Wow, it's been a long time since I wrote! So much for reviewing one survey company each week!
Well, I've been pretty busy the last few weeks. I've had more sales on my Etsy site, and I also opened a second shop! Now my first shop, Sara's Handmades, is selling my hand painted baby name signs, and the new one, Sweet Baby Mine by Sara's Handmades, is selling fun and unique baby gifts! I'd love it if everyone checked it out and let me know what you all think! I'll provide the links to both at the end of this and every post!
And on to a surveys update. I haven't even had the chance to take many surveys in the past few weeks! Currently, my inbox has (no joke) 95 unread survey e-mails in it dating back to March 23rd. My plan is to start on the most recent ones first. The older ones are most likely closed. I've learned that if you don't get to them immediately, start with the most recent, because those are the most likely to be open still.
Here's my recap for March:
I had a couple of good days in March that I want to mention. On the 5th, I made $6.52. On the 18th, it was $7.71. And finally on the 24th I made $9.02! I also had 6 payouts throughout the month from different sites for a total of $52.00. Not a bad month if I do say so myself!
Again, I want to remind everyone that this is what should be expected. You will not get rich from doing online surveys. Just a little extra spending money. Maybe enough to take care of a bill. Or maybe buy a little something for yourself. Don't get sucked in to the offers out there that claim you can make a ton of money for little or no effort! If that was the case, why wouldn't everyone be doing it?
Thanks for reading again! I'm working on compiling some information on another site so I can share my findings and experiences! Hopefully I can get that up here soon and still get things done in my stores! Busy busy busy!
Sara
http://sarashandmades.etsy.com/
http://sweetbabyminebysh.etsy.com/
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Toluna
Ahh, Toluna. What can I say about them? Toluna was my first ever survey site. My dad had been telling me to try signing up for online surveys, and he said he had used Greenfield Online awhile back. Well, I finally decided to follow his advice and checked it out. It turned out Toluna had merged with Greenfield, so I signed up with them!
From what I can remember, it was a pretty easy sign up. They didn't ask for anything too personal. I did give them my address, but they mail you your checks when you get pay outs, so obviously they need to know where to send them!
Also, make sure if you sign up for this or any other survey site, fill out the profile questions! It will help them to make sure you qualify for the maximum number of surveys. That way, they'll be less likely to send you an invite for something related to elderly people when you're 30, for example.
Here are the details about Toluna:
Amount Earned:
In total, I have earned $87.16 from Toluna since signing up with them on November 13th, 2010. Not too bad for 4 months work. That averages out to just over $20.00 each month. I have completed 87 surveys in that time, which averages out to just about $1.00 a survey. This is lower than many of the other sites I use, but see below in the "Positives" section to find out why I still use them.
Payouts:
Payouts in cash can occur once you get $20.00 earned. This is equal to 60,000 Toluna points. They mail you a check when you redeem your points. They do not currently offer PayPal. I have gotten 4 payouts so far, 3 of which I have received and seem to take around 3 weeks to get after you redeem. I just cashed out for the 4th time 10 days ago, so I haven't gotten that check yet.
If you're not looking for cash, you can also redeem your points for vouchers of various types, sweepstakes entries, or Billboard music downloads. Many of those options require smaller amounts of points, so you can see your earnings faster.
Surveys:
I probably receive more survey invites from Toluna than any of my other sites. An e-mail is sent to you whenever they have one they think you might qualify for. I've seen point ranging anywhere from 1,200 to 15,000 or more ($.40 to $5.00). The majority of the ones I qualify for and complete are either 1,800 or 3,000. I do occasionally get a 6,000 pointer, and yesterday I finished one for 12,000!
On the down side, I have attempted to take 350 other surveys in the past 3 months that I have not qualified for. Usually you test out after a few questions, so it doesn't take up much time, but expect to qualify for 20% or so of the invites you get, unless you are in a minority group that many companies are interested in. The up side of this is that for each survey you attempt and test out of, you get a sweepstakes entry where you could win one of the $4,500 prizes each month. Of course it's not too likely that you'll win, but you never know!
