Why Your Opinion Is Needed

 

First off, why do companies want to pay you for your opinion? This is pretty simple to answer. It's because major corporations are always interested in learning how they can improve on the products and services they offer. These companies desperately want to know what the average consumer likes, doesn't like, and wants more of so they can try to deliver on those things and make more money.

 

These same companies (many of which are very popular brands you’ve probably heard of) utilize the services of various data collection firms to help them gather the information they need from consumers like you and me. The data collection firms are the middle men. They are in charge of recruiting people for the surveys and getting people to register for their panels. When a company needs data, they'll go through the data collection firm to get it. The end result is that you may get a survey invitation in your email inbox and, if you qualify for and completes the survey, you'll get a payment or some type of incentive as thanks for your responses.

 

Taking surveys You Get To:

 

• Learning about new products and services before they're known the public. This makes you feel like a real "insider."

 

• The incentives, obviously. Even though you won't break the bank doing this, these little extras add up.

 

• The simplicity of surveys. If you can read and answer general questions, you are qualified to take surveys. Just about anyone can do this?

 

• I love when surveys are quick and easy. Sometimes you feel like you got paid very generously for doing next to nothing

 

The Survey-Taking Process from Beginning to End

 

A lot of people begin this whole survey thing with little to no understanding of how it actually works, which can lead to even more frustration because many of these panels don’t make that info very easy to find! So let me just break it down for you beginning with registering for a panel. If you already "get" this part, feel free to skip over it.

 

- Signing Up

 

First off, you find a survey panel and register as a member. As mentioned before, there are literally hundreds of panels you can sign up for and the exact process you go through will vary for each one, but this is generally how it works. Registering involves providing some very basic information like your name, address, email address, date of birth, and some demographic information. You may find some of the demographic questions to be on the personal side -- like for example your yearly income -- but the

Survey Company needs to know these things so they can better match you to surveys that come through.

 

You won't get invited for every single survey offered by the panel(s) you join – just the ones you may be a fit for. For example, some surveys may only require responses from women, who are pregnant, or men who are aged 40 to 55, or young adults whose cell phones that are 21 to 26. You get my drift.

 

- Getting Survey Invitations

 

After you have successfully registered as a member, you will at some point start receiving survey invitations. For just about every panel, these invitations will come to you via email or an alert from your smartphone if you have a survey app installed.

 

You won't always start getting invitations right away. Sometimes it will take a few days or longer after you register as a panel member to begin getting the invitations. This is why I recommend signing up for MANY panels -- so that you always have lots of survey invites waiting for you and will have shot at more money/incentives. But we’ll talk more about that later.

 

When you receive a survey invitation in your email, you'll notice there is a link inside that will take you to the survey along with details on the survey topic and how much it pays. Click the link in the email, and you'll probably start answering something called “screening questions." This is usually anywhere from 1-5 general questions that you have to answer in order for the survey company to determine you are a good "fit" for that survey.

 

- Screening Out/Qualifying for Surveys

 

If you fit the demographic needed, you'll get to continue and complete the full survey. If you don't, you'll probably get a message after you've answered several questions saying, "Sorry, but you don't match the demographic we're looking for," and you will not be allowed to proceed further.

 

As I stated, most of the time you'll know within just a couple of questions whether or not you'll be allowed to complete a survey, but sometimes it works out where you’ve spent ten minutes answering screening questions only to get booted. This is super frustrating, and if it happens to you, I'd recommend emailing the survey panel you answered the screening questions for and let them know that you feel you took half the survey only to get booted in the middle of it. Don't be shy about requesting some form of compensation for your time. Sometimes they will come through for you if you ask.

 

Another reason apart from screening out that you may not be allowed to complete survey is not getting to it fast enough. Most surveys only require a certain number of respondents. If you're late opening that email and all the responses needed have been gathered, you'll probably get a message when you click the link saying as much.

 

Finally sometimes there is "survey overlap." This happens because companies often go through more than one panel to get respondents. So if you are registered with multiple panels and a company is using two panels you are a member of for their survey, there's going to be a chance you already completed that survey for one panel meaning when you attempt the same survey for the other panel, you'll get booted out.

 

So understand that getting a survey invite in your email does NOT mean that you will be allowed to take the full survey and get paid. It just means you "might" get to. However, there are a few really stellar panels that pre-qualify you, so you never run into this problem. But most don't work that way. The screening questions are a source of constant frustration for many survey takers. It seems more often than not, you don’t fit the demographic and you get frustrated because you still had to answer several questions for them to determine that. But, that's just part of doing this.

