Survival Guide to Online Surveys

Just wanted to write a quick post to let everyone know that I will be on vacation from Nov. 4th through the 16th. Didn’t want any of you to think that I had disappeared, never to return. Not gone, just taking a much needed vacation for a couple of weeks. I’ll be back with all of the survey news, rested and full of ideas. If you have a suggestion for a survey site for me to review, send me an email or leave a comment and I’ll start working on it just as soon as I get back.

Customer service questions will be getting an automated response from me until then as well. But don’t worry, I’ll get to all of the questions and concerns starting on the 17th.

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I’ve gotten this email from Facebook 3 or 4 times a day for the last few days.

Most people know not to open an attachment in an email, but this phishing scam asks that you click on a link. And the graphics are done so well that Facebook users may mistake this email as being a legimate FB message. It even had facebook.com as its domain. Wow, these people are getting slick! I’m on my computer all day every day, so I knew better that to click on this link, but I have a friend who is relatively new to the Facebook process who fell for this scam.

In an article from SG Magazine (click here for the full article), you’ll find that the dangers are two-fold. When you click on the link, your passwords will be stolen. However, the more serious threat takes place when you are asked to download the “update tool”. Doing so will infect your computer or phone with the Zeus Trojan which will steal your bank account information. My friend ended up having to close her bank account and open a new one.

Beware! These criminals are getting better and better at making these phishing emails look legitimate.

Happy Halloween everybody! Here’s a scary video to get you in the spirit. Be sure the volume is turned up so you can really hear the end of it.

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Cindy sent this email regarding SurveyScout:

My name is Cindy and I am writing to ask if you all could do a review on Survey Scout. I joined them a
few years back and I happened to forget my password and I wrote to them asking them to send it to me so that i could log in.  I asked them so many times and I’m not getting any response from them. They are also supposed to be a free survey site. Why are they saying now that they want $39.95 to join? I don’t think that is right. Is there any way that you all could look into that for me?

I’m not sure what the problem with Cindy’s account is, but in my opinion, it’s probably for the best that she can’t log back in. Survey Scout is indeed a pay to join survey site that I wrote about in Dec. 08 (click here for the review). As I said, I was able to get my money back after I realized that I had just paid for a list that I could get for free at Yourfreesurveys. I also suggested taking a look at the RipoffReport to see all of the complaints. There are even more now. One guy says that he tried to get his refund for a couple of months only to be put off by customer service. Unfortunately for him, he was put off until the refund time period expired and he never got his money back.

My advice to Cindy is to forget about SurveyScout. It’s not worth the time or the effort to try to get resolution from them.

Here’s a new video for you. If I had this, I would take the stairs for sure!

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Jim sent an email asking what I know about SafeCount Community.(from Jim’s email):

Do you know anything about them? I have over 86,000 points now. They have not answered email, phone inquiries, or forum questions for at least nine months now, not only me but everyone. They took “Forums” off of the menu so you have to find it on their home page. I keep trying to bait them on the forums but no reply.

I did a review back in April and at the time I wasn’t all that impressed, as is the case with most “sweepstakes only” survey sites.  The person who asked for the review had won $100 which at least let us know that it was legitimate and it was encouraging to know that people did win.

However, as Jim explains, there does seem to be a problem. I visited the forum and found some very unhappy campers who had not received any response from customer service for many months. Not only that, but many people were saying that points weren’t being credited either.

It is important to note that no matter how many points you have, it won’t make a difference in terms of compensation. This is a sweepstakes only site, so the points that you accumulate only apply to the number of times you are entered for a chance to win. Points don’t equal cash with SafeCount. From the website:

Each point you earn equals an entry into a drawing for a number of prizes including a $1,000 monthly grand prize.  There will be many drawings and the best thing is that there is at least one every day.  Keep getting those points as there is always a chance to win.  Currently, there are the following drawings and the prize associated with each of them.

Daily Drawings - $100 per day
Monthly Drawings - $1000 per month
We are also always adding new drawings so keep your eyes open!

I’ll be taking this one off of my list! It’s bad enough that you don’t earn money for your points, but that is the nature of a ”sweepstakes only” site . However, there is absolutely no excuse for crappy customer service.

