paid surveys

January was an extremely low-paying month for me, but I think that is mostly my own fault. I had gotten a bit burnt out with taking all the surveys and started to ignore the invitation emails when they came in, so when I did catch up, most had already reached their quota. I also did not take surveys every weekday, but only took surveys a few days a week. I didn’t think it would make that much of a difference, but apparently it did! I will have to buckle back down and work harder on them this month. Over the last two months, my slacking off dropped my earnings from $236.99 (November) to $184.20 (December) to only $69.54 in January. The moral of the story is that if I want to continue to earn anything by taking surveys, I have to spend time at it!

Here is the list of my top five paying survey panels (January 2012):

  1. Opinion Outpost
  • Total Earned in January: $12.00
  • Total Earned since Joining: $331.60
  • Date Joined: December 13, 2010

Opinion Outpost was even more disappointing this month. Part of that is due to the fact that I did not check for new surveys often, and part of that from the fact that when I DID check, I disqualified for a much higher rate than was usual. Their Amazon.com reward option was up for a short time in the middle of the month, but promptly went down again.

Here is a screenshot of my recent Opinion Outpost redemption:
Hannah's January 2012 Opinion Outpost Amazon.com redemption

  1. Valued Opinions
  • Total Earned in January: $7.00
  • Total Earned since Joining: $15.50
  • Date Joined: September 21, 2011

I learned something very important about Valued Opinions this month… they do not always send out invitations via email. I logged in yesterday to check my balance, and found FOUR surveys waiting for me. I qualified for some of them, but that was the first time that I had found surveys without getting an email first. It makes me wonder how many others I missed out on by not logging in regularly. The nice thing about Valued Opinions is that every survey seems to have a good reward amount for the time spent. Surveys regularly are for $2 or more, much better than the pennies other companies pay. I still haven’t reached my first $20 payout, but I plan to log in more often and see if I can keep the income coming!

  1. GlobalTestMarket
  • Total Earned in January: $6.50
  • Total Earned since Joining: $48.25
  • Date Joined: November 3, 2011

I thought I would be able to cash out in January, but that didn’t happen. Instead, I found myself at 965 points, THIRTY-FIVE short of being able to cash out! Thankfully, I got a 30 point survey and an extra 20 points from a friend referral on February 1st, and that brought my total up to cashout level! I requested my first check and it should be arriving soon.
Here is a screenshot of the email confirming my cashout request:
Hannah's January GlobalTestMarket cashout request

  1. MySurvey
  • Total Earned in January: $6.27
  • Total Earned since Joining: $22.68
  • Date Joined: October 17, 2011

I received a few surveys this month, and was able to cash out, and am about a quarter of the way to cashing out again. MySurvey is definitely not one of my favorite sites, though, as I find that the surveys I qualify for tend to have low rewards for the time spent.

Here is a screenshot of my January 2012 MySurvey redemption:
Hannah's January 2012 MySurvey Redemption

  1. SurveyHead
  • Total Earned in January: $5.25
  • Total Earned since Joining: $81.15
  • Date Joined: November 2, 2011

I spent much less time at SurveyHead than I should this month. Every time that I did log in, there were tons of surveys waiting for me, but most were longer (40 minutes or more) and I didn’t feel I had the time to do them. If I had, this would have been a much better paying month! Regardless, enough of my older pending surveys became available that I was able to request another cashout.

Here is a screenshot of my recent SurveyHead PayPal redemption:
Hannah's January 2012 SurveyHead Redemption

Do you have a list of favorite survey panels?

Please leave a comment below and let us know some of the survey panels that work best for you.


 
Want to increase your survey earnings? Sign up for our free seven day ecourse and get exclusive tips from our survey experts.

 

{ 0 comments }

Product tests are another lucrative form of paid online surveys that not only pay you for using a product, but allow you to keep the extra product after the testing is over. Some of the items that are commonly sent for product tests are toilet paper, paper towels, frozen foods, cereal, breakfast bars, mixed nuts, powdered beverages, laundry detergent, laundry softener, dishwashing detergent, toothpaste, lotion, shampoo, conditioner, body wash and disposable/battery-operated razors. Most product tests pay you between $5 and $30, but some pay much more. Some of the more unusual product tests that I have seen include a $700 captioning phone for the deaf, which paid $30 and allowed me to keep the phone and $150 mystery shopping product test that required me to enter a cell phone store and pretend to be interested in buying a phone and phone service.

