Survival Guide to Online Surveys

So many people have asked about a list of survey sites that pay by Paypal recently that I thought I should update the list.  I was hoping to be able to add survey Spot to the list, but as of now it is still a promise, not a reality with them. If you’ve been paid by Paypal through survey Spot let us know.

1. Lightspeed
2. Greenfield
3. Esearch
4. PSB
5. Brand institute
6. Pinecone
7. Epoll
8. Mindfield
9. MyView
10. Netverdix
11. Surveyhead
12. Daily survey panel
13. Opinion Place
14. Yourfreesurveys
15. Test spin
16. Elite Opinion

Let us know if you can think of any other survey sites that pay by Paypal and I’ll add it to the list.

Here’s a video that will make you want to dance!

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Last year, when I reviewed InboxDollars, I said that it was a legitimate Paid to Try/survey site, although it wasn’t for me. I stand by that statement but wanted to update everyone as to problems and concerns that I have with it with a little more experience under my belt.

When I first joined, they were paying $1 for the surveys offered. Now, the payout is only $.50. Why would I do that when you can take the same surveys from Yourfreesurveys and get paid $.90 and $1.05? Can’t see where that makes any sense at all.

InboxDollars also previously paid $.05 for paid emails, which wasn’t much, but if you clicked on a couple a day you would earn a few dollars a month. I’m finding that now, you’ll only get paid $.02 a day which is hardly worth the effort.

And what is up with a $3 processing fee for a check? I’m not loving the fact that they take 10% of my $30 check that took forever to earn. That makes what they are paying out even less than I thought. It also takes 6 weeks to receive your check.

Is InboxDollars still a legitimate survey site? Yes it is. But it is one that will take you twice as long to reach payout than it did a year ago. And I’m thinking that it may just be time to retire this one. What do you think??? Let us know!

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One of the questions I’m asked most often lately is about profile surveys on the survey sites. Most people get annoyed that they are all asking the same questions over and over and don’t understand why it is important to complete them. How many times can you answer the question “Do you make all the decisions in your household concerning grocery shopping”? Yes, I agree, it does get monotonous. But there are reasons to bite the bullet and fill them all out.

Unless you complete a survey sites profiler surveys, they will have no way to know what your likes and dislikes are. If a market research company needs information for a client who manufactures perfume, they will need to target their surveys to those who actually wear perfume. It saves time and money to target females of a certain age and demographic which benefits the manufacturer and the the survey taker as well.

I can’t tell you how many times people write to me saying that they aren’t receiving enough surveys from survey sites that others rave about. When I ask if they have completed all of the profile surveys, the answer is generally no. Once this task is completed, 9 times out of 10, the surveys start coming with much greater frequency almost immediately.

So if you’ve been putting this off, now is a great time to go back and get those profile surveys out of the way! It may be well worth your time, and more money in your pocket.

I saw this video on CNN last night and just had to share it. It combines 2 of my favorite things: babies and dancing! I’ve already watched it about 10 times! (If you subscribe by email and can’t see the video, just click on the title of the post which takes you directly to the blog where you can see it.)

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I like Brand Institute. I know, I know, that they don’t send out many surveys. But the ones that I do receive are interesting and when I take them I feel that I am really contributing something worthwhile. Will you get more surveys if you are in the medical field? That’s what I’m told. But I’m not a nurse or a doctor and I have gotten a survey every couple of months, and I’ve participated in a Brand Chat which is an interactive forum much like Invoke.

Brand Institute has already recently revamped their website and made a few changes. I like the new look of the website and I seem to have gotten a few more surveys since the switch. From the website:

As a Brand Institute panel member, you have the power to shape the future competitive landscape in industries ranging from pharmaceutical to consumer products. The insights from our valuable panel members provide companies with enhanced decision-making capability, and influence how products and services will be made available to everyday consumers. So, let your opinions be heard and join one of our market research panel groups!

Brand Institute has also implemented a new VIP panel. I have applied to become a member of it, but haven’t heard back yet. It is a fairly involved process in which they verify where you were to high school or college and ask for proof of employment and address (from an electric bill, etc.). That’s a first for me, but I guess that’s the only way to truly weed out those that tend to exaggerate their profiles.

