Paid Survey Sites: My Review

I joined many paid survey panels back in June and July before I started this Diary, trying to collect some extra money in my pocket once in a while. At the beginning I really had fun doing some of the surveys and was happy to get paid for a few bucks for 10 to 20 minutes of time. I never thought I will make it a big deal but I love free money (well, they are not really free because you do have to spend some time), big or small. I just take whatever comes to me (will you take the survey if it pays you $2 for 20 minutes of your time?). Actually, at one time, I felt I didn’t pretty good, making more than $100 in a month. In the last couple of months, however, the pace slowed down. Also, I no long spend as much time as I used to on surveys recently as this Diary takes most of my spare time every day.

So far, I have made:

• $151 from SurveySpot
  • This is so far my largest resource for free money and it’s also one of my favorites.
    • Multiple invitations on an almost daily basis
    • Has more cash-reward opportunities than any other survey providers I am using
    • Relatively easier to qualify for full survey than other places as well
    • Payout amount from $3 to $10, with $3 being the most cases
    • Reasonable amount of time for each survey (10 to 20+ minutes)
    • Minimum payment $5 and have to request the check
    • Customer service not very good (once I sent them an email for a survey related question, they didn’t response for more than 10 days and when they did response they told me they lost my original email and asked to repeat it. I then decided to forget about it)
    • No Paypal service
• $103 from Greenfield Online
  • I used to use it a lot but not recently though it had earned me more than 100 dollars so far
    • Multiple invitations every day, but almost all of them only reward sweepstake entries
    • Payout amount is low, many only pay $1 for 20+ minutes, which I think not worth the time
    • Once in a while, they have interactive survey opportunities (real time, takes about 60 to 90 minutes) for $20 to $25 if qualify
    • Difficult to qualify (sometime I felt I was rejected with apparent reasons)
    • Has problems with recording the survey results
    • Good customer service, quick response
    • Length check processing time (6 to 8 weeks to get the check) and have to request the check
    • Paypal not available yet
• $64.20 from GlobalTestMarket
  • Another one of my favorites
    • Survey invitations quite often (several a week)
    • Rewards points which can be redeemed for cash
    • Points per survey usually range from 50 to 75 points in most cases
    • 1 point = 5 cents, second highest among providers I use that reward survey points
    • Guaranteed 5 points even don’t qualify for the full survey
    • Minimum payment 1000 points and have to request the check
• $38 from Your2Cents
  • It’s an OK place
    • Only sends cash-reward invitations, but not many
    • Rewards vary even qualify ($1 to $3, $1 to $5, or $1 to $10)
    • $1 bonus reward towards next completed survey for filling out your profile (total 6 profiles)
    • You only know how much you will get at the end of the survey
    • Have to request the check, no Paypal service
    • $5 minimum payment
• $30 from Pinecone Research
  • Another my favorite provider
    • Once join the panel, automatically qualify for their surveys
    • However, not many opportunities
    • Pay $5 for every survey (though I completed every survey, it seems that they issue the check even before I finish the survey)
    • Automatic payment, no request needed
    • Paypal payment now available
• $20 from Brand Institute
  • Another good provider
    • Usually pays $2 fixed amount, no matter how long the survey actually takes
    • Most surveys are about 30 minutes
    • Not many opportunities (once or twice a month maybe)
    • Many surveys (at least those I took) are medicine related
    • Automatic payment 6 weeks after completing the survey, no payment request needed
    • Pay via Paypal
• $20 from American Consumer Opinion
  • I only got a couple of invitations when I first enrolled. Didn’t get any in the past 2+ months. Cash only rewards.
• $8 from SurveySavvy
  • Same as American Consumer Opinion, I haven’t got any survey for more than 2 months. Cash only rewards.

I also joined Opinion Outpost, MySurvey, and Lightspeed Panel, but haven’t made any money from them as they all reward points for completed surveys and the minimum points to redeem for cash is 1000 (except Opinion Outpost which requires 50 points), a threshold I haven’t reached yet. For Opinion Outpost, you will get $1 for every 10 points (that’s 10 cents per point, better than GlobalTestMarket). For Lightspeed Panel, 1150 points can be redeemed for $10 Paypal cash. A $10 Amazon e-certificate costs only 1100 points.

Some tricks

All other providers will send you an email invitation when there’s a survey available. So if you log into your online account, you probably won’t find anything other than you already knew: your history, what’s available, etc. Not so for SurveySpot and Greenfield. For these two, there are many cash-paying opportunities that are not sent to you by email. That means you have to log into your account quite often to find them. And if you refresh your page, you may see more of those opportunities showing up :D!

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