Survival Guide to Online Surveys

I loved HCD Surveys a year ago, and nothing has changed! I’m a sucker for politics, current affairs and pop culture, and life is good when you are paid for watching political speeches and Super Bowl commercials. During the election, I racked up lots of points watching speeches which I would have watched anyway and giving my opinions. And how much better does it get than getting paid a couple of dollars for watching American Idol?

You won’t get rich from being a member of HCD, but I’ve made about $75 in the last year. You’ll get 1 survey a week, on average, with the points ranging from 100 to 700 points ($1 to $7), each point being worth $.01. Can’t get much easier than that. Surveys are short and to the point and you are paid 10 points even if you don’t qualify. Payment is by check and can take up to 8 weeks to arrive.

Customer and technical support are excellent which is a rarity in the online paid survey world. When there are technical issues, I’ve found that they resolve the problem quickly and in most cases, to your benefit.

Can you tell that I like this survey site? If only they would pay me to watch Top Chef, House and MSNBC, I would be in heaven.

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When I joined Ipsos-I-Say in the beginning of 2008, I reported that it was much too confusing for my addled brain to keep up with (I’m paraphrasing here). Some things don’t change, and despite unveiling a new point system, Ipsos is still more complicated that it needs to be, and my brain is too.

No longer primarily a rewards site, Ipsos-I-Say now offers points for every survey you take. You are still entered to win sweepstakes and are offered games to play, but the points that you earn are redeemable from a very long list of merchandise and gift card opportunities. Although they say that the points for each survey range from 1 to 25, the ones that I qualify for are generally between 3 and 5. I’ve read that other people have had better success than I have. I have only accumulated 35 points to date. You need 50 points to redeem for a $5 gift card. For 100 points, you can get a $10 Amazon gift card (just an example, the choices are endless).

Some of  my failings with the survey site have to do with the fact that I’m not a very dedicated member. Early on, I decided that I needed to focus my time on other survey sites that seemed more profitable. But if you are a loyal responder, you’ll be invited to be a VIP member, one of the benefit being that you will be entered into a drawing for a brand new car. I’m looking forward to one of our blog readers winning that one!

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When I first started taking online paid surveys, I would get really irritated with survey sites that offered sweepstakes entries instead of points or cash. At the time, I was convinced that nobody ever won those things, and they probably just put up fake names to make it look like there were winners. As hard as it may be to imagine, I was wrong

Now don’t get excited and think that this means that I have won something. I haven’t. My luck remains as elusive as ever. But I have made many friends over the last year and a half on the forum and this blog. And several of them have won!

Maplaver, one of our moderators on the forum, is now officially crowned the queen of survey sweeptakes. Some how I missed the fact that she won $1200 in March from the sweepstakes over at Netverdix. Now that is serious cash. She also won the first $200 Blog Contest when first prize was $200.

Lee, another of our moderators on the forum has won $50 in a sweepstakes from Netverdix too. He also won an Apple MacBook and Apple 8gb Touch iPod from the Capital One-on-One Forum end of the year contest.

TidyClean won $100 from SurveySpot.

Paddysmum won $20 from Smarty Pants Know-It-All Panel (I’m not familiar with that panel but she says it’s for parents and children).

Kendikong won $10 from Surveys.com.

DrSkeezix won $50 from Infosurv Concepts Exchange (ICE).

I’m sure that I’m leaving out someone, so please leave a comment or reply to your email to let us know if you have won a sweepstakes drawing. It gives us all hope and inspiration!

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I found a survey site that so far looks promising! It’s certainly not the standard survey site, as it’s fairly specific in terms of who they need for their panel. If you buy clothes regularly, don’t mind keeping up with receipts and keeping records, PartnershipPlus may be something to look into. From the website:

Thanks for your interest in becoming a member of Partnership-Plus! My name is Kim Sharp and I’d like to tell you about our exciting program.

Partnership-Plus is made up of people just like you who tell us about the clothes they get each month. Clothing manufacturers and stores use this information to study the kinds of clothes people buy and receive. Being a member of Partnership-Plus gives you the opportunity to make your voice heard and help put the clothes you like in more stores.

But that’s not all! We pay you to tell us about your new clothing! At the beginning of each month we’ll invite you to our site to tell us about the clothing you got the month before. In return for the valuable information you provide in each monthly clothing survey, we credit your account with Partner-Points, our way of saying thank you for being a dedicated member of our panel. Your points add up very quickly and can be redeemed for great cash rewards! Additionally, for every clothing survey you complete, you will automatically be entered into three Sweepstakes drawings and you will have the chance to win up to $5,000!

The information you provide is used for research purposes only. We will never try to sell you anything and will never sell your personal information to anyone else.