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Mark, at Yourfreesurveys has introduced a new survey site called YFSResearch. In response to those of you who only want paid surveys, YFSResearch will fill that bill. This is strictly a research panel, which means that no offers or other promotions will be available as you will receive only surveys that pay for your time.

Once you sign up, there will be 6 profile surveys to complete at your leisure: basic, employment, health and wellness, auto, technology and travel and leisure. By filling out these surveys, your chances of receiving  more surveys will increase. Payout is a low $10, and can be redeemed by Amazon gift card ($10), Dining Dough ($25 restaurant gift card), Payoneer ($10 prepaid debit card), Amazon UK (5 pounds), all of which can redeemed when your account reaches $10. Hopefully they will provide Paypal as an option in the future, but don’t mind using the Amazon gift option. From the website:

You will be awarded with between $.10 and $20. The reward amount for each individual survey will be stipulated in the email invitation or on the website. You must complete the survey in full to receive the reward amount. Once you have earned the minimum amount of rewards required to make a redemption you may access the ‘Rewards’ area of the site. Select the desired redemption option from those listed on the site and follow the instructions given to process your reward.

Give YFSResearch a try! Looks good to me so far.

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Someone posted a link on the forum last week to Survey Downline, with the following information:

SurveyDownline is operated by Precision Sample, LLC. Founded in 2009, Precision Sample’s goal is to make it easier, faster and cheaper for all companies and organizations to connect with their current and prospective customers to improve their products, services and offerings.

SurveyDownlineis a 100% free service where residents of The United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia can earn cash by taking paid surveys.SurveyDownline is different than other paid survey sites because we view our relationship as a partnership. Without you, our member who participates in our surveys we’d have no business at all. At other sites you may receive an entry into a sweepstakes or a small cash reward that only represents a fraction of the income generated. We share up to 50% of the money we earn with our members - a true partnership!

Referral
Earn 10% for each survey completed by friends you referred and earn 5% for each survey completed by friends your friends referred.
Reward
complete surveys, sign up with survey panel and refer fiends, paid cash.Every time you complete a survey we pay you 35% of the revenue.For each survey you complete you will be awarded with between $.10 and $20.

Payment :
check payout very low 20$

As you can see, Survey Downline is a very new survey site. The link was a referral link, which I removed, but I did join so that I could tell you what I found out.

Although it looks legitimate, I couldn’t find a FAQ section on the website. It appears that you have to get to the $20 payout in order to find out their payment options. And while there are a few real surveys (OTX) most of what is available are offers. Unless you have a website or tons of friends to get referrals (the downline) it may take a while to see your rewards.

I’ll keep you posted!

Here’s a funny video that shows why some women stay single:

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Sometimes you get things right, sometimes you don’t. In the case of GlobalNet Panel, I got it wrong. In my review in the spring of 2008, I wrote, “It hasn’t been around long, but I think Globalnet Panel may be a keeper”. Well, not only is it not a keeper, but it has completely disappeared. I had forgotten about it since I haven’t gotten an email from them in quite some time. So when I tried to login, I kept ending up at the Ipsos-i-say website. I guess it could be worse, I had only earned about $7, so it doesn’t hurt as badly as it would have if I had made it to $20.

You may notice that we’ve added a Twitter icon to the sidebar (It’s the cute little blue bird). Mark and I will be posting updates on Twitter for any of you who are interested. If you click the “join now” you will be able to keep up with new surveys, etc., which will be great for those who may not get emails from us because of issues with yahoo and att.net.

Hey, if Ashton Kutcher can be on Twitter, why can’t I?? Maybe we will even beat his 3 million + follower totals!

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Sometimes when I join a new survey site, all signs point to a good experience with them. But as you know, only time will tell if it turns out to be worth my time. Ronald asked that I take a second look at FocusPointe Global and expressed his disappointment so far:

Heath- Any thoughts on these Guys? I have diligently responded to them at least 2-3 x per month  and have been with them since  Jan/09. Result NADA, zilch, zippo. Not one dime nor able to “complete” one survey. Called their offices in Phili and was told to keep trying I obviously didn’t meet their specific “profile” requirements per each survey- to which I responded “then send me Surveys where I would be more likely to meet their profile requirements….” answer “Keep trying”

Your thoughts please 

Well, I have to admit I agree with Ronald that it hasn’t lived up to my expectations either. I earned $10 in the beginning (and was paid) but I have only gotten a couple of surveys a month since then and haven’t qualified for them. I understand that I won’t qualify for every survey. Thinking that you will only leads to disappointment in the online paid survey world. But it seems to me that a great many of their surveys are geared towards health related issues and unless you have health problems or are in the field, qualifying will be difficult. Another issue for many of us is proximity to a major city where the focus groups are held. If you live near Philadelphia, Boston, Atlanta or any of the many facilities, your chances of qualifying are much higher.