Since it's early in my blog, I should briefly talk about testing out. Many times the company the survey is for is looking for the opinions of a select group of people. Call it their "Target Audience". For example, I have a 10 month old son. A baby food company would love to interview me about my baby food preference, but they probably aren't interested in the opinions of an unmarried 20 year old with no children, or a middle-aged someone with all of their children in college or older.
Another thing I should mention about Toluna's surveys is the amount of time it takes to post points. For me, it seems like the more points involved, the longer they take to post. For awhile, smaller points would post the next business day. Lately it's been a few days, and higher valued surveys can take a few weeks. Typically, this seems to be because the surveyors evaluate the surveys received, check for errors (yes, they monitor them to see if people are rushing through and not paying attention), and sometimes wait until the survey closes to post the points. This is fairly typical of other survey sites as well.
Finally, Toluna allows you to find your own surveys by answering a few qualifying questions on the My Surveys tab, and by answering some of the poll questions people ask on the home page. If you have free time and really want to take a survey, or are close to cashing out and don't want to wait until you qualify for another invite, this is great! Just plug away at it until you find one! You can also earn small amounts of points in the process by answering those poll questions.
Other Things To Know:
Toluna also has a product test area. Every now and then, you can sign up to be chosen to test a product. You put your name in and answer just a couple of questions, and they choose a specified number of people to test the product at random! It's usually small things, but they've done big ticket electronics items in the past!
They are the only site I know of that has a sort of online community. You are able to post questions for others to ponder and have people leave comments on it. You may even be able to earn bonus points for having a question enough people post replies to, or by giving a good response to another person's question.
You can earn a few extra points by referring friends. Any time you refer a friend, you can earn 500 points.
Positives:
In short, yes. I have had a good experience with Toluna so far, and I have earned more with them than any other site. They are also the most consistent with the frequency of survey invites. This is a good site to be a member of to earn a little extra money here and there.
Have more questions? See Toluna's FAQ here: http://us.toluna.com/help
Ready to sign up? Here's the home page! http://us.toluna.com/Default.aspx
I hope this helps someone decide whether or not this site is worth their time! Let me know in the comments if you have any other questions that weren't answered by either this post or the FAQ!
Thanks for reading!
Sara
http://sarashandmades.etsy.com
From what I can remember, it was a pretty easy sign up. They didn't ask for anything too personal. I did give them my address, but they mail you your checks when you get pay outs, so obviously they need to know where to send them!
Also, make sure if you sign up for this or any other survey site, fill out the profile questions! It will help them to make sure you qualify for the maximum number of surveys. That way, they'll be less likely to send you an invite for something related to elderly people when you're 30, for example.
Here are the details about Toluna:
Amount Earned:
In total, I have earned $87.16 from Toluna since signing up with them on November 13th, 2010. Not too bad for 4 months work. That averages out to just over $20.00 each month. I have completed 87 surveys in that time, which averages out to just about $1.00 a survey. This is lower than many of the other sites I use, but see below in the "Positives" section to find out why I still use them.
Payouts:
Payouts in cash can occur once you get $20.00 earned. This is equal to 60,000 Toluna points. They mail you a check when you redeem your points. They do not currently offer PayPal. I have gotten 4 payouts so far, 3 of which I have received and seem to take around 3 weeks to get after you redeem. I just cashed out for the 4th time 10 days ago, so I haven't gotten that check yet.
If you're not looking for cash, you can also redeem your points for vouchers of various types, sweepstakes entries, or Billboard music downloads. Many of those options require smaller amounts of points, so you can see your earnings faster.
Surveys:
I probably receive more survey invites from Toluna than any of my other sites. An e-mail is sent to you whenever they have one they think you might qualify for. I've seen point ranging anywhere from 1,200 to 15,000 or more ($.40 to $5.00). The majority of the ones I qualify for and complete are either 1,800 or 3,000. I do occasionally get a 6,000 pointer, and yesterday I finished one for 12,000!
On the down side, I have attempted to take 350 other surveys in the past 3 months that I have not qualified for. Usually you test out after a few questions, so it doesn't take up much time, but expect to qualify for 20% or so of the invites you get, unless you are in a minority group that many companies are interested in. The up side of this is that for each survey you attempt and test out of, you get a sweepstakes entry where you could win one of the $4,500 prizes each month. Of course it's not too likely that you'll win, but you never know!
