Survival Guide to Online Surveys

The last thing anyone who joins a survey or offer site wants to hear is the dreaded, “your account has been banned from our service”. And believe it or not, it happens more often than you might think. Losing all of your earnings isn’t an easy pill to swallow either, but that is exactly what happens when an online paid survey site labels you as a fraud. What’s more frustrating is that most sites don’t give you specifics, only stating that “anything we deem fraudulent” is considered fraud.  I’ve gotten lots of emails recently from folks you have been banned from paid survey sites.  Here is the Top 10 list of transgressions that can get you booted:

1. Signing up with misleading or inaccurate information about yourself.

2.  Opening multiple accounts.

3.  Logging into different accounts with the same IP address.

4.  Completing the same offer from multiple accounts.

5.  Canceling an offer that requires a purchase and cancelling before it ships

6.  Insufficient time between accepting an offer and cancellation (it’s best to wait until just before the trial period ends)

7.  Using fake credit card or debit card account numbers.

8.  Referring “friends” for payment using the same IP address as yours (this is a biggie, survey sites can tell if your referrals are bogus, and referring yourself with different email addresses is fraud).
9.  Rushing through the process of answering a survey. If a survey takes an average of 30 minutes and you finish in 5 minutes, this could be considered fraud.

10.  Some legitimate survey sites will ban you for logging into your account from a friend’s computer or using a public computer or proxy server. This may seem harmless, but it can get you flagged as a cheater.

Online urvey sites are becoming more and more savvy about people who try to beat the system. New and improved tracking systems for offenders are popping up everyday. This makes is all the more important that you know the rules so that an innocent mistake won’t take you out of the game before you get started. Read the Terms and Service for each and every survey site that you join.

Have you been banned from a survey site? Tell us how it happened.

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I ran across, HonestInsite, another relatively new survey site a few weeks ago. As is usually the case with any site that has recently launched, I can’t find much information about it online. I signed up last week, so that I could give you some information about it. From the website:

Participation doesn’t cost money, just your time. To compensate you, we offer “HI” points – redeemable for cash or prizes. In the US, HI points are can be redeemed for Hallmark gift cards which can be used at over 350 retailers, restaurants, travel and entertainment providers.  HI points are accrued each time you take a survey.

Each survey invitation will clearly state the points earned for completing the survey and other details about possible prizes. Typically, you will earn between 4 and 1200 HI points per survey.  400 HI points = $1.

We are working to implement PayPal and Click and Buy in the US. If everything goes as planned they will be available in the next couple of months.

The Paypal implementation would certainly make this one more appealing. HI (Hallmark Insights), the same point system used by HarrisPoll, although recently improved, is still not my choice for rewards. At least HI does offer Amazon gift cards now. You can find more information about Hallmark Insights here. For a list of retailers offered, click here.

I have been invited to participate in one survey since I joined. I didn’t qualify, but I was awarded points for the effort. It was for an online discussion about a product that lasted for several weeks.

Have any of you had experience with HonestInsite? Please leave a comment and tell us what you think!

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I’m sure that everyone was confused by the blog post from Sunday. So was I, as I didn’t write it.  It seems that my blog account was hacked by a spammer. When it was discovered, I deleted the post, but not before it had been sent out to the feeds and subscribers. I apologize for the inconvenience. We’re working on making sure that this can’t happen again!

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Yourfreesurveys is updating the logo for the website. Mark sent the choices over this morning, so I thought I would let you guys take a look and vote on which one you like best. If you subscribe by email and can’t see the picture, click here to view it.

So what do you think?

And another question. If you could design you own survey website, what are the most important elements that you would include? Can’t wait to hear the answers! Send an email or post a comment.

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Or not.

Jim sent me an email about BigSpot:

Hi.  I thought this was kind of strange, but I saw a survey site advertised on television.  I thought you might want to check this one out.  It is http://www.bigspot.com/ .  I checked it out and I wasn’t impressed with it.

I had actually given it a brief look, and like Jim, wasn’t impressed. This time, I decided to go all in and register with BigSpot. After all, they are spending the big bucks on advertising.  I see that darned commercial every time I turn on my TV.