What are you waiting for? The sooner you get started, the sooner you’ll begin making a difference and earning rewards.

First, I’ll ask you a few basic questions about yourself and your household. If you qualify, I’ll send you your member number so you can log in to get started.

I signed up this morning and was accepted for membership. It’s a pretty straightforward sign-up and not too involved. I couldn’t fill out the first survey because I didn’t have receipts for anything that I had bought last month, but I checked the box to participate in July for my June purchases. There is a short video to watch after joining to explain the process.

You’ll get 200 points for taking each monthly survey and 50 bonus points if you complete the survey early. You can redeem for cash when you reach 1000 points ($10.00) at which time you can request a check.

I’ll let you know my progress with PatnershipPlus and, as always, please leave a comment with your experience as well!

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Although this is not a survey site, I ran across JuryTest.net, an online site that pays its member to participate in online mock jury trials. Mock jury trials have been going on for years, but the online version is a relatively new way for lawyers to get feedback about their cases.

Don’t expect to get many opportunities, as the cases can be somewhat sporadic. But when you are asked to participate, you will be paid well for your input. From the website:

How much will I get paid? How much you get paid will depend on the case, but usually between $20 and $50 per case. The longer the case presentations, the longer the questionnaire, the more you’ll get paid. You will be informed up front as to how much the case fee is and how long your time commitment will be, usually between 20-50 minutes. 
How do I listen to case presentations?Once you are registered, you will be entered into our pool of eligible jurors. When a case beomes available to you, you will receive an e-mail with “e-juror summons” in the title from the following address: jurycommissioner@jurytest.net. When you open this mail, you will see a link to jurytest.net. Come to the site, log-in and you will be taken to a page with a link to the case presentation. When you click on this link, this will launch a realplayer interface and the case presentation will stream. At the end of the presentation, you will close this window and be prompted to answer a few questions. Some lawyesr will present TWO presentations, one on each side of the case. In those instances, you will answer a few questions after each presentation. Naturally, the more there is to it, the more you will be paid. I’ve signed up, but haven’t been contacted yet to serve on a jury. I’m hopeful, though, and will let everybody know all the details when I do. If you have already participated in JuryTest or any of the other mock jury sites, please leave a coment about your experiences. To register for JuryNet click here.Don’t miss any survey news! Subscribe by email or RSS to receive each new post. And don’t forget about our June/July $300 blog contest going on now until the end of July. Click here for details.
 

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I stumbled upon FGI Research a few weeks ago in my quest to find each and every online paid survey site on the planet. It looks like it has been around since about 2004, and obviously hasn’t made a big splash just yet. A little digging gave me a few clues as to why not.

FGI Research isn’t a bad site. Let’s just call it quite mediocre. Surveys are sent once or twice a month, and much like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get. Sometimes it’s a paid survey, sometimes it’s a sweepstakes and on occasion there will be merchandise. At a rate of a couple a month, that’s not much cash potential. On top of that, most surveys pay between 50 cents and $2.00 with more of the former than the latter. From the website:

Payments for projects that are completed in any calendar month will be processed no later than the end of the following calendar month. A completed project shall be defined as having obtained all necessary completed interviews and being closed to future participants.

The upside is that they pay by Paypal for each survey that you complete, even if it’s for $.50. On that point alone, I’ll have to put it in the legitimate survey site category because they actually pay you for your efforts.

Is there anybody out there who is already a member? Let us know what you think.

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This post will be short and sweet, but wanted to do a little housekeeping to give you updates on a couple of sites that may be of interest.

Yourfreesurveys generally credits accounts on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. This summer, because of being a bit short staffed, we will be crediting accounts on Tuesday and Thursday. We’ll go back to the normal 3 times a week schedule in September.  So don’t be alarmed if it takes a little longer than usual to see your account updated! Even with the scaled back summer schedule, Yourfreesurveys is still one of the fastest sites to credit!

I also received an email from Your2Cents about the change in ownership. From the email:

Thank you for sharing Your2Cents with us. Soon, you will be able to do so much more than just surveys and profiles as a member of our panel. We are excited to announce that Your2Cents is now a member of the Toluna family of panels, with over 2.5 million members spanning 30 countries.

Toluna.com is where people around the globe go to share their thoughts and opinions, and find out what the rest of the world is thinking. This summer, Toluna.com will be launched in North America, and will replace the Your2Cents website. Your membership, and any points or other rewards you may have accumulated, will be automatically transferred to your account on the new Toluna.com website, as well as any profile information you have provided. You will continue to receive opportunities to tell providers of products and services what you think and earn points by participating in surveys as you do today. But on Toluna.com, you won’t have to wait for an invitation to give your opinion. And, you’ll be able to conduct your own “research” and find out what others are thinking. Visit http://www.your2cents.com or click the button below to read more about the exciting changes ahead!

