I’m trolling around Careerbuilder.com today and I keep seeing the “Take Surveys Online” crap all over the place. Cynic that I am, I just know it’s crap but I’m morbidly fascinated about how the scheme works. Poking around the links and websites yields zero answers as to what one actually, specifically, does.
Please, someone satisfy my curiosity because I’m sure as hell not giving them my email address.
It is theoretically possible to make some (small amount) of money taking legitimate surveys on-line. The concept well predates the web. However, web survey companies promise everything from free laptops to hundreds of dollars in cash. I have no doubt that someone, somewhere received these things. The catch is that it is a whole lot of work and may require months of effort to get much at all. The requirements tend to be unusually strict as well so one small misstep may mean that months of effort are wasted. It would be way more lucrative just to take a minimum wage job.
Cool. That’s about what I figured. Thanks.
There are some very legitimate mainstream companies that have online panels. You register to be a panelist, and then they periodically send you surveys for which you fit the desired demographic. They have numerous metrics to ensure that you don’t see too many (which may skew their numbers as well as piss you off), and you earn some type of currency that can be exchanged for tangible rewards.
I’m part of a online survey group. I don’t earn cash though, just a few small gift cards and coupons. I earn points which then are exchanged for the gift cards.
For 90% of the surveys, I turn out to not be in the target group for that survey.
I’m in several online surveys. Several give prizes – you earn points and then the points can be used to redeem prizes. I’ve gotten quite a few CDs out of it.
I did one of these for a while and had the same experience. I quit because they would ask so many d#mn questions before ruling me out, including ruling me out for criteria I’d already given them. They’d ask tons of questions, then rule me out b/c of no kids under 10 in the home or something.
I dealt with this, too, and got fed up with it, and stopped. However, I’ve been a member of mysurvy.com for years now (I’m not shilling for them!!), and over the past, I dunno, 6 years (?), I’ve earned maybe $200.00 in cash, plus they’ve sent me a number of free products to try and then comment on. This website, at least, pre-selects you. You will earn points (which accumulate and can be redeemed for cash/prizes), and then if you fit a sub-set of needed criteria, they may offer you an additional survey worth more points (and even if you don’t take the additional survey, you get the points for the initial one, and they tell you approx. how long the additional survey will take to complete).
I’m a member of Opinion Place and Opinion Outpost. Both are one word and add the dot com.
Opinion Place was a split from AOL. Used to get cash credit toward your monthly fee. Now that it’s free you get PayPal credits. In the last three weeks I’ve made $7.50. Whoo-hoo!
Opinion Outpost awards points that are accumulated like cash. An average survey may net you 30 points. You must accumulate 1000 points before you can cash in, and then they’ll send you a check for $10.
It’s hard to “qualify” for the surveys, I’ve found. In an average day I get three invitations for surveys and if I’m lucky I’ll qualify for 3 a week. It’s definitely not a job. Simply an aversion. If you look at it like that and can figure that it’s kind of like “rewards” programs through credit cards and such then you can keep it in perspective.
It’s a diversion that occasionally can earn some minimal cash. They’re fun sometimes and an easy way to kill a half-hour.