Step 1 -
Find a Free Paid Surveys Directory
There are several websites out there that will
try to get you to pay up to $60.00 for a paid survey directory. There is no
need to pay for a list of paid surveys. There are several websites that offer
this type of information for free and they can be found easily by searching
Step 2 -
Set up an email account just for your paid surveys
Once you have established yourself as a paid
survey panelist you will start to receive several invitations to participate in
paid surveys everyday. You don't want these emails getting mixed up with other
email accounts you may not often check. The best things to do is set up a free
email account at Yahoo, Hotmail, or Google and use it only for your paid
surveys.
Step 3 -
Join the Top 20 Paid Survey Panels
Anyone just starting out should always start by
joining the top 20 paid survey panels. These are the most popular survey panels
and also the ones that are known to send the most paid surveys on a regular
basis. You can easily find the top 20 survey panels by typing in top 20 paid
survey panels on any of the major search engines, like MSN.com or Google.
Step 4 -
Confirm Your Registrations
Sometimes a paid survey panel will send you a
confirmation email or follow up survey to check that you are really the person
that registered. Make sure you confirm all registrations. You may not be
considered an official panelist until you confirm your registration.
Step 5 -
Check Your Paid Survey Email Account Often
Several people may be invited to participate in a
paid survey. But sometimes there are only so many people needed. In order to
maximize your profits you want to be able to respond to a paid survey
invitation as soon as possible. Make sure you check your email at least once a
day.
Step 6 -
Take All Surveys
Alot of times you will be sent short surveys that
don't pay very much or only enter you into a drawing. This is very often a
survey to see if you fit the demographics for a more important and higher
paying survey. If you do you may be invited to participate in a high paying
survey or even a focus group or product test. This can be very profitable.
Step 7 -
Invite Others to Join
Several of the most popular paid survey panels
offer their panelists even more money for bringing in other panelists. These
companies are in constant need of new paid survey panelists as a lot of people
lose interest after a short period of time. You can make a lot of money
recruiting others. Some of these paid survey panels will pay you up to $4.00
just for getting someone else to sign up. These are some of the companies that
have referral programs:
Survey Club - $1.00 per referral
NFO My Survey - $1.50 per referral
Lightspeed Research - $.75 per referral
Survey Savvy - $.82 per survey taken from your
referrals
These are just a few. Most all of the top 20 paid
survey panels have some type of referral system. As you can see this money can
add up quick. An informative article or ad on a high traffic forum or message
board can easily bring lots of new sign ups.
Paid Surveys - Online Income or Just Hype?
Paid Surveys can be a legitimate source of online
income, but the hype surrounding paid surveys has made many individuals
skeptical of the online market research industry.
Online Paid surveys are hosted by market research
firms, and are an effective way to obtain consumer opinions from a wide variety
of people with different backgrounds. The concept of paying consumers to try
new products, or answer questions on new product ideas is not new, it is just
that the earnings promised to unsuspecting online individuals has been
exaggerated by some looking to make a quick buck.
With annual market research spending on the rise,
there has been an increased interest in using the Internet as a cost effective
means to gain targeted consumer opinions. As a result several prominent online
market research firms began to appear in the mid 1990's, and they formed online
panels that offered consumers paid surveys. Since that time however, several questionable
sites have appeared, hyping paid surveys as a means for financial freedom, and
using the concept of paid surveys to make money off the increasing number of
internet users. These sites usually charge a membership fee, which entitles you
to a list of marketing research firms that conduct online paid surveys. Many
claim to have the best list, and promote online surveys as a work at home job
with earnings of a $150 an hour or more to persuade you to pay their membership
fees.
The real truth though is that the paid survey
directory that they are trying to sell is made up of survey panels that are
free to join, and can be found by doing searches on the Internet. In addition
to the pay sites, many free sites have cropped up offering directories of
online paid survey panels. These sites often contain the same lists or
sometimes even better list than the sites with membership fees. The "free
sites" make their earnings from affiliate earnings offered by the market
research firms, and these sites can be a good way to get introduced to some of
the market research firms in the industry. While the sites offering free
directories are more honest than the pay sites, beware of sites that require
you to become a member, before they will give you access to the directory.
These sites will sometimes send you spam, or sell your contact info to
advertisers. If you are interested in taking paid surveys, my advice to you is
to find the market research firms yourself, or find a free site that has
detailed descriptions of the different survey panels and does not require you
to become a member to gain access. Sounds easy enough, but how do you find the
good sites?