Since it's early in my blog, I should briefly talk about testing out. Many times the company the survey is for is looking for the opinions of a select group of people. Call it their "Target Audience". For example, I have a 10 month old son. A baby food company would love to interview me about my baby food preference, but they probably aren't interested in the opinions of an unmarried 20 year old with no children, or a middle-aged someone with all of their children in college or older.
Another thing I should mention about Toluna's surveys is the amount of time it takes to post points. For me, it seems like the more points involved, the longer they take to post. For awhile, smaller points would post the next business day. Lately it's been a few days, and higher valued surveys can take a few weeks. Typically, this seems to be because the surveyors evaluate the surveys received, check for errors (yes, they monitor them to see if people are rushing through and not paying attention), and sometimes wait until the survey closes to post the points. This is fairly typical of other survey sites as well.
Finally, Toluna allows you to find your own surveys by answering a few qualifying questions on the My Surveys tab, and by answering some of the poll questions people ask on the home page. If you have free time and really want to take a survey, or are close to cashing out and don't want to wait until you qualify for another invite, this is great! Just plug away at it until you find one! You can also earn small amounts of points in the process by answering those poll questions.
Other Things To Know:
Toluna also has a product test area. Every now and then, you can sign up to be chosen to test a product. You put your name in and answer just a couple of questions, and they choose a specified number of people to test the product at random! It's usually small things, but they've done big ticket electronics items in the past!
They are the only site I know of that has a sort of online community. You are able to post questions for others to ponder and have people leave comments on it. You may even be able to earn bonus points for having a question enough people post replies to, or by giving a good response to another person's question.
You can earn a few extra points by referring friends. Any time you refer a friend, you can earn 500 points.
Positives:
- steady stream of surveys
- reliable payout system
- can pay out in CASH
- product test area
- can find your own surveys
- extra points from polls
- extra points from opinion topics and responses
- no PayPal
- low percent of surveys qualified for
- wait for points to post
- wait for check to be mailed
In short, yes. I have had a good experience with Toluna so far, and I have earned more with them than any other site. They are also the most consistent with the frequency of survey invites. This is a good site to be a member of to earn a little extra money here and there.
Have more questions? See Toluna's FAQ here: http://us.toluna.com/help
Ready to sign up? Here's the home page! http://us.toluna.com/Default.aspx
I hope this helps someone decide whether or not this site is worth their time! Let me know in the comments if you have any other questions that weren't answered by either this post or the FAQ!
Thanks for reading!
Sara
http://sarashandmades.etsy.com
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
What Will My Blog Be About?
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog! I hope it helps you learn some useful ways to make a little extra money!
To start, let me just say the taking surveys online WILL NOT make you rich. You can safely assume that any survey site claiming that it will do so is not a legitimate site. Unfortunately, the internet is full of scams like this, and I want to help people to steer clear of those scams using the information I have gathered about online surveys and other online work.
I plan to make new blog entries at least once a week, and will go over each company I have worked with in as much detail as I can based on my experiences with them. If you have questions at any point, please feel free to leave comments, and I will happily comment back.
I would also like to note that I have another blog I am writing about a shop I am running on Etsy.com where I make hand crafted items, particularly handpainted name signs for nurseries and children's bedrooms. Because of this commitment and the fact that I have to continue to take surveys I am invited to in order to keep you up to date on the survey companies, I may not be able to post as frequently as I'd like to. So please bear with me and keep checking back!
I keep meticulous track of the number of surveys I take each day with each company and the amount of money associated with each. I will share that information with you as well as things like the number of surveys I don't qualify for, the amount you need to earn for a payout, the time it takes to receive your payment, the time it takes after a survey has been ompleted for the money or points to be available in your account, customer service experiences if I have any, and anything else I think is important when it comes to deciding whether or not to work with a company.
What won't I share? Legally I can not share information about the products or companies the surveys are about. Besides that fact that most surveys begin with a statement about your agreement to not share any of the information in the survey, it would be unethical to do so. Competition could find the information and use it to their advantage. Potential customers could flood the company with questions, protests, etc. And so on and so forth. So please do not ask me to share any information like that.
Why am I doing this?