In most cases, the company will send you two different products, each labeled with a specific code, and ask you to test the first product first before trying the second. It is extremely important that you not only write down the code/s or not throw away the box, package or container that has the code written somewhere on it, but that you also not confuse the two products. After testing the first product for a week or so, you can put that one away for later use and move onto the second product. Usually, I have lots of both products left over after testing, especially lotions, shampoos and conditioners.

Companies are looking for an in-depth, honest, objective opinion concerning their products and the more attention you put into observing, analyzing and comparing the two products, the better they like it and the more likely you are to receive additional product tests from that company, Vague, obvious and indifferent opinions are not as useful. Some of the best survey sites for product tests are: MySurvey, Toluna, SurveySpot, IPSOS I-SAY, Valued Opinions, Pinecone Research, Mindfield Online, Global Opinion Panel/Synovate and 20/20 Research. My singular mystery shopping experience came through ShopTalk and I have yet to earn another dollar with them since November of last year. One last hint: if a survey appears to be a rather short one and asks about food allergies, then it’s a safe bet that it will be a product test.

{ 2 comments }

June was another busy month for me and I wasn’t as focused as I could have been on taking surveys, although I think I did pretty well. It’s summer time, so I’ve been out of the house a lot more doing recreational activities. We also just adopted a new cat, which has taken up a lot of my time.

Opinion Outpost and Global Test Market were my winners this month. I was disappointed with Toluna because of the lack of high-paying surveys and complete lack of Invokes. MyView and MySurvey were also a bit slow for me. I did add ZoomPanel to the mix mainly because I earn a lot of points with them and get a lot of surveys from them each week. Plus, I did cash out recently with them for a nice necklace. It’s too bad they don’t offer cash or gift cards.

SurveyHead and SurveySpot didn’t even make it on my list this month for numerous reasons. I don’t know why I bother with either panel anymore, but I do sometimes and I just don’t see any improvement. Qualifying gets more and more difficult with SurveyHead and most surveys are just too long and don’t pay enough with SurveySpot. They used to be such profitable survey panels for me, but not anymore.

Rankings are based mainly on what I earned for the month from each survey company, as well as the number of survey invites.

Here are my current top earners for June 2011:

  1. Opinion Outpost
    • Total Earned Since Joining: $550.00
    • Total Earned in June: $25.00
    • Last Payment Requested: $83.70 check on June 20, 2011/li>
    • Joined: August 12, 2008
  2. I didn’t receive as many surveys in June, nor did I qualify for many of the ones I received. It was kind of a disappointing month for Opinion Outpost, although I did cash out for quite a bit of money and received the check within a few days (they have always been very quick to send payment in my experience with them).

    They do have a new slot game that you can play after you disqualify for a survey with them. I can’t say I’m thrilled with it since I never win anything. I like the old way better where you could choose to donate money or see if you get an instant win of $50 (which I never got, but it was fun to try).

  3. GlobalTestMarket
    • Total Earned Since Joining: $350.00
    • Total Earned in June: $25.00
    • Last Payment Requested: $50.00 check on June 20, 2011
    • Joined: September 21, 2008
  4. I didn’t get as many surveys from Global Test Market in June, but it was still a good amount. I also cashed out recently. Qualifying has been okay for me. It really depends on how soon I take the survey after getting it via email. There were some pretty high-paying ones this month, though, which I did qualify for.

  5. Toluna
    • Total Earned Since Joining: $800.00
    • Total Earned in June: $20.00
    • Last Payment Requested: $20.00 check on June 20, 2011
    • Joined: August 15, 2008
  6. No Invokes in June, which saddens me. The amount of Invokes has really dried up in the past few months. I didn’t earn as many points as in previous months, either, as their surveys just aren’t worth that much anymore for the time invested. They also changed their quick polls and quick surveys page, which I don’t really like. They only display three quick surveys at a time now, which is a bit annoying and really slows things down for me as I like to take those to see if they lead to Invokes, which sometimes happens. It is more visually-appealing, though.

  7. MyView
    • Total Earned Since Joining: $330.00
    • Total Earned in June: $12.00
    • Last Payment Requested: $25.00 Amazon.com gift card on May 17, 2011
    • Joined: November 12, 2008
  8. I haven’t gotten many surveys from MyView in June. Some months are really good, while others are very slow with them. June just wasn’t my best month with them. I’m hoping to cash out with them for another $25.00 Amazon.com gift card in July.

