Make Money from Surveys with Surveyhead

Companies across the world need to check out with consumers what we think about their products or advertising campaigns. After all, iIf they proceeded with developing products without even considering what their potential customers think then this could lead to financial failure. As a result these companies are willing to invest a great deal into finding out what we think. One way of doing this is through online surveys. The participants in surveys gain not only by gaining a sneak preview of upcoming products or new movies, but also receive a payment, either in the form of gifts or cash. There are various surveys sites available where you sign up and take part.

One such survey site is Surveyhead. Although the site is US based it offers surveys to people across the world. Each paid survey usually lasts between 15 to 20 minutes and are easy to follow.

Surveyhead offer a particularly wide range of rewards. Of course there is cash payable through Paypal, but as well as this there are MP3 downloads, merchant codes for many top brands and virtual gaming currencies for gaming communities and Facebook. To start you off you even get a $5 bonus just for signing up.

So why not help shape products of the future and earn yourself some extra money or one of the other various rewards available through taking surveys for cash at Surveyhead

Paid Surveys: Survey Panels to Avoid

To round off my look at paid surveys I thought I would talk about some survey panels that I think are best avoided. These are my opinions and I am sure there are other people who have differing views.

Vindale Research
Vindale advertise themselves as being a genuine market research company, but there are not entirely upfront about how they work. They claim to offer a high reward for many of their surveys, but what they don't tell you is that to participate in many of the surveys involves paying a fee to sign up with a company that you are giving your views on. The reward quoted includes the refund for the fee that you signed up with, which is why the figures are so high. I am not saying that you cannot make money with Vindale, because you clearly can, but I object to the fact that they are not entirely honest about what they do and how much money you can make. My personal view - avoid!!

Cashcrate
Cashcrate is possibly a rather contraversial inclusion as many people speak highly of them. However, I am not one of them. This is a site that is often described as being a survey site, but actually is about being paid to complete offers. For example, sign up for a free trial of X company a receive a reward. Of course, you have to remember to unsubscribe when the free trial period ends. There are also some "surveys" to take, but these seem to be about giving your e-mail address to various companies, so you can expect your spam count in your inbox to increase if you do any of these. Again, I personally would avoid!

A. W. Surveys
At this point I find myself breaking one of my golden rules by talking about a site I have never actually tried myself. However, a quick search on Google and browsing various forums and you will find that the word "scam" is frequently used in connection with A. W. Surveys. The consensus seems to be that after the welcome surveys, you don't receive many more. And of those people who do manage to reach the $75 payout, very few are actually paid. As I have said, I have never tried this site, but given their reputation I don't intend to!

Do you have any bad experiences with any survey sites? Leave your comments to share.

Can You Really Make Any Money From Suveys? The Good, Bad and the Ugly of Paid Surveys

For many people, taking online paid surveys is their first step into the world of making money online. Well that's how it was for me anyway. It has to be said that people have a range of experiences with survey panels, some good, some bad, and some positively ugly! So, what does doing paid surveys involve anyway? Well, in order for companies to understand what the views of consumers (that's you and me!) are, what they want, how they might view a particular new product idea, how they view particular advertising, etc. they need to go out and ask them. If they fail to do this and try and guess what the consumer wants, then there is a good chance their product will fail. Paid surveys are one way thay these companies can achieve this, and achieve it quickly.

The good thing for us is that it gives us the opportunity to make a little extra money, although often the rewards are not paid in cash but in vouchers or gifts. However, you should not expect to make vast sums from these surveys - most pay between $1 to $5 per survey. You may see ads suggesting you can make a living from doing surveys - all I can say is that this has not been my experience. And I belong to a lot of survey panels!

Most survey panels are about legitimate market research. These panels operate strict privacy policies and will not share your details with anyone and are not concerned with selling you anything. Some survey companies are actually more concerned with selling your details on to fill your inbox up with spam. There are also a few companies that present themselves as legitimate market research, but are actually about selling you stuff.


My Tips for Checking Out a Survey Panel

• Read through all the information on the website to check whether they are actually concerned with market research.
  
• Read the Terms and Conditions carefully
  
• Carefully read the Privacy Policy - if you see the phrase "we may share your details with trusted partners" (or somthing similar), then avoid.
• Read reviews of survey panels.