They also have a new referrals program, which is only available to VIP members that chose to participate. You will be given your own personal referral link and for a period of 1 year, you will make $5 for every non-medical study that your referrals complete or $10 for every medical study.

Payment is made through Paypal or check.

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I reviewed Keynote Research Panel last summer, and at the time I said “so far so good”. So here we are, over a year later, and I’ll have to change my opinion to “so far so-so”.

I have three issues with them at his point. One is that I haven’t found customer service to be very forthcoming. On several occasions, I’ve gotten no response at all. The other issue is that I haven’t gotten a survey since April and several of the prior surveys resulted in and Internet Explorer error.

From the Keynote website:

Keynote customer experience evaluations are designed to evaluate a company’s Web site. We invite panelists to go to a particular site(s) and ask them to perform key tasks and answer questions along the way. Your feedback is then given to the company to help it make improvements. A customer experience evaluation usually takes 30 to 45 minutes to complete and requires that you use the Keynote Connector to answer ALL questions during the evaluation.

My plan is to stay a member of Keynote Panel. Even with my complaints, this is a legitimate survey site that pays. I may have only earned $10 in the last year, but that’s better than some other sites that send you several surveys a week. And in my research, there are many people who just love Keynote and seem to have better luck than I do. So being the eternal optimist that I am, I’m going to hold out and hope that the frequency will pick up and I’ll be able to buy lots of stuff with all of those Amazon gift cards. You never know! Please leave a comment and let us know what your experience has been.

Check out this dog who can do a deep knee bend so much better than me!

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I’ve been getting so many complaints about people not getting surveys from Yourfreesurveys lately that I thought I should look into the problem. It seems that all of our surveys are going directly into spam folders, even if you have been receiving them into your inbox previously.  After a  little research, it seems that all of the complaints about not receiving our emails have come from members with Yahoo email addresses. Changes have been made to the Yahoo spam filters which have resulted in all survey invitations (and in some cases, answers to customer service questions) going directly into spam folders.

In order to correct this situation, if you have a yahoo email account, please go to your spam folder, and click “from” from the heading at the top. Your emails will then be in alphabetical order. Scroll down to YOURFREEsurveys and click on “not spam” for as many survey invitations from us as you can find. If enough people take this action, Yahoo will start sending our invitations  into your inbox again. (If you have been expecting a response from customer service, find the emails from mark@yourfreesurveys and make them as “not spam” as well).

Because this has been a sudden change, many of you were under the impression that we had stopped sending emails. We haven’t forgotten you! Nor have I stopped responding to customer service emails for Yahoo email members! The emails are still coming, just going to the wrong place.

Although I realize that this is an inconvenience, this is the only way to assure that you will get emails from Yourfreesurveys. I appreciate your help in trying to correct this issue!

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It has come to my attention today that several people may have received checks from Yourfreesurveys. Although it is not yet confirmed, I thought it important to warn any of you out there who may have received a check with our name on it, now or in the future, that this is most certainly not from Yourfreesurveys. We do not, nor have we ever sent out a check to anyone. We pay only by Paypal.

Please let us know if you receive such a check. If  possible, scan the check and email it to us, so that we can try to find out who may be using our name fraudulently.

It is very important that you verify the validity of checks received in the mail. Scammers are becoming more ingenuous by the day, and will use the names of reputable companies in order to perpetuate their fraud. It’s always better to be safe than sorry, so taking a few extra minutes to send an email to verify it is always in your best interest.

In the case of checks stating they are from Yourfreesurveys, you can be quite sure that they are not real or sent by us. Please report any suspicious checks to me through our customer service email located at http://www.yourfreesurveys.com/ !

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Barry sent me an interesting email the other day about an invitation he had received through lightspeed. Apparently, lightspeed owns a website called ConsumerSay which will pay you $20 for joining. I enjoy my membership with Lightspeed, so I was interested to see what ConsumerSay was all about.

