Online Surveys: Money Makers or Time Wasters?
I’ve put my online survey-taking on hold for two simple reason: time and money.
While I haven’t sworn off paid online surveys completely, I’ve become highly selective as to which surveys I complete. Far too many surveys offer far too little compensation for the time commitment involved.
Early on, I came to the conclusion that any survey that offers only a “chance” to be remunerated wasn’t worth taking. There’s no reason bother with a survey that offers the vague potential of a prize rather than a concrete sum.
Two dollars for five minutes of time isn’t too much to ask.
I’ve also steered away from surveys that accumulate points towards prizes. With one online survey company (that shall not be named), I found that the merchant coupon I earned was not valid for items that were on sale–it merely offered a reduction against the full retail price. Not a good thing.
Consequently, my participation in online surveys has dwindled to near nil …
4 Comments
Barry
April 14th, 2009
at 8:17am
One company seems to offer $ for a survey but the slways seems to be ‘full” or not availabel for some reason-like you I have cut way back on that kind of timewasting.
angela
April 15th, 2009
at 1:58am
Not every paid survey company will suit everybody. They all have different ways of working, differently styled interfaces, different tight/er criteria. Then there are those that invite you to every one then test if you qualify or not, or those that are targetted at your demographic before you fill out the paid survey.
Paid surveys are a great way to earn pocket money. For somebody who has an interest in giving their opinion, or nothering better to do with their time, then they can add up to being fun/good money over the year.
If you pick the cash only paid surveys and join every company you can, then spend the next 3 months or so filtering out the good, the bad and the ugly for you and your demographic, then you will end up with a smaller set of surveys that are worthwhile doing.
If you’re looking for a full-time income, then surveys are a nice little bit of recreational cash, but you’d need to find other things to do.
Personally, points/prizes don’t appeal to me. Cash is king in my book – but it’s different strokes for different folks!
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April 15th, 2009
at 2:39am
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JFK
November 13th, 2009
at 8:30pm
Tried it. Never qualified for most of them. And their password system to register, mysteriously, could not be found. And customer service side stepped my e-mail for it. Paid Surverys? Useless. More legit surveys require you to go in and test products in focus groups. Those type of surveys can sometimes be fun and rewarding.