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Q: Paid for taking online surveys: Is it ligit or is it a scam? ( Answered,   3 Comments )
Question  
Subject: Paid for taking online surveys: Is it ligit or is it a scam?
Category: Computers > Internet
Asked by: kosuth-ga
List Price: $5.00
Posted: 12 Aug 2003 21:54 PDT
Expires: 11 Sep 2003 21:54 PDT
Question ID: 244100
There are hundreds of Web sites that claim you can make money by
sitting at home and answering surveys.  Many of them are fee based in
which you need to pay a fee to register with the promise that you will
be contacted to complete surveys and get paid anywhere from $5 to $75.

Are there any legit Web sites or businesses that do this?  From my
research many seem to be scams and have very poor reviews.  Can supply
one or two sites that have the best reviews and evidence to support
they are not scams if there are such sites.

Thanks.

Request for Question Clarification by tisme-ga on 13 Aug 2003 00:18 PDT
I am a member of some groups that pay me to do surveys, but must tell
you that there is no way anyone could earn a living by doing them. I
average $35 a month if I am lucky, although I lucked out and was part
of a panel and received $200.

I am a Canadian and only am familiar with those services that allow
Canadians to sign up. I would never sign up for anything that required
me to put in money first. Also some of these websites pay using gift
certificates to online stores such as Amazon.com or BN.com.

Let me know if you are interested in a response from me,

tisme-ga

Clarification of Question by kosuth-ga on 13 Aug 2003 21:41 PDT
Yes I am interested.  I am also a Canadian living in Toronto so that
is perfect.  I would be interested in which sites you are a member and
on an average month when you make $35 how long does that translate
into in terms of the time you spend doing these surveys.  If it isn't
to much trouble could you also rank in order of preference which ones
you feel are better from your experience with them.

Thanks.

Robert
Answer  
Subject: Re: Paid for taking online surveys: Is it ligit or is it a scam?
Answered By: tisme-ga on 14 Aug 2003 06:34 PDT
 
My favorite research panel website is: http://www.pineconeresearch.com
I do believe that this is a Canadian only website (although I might be
wrong) and they pay $5 Canadian per survey you do. I probably get the
most surveys from this panel and also some interesting products to try
out! Large companies often use PineCone to figure out which
advertisements have the best results (you will be asked to pick your
favorite or try to remember items after a few minutes), and they also
ship out product samples or coupons to pick up free products at the
grocery store to get your opinion. Unfortunately, they are not
currently accepting new members and have this message in their
Frequently Asked Questions: "Do you recruit new members through your
website or take referrals?
Presently, we do not recruit new members through our website or take
unsolicited referrals. However, we will be posting recruitment
opportunities through banner ads on various websites from time to time
throughout the year. If you see one of these ads, please feel free to
sign up with us."
SOURCE: 
http://www2.pineconeresearch.com/faq.asp#genpar3
It would be worth checking their website a few times in the next few
weeks or perhaps emailing them to see if you could join their panel.

I probably get the most surveys from http://www.vividence.com/
You can sign up for their panel here: http://panel.vividence.com/
You will be paid about $10 for 30 minute surveys, usually to review
websites where you will be sent on a "treasure hunt" to check how easy
it is to find stuff, and give your views on the look of the website
etc. Payment is made in amazon.com gift certificate codes (although
they sometimes give the option of more online stores).

This website will pay you $4 per survey completed to a paypal account:
http://www.gozingsurveys.com/

I have received about $75 in the last few months in Future Shop gift
certificates from Mypoints.com. They do not offer many surveys for
points anymore though, although they may pay you to sign up for a free
website. Might be worth you looking into, you can get Giftpass rewards
from www.giftcertificates.ca which can be redeemed at tons of stores
in Canada.

There are some websites that offer larger rewards, but only some
people receive them for each survey. I personally do not do surveys
for such companies, but here is one that I know actually does pay out:
http://www.surveyspot.com/

Remember that depending on who you are, and if advertiser's or
companies want to know the opinions of your demographics, your mileage
with services like this will vary. Also if your demographics already
have a large number of people in the research panels, you may receive
less surveys because there are more people.

I do not recommend that you pay money to a third party to receive a
list of companies where you can make the most money, because such
lists will often be dependent on companies who pay to get to the top
of the list.

Here are some listings of other websites you can try joining:
http://dmoz.org/Business/Marketing_and_Advertising/Market_Research/Online_Surveys/Volunteer_Focus_Groups/
They all appear to be high quality sites, but you should read up on
the payment information to find out if payment is high per survey (and
random) or if all members are paid per survey (a small amount).

Please let me know if you require any clarification regarding this
answer and I will do my best to further assist you. All the best,

tisme-ga


Search Strategy:

Websites I was familiar with and also used dmoz.org
Comments  
Subject: Re: Paid for taking online surveys: Is it ligit or is it a scam?
From: angy-ga on 13 Aug 2003 02:03 PDT
 
Tisme's right - the scam is paying to be given a list of sites at
which to register. You can do this for free - no need to pay anyone
for a list.

Number of surveys you get depends on your demographics (age, income
level, life-style etc) and payment ranges from dollars to cents.
Subject: Re: Paid for taking online surveys: Is it ligit or is it a scam?
From: probonopublico-ga on 13 Aug 2003 07:27 PDT
 
How appropriate!

Three ads popped up above this question:

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 Paid Surveys from $25-150
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Join for only $32.95! Affiliate
www.earnmoneyonline.com
Subject: Re: Paid for taking online surveys: Is it ligit or is it a scam?
From: probonopublico-ga on 13 Aug 2003 07:36 PDT
 
Now there's a funny thing ...

I copied the ads (using Ctrl+C) and pasted them into my earlier
comment (using Ctrl+V) and several of the words and one of the URLs
were different.

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