Well the first thing you must understand that
while you can make some cash from taking online surveys, you must set reasonable
expectations. First of all, you must decide how much time you are willing to
dedicate to taking online surveys. Many of the survey directory sites boast
directories that contain 300 or more survey panels, and for the most part
that's true. The thing that you must understand is that not all of these sites
they advertise are true market research firms. Some of these sites are purely
advertisements, others are the "get paid to try sites", others offer
only sweepstakes entries for completed surveys, and the worst of all are simply
other sites that are trying to advertise the same directory listings.
Basically, there are about 20 to 50 sites that are worth joining, and doing so
will produce enough surveys to keep you busy two to three hours a day, or however
much time you want to spend.
So lets get to the main question everyone asks,
"How much can I make taking paid surveys?" Well the answer is it
depends, but most people can make anywhere from $50 to $300 a month taking
online surveys. Not exactly a fortune as some may promise, but it can be a form
of supplemental income and help pay a few bills. So if this sounds interesting
to you keep reading.
Okay so the expectations have been set, and you
know that you want to stick to the true market research firms, but how do you
know which ones are the best? Several free sites offer reviews and top online
paid surveys lists, and that can be a good place to start. Just be careful to
avoid sites that seem suspicious. Avoid sites that claim to host paid survey
panels, yet do not have company street address, contact information, etc. Here
are a several quality paid survey sites.
Greenfield Online
Greenfield Online serves the online data
collection needs of the largest research companies in the industry and helps
companies get closer to their consumers by gathering consumer feedback. They
represent over 300 marketing research firms and are considered one of the
leading online panel companies in the industry. They currently have over 1.7
million panel members. They accept international members, and they have a teen
surveys panel as well. They were established in 1994. They offer cash or cash
sweepstakes entries for each completed survey. $2, $5, and $10 dollar surveys
are very common, and they send frequent survey invitations to panel members.
GlobalTestMarket
GlobalTestMarket was founded in August 1999 as a
division of Global Market Insite, Inc. The intention was to develop a global
solution for companies who wish to conduct online consumer research across
multiple countries. GMI serves more than 300 clients in more than 40 countries.
They also accept panel members from all countries. GlobalTestMarket awards
Market Points in exchange for completing their online surveys. Each Market
Point has a value of $0.05 with a minimum cash-out of 1,000 points ( $50.00).
Each paid survey has a qualifying section. The good thing about them it is that
even if you don't qualify for the survey, you get a few points for your time.
Once you reach the 1,000 point level, you can login and redeem your points for
cash. They send frequent survey invitations, with the average survey ranging
from 50 to 300 points.
NFO MySurvey
NFO is one of the leading paid online survey
sites out there and accepts survey panelists from the continental United States, Canada
and the United Kingdom.
You must be at least 14 years of age to join. They use a points system where
100 points = $1.00 to reward for online survey participation. Points can also
be redeemed for prizes. For every day that you login to NFO you will get a free
entry into their quarterly $10,000 sweepstakes and a free entry into their
10,000 points a day giveaway. You can also earn additional 150 points for each
friend that you refer.
The main thing to remember is that taking paid
surveys can be a form of extra income, and as long as you keep your
expectations in line they can be a rewarding online activity.
The Truth About Online Surveys
There is so much mis-information regarding the
arena of 'getting paid for surveys' online. I cannot even begin to imagine all
of the things people believe about online surveys, but I'm here to clarify some
common misconceptions. Getting paid for online surveys has been around most
abundantly for the last 7 years online, often over-hyped to make it seem like
you can make an actual income doing them.
IMPOSSIBLE
CLAIMS, TAINT THE INDUSTRY
You cannot make an income doing 'online surveys',
in fact some statements about taking surveys are so outrageous that some people
don't even bother signing up for an online survey company, ever. Then they miss
making some 'on-the-side' cash, because it makes them seem illegitimate and
only there to harvest your email or spam you. The companies that usually make
these claims, are not the survey companies themselves, it's a website in the business
of promoting them for their own benefit, which is why they often deceive you
with claims.
In fact, it's places that get paid to promote
survey sites that get paid, when you sign up. To the tune of up to $3.00 per
person (called a lead), now just because they make money from it isn't wrong.