I looked all around the website before I joined and couldn’t find a FAQ section. Surely there would be one there after I joined, right? Nope. I got a list of survey sites that were “offered in my area”, all of which are readily available elsewhere. I checked under the terms and conditions and found this:

Description of Services

The website provides you with potential opportunities to earn money and prizes by participating in market research surveys hosted by our clients. There is no fee to use our service on the Website. The Website does not administer any individual survey; it merely facilitates access to them. Not all market research panels allow panelists to exchange their points for cash, some offer you the opportunity to use them for merchandise, services, or contest entries.

I never received a confirmation email and of course opted out of the survey sites listed, as I am already amember of all of them. I suppose on a positive note, at least you don’t have to pay for this list as many other survey sites require. But for all of you reading this blog, I can’t imagine what the point of joining would be. There is no review of the survey sites or descriptions, just links to join. No incentives from the site itself  are offered. It would make more sense to go to Yourfreesurveys where they have their own surveys and daily surveys.

My advice would be to skip it but that’s just my opinion. If you are already a member, let us know what you think.

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Always on the lookout for ways to increase my earnings/benefits from online paid surveys and related endeavors, I was interested to read TidyClean’s post on the forum yesterday:

Just Wanted to Let Everyone Know that the month of January I Received (6) Full-Sized Products for Testing. I know these products were worth around $3.50 on Average so that comes up to $21 Extra for the Month.
Let’s Everyone Else Keep Track Also. I would like to Know..I got mine from Viewpoint ~ survey Spot ~ My Opinion Now ~ Pssst. And they were All Full Sized Products for Testing.

With my survey inbox being less than stellar at the moment, I was anxious to check out Pssst with which I was unfamiliar. I signed up with the panel and it seems very professional and legitimate. From what I can tell, you won’t be paid cash for product testing or opinions, but they do send out products for testing and review on occasions and free coupons to try out products. From my welcome email:

Welcome to Pssst… Your membership has several benefits. In addition to an occasional glimpse behind the scenes at General Mills and new product news, you may also receive product samples and great coupons from time to time. Additionally, we may request your opinions about new items we´ve shared with you.

To begin, go to pssst.generalmills.com. On the member login portion of the site, enter your email address and the password you selected when you joined. Doing so will take you to your Pssst… Personal Page. Your customized page contains information about activities available to you as a member.

You may find links to print and use electronic coupons for new or specially promoted brands. We encourage you to send these coupons to family and friends so they can try the products, too.

Thanks again for joining. We have lots more planned, so be sure to watch your email for news from Pssst….

From which survey sites/panels do you receive full sized product testing?

The snow/ice storm forecasted for my area turned in to a rain/flood watch event. So no worries about losing my power or computer today. A life vest may be in order though….At least I don’t have to worry about this:

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Thanks for being so understanding about the delay in the results. I appreciate all of your efforts!  The contest was very successful in increasing participation and getting some new members on-board.

1 $75 prize: Anne (Yoga Princess)

1 $50 prizes: Dan Lambskin

3 $25 prizes: Penny, Kristen, Justin Anderson

5 $10 prizes: Daubs, Jennifer Haun, IndianBoy, Toni, Dazzler

10 $5 prizes: FritosFan, Rakhi, Damian, Brandon Bishop, Carole, bcarlsonb, stevew, Tuckster, toto123, Mhayne

Congratulations to all of the winners this time! I’ll be sending you an email later on tonight to verify your Paypal account email.

They’re calling for snow and ice again tonight. Keep your fingers crossed that I don’t lose power again!

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I’m sure that everyone thought that I had disappeared into thin air. Well, no, but my computer did. We got so much snow and ice in my neighborhood over the week-end that my power went out, but not before there was a bit of a power surge which wiped out most of the information on my computer. Thank goodness for Carbonite back-up, as I was able to recover my lost information. I’ve only gotten Internet back up today, so I’m working as hard as I can to get everything back up and running.

This was really bad timing for the contest, so I’m making that my first priority today. I will announce the winners tomorrow, and the winners accounts will be paid by Paypal after I verify Paypal account emails. I am so sorry for the delay, and for not being in contact until now. If you have sent an email to me since Friday,  I haven’t received it yet. I’m working on retrieving and setting up my email accounts today as well. Please bear with me while I try to recover

And the moral of the story is to be careful what you wish for…I have been wanting a great big snow storm and I got it. And it was beautiful! I didn’t bargain for the power, computer and Internet issues, though.

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