 

IF you meet the demographic needed, you'll be allowed to take the entire survey from start to finish. The length of the survey will vary as will how much you earn. All of this just depends on the panel and how it is structured as well as what the survey is about. Some surveys will seem like they drag on too long to be worth the money/incentive while others seem quick and easy and will make you feel like you earned a quick buck

For doing next to nothing!

 

How You Get Paid

 

When you complete a survey, you'll receive some information at the end about your earnings or incentives. Again, all panels work differently, but most do not pay you right away. There are many panels that pay in cash and a growing number that are starting to pay in something called "redeemable points." We'll break down both methods below.

 

Cash Surveys

 

These are my favorite for obvious reasons. When you register with a panel that pays primarily in cash, you will usually know before you even begin the survey how much actual cash you'll get for completing it if you qualify. Some of these panels will pay you the full amount for each survey within anywhere from a day to a month after you finish it, while others have a minimum cash out amount you'll have to reach before you can get paid.

 

For example, some panels won't pay you until you've earned, say, $5. With these panels, it's important to log in regularly and keep tabs on your balance so you'll know when you can request your earnings. Most of the "minimum cash out" panels won’t send you your money automatically once you reach the threshold. You have to manually go in and ask for it.

With the panels that pay per survey, when you get your money will depend on the panel. I know of a few panels that pay within 48 hours and others that only pay everything once a month.

 

As far as the method of payment is concerned, most panels appear to be paying with PayPal now. If you don't already have a PayPal account, you will need to get one before you start doing this whole survey thing since there are so many panels where that is the only method of payment. PayPal is very easy to register for and it's free. And getting your hands on your actual money is easy because you can request to have it sent to your bank from PayPal, mailed to you as a check, or if you have a PayPal debit card, you can just spend it anytime with that.

 

There are a few other panels that still at least offer the mailed check option, but I am seeing this less and less now. Most panels are reverting to either PayPal payments or they’re doing the point’s thing where you can choose what to redeem your points for. More on that below.

 

Points Panels

 

A lot of veteran survey takers like me really don't like the "pay in points" trend. However, there are still some really quality panels that use the points method that I would still recommend because a.) They are generous with the points they give you, and b.) They have lots of great things to redeem for, like Amazon codes and also PayPal cash! Most of the panels that pay in points do let you redeem them for PayPal cash -- making them almost a cash panel.

If you're taking a survey for a point’s panel, you'll usually get the points credited to your panel account immediately after you finish a survey. You can then log in and keep tabs on your points balance so you'll know when you can redeem them for something. Most of the point’s panels have lots of different rewards you can choose from, and each reward will cost a certain number of points. For example, some panels might offer $5

Amazon gift codes that you can get for, say, 500 points. Or they might have $10 in PayPal cash that you can ask for once you have 1000 points.

 

Lots of people decide they want to let their points accumulate so they can redeem for something really nice, but if you decide to do this -- be careful! Many points’ panels place expiration dates on your points. So if you wait too long to redeem, they may not be there anymore. Make sure you familiarize yourself with the policies of each panel you register with so you don't end up missing out any money or rewards.

 

Getting Yourself Set Up For Surveys

 

Before you begin taking surveys for cash, there are a couple of things you need to do first. I already mentioned one above -- get yourself a PayPal account if you don’t already have one.

 

The other important thing to do is set up a separate email account just for your survey invites. When you register for the many panels I'm going to recommend to you later in the book, you will want to use your survey email address when you sign up. This is because after you've registered for more than five or six panels; your inbox is going to start getting much cluttered with invitations. I've always found it much easier to have these invites go to a different account than my personal email so that if I feel

Like taking some surveys, I can just log in at any time and see what's there. The invites won't always be staring me in the face every time I log in to my personal email. This is worth a lot because you aren't going to always be in the mood for these surveys. Sometimes I'm in a "survey mood," and other times it's the absolute last thing I feel like doing.

 

Many people have asked me if registering for all these different panels means that they’re going to start getting lots of junk mail. If you're signing up with well-known, reputable panels, junk mail should not be a problem. Reputable panels aren't going to be sharing your email address with third parties. But if you're still concerned about junk mail, this is all the more reason to separate your survey invites from your personal email.