If you spend time with app community “old timers,” you may hear stories about the iPhone gold rush, a time when anyone with an iPhone and a dream could make a million dollars. Some people might tell you that back in the gold rush days, you didn’t even need to know how to program to make money with iPhone apps. Unfortunately, as many learned, the reality of getting rich quickly with apps was rarely as simple as it sounded.

While the initial App Store Gold Rush may be over, there’s no denying that there is money to make with the right apps.

We’ve created this list of money-making apps. These apps turn the tables on how to make money in the App Store. Instead of paying for the app, how about letting the app pay you? If your philosophy is “show me the money,” read through this brief i-Ch-Ching to cash in with iPhone apps.

Field Agent 
Developer: Northstar Partnering Group LLC
Price: free Download on the App Store
Field Agent is all about giving businesses strange marketing information very quickly. This is business information gathering, not creativity. Someone wants to know what a specific store charges for Pepperidge Farm Mint Milanos. You tell them and upload a picture. The field Agent looks at your GPS location to confirm you went, so no cheating. Then it pays you enough to buy the cookies. Or, do a few dozen a month—not too challenging a task—and make enough money to pay your AT&T bill.

Gigwalk 
Developer: Gigwalk Inc.
Price: Free Download on the App Store
The heart of Gigwalk is an ever-growing bank of primarily small businesses offering small amounts of money for easy tasks, such as snapping pictures of a storefront or a menu, writing a short review, etc. The Gigwalk app makes you aware of many open gigs, maps your gigs for you, tracks your progress, and pays you. If you’re already writing free reviews through a social media site, you’re giving it away. Take a walk, do a gig or two, upload your results, and watch your PayPal account grow! (For now, Gigs are only available to users in Southern California — from Santa Barbara to San Diego.)

CheckPoints #1 Rewards App And Free Barcode Scanner 
Developer: inMarket Media, LLC
Price: Free Download on the App Store

Whether you stopped at the corner market for a box of milk duds, dashed into the video game warehouse to sell back your first-generation Wii, or spent the entire afternoon running errands for the old lady across the street, CheckPoints wants to pay you for all that running around. Use this app to make money by scanning featured products with your iPhone. Collect rewards and turn them into gift cards, gadgets, donations to your favorite charity, or other fun prizes.

Fiverr Alerts 
Developer: Fiverr International Ltd.
Price: free Download on the App Store

This is an iPhone front end for the Fiverr.com website. It’s cash-for-task like Gigwalk, but the gigger names it, and every gig costs five dollars. Since anyone—and we mean anyone—can come up with the tasks, there is a good deal more variety. A semi-pro basketball coach offers the following: “I will have one of my basketball players dunk the ball then say what you want for 5 seconds for $5.”

More conventional fare is also common: “I will enhance your photo for $5,” for example, or “I will write any name on my body and send you a picture for $5.” What will you do for $5? Figure it out, let the world know, and then use this app to make some money.

This app is not currently available in the App Store.

WeReward: WeReward works through your Twitter, Facebook, or Foursquare account, so if you are sensitive about privacy, watch out. WeReward pays you for simple photos and check-ins. The basic deal is, that you go somewhere, you check in, thereby advertising the business through a social media outlet, and they give you money.

Do you go out every night? Check in to a few places on the way to the place where you want to end up and make some spare cash. Use that cash to go out more—or at least cover the tip. Repeat. Downside: you do become human spam—but human spam can go out more!

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