We are very excited to be a part of the Toluna family of panels, and can’t wait to share these and other exciting new features with you!

I’ll be doing a little research on Toluna to let you know what to expect. Look for that later in the week.

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I had a blog subscriber ask me to review Points2Shop, an online offer site. And as most of you know, I’m far too unorganized and scattered to actually be a member of an offer site. It takes dedication and organization, two traits which I am sorely lacking. So this review will have to be based on online chatter and reviews, not my personal experience.

If you are at all familiar with MyPoints, then you’ll know what Points2Shop is all about. Side by side, I would probably go with MyPoints which offers basically the same thing. One of the problems with offer sites is that many of the “offers” overlap, and you must be very careful not to duplicate your sign-ups. Most people seem to be pleased with Points2Shop for those who enjoy doing offers. If you are a “surveys only” type, none of these sites would be for you. From the website:

• Redeem your points directly at Amazon.com!
• Many exclusive advertisers you will not find on cash sites!
• Amazon.com orders are sent daily and without shipping costs!
• We offer you the highest payout of all sites!
• Receive 250 points (worth $2.50) on registration on Points2shop or $0.50 on Cashle!
• Three ref. levels for American members: 15%, 3%, 2%
• Receive up to $1.00 for every American you refer!
• Fast and friendly support by site, email address, IM and Shoutbox!

Most of the complaints that you will find online, are those who have been banned and therefore not paid because of fraud. Below are the reasons given for marking members as cheaters:

Another big “no-no” is multiple accounts with the same IP address.  Logging into your account from friend’s or family member’s computer will result in members being banned as well.

Don’t miss any survey news! Subscribe by email or RSS to receive each new post! And don’t forget about the 4300 June/July blog contest. Click here for details. 

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When last I reviewed E-Poll, I had given them a “shrug” review, in other words, I felt that I could take it or leave it. But in the year or so since I wrote about this online paid survey site, I’m now going to give it a thumbs up.

With all of the worthless survey sites out there, E-Poll has proven itself to be reliable and legitimate. I have cashed out numerous times (every few months) with rewards ranging from Amazon gift cards to the newly added transfer to Paypal. There is quite a long list of available gift cards, which previously were mailed to you. The good news is that now you can get the gift card code by email rather than waiting forever for the mailman to bring  it 2 months later. They are still somewhat slow, but have made improvements in that department, so I can’t complain.

The silly point system remains which requires you to amass 3500 points to earn a $5 gift card (or Paypal payment) and 6750 to redeem $10, although the longer I have been a member the easier it has been to get to the payout levels. Most surveys range from 500 to 1000 points and I have been awarded higher amounts a few times. On occasion, E-Poll will mail out DVD’s of movies to review. These generally pay 2000 points!

Overall, this survey site has improved with age. It didn’t make the Top 10 list, but it’s a survey site that should be on your survey site list.

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I wasn’t familiar with MarketSurveys until Eddie posted about it on our forum last summer. It was included under the thread “Surveys that Pay With Sweepstakes Entries” that I generally find to be about as much fun as watching paint dry. But my interest was piqued when I read the news that MarketSurveys had now added a Paypal feature. Would it be worth my time to give this one another shot?

The answer to this burning question would have to be “I don’t think so”. How’s that for a definitive answer? I joined this website last year but soon was discouraged because of its “sweepstakes only” nature. Rather than unsubscribe, I just quit opening most of the emails. I am a member of too many sites to waste my time on survey sites that don’t reward with cash.

I went back through all of the emails that I hadn’t opened, and from my perspective, even though they have added the Paypal or check feature, the vast majority of the emails I receive are still sweepstakes only payouts. And the few that I had gotten when I did open the emails I didn’t qualify for.  From the website:

MarketSurveys Points are points that are awarded to you every time you respond to a survey invitation or complete a survey successfully. When you become a member of MarketSurveys.com you will have a virtual MarketSurveys account created for you. Every time you complete a survey you will be awarded a specific number of MarketSurveys Points.

Once you have saved up enough MarketSurveys Points to equal $10 or more, you can redeem those MarketSurveys Points for cash through PayPal™ or request to have a check mailed to the address you registered with. Please note, you will need to set up a PayPal™ account in order to redeem cash using this method.

Points convert at $0.10 per point.

When you reach at least 100 points, our system will give you cash out options on your Account Info page.”

Maybe some of you have had a better experience than I have and, if so, please let us know.  So far, I don’t see much improvement.

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