But what is, are the claims they make about them, like -- "Make $130/hr
doing online surveys, click here to start today". This is so insanely
outrageous that even if you think it's a scam, you'll still check it out.
Because they know, nothing is as alluring as money.
THE
TRUTH IS SHOWN TO DECEIVE YOU
If there is any truth at all about the outrageous
claims, it's that if you consider the average time it takes to complete a
survey and the average amount made taking a paid survey it can SEEM correct,
you can make $20 for doing an online survey that takes 15 - 25 min. But they
make it seem that you can do them constantly, which is not the case. What
surveys you get, and what you qualify for, all depend on whether you fit a
specific demographic or profile.
UNDERSTANDING
WHAT QUALIFIES YOU TO PARTICIPATE
Let me take a bit to explain what a demographic
is in terms of surveys. When qualifying for a survey it can depend on many
different factors; ethnicity, income bracket, gender, whether your pregnant,
own a car, you age, where you live, whether you have kids and what age your
kids are, or even a combination of the above. They even have surveys that
differ depending on what type of job you have, or whether your self-employed.
UNDERSTANDING
THE SURVEY PROCESS
When you sign up for companies to take surveys,
you can be rewarded with cash or prizes, but more often sweepstakes and draws.
But before you can get any of these things, the company will send you an email,
telling you there is a survey ready to be completed. These are usually screened
surveys, these questions allow whoever the survey companies client is, to
determine if your someone who fits into their target group (i.e. a person who's
demographic they are looking for), so they ask questions in these screened
surveys to see if you fit that profile. If you do, you are usually forwarded
off to a partner site to complete the actual survey. Sometimes the screened
surveys can be 10 minutes on their own, which is often frustrating, especially
if you aren't given something for your time. If you don't qualify, you are
'screened out', and they will tell you that you didn't fit the profile.
When you receive these survey invitations they
will usually tell you what type of compensation will be provided upon
completion of the survey, or they will tell you on the first page of entering
the survey screener. Very few companies pre-qualify you for surveys, so when
you receive them you are always stuck wasting your time to figure out if you do
qualify. I believe the industry could be helped, if the only survey invitations
we received, were for ones we are already qualified to take.
WHERE'S
MY MONEY?
Once you have complete a survey, for whatever
reward, it's usually up to you to claim it. In some cases you earn points to
redeem for prizes or rewards, or earn cash directly, and again, most often it's
only a cash draw or sweeps. To claim a reward, you must find out how many
points (whatever each company calls it) you will need to get your money or reward.
You can do this by logging into whatever company you belong to, and check
around, usually found in the member's area. Most places have a certain level
you must obtain before cashing out or requesting a reward. This covers the
question of where's my money, most people think the companies will
automatically send them money that they have earned upon completion, again, not
true.
SO IS
THERE A POINT TO DOING ONLINE SURVEYS?
There is some fun, and some cash to be had doing
surveys, and even some to be won. Yes, I won money from a survey company to the
tune of $100 but that isn't to be expected all the time, and draws are a
gamble. However, your odds are better in a draw where you have to take a survey
to enter, because it takes time, and your competing with less people overall.
There are a few quality sites, that pay you for doing surveys. Most often the
cash amount isn't very large, and sometimes it may be hard to determine how
much cash you'll earn, if they only tell you how many points you'll make (when they
actually equal cash), but some surveys also reward you with trying products to
test and evaluate, where you get to keep the product.
THE
REALITY
I suppose my answer to all this, is that you have
to be someone who enjoys taking surveys, seeing what will come to the market
before anyone else, and knowing your privy to information the general public
won't know about for some time, or maybe never at all. I think over the years
doing surveys, I have earned about $150 - $300 per year, if this amount seems worth
it to you, then I suggest you try and have some fun while your at it.
Just keep in mind, that the amount I get could be
less or more then you would get, my demographic is a very different demographic
from anyone else’s. Your demographic can be in high demand, but then again, it
might not.
The Advantages, Considerations and Risks of Employee Satisfaction Surveys
Although there are distinct advantages to
conducting regular employee satisfaction surveys online - there can also be
risks.
Listed here are some of the main advantages,
considerations and the possible risks to conducting employee satisfaction
surveys nline.
Advantages
Identify
Problems - Surveys are can be very effective in identify problems areas
before they become serious, especially those that are hidden from senior
management.
