test subject. For malaria research for example there have been people who were paid between $5,000-$10,000 to become test subjects. Of course the payout is good because malaria is a dangerous disease and can be fatal. So people can be literally trading their life for money for being test subjects.
The compensation however can vary considerably. It depends for example on what the particular stage of the development process of the medicine is. The more unstable the development stage is the higher you are most likely to get compensated. The size of the focus group as well as the length of the study which can be weeks also determine your compensation.
Different Test Subjects for Different Requirements
Even if you do not mind the dangers of being a medical test subject and want to apply as one it is not that easy. There are many different medical products being developed for many kinds of medicine. They are looking for test subjects that most typifies a common human. They check for example one’s muscle density, blood condition and other things to determine if one represents the ideal test subject.
Do not despair however if you are not a physical match for the ideal test subject. There are also products being developed for specific human physical and medical conditions that you may be qualified for. Product developers may need old people, obese, diabetics, smokers, alcoholics and so on to test their products on.
Usually human trials are the last step in the formal approval process of products such as medicines and most of the harmful side effects of the product have been sorted out. There is however no guarantee on safety as the reason these products are being tested on real world conditions is to ensure that they are 100% safe and effective as the research says they are.
The Life of a Professional Test Subject
I dug up an old article from Wired dated 2007 about people who make an actual living by becoming professional drug test subjects. The title of the article is Drug Test Cowboys: The Secret World of Pharmaceutical Trial Subjects. These people treat their jobs as a business always searching for the best paying and least dangerous jobs as the tests can be fatal.
Helpful Sources
If you are still undeterred and want to earn as a test subject you can try these websites if you live in the US:
- researchmatch.org
- NIH Clinical Research
- ClinicalTrials.gov
Easier Ways To Be a Test Subject
If you want a less invasive way to become a test subject you could apply to become a Psychological Test Subject. In this kind of a job you are usually tested for your thoughts, behaviour and reflexes. It is not as scary as the name suggests but can be very demanding on your mental state as your memory skills, learning process, decision making process, and perception skills are tested.
Many organisations including scientific organisations and universities conduct such studies. For example if you live in the US the NASA Analog Missions Program may interest you. According to the page in their website they are conducting tests where test subjects are isolated for long periods at a time simulating conditions in space.
Read this title from CNBC titled NASA will pay you $19,000 to stay in bed for 2 months—but it sounds like a miserable experience to get an idea of what a NASA test subject does and for a short insight from a person who actually became a test subject for these NASA experiments.
If you still want a more easier way to earn as a test subject you can become a Food Tester. Food Companies regularly introduce new food products in the market but before they do they first use sample groups to test if people would like it enough to buy it. See this article from The Sun of UK for an exhaustive guide in becoming a paid food tester.
The title is How to get paid up to £50 to taste test food – and you can do it from home. Though this job is not physically or mentally taxing it still requires a lot of work as many of these food companies receive a lot of applicants and competition can be tough.
Conclusion
As can be seen there are various ways one can earn money from becoming a test subject depending on the degree of difficulty and danger. If one is serious about earning money one should treat it as a business and start actively soliciting companies that require test subjects. One should also ensure that one maintains their physical and mental health as this is their product.