When I first started taking online surveys, I tried my best to find useful information on multiple survey sites. The best I found was a website which allows people to rate survey companies and share their experiences with a short comment. This site is called Survey Police, and I encourage you to check it out in addition to my blog. The problems I had with this site, however, is that the people commenting seemed to fall into one of three categories. There were those who seemed to be paid to promote a site and gave it the highest score possible and said thing that sounded like scripted advertisements from the company. The second were people who were angry about something, many of whom I believe did something wrong and got themselves kicked off the site (like going through surveys as fast as possible and picking random answers just to earn money). The third, who seemed to be a significant minority, were people legitimately trying to help people out with an honest review.
So my goal is to give nothing but my honest opinion of the companies I have used. There are many I use frequently, or whenever surveys are available, and there are a few I have ended my relationship with. I hope you will find the information useful and honest, and this will be a good compilation of reviews on many different companies.
As a sort of teaser, here is a list of the companies I am currently signed up with and will be providing a review for. Remember, there are several others I will discuss that I am no longer a member with.
I hope you enjoy reading this blog as much as I enjoy writing it! Leave comments with any suggestions or anything else you'd like to see here!
Sara
http://sarashandmades.etsy.com/
To start, let me just say the taking surveys online WILL NOT make you rich. You can safely assume that any survey site claiming that it will do so is not a legitimate site. Unfortunately, the internet is full of scams like this, and I want to help people to steer clear of those scams using the information I have gathered about online surveys and other online work.
I plan to make new blog entries at least once a week, and will go over each company I have worked with in as much detail as I can based on my experiences with them. If you have questions at any point, please feel free to leave comments, and I will happily comment back.
I would also like to note that I have another blog I am writing about a shop I am running on Etsy.com where I make hand crafted items, particularly handpainted name signs for nurseries and children's bedrooms. Because of this commitment and the fact that I have to continue to take surveys I am invited to in order to keep you up to date on the survey companies, I may not be able to post as frequently as I'd like to. So please bear with me and keep checking back!
I keep meticulous track of the number of surveys I take each day with each company and the amount of money associated with each. I will share that information with you as well as things like the number of surveys I don't qualify for, the amount you need to earn for a payout, the time it takes to receive your payment, the time it takes after a survey has been ompleted for the money or points to be available in your account, customer service experiences if I have any, and anything else I think is important when it comes to deciding whether or not to work with a company.
What won't I share? Legally I can not share information about the products or companies the surveys are about. Besides that fact that most surveys begin with a statement about your agreement to not share any of the information in the survey, it would be unethical to do so. Competition could find the information and use it to their advantage. Potential customers could flood the company with questions, protests, etc. And so on and so forth. So please do not ask me to share any information like that.
Why am I doing this?
When I first started taking online surveys, I tried my best to find useful information on multiple survey sites. The best I found was a website which allows people to rate survey companies and share their experiences with a short comment. This site is called Survey Police, and I encourage you to check it out in addition to my blog. The problems I had with this site, however, is that the people commenting seemed to fall into one of three categories. There were those who seemed to be paid to promote a site and gave it the highest score possible and said thing that sounded like scripted advertisements from the company. The second were people who were angry about something, many of whom I believe did something wrong and got themselves kicked off the site (like going through surveys as fast as possible and picking random answers just to earn money). The third, who seemed to be a significant minority, were people legitimately trying to help people out with an honest review.
So my goal is to give nothing but my honest opinion of the companies I have used. There are many I use frequently, or whenever surveys are available, and there are a few I have ended my relationship with. I hope you will find the information useful and honest, and this will be a good compilation of reviews on many different companies.
As a sort of teaser, here is a list of the companies I am currently signed up with and will be providing a review for. Remember, there are several others I will discuss that I am no longer a member with.
- Toluna
- J.D. Power Panel
- My Survey
- Survey Savvy
- ACOP
- Opinion Outpost
- E-Poll
- Global Test Market
- Survey Spot
- Ipsos I-Say
- Survey Head
- Pinecone
I hope you enjoy reading this blog as much as I enjoy writing it! Leave comments with any suggestions or anything else you'd like to see here!
Sara
http://sarashandmades.etsy.com/
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