OK, so it was only a matter of time before I decided to try out the online surveys for money and freebies, right?! Well, I'm experimenting & will let you know what I find out along the way. If you have experiences to share, please feel free to leave a comment here so we can all stop wondering if this idea really works! In experimenting, I'm actually getting spam calls on my cell phone - that's a new level of "oops" for me . . . not sure exactly where that occurred, or whether it was from multiple sites.
As far as I can tell a week or so into this, your best case scenario will probably be an earning average of maybe $1-$5 per hour, and that doesn't count the time you spend NOT qualifying for a survey. It's a surer thing than a sweepstakes, though . . . great idea on how to cope with insomnia (if you ignore the whole no-screen-time-before-bed idea) or if you have some time to play online - some of them give you sneak peeks of something coming soon (like new Chili's menu items - that one made me hungry) or new ideas for products, etc. I should also mention that it seems like the longer & more involved you've been with an individual group, the better surveys they give you and the better the payoff seems to be . . . I might be close to minimum wage on the more recent stuff . . . maybe ;-) Then again, I can fit it in with Mandy here, whenever it works - figure in childcare savings and it looks a lot better!
Other times that this might be useful is if you're looking for work, on a leave of absence where you have to be stationary more than you'd like, if you're home to monitor a sick child who's sleeping, if you have internet access from a mobile phone on a plane trip or car ride or waiting for something . . . there are ways it could be an added-benefit thing for some, but probably not for everyone.
- Swag surveys - Swag is offering "safe surveys" for swag bucks to it's members & have apparently thoroughly researched it. It's a new feature, but Swag has been great to work with. So far, I have been able to complete several surveys, but also earned over 200 points just by filling out my profile sections, which have amounted to 3 $5 e-gift cards to Amazon so far when combined with my previous points. If you're interested in Swagbucks, please click on the link on the right side of the page & I'll get referral credits if you sign up, plus you get all the normal benefits. I like these Surveys because I'm so partial to Swag in general, and it accumulates along with points I'm accumulating other ways - feels like more immediate payoff to me . . . It has amounted to more payoff than any of the others for me, so far.
- Panda Research - This one came across as very reputable, initially. It totally irritated me. All the "surveys" were really just the "participation required" sites . . . I avoid those like the plague, so why would I want to be part of a program that encourages them?! They result in tons of Spam, etc.
- My Shop Discounts/Rewards - same deal as above
- ECN Research - "get paid for reading e-mail" is another way of saying "Spam" and I'm pretty sure the information is disseminated from there, although I have no proof. Clicking on one of them spurred my Norton to tell me that there were 2 computer threats from the page. It also gave me lots of "job offer" e-mails . . . I'm not finding much benefit to this one . . .
- Opinion Outpost - I'm signed up and haven't noticed considerable Spam or anything. However, I have only been able to do one survey, and this was one of the first I tried . . .
- Toluna - I'm reserving judgement for now - I'm racking up points, but am not sure exactly what the reward will be and whether or not it will be worth it . . . If it works out, I'll let people know & ask that you let me refer you for the points. You can also do quick little polls that earn points. You need 60,000 points to get anything, though. You can get daily points and they are adding up faster as I go.
- Dollar Surveys - this one asks for your e-mail address, so they send the money about once a week to your PayPal account. The upside is that you get it quicker. They pay $1 per survey, thus the name . . . Some of them are labeled "special instructions" and require you to sign up for something - maybe just a newlsetter. Others are the standar surverys - not bad & no limit on how many you can do each day . . . Today, I did one that took about an hour - that's a lot of time for a dollar . . . They all vary, though . . . I got a Paypal payment, now - PayPal doesn't take a cut of these payments, either . . .
- SurveyPro - with limited experience, this seems like a "participation required" kind of group - I'm not impressed at this point.
- SurveySpot - this one has been pretty good, but they send out LOTS of invites to your e-mail to do surveys . . . not sure how good the payoff is as of yet, though . . . seems similar to Toluna, but you do get some participation required stuff (that's easy to skip through) along with legitimate surveys.
- Internet Survey Search/National Survey Search and Rewards TV - Whoa!!! Lots of pop-up spam. I tried to close the screen & got asked "are you sure" in a variety of ways about 6 times . . . I'M SURE!
- Fusion - This one is in between. There are the participation requires & other things on there, but not exactly surveys . . . I'm not as impressed or irritated with this one - neutral
Hope you're having fun & getting fun things in the mail or fun, low totals on your shopping or both!
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