I do know that this is a legitimate and well respected survey site, so for now, I’m sticking with them because I might get lucky. And it may be worth you while to check out their page on Facebook, where they list many of their ongoing projects with phone numbers to call to see if you qualify. If you are a member of Facebook, put FocusPointe Global in the search box to go to the site. I’m going to check by there regularly to see if that will help my chances.

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Much like Send Earnings and MyPoints, RewardPort is a paid to click site which rewards you for clicking on emails and shopping online. I never joined this site because I find that it takes too much time to do this everyday when I have so much other stuff to get around to in terms of survey sites. But as Maplaver discussed on the forum this summer, RewardPort has started offering better incentives recently (Amazon, Barnes and Noble) and she has earned enough for a $10 gift card since joining.

I’m writing about it today, because Allison, one of our blog subscribers wanted me to know that they are now promoting a new sister site, RewardPortSurveys, which will be offering surveys. If you are already a member of RewardPort, you will still need to join the new site in order to participate. From the RewardPort Blog:

Many RewardPort.com users often send in requests for their rewards to be paid in Cash. In response to all these requests we have developed a sister site, RewardPortSurveys.com . Since we do not offer cash rewards on our main site, we give you the opportunity to sign up separately for our sister site and get paid cash for taking online surveys.

When you sign up for free, we will even deposit $5.00 into your account to get you started. The surveys offered at RewardPortSurveys.comare in addition to the surveys we offer at RewardPort. You will need to register separately with the new site and the points and cash are not interchangeable. If you have already registered, please take this opportunity to see if any new surveys are available.

Payment is by Paypal or gift-card when your account balance  reaches $20. I’ve taken the surveys that were offered after sign-up but haven’t earned enough to cash out yet. So it remains to be seen if it is worth my time or not.  I’ll let you know!

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Kelly asked that I check out TeamSurveyUS for her. Apparently she saw mention of it on a survey board that lists close to 1000 survey sites. Whew! Who knew there were that many out there! Here is what I found. It’s not a standard survey site but one that you fill in a questionnaire, and they will contact you if you are accepted into the program. There is very little information about this company on the Internet, so I hesitate to recommend something that I know so little about.

From the website:

We engage in ongoing research with consumer and business people worldwide. Our research covers a wide range of topics and methodologies. If you are interested in taking part in one of our research projects, for which you will be paid, you need to first fill out one of our screening questionnaires online. Research participants are selected from these screening surveys.

If you are selected to participate in a study, you will be contacted by phone, mail or email at the contact information you’ve provided. Depending on the nature of the particular study, your involvement may include additional questionnaires, telephone interviews, use of diaries, or an invitation to a focus group in your area. Typically, compensation ranges from $25 for answering a simple online survey, to $300 or more for long term studies.

All information collected by us is confidential and is not released to any other party. We publish data only in the aggregate and occasionally use direct quotations for illustration. Names are never associated with responses. Only key personnel within our organization have access to these files which are stored on a secure server behind a firewall.

I bit the bullet and filled out the questionnaire. It was only one page and asked the standard questions. I used a new email address so that I could check for spam, etc. so I can report that joining this site didn’t put you on any kind of mailing lists. As a matter of fact, that email inbox is empty. I haven’t heard from TeamshipUS yet either.

I’ll be interested to see if I qualify for any of the studies. I’m game if they paid me $30 to $300! I’ll keep you posted, and as always, if any of you have any experience with TeamShipUS, let us know.

I got this funny email from a friend yesterday, and thought I would share it.

I know you don’t clean your computer screen very often

and it is hard to do the inside, so here is my present   to you.

 (just click on the word  “here”  above)

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