  9. MySurvey (merged with Lightspeed)
    • Total Earned Since Joining: $485.00
    • Total Earned in June: $10.00
    • Last Payment Requested: $25.00 Amazon.com gift card on May 2, 2011
    • Joined: October 22, 2008
  10. MySurvey has also been slow for me in June. I get about 5-10 surveys from them each week, although qualifying can be hard at times. I’m hoping to cash out in July with them for another $25.00 Amazon.com gift card since I’m only a few points away from it.

  11. Valued Opinions
    • Total Earned Since Joining: $365.00
    • Total Earned in June: $10.00
    • Last Payment Requested: $20.00 Amazon.com gift card on April 27, 2011
    • Joined: September 5, 2008
  12. I got quite a number of surveys in June, though not as many as I had hoped for. I have been disqualifying for a lot lately, which is disappointing. I’m hoping to cash out again with them again in July.

  13. Synovate (Global Opinion Panel)
    • Total Earned Since Joining: $170.00
    • Total Earned in June: $10.00
    • Last Payment Requested: $25.00 check on April 15, 2011
    • Joined: August 15, 2009
  14. I still get a lot of surveys and product tests each month from Synovate. I’m hoping to cash out with them next month.

    One thing that irritated me about them in June, though, was a product test that involved two phone surveys. I got the first phone survey after a few calls, but after they couldn’t reach me for the second survey after calling a few times, they just gave up and stopped calling; nobody left a message about how to reach them, which is what survey companies usually do. I can’t answer the phone all the time, especially when I’m driving or in class, so that was disconcerting. I emailed Synovate about it, but never received a reply. Honestly, I’m not sure why I take part in phone surveys sometimes. They’re so archaic in this day and age of the Internet, plus the person reading out the questions usually says them so quickly and in a rushed, muffled voice that’s hard to understand that it’s hard to give a good, honest response. It makes me wonder why they just don’t do it over the Internet like everyone else since I think they would get much more honest answers to the questions. I think I’ll skip the phone surveys from now on unless I’m paid a lot of money. Phone tag is very frustrating.

  15. E-Rewards
    • Total Earned Since Joining: $135.00
    • Total Earned in May: $10.00
    • Last Payment Requested: $25.00 GameStop gift card on May, 23 2011
    • Joined: September 4, 2010
  16. I got a lot of surveys from E-Rewards in June. I’m hoping to cash out for another GameStop gift card in July or August.

  17. ZoomPanel
    • Total Earned Since Joining: 20,470 points(about $200)
    • Total Earned in June: $10.00 (roughly)
    • Last Payment Requested: Swarovski crystal heart pendant (retails at $90) on June 28, 2011
    • Joined: June 12, 2009
  18. I normally don’t list ZoomPanel in top 10 lists since I don’t earn cash or gift cards from them (they aren’t offered for me, although I know others have said gift cards are offered for them on their accounts, which is rather unfair). I did cash out for a nice Swarovski crystal heart necklace (that retails for about $90), so that’s the main reason I’m listing them this month. Plus, I do get a LOT of surveys from them each week that I mostly qualify for. It’s just a bummer they don’t offer cash (either PayPal or checks) or gift cards of any kind because I would rather cash out for those. Many of the prizes in their catalog are of poor quality or simply things I don’t need. They do add new things from time to time, though, like the necklace, which looked lovely. It just recently shipped out and I’m hoping to get it soon.

  19. Ipsos I-Say
    • Total Earned Since Joining: $135.00
    • Total Earned in June: $10.00
    • Last Payment Requested: $10.00 Amazon gift card on May 26, 2011
    • Joined: September 16, 2008
  20. I got a few product tests from Ipsos in June, so I earned more points with them. I’m hoping to cash out with them again in July.

Do you have a list of favorite survey panels?
Please leave a comment below and let us know some of the survey panels that work best for you.

{ 2 comments }

Survey-Taking Tips for College Students

April 7, 2011

Taking paid surveys is a great way to earn some extra cash while studying at college. I’ve been taking surveys for a few years now while doing my studies and that extra cash really comes in handy to help pay for expensive textbooks and other school supplies. It’s also great to having some extra spending [...]

Read the full article →

Paid Survey Panels for US Hispanic Residents

July 10, 2010

According to the US Census Bureau the estimated Hispanic population of the United States as of July 1, 2006 was 44.3 million, making people of Hispanic origin the nation’s largest ethnic or race minority. Hispanics constituted 15% of the United States total population. Hispanic population in the United States is growing faster than any other [...]

Read the full article →