Top 5 Online Survey Sites

I have been participating in online surveys and product tests for about 9 months now (started in April 2010) and have definitely sorted out the good from the bad. At this point, I can narrow them down to a list of my five favorites and most profitable or rewarding. I can also give a quick run down of the pros and cons and some helpful advice if you chose to join.

1. Synovate

• Member Since: April 2010
• Survey Frequency: Moderate to High (most are relatively short)
• Payment: Check (Must have at least $5 to cash out)
  
• Reward: Cash and Sweepstakes (I have actually won the sweepstakes once and was mailed a check)
• Pros: Inbox isn't flooded with surveys, if you don't qualify you know quickly and they give you 100 points for trying, many product tests, surveys usually aren't long and are easy to complete
• Cons: Since you have to wait for survey invites you will not make a ton of money, 2-3 weeks for checks to be delivered
• Cash/Reward earned: $79.20 (as of January 2011) and at least 25 product tests since April 2010

2. Opinion Outpost

• Member Since: April 2010
  
• Survey Frequency: Moderate to High
  
• Payment: Check (Must have at least $5 to cash out), Amazon gift card, Citi gift card
  
• Reward: Cash or gift cards/instant win (checks arrived within 5 days!)
  
• Pros: Inbox isn't flooded with surveys, some product tests, surveys usually aren't long and are easy to complete, some pay more than $5 each
  
• Cons: Some surveys, OTX in particular, will ask you many questions before they determine you are not qualified, I recommend declining these surveys, sometimes you will get several invites but not qualify for any surveys
  
• Cash/Reward earned: $116.90 (as of January 2011) and at least 4 product tests since April

3. Toluna

• Member Since: April 2010
  
• Survey Frequency: High (Email invites and instant surveys on site)
  
• Payment: Check (Must have at least $20 to cash out), Numerous gift cards
  
• Reward: Cash or gift cards/ sweepstakes (gift cards arrived within 2 weeks)
  
• Pros: Many survey opportunities, many product tests, surveys very in length and point amount, interactive community that allows you to express yourself and earn extra points, can sometimes be invited to join forums, test area that offers free stuff!
  
• Cons: Will not qualify for all surveys, some surveys are very long and don't offer very good rewards (3000 = 1 dollar, be wise with your time)
  
• Cash/Reward earned: $153.00 (as of January 2011) and at least 20 product tests since April

4. MyPoints

• Member Since: May 2010
  
• Survey Frequency: Moderate (Ads are daily)
  
• Payment: Gift Cards (Must have at least $10 worth of points to cash out)
  
• Reward: Gift cards (gift cards arrived within 2-4 weeks)
  
• Pros: My favorite part about this site isn't the surveys but the ads you click on to earn points, you get special online deals and points for trying them, you get points for shopping at everyday places online (simply search for the vendor and click on it before you start shopping so you are credited)
  
• Cons: Will not qualify for all surveys but will receive some points for trying, may take awhile to accumulate points, be cautious what you sign up for to avoid spam
  
• Cash/Reward earned: $98.00 (as of January 2011)
  

5. Surveyhead

• Member Since: May 2010
  
• Survey Frequency: Moderate (Some come through email, but you are better off checking the site daily)
  
• Payment: Pay Pal, Numerous gift cards, magazines ($20 to cash out)
  
• Reward: Gift cards/Pay Pal/Donations?Magazines (gift cards arrived within 4-5 weeks)
  
• Pros: Surveys are easy and cash adds up fast, you know right away if you don't qualify, decent gift cards including Amazon
  
• Cons: Will not qualify for all surveys, it usually takes over a month to receive your payment once requested, have to check site for all opportunities they only email some
  
• Cash/Reward earned: $91.20 (as of January 2011)

As you can see from my earnings from each of these companies to date, I am by no means a millionaire. However, I have enjoyed the gift cards, checks, and additions to my PayPal and Amazon accounts. I belong to MANY survey sites, but these have stood out as my favorites. When you add them all up, you will make a nice little chunk of spending money and get a lot a free product tests. I have always received my payment from the above mentioned 5 companies.

If you have any questions or need any advice, post a comment. If you would like a personal referral to any of the above mentioned sites, let me know :-)

Day 23: Brand Institute

I am very disappointed to report that I am yet to be contacted by Brand Institute, Inc. Of the three survey companies I initially signed up for, I was most excited about Brand Institute. What attracted me to Brand Institute was that it was a science/technology based survey site. Users apparently help to determine names for new drugs and medical products. It is a site targeted towards individuals in the science field and received pretty good reviews from other users. Apparently they pay well, but I am yet to be the judge of that. I read in a user review that they only send out survey requests about once a month, so perhaps I still haven't got my invite... I will keep you updated if there is any progress.

If you have any prior experience with this company, please inform me of your success/failure...