Working
Environment - From something small like a broken chair to the more
serious problem of sick building syndrome that can result in personnel
experiencing headaches; eye, nose, and throat irritation; a dry cough; dry or
itchy skin; dizziness and nausea; and difficulty in concentrating. Surveys
allow environmental problems to be identified in a measured and controlled
manner.
Remuneration
& Benefits - Measure and monitor how satisfied personnel are with
their remuneration and benefits.
Mood and
Moral - Provides a simple but effective method to measure and monitor
the mood and moral of an organization.
Benchmark
- In the same way that an organization will consider their financial position
by comparison with previous years, so the regular use of online surveys will
allow an organization to monitor and measure their progress and development in
non-financial terms.
Processes
& Procedures - As businesses evolve some of the traditional
processes and procedures can become antiquated, personnel are often the first
to know and the last to be asked. Businesses evolve and the business processes
need to be regularly re-aligned.
Training
- Lack of proper training is a common cause of dissatisfaction among employees
and can lead to more serious problems such as stress.
Communication
- For an organization to run efficiently good internal and external
communications are essential, surveys can provide a method to help
organizations to monitor and measure how well an organization communicates.
Goals and
Objectives - Surveys can measure and monitor the extent that the
personnel are aligned with the senior management's business goals and
objectives.
Cost
Effective - Using an online survey service such as surveygalaxy
surveys are quick and easy to create, simple to deploy and will provide
real-time results.
Compliance
- To properly comply with an ever increasing array of regulations the modern
organization needs to be able to disseminate information throughout the
organization and ensure, through records, that the information has been
received, and importantly, understood. Online surveys provide organization with
a cost effective method to meet many of their obligations.
Keeping
the Initiative - It is always better for management to ask than be told.
By conducting regular employee surveys management are able to keep the
initiative in trying to identify problems that may otherwise manifest into
demands.
Considerations
Management
Backing - A survey that is both sanctioned and has the support of senior
management will go some way in ensuring that any action required, based on the
survey findings, will be implemented.
Ask the
right questions - Consider careful the questions being asked. If
employees feel that the survey is just trying to tick the right boxes the
survey could backfire.
A survey that is to be conducted annually should
try and ask questions that will provide senior management with an overall
health check of the organization.
Avoid questions that will only apply to specific
departments or personnel. If some areas of the organization require detailed
investigation consider running separate one-off surveys that can be targeted at
specific personnel.
Incentive
- Most employees will feel that by being able to give their opinions
that they are already stakeholders in the exercise and will be happy to
participate in the survey as they will expect to benefit from the process.
However, some incentive may help improve the
overall response rate or could be used to encourage early participation.
Smaller incentives could be handed out to all
employees or all participating employees could be entered into a lottery to
receive a more substantial prize.
Anonymous
- The decision to allow respondents to remain anonymous or not needs careful
consideration. A survey that is conducted anonymously may allow employees to be
more candid, however, anonymity may encourage some individuals to make wild
accusations that can not be substantiated and cause considerable concern. When
in doubt it is often better to keep everything 'on the record' rather than
'off'.
Where survey respondents are known there is the
opportunity to chase for surveys that have not been completed and also to
follow up on some issues directly with those employees who have raised them as
problems.
Comments
- Keep free text comments to a minimum because they are difficult and time
consuming to measure and analyze.
Consider limiting free text comments to one at
the end of the survey or, in the case of surveys that are not being conducted
anonymously, allow for a post-survey follow-up to obtain more information where
additional and more specific detail is required.
Risks
Management
- Some managers can regard any form of employee consultation as a sign of
weakness and may have a tendency to dismiss out of hand any negative comment.
Warts and
All - A survey is likely to reveal warts and all. Senior management
should be prepared for discovering that the top down view can differ from the
bottom up view and that ignorance, of any identified problems, can no longer be
used as an excuse.
Non-Action
- Many employees will invest time and effort in participating in a survey and
their hopes and expectations will be raised. Any post-survey non-action is
likely to promote cynicism and jeopardize any future initiatives to obtain
employee feedback.
Management should formally respond to the issues
raised in surveys even if the demands of employees are not to be met. If senior
management agree to address and resolve some issues then action needs to have
started before any further survey is scheduled.
Can Cause
Problems - Where surveys reveal, or bring problems, to the surface there
could be a tendency for senior management to blame the messenger.
