Keep trying. I don't shop much or do paid trials, but I'm at almost $600 for about 15 months. Start with the opinion surveys. There are two a day, and you should have a reasonable chance of qualifying for at least one. They usually take 10-20 minutes and you virtually always get paid.
For the "free" paid offers -- that is the ones where you don't have to buy or sign up for anything, I find that you eventually get the knack of doing them and can get through one in 5 minutes. I click "no" for everything. If it says, I must look at one offer, I choose a contest, email newsletter or something like that -- never one that might generate telemarketing such as new cars, insurance quotes or financial things. On the next page, you'll have the offer that you chose, and you can say "no." With the silver and gold pages, keep clicking the "next page" thing at the bottom.
One reason that it may be taking you so long is that you get a LOT of pop-up offers doing some of these. You learn how to recognize them, so you can just hit the "x" at the top of the page and keep going.
Do you have an Ebay account? That is a really good paid offer. Also, look at the "Automatic Credits" thread and see what everyone is getting. If you're going to buy something, see if going through Sunshine Rewards is possible. Sometimes it may be indirect -- I bought my son's birthday present through SR at
Best Buy with in-store pickup. It was pretty much like just going to the store except I got $3.40 in my SR account!
Your computer does have to accept cookies, and the security level needs to be medium or lower.
