Not just surveys!

As I get more and more involved in survey participation or paid marketing research, as it is commonly known, I find ways to maximize my time and experience. When you first start you will find surveys that pay $1 or $2 dollars while others give you points to accumulate.. Typically, you will need to collect at least $25 to be able to get paid. Lots of companies, including, Qualitative Insights, Valued Opinions, Inspired Opinion from Schelsinger Associates, MySurvey, Global Test Market, Opinion Outpost, Survey Spot, among others are looking for new respondents to take surveys. They are interested in people from all walks of life, ages, income levels and educational backgrounds. If you ever thought about giving surveys a try now is the best time to so.

SendEarnings can help you get earnings

I have tried all types of surveys. Sometimes the simplest are the best. SendEarnings is a free website that will email you links to view offers from online companies. There are a number of ways to earn cash on SendEarnings. You can receive 2-3 emails per day with special offers sent to the email address listed on your member profile. Normally you can expect to receive between .01-.10 cents just to read the email. Of course if you are interested in the offer you will receive additional cash from the advertiser. On the Members Page you can access cash offers, cash surveys, cash games cash shopping. If you are like the site you can also refer your friends there to automatically generate 10% of their Qualified Earnings. Check out the site at: http://www.sendearnings.com/?r=ref2194998 

Springboard America

I recently signed up with a new survey company, Springboard America, which is sponsored by Vision Critical and Angus Reid Public Opinion. Springboard gives you an opportunity to speak up on what affects your daily life, from politics to products. The site is elegant and well designed. Springboard America is extremely user friendly and offers surveys that pay out in survey dollars (a rarity now that most companies are using a points system). You need to accumulate 50 survey dollars to collect a check for $50 or a donation to a US charitable organization.

According to their website "Most of our surveys award between $1 and $5 if you qualify and complete them. We'll always let you know in the survey invitation how much you'll receive for completing it, or if there is a sweepstakes instead. The amount is generally based on what's involved in taking the survey - for example, if it is longer in length, or more complex, we'll usually award a little more."


Like most of the survey sites you need to fill out all of the profiles so you can get as many surveys as possible. Also, survey companies are looking for dedicated people. So, if you only want to take surveys once a week or once a month, indicate that in your initial responses. Otherwise you will see your survey opportunities drop dramatically if you don't respond each time they offer you a survey.

Mergers, changes and updates.

Greenfield Online and Toluna, a leading community panel, have merged under the Toluna name. If you were a member of Greenfield, all of your information and rewards have been automatically migrated to the Toluna website. This merger, in my opinion, is a good one. Toluna, along with Greenfield, are leading online research organizations. I personally have had a great deal of success with Toluna surveys. They offer all sorts of opportunities to voice your opinion, test products and complete surveys.

The merger, announced in November, has officially taken place as of January 4, 2010. They have also relaunched an all new rewards program to expand current incentives. Points will now be able to be redeemed for rewards ranging from cash prizes, merchandise, prize drawings, sweepstakes entries, charitable donations and more.

If you have been a longtime member of Greenfield you might find the Toluna site overwhelming with all the polls and opinions. I find it easier to wait for a survey opportunity to come in my email, fill it out and move on. I don't spend a lot of time on their site.

Survey Savvy

There are a lot of survey clearinghouses out there that will bog you down with unnecessary mail. They don't really offer you much more than a chance to sign up for the sites I recommend. So, save yourself some time and trouble and look over the sites I have recommended and you will get to the right survey sites without a lot of trouble.

Survey Savvy is a great site to get paid surveys for free. No obligations to buy anything, just a few surveys per week that pay out really well. They just lowered their payout threshold to $5 and are now accepting PayPal. As an added incentive, they are holding a sweepstakes to win stuff if you use PayPal.

Remember to complete all of your portraits on Survey Savvy to get the most out of the site.

Check out the site at surveysavvy.com. I am confident you will be pleasantly surprised with the ease of getting surveys that quickly add up to the threshold.

Keep filling out those surveys!

I heard from my son that he keeps getting kicked out of surveys. My best advice to everyone is to keep trying. It may seem to be futile at times, but the companies are looking for persistent people. You may feel a little unsatisfied but eventually you will start to make a few dollars.

Even if the survey is only for a chance at a sweepstakes entry you need to fill out each survey you are sent in a timely fashion. Don't give up! Good luck to all.

Here's a great idea for those poor, starving college students!

For all the college students out there, Valued Opinions, is looking for you. They are a legitimate survey company with a great reputation. You will not be spammed by them. They are owned by Research Now, a respected research organization used by well known companies to get your opinions. Many of their surveys are the kind of information a college student would know. They have numerous surveys on movies, movie going habits and such. Valued Opinions will send you survey invitations if one of their clients needs the views of someone who might live on the East Coast or has specific interests like going to the movies in their free time.

They also survey people on their electronic preferences, shopping habits, dvds and other items. The most important thing to do is to respond to their invitations in a timely manner. Once you start answering their surveys you will be invited to answer others that can be more profitable. They reward you based on a $20.00 system that entitles you to receive gift certificates like Visa Debit cards, Amazon.com cards, Blockbuster, Macy's cards, some book stores and other vendors . Most of the surveys are worth between $2 and $5. When you sign up you will be asked what your preferred reward is, just indicate that and when you reach the $20.00 goal they will use a pop up to let you know that you can redeem it.  Remember it may take up to 28 days to get the credit to your account after completing a survey. The reward is clearly stated at the beginning of the survey in the invitation. Most of the surveys will take you about 20 minutes to complete.

If you have any concerns about your personal data being shared don't worry. The business is based on two valuable concepts, trust and quality. They will never contact you to market something only to ask you your opinions for research purposes. If you only sign up for one survey company make it Valued Opinions! Plus, as a new joiner you will be automatically entered into the sweepstake contest to win an IPod touch.

Dollar Surveys Starts to Pay Out via PayPal

I was surprised to day to see two notices from PayPal that money had been deposited to my account from Dollar Surveys. I wasn't sure if any of the surveys I had taken had actually gone through. On this site you get an invite from Dollar Surveys, then depending on your responses to the initial questions, you may or may not get to the actual survey. When you are finished you don't get a notice saying that you completed it. Anyway, I was happy to see some money coming from this site. It is nice that the money gets transferred immediately. You don't have to rack up points or reach a payout threshold to request payment. Now...if I can only figure out how to access more surveys!!