Here’s the deal in a nutshell. All that is required to join and receive your $20 payout is to give them all of your credit card information and numbers so that they can track your spending habits. Are you kidding me? I realize that we are in  dire financial straits at the moment, but I don’t need $20 badly enough that I’m going to willingly give out my credit card information to anyone.

I’m not going to call this a scam, because I don’t think it is. But I am going to call it irresponsible, on the part of  ConsumerSay for offering to give you $20 to give up your personal financial information and anyone who actually takes them up on it. From the ConsumerSay email:

Earn $20 For Registering
Once you complete the registration process, you will receive a reward worth $20. In order to receive your prize, you must complete the short registration form, register your financial statements with our Accounts Registration Portal, and confirm your email address. As a member, you will be eligible to participate in survey opportunities and earn rewards, including entries into ConsumerSay prize drawings for cash or gift certificates.

Privacy
During this registration, we will ask you to provide your household’s credit card information. We take your privacy very seriously and are committed to honoring it. The information you provide is protected in accordance with our Privacy Policy. Joining and participating in ConsumerSay is free. Please be assured that your credit card account(s) will not be manipulated or altered in any way. You are simply granting us permission to view your transactions. You will not see any charges on your credit card as result of your participation on ConsumerSay. Your specific credit card information will be collected through an infrastructure that ensures the highest level of security with a world-class network, data, and physical security system.

What happens to my data? How can I be sure that it is safe? What happens 10 years from now to my information? What are the plans for the disposal of my data when the time comes?  I’ll pass, thank you. And you should too.

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Wooie left a comment the other day asking about SayNation, an online paid survey site that I had joined a while back. I actually thought that I had written a review of it already, but I looked high and low, and couldn’t find it. So thanks, Wooie, for bringing it to my attention.

Sign-up was a snap with SayNation, only taking a few minutes. Once in, there is a list of current surveys to take with points ranging from 25 (for a qualifier) to 2000. Points can be redeemed in a variety of ways, from gift cards to Paypal. Here is a sampling of what is offered and how many points you’ll need:

$10 Barnes and Noble gift card (12,000 points)

$20 Amazon gift card (22,000 points)

$25 transfer to your Paypal account (29,000 points)

There are many more options, but this should give you a pretty good idea. Some folks say that they have gotten surveys worth 5000 points, but 3000 has been the highest for me with 1200 being the norm. I’ve found the surveys to be relatively short and not as repetitive as some other sites. One very important tidbit of information to remember is that you must login to your account at least once in a 6 month period, or your balance will be cleared.

I like this survey site, as I have earned a $20 Amazon gift card in the last few months. It takes a while to build up points, and I think that my age has something to do with it. SayNation is open to anyone over 13, and there is a teen panel which, from what I understand, is pretty good. Since I am oh-so-far away from 13, it seems the younger you are the sooner you can build up points.

The negatives that I have read about concern slow payments. There are numerous complaints about rewards taking a couple of months to credit. I didn’t have that problem, and the truth of the matter is that it states on the website that it takes 6 weeks to receive rewards. I did read a couple of cases where Paypal payments got lost, etc. but it seems the issues were resolved eventually.

SayNation certainly wouldn’t be in my Top 20 list, but if you are looking to increase your survey inventory, this one is a legitimate, reliable source.

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Lee D. asked me to take a look at Signature surveys. It took me quite a while to even find it with a google search. I’ll have to say that it’s a really bad sign when you can’t find anything, including a company profile in the first 5 pages of Google.

First of all, this is not a survey site. It is an offer site. And the offers are suspect as well, at least in my opinion. I’ve gotten several “surveys” in the last couple of weeks. All of them have been those Gold, Silver Platinum offers that make you think you are going to earn a $500 gift card for taking a short survey. I also received an email about a $20 Loyal Member Bonus that takes 10 minutes of your time. Yeah right. All I found were 9 Gold, Silver Platinum offers with no end and no reward.

Signature surveys was a total and complete waste of my time. But, of course, this is only my humble opinion

I found a great video for all of you dog lovers…quite the talented pooch!

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