Day 20: Opinion Outpost

Opinion Outpost Summary

Opinion Outpost is another survey for cash site. I did not receive a sign-up bonus for joining or for filling out the 8 member profiles. As far as I know, there are no bonus points for these user profiles which are used to match you with surveys. Opinion Outpost will email you when you may qualify for a survey. They will indicate the approximate time, the topic of the survey, and the amount of points rewarded if you qualify. You can only take surveys when you are notified of their availability and can check on the site if there are any available as well. In my experience, the surveys are only available when notified by email. Besides taking the surveys through the site, there is no user interaction like Toluna. You can check your points earned at any time and view your survey history which I think is a nice feature. Opinion Outpost sends out a decent amount of surveys, I have received 23 survey opportunities in the last 20 days. Another exciting feature of Opinion Outpost is the opportunity to try products at home! Within 1 week of joining, I took a survey about frozen food and was invited to participate in an at home study about it. I was sent frozen food to prepare, eat, and review. I was truly surprised when it actually showed up at my door packaged in dry ice and Styrofoam (shipped by FedEx). It was a very fun study in which I made about $2.50 for taking two surveys and enjoyed a free lunch.

Opinion Outpost Review
Days a member:	20
Activity level:	Medium-High
Hours Invested:	1.5
Survey Opportunities:	23
Surveys Completed and Rewards granted:	9
Email Invites:	23
Points Earned to date:	129 ($12.90)
Rewards:	Points (converted to dollars which can be redeemed by check once you reach $5.00) 10 points= 1 Dollar
SPAM email:	No

Sign Up Bonus:
No.

Friend Referral:
Yes, awarded 20 points ($2.00) for each friend that signs up and takes a survey.

PROS
Opinion Outpost sends out a decent amount of surveys. If you complete the survey, you are rewarded instantly. If you do not qualify for the survey, you can enter the monthly drawing, play free spin for a chance at $50, or donate a small amount of money to charity. So far, I am pleased with Opinion Outpost. I plan on requesting a check once I reach $20.00. They say it takes 3-4 weeks to receive the check. I will let you know if it comes, but the food did, so I have some faith in this site.

CONS
You will not become a millionaire. More surveys I qualify for would be nice.


What is your experience with Opinion Outpost? Got a question for me? Post a comment!

Day 20: Toluna

I have been very active with Toluna over the past 20 days and have already discovered several pros and cons. I have devised an initial survey rating panel that I will use to rate and describes everything you might want to know about a survey company, survey opportunities, rewards, perks, etc...

Toluna Summary

Toluna is a survey for cash site. On joining, you will receive points (which translate to dollars) for signing up and filling out each of the 17 screener surveys. Toluna will email you when you qualify for a survey. They will indicate the approximate time, the topic of the survey, and the amount of points rewarded if you qualify. Of all the survey sites I have signed up for, I have been the most active with Toluna. Toluna is unique in that you can sit down at almost any time and take surveys. There are tons of them available that you can take initial screeners for (if you do not qualify, you are entered into a drawing). Beware, you will not get rich doing this... I will explain in more detail below. Toluna offers a lot of user interaction, which is pretty unique for the online survey world. As a Toluna user, you can make up polls and opinion panels that other Toluna users can vote on or submit opinions. You receive points for voting and also for submitting opinions. Toluna also offers "Quick Votes" and "Quick Surveys" almost everyday. I am personally fond of these because they consist of 1-4 questions and instant points (although they only equivocate to a few cents at best). Over the past 20 days, I have, by far, spent the most time on Toluna's site, I check in the morning and usually do surveys while I watch TV and movies.

Toluna Review
Days a member:	20
Activity level:	High
Hours Invested:	10
Survey Opportunities:	223 (mostly through searching on the site)
Surveys Completed and Rewards granted:	31
Email Invites:	15
Points Earned to date:	69,000
Rewards:	Points (converted to dollars which can be redeemed by check, paypal, or gift cards) 3000 = 1 Dollar
SPAM email:	No

Sign Up Bonus:

• 500 points for signing up
• 600 points for each interest survey you complete about yourself (17 of them)
• 2000 points for completing all 17 of the interest surveys (will probably take 30 minutes)
• Actual dollars earned: $4.23

Friend Referral:
Yes, awarded 500 points ($0.16) for each that signs up.

PROS
You can interact with other Toluna members and earn extra points taking their polls and answering their questions. You can earn extra points by making up you own polls and opinion poll. You can take surveys anytime on the site without waiting for an email invite.

CONS
You can easily become obsessed with this site and waste A LOT of time... Did this happen to me? Maybe just a little in the beginning until I realized a lot of the surveys you can instantly take are for 900 points which equals roughly $0.33. Wow, mere pennies for anywhere from 7-55 minutes of your time! So, my advice, only take surveys that are under 3000 points if they are short, otherwise you are wasting your time. To date, I have not been rewarded more than 6,000 points ($2.00) for a survey. I have attempted to take a few that were 10,000 and 20,000, but didn't qualify. After completing a survey, you are not instantly rewarded with the points, it tells you your reward will appear in your account within 14 days, but can take up to six weeks. Who knows how long it will take to receive the payment once you cash out... Another con is that you cannot view the available gift cards until you reach 75,000 points. I have decided to wait to cash out until I reach 75,000 so that I can at least provide a list of the gift cards.


