Survey Taking: Been There, Done That

Several years ago when I learned that I was pregnant and having some issues mentally and physically with it, I quit my job and decided that the best thing to do was remain stress free during the pregnancy.  However, I needed some money while I waited my time out, so I decided to look into paid surveys.  Now I have written about my experience briefly before, but this time I just wanted to add some things that I might not have shared in the past.

First, I stopped searching via the search engines for survey companies that pay and instead concentrated on a paid service that already did the research.  I found some on Click bank.  This way it saved me a lot of time.

Next, it wasn't that long after before I was receiving numerous offers because I for one was an expectant mom and had other children as well.  There were companies that readily accepted my profile and sent me both cash and rewards for my service...BUT...

I noticed that offers began to slow after having my baby.  Therefore, I couldn't reach payout levels (most were $20) that I had previously.  I began to tire of the emails that requested I complete a survey and then once I began taking it, I didn't qualify.

As I began to learn more about survey taking via visiting forums, looking up words like "scam" and "rip off" along with various company names, I learned that the popular survey companies that offered between $1-$3 quickly reached their maximum number of participants whether this is necessarily true all the time one only knows.  I also found that more and more companies since I started doing surveys were offering point programs for survey takers to pick a prize later; rather than giving us money like they once had.  As for those that were still sending money, like I mentioned before, they set payout levels. 

Now when you really think about survey taking, especially when you see it advertised as a job, you think like an employee.  However, survey taking is more like entertaining yourself for awhile, you get a small reward possibly for doing nothing.  The money is not anything to talk about and your lucky to buy something useful with it.  It also takes a lot of points to get a worthwhile reward. 

Some survey takers I did come across were always getting offers but what they were doing wasn't honest.  They would pretend to have certain interests, change their gender, have multiple accounts, and do other things to keep those offers coming in.  I guess in some of these scammers minds, they were paying the companies back that were ripping them off of their time.

Most of the offers I got would give me $1 for 15 minutes of time.  Others between $2 and $3 for 20 minutes or more of my time.  I had a couple that wanted me to go somewhere offline and I would be paid $75 plus--that is a once in a blue moon occurrence.  A few times I got offers for free movie tickets, coupons for products, and one time I got a web cam in the mail that I could keep just for completing a survey.  It turned out to be a quality product and was made by Microsoft.  Just to be clear, I didn't have to sign up for trial offers that asked for my credit card information either--those are a rip-off!!  Each survey experience was legitimate and I paid nothing. 

In closing, I would just like to remind my readers, don't survey take with a job mentality if you are interested in this sort of thing, because you will be disappointed.  To date, I am still receiving requests to take surveys, but I may click on one or two like every other week--not really interested anymore especially when they tell me each time I don't qualify.

Nicholl McGuire