 Although I am not doing as many surveys as I used to due to lack of time, I still do them and they still bring in some useful extra cash. Personally, I think that it is certainly worth doing surveys for bringing some extra money, just don't give up the day job!!

I am intending to review the best survey panels (and couple of the worst) that I have used over the coming weeks. The experiences that I will describe will be mine and mine alone, so if you have a different experience then please leave a comment to let me know.

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.

Global Test Market

I have just reached the payout threshold of $50 for Global Test Market survey panel for the fist time. They are one of my favourite survey panels as they have plenty of surveys, they pay quite well and you do get a small payment of $0.25 if you are screened out of a particular survey. You can expect to generally receive between $1.50 to $6.00 for completed surveys, although occasionally you may receive more. Global Test Market are U.S. based, but they have surveys for residents worldwide. Certainly for me as a U.K. resident I have had plenty. They pay by cheque and for non U.S. residents they say that it takes around 6 weeks to arrive.

Unfortunately, Global Test Market do not provide a referral link and their affiliate programme is notoriously difficult to get into - they rejected me anyway!

To find out more and read more reviews click here.

Join Global Test Market.

Another Prize Draw Win!!

My second prize draw within the space of a couple of weeks! After never won anything before I have won again through GfK Consumer Surveys. Still not that big win that we all hope for - £5 Argos voucher time. Heading in the right direction anyway.

Vouchers arrived

Today was a good day for shopping vouchers from surveys. I received £10 worth for Marks and Spencers for Valued Opinions surveys and £2 Argos vouchers from my huge (not!) prize draw with GfK Consumer Panel. These will both go towards the Christmas fund I think.

Valued Opinions offer a good range of surveys and they are fairly frequent (although I tend to get screened out of quite a few). They are fairly well rewarded (typically £1.00/£1.50, sometimes more, sometimes less) and they payout at £10.00. Lots of options for vouchers - many of the main high street stores included. No option to receive your rewards in cash unfortunately.

Join Valued Opinions.

GfK seem to run various consumer panels, but the one that I tend to do most surveys for is GfK What I Buy as these tend to be a bit more interesting. They are purely for prize draws though and there are much bigger prizes available than the £2 voucher that I won!

Join GfK What I Buy.

Paid Surveys with Panelbase

I have been doing Panelbase surveys for about three months now and I have just reached the £10 payout threshold. They pay a generous £3 sign up bonus and their surveys generally pay quite well, although not that frequent. The surveys are the usual mix of consumer stuff. They also do surveys by SMS and phone, which they say they pay more for, although I've not had any of these yet. Panelbase also do focus groups - again I've not yet been invited to any of these. The rewards are in cash - payable by BACS or cheque. I have ordered my £10 by BACS today and they say it takes 7 days.

You can sign up to Panelbase here

Prize Draw Win!

Yesterday I had my first ever prize draw win from a survey! OK, so it was only a £2.00 voucher for Argos, and not the big prize that I was hoping for, but it's better than nothing. This one was from GfK Consumer Panel. I have been neglecting the purely prize draw surveys recently due to lack of time. Maybe I ought to try these again for a chance of that big win!

Lightspeed Survey Panel

I have had a couple of paid surveys from Lightspeed over yesterday and today. The first was about health and today's was about parenting. Lightspeed generally pay the equivalent of around £0.85 to £1.30, occasionally more. You have the option of redeeming points in exchange for gifts or cash paid via Paypal. The great thing about Lightspeed is that the minimum payout for cash is just £1.00 and your payment generally lands in your Paypal account within a week. Also you have the opportunity to be entered into prize draws by completing Mini Polls and "Quick Match" surveys. I am still waiting for that big win though!!!

You can join Lightspeed here.

Check out full reviews of free to join survey panels at Extra Cash Review.

You Gov Surveys

I have just completed another You Gov survey. This one was for a prize draw - I have never won anything ever in a prize draw, but you never know....... Most You Gov surveys are for a cash reward, usually between £0.50 to £1.00. You have to collect £50 before you can collect your money - I am only up to £6, so it may take a while. The surveys are usually a bit more interesting than some of the other survey panels though, so worth persevering. If you want to join You Gov you can do so by clicking here.

You read all my reviews of paid surveys panels by visiting my website, Extra Cash Review.