What is your experience with Toluna? Got a question for me? Post a comment!

The Survey Experiment - What's my goal?

Why am I doing this? What do I want to get out of it? How long would I be willing to torture myself?

I think it's best to state the goals upfront. So what's my goal? I want determine if any of these paid survey sites are legit. To be considered a success, I must recieve some sort of compenstaiton, which can be cash, a check, a gift card, or a free gift. I consider myself a somewhat patient individual, so at the 30 day mark after signing up, I will evaluate each survey site, where I stand as far as rewards, my activity on the site, and how I generally feel about the site. I will stick with each site I sign up for, and sign in on a daily basis for at least the first 30 days. If at day 30, the site is a total bummer and a scam, I will inactivate my account (if any red flags pop up, I will terminate my account immediately). If I enjoy the site and feel it is worthwhile, I will give regular updates of my thoughts and success. Along the way, I will give updates, both good and bad, which will hopefully save you some time and aggravation. My survey experiment began on March 28, so I am about 17 days in. I already have some exciting updates that are soon to come. But, back to the experiment set-up. I initialy wanted to sign up for 5 "reputable" sites and go from there. And the first three I selected were...

Brand Institute
Opinion Outpost
Toluna

The Survey Experiment - The Risks

Before I signed up for any surveys or gave out any personal information, I thought about the risks... What exactly did I NOT want to happen during the experiment? For starters, I didn't want an inbox full of spam mail. Easy solution to that one, I made up a new email account, one that I didn't mind being filled with ridiculous emails. I did NOT want to receive any phone calls or increase the risk of my phone number being sold to telemarketing companies. Another easy solution, never ever give out your cell phone or home phone number. I did NOT want to be a victim of identity theft. Never give out your social security number to a suspicious website, I can't think of many reasons why you should have to give it to someone online other than a credit check or for car insurance...

Well, those are the biggies... However there are other risks, such as wasting hours of your time to make a few cents. Limiting survey time will play a large role in my experiment. After all, this is a "hobby" not a full time job, I've already got one and definitly don't need two. I have decided to limit myself to 1 hour of survey time per day or allow myself to complete surveys while watching TV or movies. I look at it as time I would not have been doing anything constructive anyway, so why not try to earn a few bucks while watching?

Another risk is enrolling in a survey company that receives a lot of bad feedback from users. If a survey company doesn't issue their rewards or has shady behavior like terminating user accounts when they have finally accrued enough points to cash out, don't sign up! This site obviously isn't worth your time. But how do you know which sites are honest? Do your research! If you are going to spend the time signing up for a research company and completing the tedious user panels, perform a search for reviews on the survey site! There are tons of them out there. Many blogs and forums will reveal personal experience, and there are several websites dedicated to debunking survey frauds and scams. One of my favorites thus far is http://www.surveypolice.com/american-consumer-opinion. They have a good user rating system that tells you the top survey sites as well as ranks their privacy settings, payouts, user satisfaction, etc... As I find more reliable sites, I will post them. Always read the privacy statement and terms of agreement, I know if takes more time up front, but it may save you a lot of grief later. So, I think that covers the basic risks and my initial parameters for beginning my survey experiment.


Risks

• SPAM mail (avoid clogging your primary email by creating a new account or use filters)
• Telemarketers (Never give out your phone number, a few dollars is not worth your sanity)
• Identity Theft (Never give out your social security # or credit card info to a shady site)
• Wasting you time! (Do not invest hours and hours of your life, make it a hobby)
• Scam sites (Do your research before you sign up, read user reviews)
• Read the privacy statement and terms of agreement
  

The Second Job

All it took was one rainy Sunday afternoon and the hundredth "take surveys, and earn cash fast" advertisement, and thus began my second job. I couldn't take it anymore, regaurdless of what I heard from friends and other blogs, I had to try this surefire get cash fast scheme. Of course, I should know better, being that I work in research and development (science, not marketing of course), but why not go for an interesting ride? Even if it crashes into a brick wall... I mean what's the risk? The chance that my personal infomation is sold to some third party company, my inbox filling with spam and how to grow your penis ads, my cell phone number passed on to a telemarketing company? All for what, the oppurtunuty to make a few bucks? Hell yeah! Sounds like fun, and something to talk about. And who knows, if it really works, maybe I can help out some other curious folks with a lot of time on their hands?

And so I decided, if I am going to do it, I am going to do it right! I will design my "survey experiment" just like I would an experiment for my first job (at which I have experienced at least some success).