Reviews of the Best Survey Panels - The Best of The Rest

Now that I have reviewed my top five survey panels, I thought I would give a mention to a few others that I like. I apologize for the UK bias to this, but this is where I live and I can only review from my own experience:

    

Panelbase
Panelbase offer a consumer related surveys for which you are rewarded in cash. Payout is at £10 which is paid directly into your bank account. The only downside is that surveys are not that frequent (monthly on average). They are one of quickest panels to payout - you will receive your money within 7 days of requesting it.

YouGov
YouGov is an international survey panel who offer surveys based on political opinions, social attitudes and views on various brands. Rewards are in the form of cash, although some are for an entry into a prize draw. Surveys are rather infrequent (monthly on average).

Opinium

Opinium is a UK based survey panel that offers short surveys on politics and social issues. Surveys are usually monthly on average.

One Poll
One Poll is UK based panel and is quite unlike any other survey panel that I have ever come across. The surveys are very short - they are always on a single page so you can see how long they are before you start. The rewards are in cash, although very small for each survey. Having said that there are new surveys daily and it only takes a couple of minutes per survey. They are generally based on a variety of social attitude type topics, so more interesting than the usual consumer related ones.

Reviews of the Best Survey Panels #5 - Ipsos

Ipsos is another of my favourite survey panels. Ipsos Mori are a respected and well established consumer research company so you can be sure that the survey invites that you participate in are genuine market research. Invites are sent by e-mail and, as you have the opportunity to sign up all members of your household, will be targetted towards the most appropriate person to complete. They tend to focus on consumer issues, so they are generally seeking your views on a particular brand, or on a new product, or an advertising campaign, and so on.

The surveys are generally well put together and, unlike most other panels, if you lose interest in the survey, or your PC crashes mid survey, you can usually come back later and complete it where you left off.

In return for completing the surveys you are rewarded with points which you can then trade in for gift vouchers. The only down side is that real money is not an option for your rewards, but there are wide range of vouchers available.

Ipsos is an international panel and available in many countries around the world.

Reviews of the Best Survey Panels #4 - Toluna

Toluna is different from most other survey panels in that the site allows you to register to test products at home. Once you have tested the product you are invited to give your opinion. The site also has a community element to it in that there are polls you can vote on and submit your own polls if you want to.

But, as for the surveys, I receive these almost daily, although I do get screened out of many of these. For each survey you will receive points which you can ultimately trade in for a range of shopping vouchers. The surveys are varied, but usually consumer related but cover a wide range of topics from movies to toothpaste! The main downside is that you do not have any option to receive cash. I personally trade my points in for Amazon e-vouchers which I then put towards our Christmas fund.

Toluna is available to residents of the US, Canada, the UK and most of Europe.

Reviews of the Best Survey Panels #3 - New Vista

New Vista, formerly known as It's Your View, is a UK based survey panel. They offer a variety of consumer market research and lifestyle surveys which are easy to complete. Sign up is easy, but restricted to residents of the UK. Although they are not an international panel I have included them in this series because they are one of the best paying - they say that they pay £1 per approximately five minutes spent. This better than most other panels, although the down side is that the payment threshold is £50, so it takes a little while before you see any of your money. Surveys are also not as frequent as many other panels (I receive around two surveys per month), but the rate of screen out is much lower.

With all surveys you need to exercise care in completing them. However, with New Vista you need to be particularly careful as they include some questions to check out just how much care you are taking. If your answers conflict with each other then you will not receive your reward.

I think that New Vista are well worth doing surveys with as the rewards are that much higher than other panels.

Reviews of the Best Survey Panels #2 - Global Test Market

Global Test Market are an international survey panel who offer regular market research surveys for which you are rewarded with Marketpoints. Once you reach 1000 points you can trade them in for cash - each point is worth $0.05, so 1000 point is $50. The surveys are mixture of views on products, advertising and movies. Like most survey panels you can expect to be screened out of many of the surveys you are offered, the difference here is that you will still receive 5 points if you are not eligible - not much, but it all counts.

Signing up is easy. There are a number of short profiling surveys on the site which they say helps match you with surveys. To be honest, I don't know how much difference these make, but I try and keep mine up to date anyway.

You will be sent your survey invitation by e-mail and it is just a case of clicking on the link. Alternatively you can log into the site and access them from there. When you redeem your points you will receive your payment by cheque converted into your local currency, although it this can take several weeks to arrive.

I have found Global Test Market to be one of the most reliable survey panels around and survey invitations are very regular.

Reviews of the Best Survey Panels #1 - Review of Lightspeed Surveys

I thought I would start my series of reviews of the best survey panels with Lightspeed. OK, so I have reviewed them here before, but it makes sense to cover them within this series as I have found them to be one of the best. Signing up is straightforward, and then you will soon start receiving surveys. The surveys you receive are genuine market research, generally asking your opinions on existing products, new product ideas or on advertising.

You will be informed of new surveys by e-mail, but you can also log into the website to see what surveys are available. On the website you will also see minipolls for which you are entered into prize draws (no, I have never won anything!) and short match surveys which help to match you with future surveys.

For each surveys you will be rewarded with points - unlike most other survey panels you are credited with these points instantly. You can then trade in the points for gifts or cash via Paypal. If you choose to take the cash option, there is a very low payment threshold (here in the UK you can cash your points at just £1) and you will receive your cash within 7 days.

Lightspeed is an international panel and is open to participants from many parts of the world.

Make Money with Surveys at Ipsos

Ipsos surveys are a well respected and well established survey panel. They have separate panels for the UK, US and Germany. The surveys are on a range of consumer topics and are very regular - you can expect 2 to 3 per week. For each survey you earn points which can then be exchanged for vouchers at a good range of high street shops. They also have a low payout threshold (just £2 for the UK panel) so you can get your hands on your vouchers quickly. I have had a number of payouts from Ipsos and personally I put the vouchers towards our Christmas fund, but with such a large choice of vouchers to choose from you can spend them as you like!

Review of Ipoints Rewards

Ipoints is a rewards program that allows you to earn points through a number of means which you can then spend for a huge variety of goods, including gift vouchers. The great thing about Ipoints
is that is a variety of ways in which you can earn points. You can earn points by:

• Cashback shopping on the Ipoints site - this includes signing up for free offers to earn points.
• Clicking on Reward Mail
• Completing Ipoints surveys.
• Completing surveys with Surveys.com and Consumer Link

The variety of ways in which you can earn points means that you can accumulate them quite quickly. The downside of Ipoints is that cash is not available as a reward.

Ipoints operates solely in the UK.

Review of Panelbase Surveys

Panelbase is a UK based survey panel, although they are looking to expand their activities to the U.S., Canada and beyond. Just for signing up you will receive £3. Surveys are not that frequent - expect 1 to 2 per month, although they are reasonably well paid (usually between £1 to £2, sometimes more). You are also able to opt-in to receiving surveys by phone and SMS, and also receive invitations to focus groups. I personally have only received one phone survey, and no SMS surveys or focus groups yet. You can cash out when your account reaches £10.00 and it is paid directly into your bank account. I have cashed out twice and both times I received my payment within 7 days. The surveys are the usual consumer stuff; most of the ones I have had recently have been giving my views about radio adverts. The screen out is low and you are entered into a prize draw if you are screened out.

Overall, I would say that Panelbase are worth signing up with - although not as frequent as many others, they pay well and are reliable.