An Experiment In Online Earnings: Online Surveys

This article is part of a series experimenting with the different ways to earn cash online. The original article can be found here. Note that this scheme is in initial stages and will be updated with earnings and opinions as it builds income.

Scheme Online Surveys

Upstart Costs £0

Current Income £2

Earnings per Hour* £0.18

*Earnings per hour calculated by hour of work, any earnings while away from the computer are incorporated as a result of effort currently put in. Upstart and ongoing costs are allowed for in hourly earnings.

The premise behind this method of earning is that lots of big companies would like to know what the public thinks of their products or services. They spend all their hard-earned cash on nice little market research companies who throw together a pretty little survey and pay the general target market to fill it in. They can pay people less for filling on surveys online and we the public are happy as pigs in pooh to accept that and take a little bit of money for our time.

Not to complain but the market research results may be slightly inaccurate given all the respondents generally fill in loads of surveys online in the hope of making some money and don't fully represent the general public.

Setting Up

I didn't want too much more spam in my inbox, so I adjusted my designated spam email to specifically separate out all survey emails to ensure these are detached from any other source. Some survey sites didn't accept my amended email address but I have for the most part managed to separate out the mailings.

I then researched a number of survey sites to determine which ones genuinely pay out and proceeded to register with each of them. One of the sites I found along the way was http://www.surveypolice.com. They review survey sites and help you choose the best for you. However, some of the top sites listed there are difficult to register with or received bad reviews elsewhere.

I saw a suggestion to download RoboForm so I thought I'd give it a go - so far I've filled in my name, address and date of birth info. Presumably this will save me a touch of RSI and perhaps even a little time. From my first week's experience, I'd say I've saved a lot of time and I've changed most of my online passwords to something a little more secure.

Sites and Resources Used

http://www.globaltestmarket.com

• Registration was pain-free and easy.
• Requires filling in of profile surveys on the profile page to better adapt which surveys are sent to you. (and hence improve proportion of surveys you qualify for?)
• Profile surveys take ages (bad formatting of surveys?)
• 1 day later: no surveys
• 2 days later: no surveys
• 3 days later: no surveys
• 6 days later: found 1 survey about which I wasn't notified. Filled in loads of questions to be told I don't qualify. Still no rewards.

Financial standing after a week: 20 points earned, 1000 required for getting money out.

http://www.consumerresearchonline.co.uk/

• Registration was easy enough but included an odd question about hard water
• No money rewards but may as well get freebies while I'm out here
• Loads of detailed profile surveys on skin/hair/teeth etc - presumably to ensure I get products to test that apply to me
• 1 day later: no trials available
• 2 days later: no trials available
• 3 days later: no trials available
• 6 days later: no trials available

Financial standing after a week: No money earned (of course) and no freebies either.

http://www.valuedopinions.co.uk/

• Easy registration
• Easy profile surveys
• Think it doesn't like my postcode - there is a ! next to the postcode but when I click on it, it goes back to the update details page. Using a nearby postcode that might show up didn't work either. No notification that it doesn't like this apart from that.
• Pays only in vouchers - selected Tesco as I can still get my game from there.
• 1 day later: no surveys
• 2 days later: no surveys
• 3 days later: no surveys
• 6 days later: Still doesn't like my postcode but sent me one survey around day four which I didn't get to complete. Plus a nice long survey on day six which didn't let me know how much it was worth.
• 7 days later: Another survey - account balance showing around £2.75

Financial standing after a week: Account shows £0.25 for the short survey and £2.50 pending for the longer ones. Voucher is only issued when I reach £10.

http://www.opinionbar.com/

• Didn't accept my survey email address(!)
• Multiple extended profile surveys. Very long but the picture of the smiling woman in between makes me want to carry on, strangely I must be getting tired.Too tired to continue and I'm working in a few hours.
• 1 day later: Completed startup surveys. No surveys
• 2 days later: No surveys
• 3 days later: No surveys. Same 3 surveys greyed out at the top for the last 3 days!
• 6 days later: As above, no change to anything.

Financial standing after a week: Account shows £0. Payment is only issued when I reach £10.

http://www.ciao-surveys.co.uk/

• Registration - they've moved the surveys to a separate dedicated site!
• Didn't accept my survey email address.
• Didn't accept my home address, can't start yet.
• 1 day later: still doesn't like my address
• 2 days later + 1 email to support: still doesn't like my address
• 3 days later + 2 emails to support: still doesn't like my address
• 6 days later: got a response from support yesterday saying to fill in the form in exactly the way I filled it in. Told them I had. Still no further response.

Financial standing after a week: Account won't let me login still.

http://surveypayjobs.com

• Received link via email
• SPAM! From various dodgy email addresses and asking for your money. Ahem.
• Have to pay for a database of surveys - that's not how it works.

http://uk.lightspeedpanel.com

• Couldn't register - had to google a link to the registration page but straightforward once there.
• Day 2: No surveys yet but mini-polls earn entries into the Lightspeed lottery
• Day 3: 1 survey - filled in 4-5 questions and they said they had enough responses and closed the survey with no points to my account.
• Day 6: 1 survey - very long but completed it and earned 190 points - redeemed 115 points for £1 to my paypal account.
• Day 7: 1 survey - completed it and earned 110 points - redeemed 115 points for £1 to my paypal account.

Financial standing after a week: £2 paid into PayPal. About 25p in account.

http://www.yougov.co.uk/panel/

• Easy to register
• £1 straight away for initial survey
• 1 day later: 2 unpaid surveys for site
• 2 days later: 1 unpaid survey for site
• 3 days later: no more surveys
• 6 days later: 1 £1 survey that froze up. But then everything (including this article) is currently freezing on my computer. 2 unpaid surveys. No email notification.

Financial standing after a week: £2 in account (presuming current survey unfreezes) BUT only pays out on £50.

IPSOS

• Filled in a long form & didn't fit the demographic they were look for!

Summary

So far I've received 2 payouts (Lightspeed) of £1. This was from two surveys - presumably if I qualify for another survey I can make the same again. The total hours spent was largely on registering and doing initial surveys and so the earnings per hour should increase over time.

Overall, so far this has been a waste of time but I hope future earnings prove to be a little more forthcoming.