There's a fine line between survey and scam. Who's going to test it? Well, I am.
Plenty of survey sites are floating around the Internet: All Woman Talk, Lightspeed, Opinions Paid, Pure Profile, Valued Opinions, That's What I Think and Your Voice, to name a few, with new ones cropping up constantly. The deal is, you earn points or receive competition entries for completing market research surveys, expressing your household grocery, banking, transport, health etc preferences for the sweet, sweet goodies at the end. Essentially, you sing for your supper.
To begin, I suggest consulting a free competition forum such as the Australian Competitions Club to sort the reputable from the rubbish. And that's exactly what I did. I selected All Woman Talk for my trial, which awards quarterly prizes such as Red Balloon Days vouchers, movie passes and cash for opinions on magazines (isn't it perfect for me?). It was easy to sign up, but unfortunately they have no open studies at this time. Poop.
Back to the drawing board. Another famous survey site is Email Cash, now known as RewardsCentral. Earning my first 100 points by joining and updating my profile felt like running a marathon. I sneaked a peek at how many points to earn the teensiest cash reward -- 3,300 for a $30 voucher. Hmmm. Apparently I will be sent regular emails with new surveys, so if you made it a habit and did the click-throughs and other daily points earners, a reward might not be so far away. You can also redeem points to shop online or donate them to charity. You can choose between the Red Cross, Guide Dogs, Amnesty International and the Fred Hollows Foundation to donate $10 by using 1,200 points.
All up, I'm not sure these survey sites are for me, but for those who don't trust their luck, it's a great way to work towards your reward and know when you've "won" your prize. But be warned, I've heard rumours some sites are reluctant to pay up once you redeem your prize.
So do surveys get my tick of approval? Yes, no, maybe...
Great post! I would love to hear your updates on survey companies. Thanks for being brave (and honest!) for the rest of us! Have you tried Pinecone Research yet? That's the only one I've really stuck with, and I really like them a lot.
ReplyDeleteJust stopping by from the Lady Blogger's Tea Party!
(Here's some info on my site about Pinecone: http://muchadoboutmoney.blogspot.com/2010/07/pinecone-research-is-open-hurry.html)
Hey M,
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by! I haven't heard of Pinecone Research, but I'd be interested to check them out. I logged into RewardsCentral again today and earned another 10 points.
I was kinda impressed that you can "bank" your points and earn "interest" depending on the term of your investment and how much you're investing. Strange concept. I was tempted, and then realised that I'd be earning only 4 points in 6 months. So I'm kinda in the RewardCentral poorhouse!
I've tried Valued Opinions and have managed to get 2 x $20 cashcards from them over about 18 months. I find though that being a single woman of a certain age that I'm often not suitable and it irritates the life out of me when I answer 7 questions then on the 8th I've obviously given the wrong answer because I get the message that the survey has enough people who answered that way, or worse, they reached their quota (hello? if you'd reached your quota why did I have to answer 7 questions to get there??). In the end I got sick of it because I don't really have the time to sit there. You won't make a fortune. I've done the All Women Talk for a few years and yet to win anything, and that reminds me that I've forgotten to change my email with them. Back to the drawing board.
ReplyDeleteI generally don't enter surveys, can't be bothered taking the time to fill them out. I recently did a pet survey about my dog...prizes were year's supply of cat or dog food. I won the cat food! Going to donate it to a shelter, which I was planning to do anyway if I'd won the dog food. So it paid off that time, but I guess I took the time because the subject matter was something I really cared about. If it's something I'm only half interested in, I find them tedious.
ReplyDeleteThat's a really lovely thing to do with your winnings, Jodi_C!
ReplyDeleteSounds like from Sandy's experience, the effort to results ratio for surveys is not great. : S
Thanks for the info!
ReplyDeleteI followed you--please follow back!
Thanks,mimilovesall8.blogspot.com
No worries mimilovesall8, I am now following back. Happy Friday! : )
ReplyDelete