Making cash from online survey sites - new MSE guide

mikep22

dcfc67 said:

nectar canvass is very poor, 2 points for a time out (1p) Even if you complete a survey its 20-120 points so 10p-60p for up to 20 minutes of your time.

Populus on the other hand pay £4 cash for a 20 minute survey

They do, and are well worth signing up for. The problem is, you may get 1x £4 survey every 2 weeks....it takes me around 4-5 months to reach the payment threshold.

mikep22

Robm1955 said:

I'm not impressed at the moment, but I'll persevere. I've tried Toluna, and Swagbucks, and don't seem to qualify for much. I've just reached 66, and half of the questions, even though you put status, as retired, ask you what job you do, etc, and then after, wasting 10 minutes, kick you off. I don't drive, so mystery shopping is out really, but I wouldn't mind testing products, and writing reviews, even answering questions about music, and media, and even groceries, but seem to get kicked off, because I don't fit the profile they are after. Do we stop shopping, using tech, and listening to music, when we reach 66? I must have missed something.

I think this is a pretty common experience to be honest - I am much younger at 37 - but I would estimate I only get to complete 1 in 4 surveys. Its certainly not a massive money spinner - and certainly not the surveys on Swagbucks which are rarely good value for your time in any case. I find qmee surveys better and much more frequent (and easy cash out to paypal). I look to make say £1-2 per site (I work full time so at times not possible) per day, and at times it will be more, others less. Late sign outs are frustrating, unfortunately they happen to us all - but fortunately they are not toooo common. Prolific is by far the best site, though unfortunately not as good as it was (and quiet at this period through the summer)

The companies are of course after a certain demographic of people and, without meaning to sound disrespectful to you, I would imagine that someone who is 66 and retired is going to have less products aimed at them, then a young family or young adult would. Its all about target audience, who are these online music services aimed at?....I would also imagine that products aimed at older people may be more likely to have things like workshops or focus groups, as they are less likely to be online doing surveys - could be something to look into? 

mjm3346

Toluna and Swagbucks generally just have surveys being run by other sites, so they take a (large) cut from the payment, sometimes 90% or more, I saw a survey that paid me £3 direct offered for less than 30p on swagbucks (I generally don't do surveys on either)

MalMonroe

I've just cashed out £21 from Prolific. I'm 71 and there were slim pickings at the beginning of the year but since May there seem to have been lots of studies. Sometimes they pay well, other times small rewards. Altogether I've earned £189 with them but can't remember when I started(!)(duh). It's slow but steady and I can recommend them.

Nobody phones or pesters or spams - the only time they send emails is when there's another study to do - but I think there's an option to turn that off.

Others have probably used Prolific too but I haven't read this whole thread. 

So really, just a vote for Prolific, if you're not wanting to earn megabucks very fast. 

sonofmerton

MalMonroe said:

I've just cashed out £21 from Prolific. I'm 71 and there were slim pickings at the beginning of the year but since May there seem to have been lots of studies. Sometimes they pay well, other times small rewards. Altogether I've earned £189 with them but can't remember when I started(!)(duh). It's slow but steady and I can recommend them.

Nobody phones or pesters or spams - the only time they send emails is when there's another study to do - but I think there's an option to turn that off.

Others have probably used Prolific too but I haven't read this whole thread. 

So really, just a vote for Prolific, if you're not wanting to earn megabucks very fast. 

I know them well. They are very hot on ensuring you are telling the truth. Plenty lie on survey sites. Prolific will close your account without notice if you aren't playing by the rules. So even if you have say 50 quid sitting there you will lose it. My tip is to cash out the moment it reaches 5 quid....just in case. Just be totally honest both in the sign up process and ongoing.

As for the 'studies', they are varied. Some are very complicated, it isn't just about clicking agree or disagree about global warming. I've had everything from saying hundreds of phrases in english on an iphone to focus groups on webcam.  

The long sign up process is far more 'intrusive' than any other site like this. but you are contributing to science/universities etc. You have to prove who you are, an email address alone will not suffice. 

mjm3346

"Prolific will close your account without notice if you aren't playing by the rules. So even if you have say 50 quid sitting there you will lose it. My tip is to cash out the moment it reaches 5 quid"

Same goes for all survey sites - always cash out when it's available in case they go under or close your account and you get nothing

Jenwales_2

I've earned a lot with a few surveys websites over the years. Valued Opinions I stopped using and recently I've got fed up of ipsos isay and lifepoints. I just seem to spend ages answering questions but never actually getting anything because I've screened out, despite the fact they have my full profile so should know if I am eligible or not. It's annoying because I had points on these websites but not enough to redeem. 
I like Prolific because I see a list of surveys I can enter with no screening out. 

ndf9876

I do things like surveys and online earning as a side gig to my main, paid job, but the main site I use - Prolific - has become anything but prolific in the last couple of months. I turned my attention to other sites to see if there was anything better out there, and whilst I'd hardly call this site "better", I wanted to bring it up simply because I've seen no mention of it elsewhere.

The site is called Respondent : https://app.respondent.io/ (I have a referral link, this is not it!) and it's online interviews \ focus groups. It seems to be aimed at working professionals in the main, but there is a reasonably diverse range of projects I can see there so I'm sure there's something for everyone.

How it works :

- You fill in your details, verify yourself with Facebook, LinkedIn etc as much or as little as you want. 
- Rather than sitting and waiting to be chosen, you get to pick and choose what projects you want to apply for. There's no guarantee you'll get what you want, but it's on an active application basis rather than passive (like TestingTime, where you get invited to complete the pre-screener to see if you qualify for the main paid event).

I have been a member for just over a week and taken part in a one-hour interview for $120.

There are definitely some drawbacks to the site though...

- PayPal only, and the pay is all in US Dollars. So you'll get a fair chunk of your "earnings" snipped back through awful exchange rates, and a 5% fee Respondent charge, deducted from your study earnings and NOT paid upfront (still, I was still happy to get £85 for an hour's chat of an evening).
- A lot of the companies are American, I think. This isn't necessarily a bad thing though, because you could (like I did) arrange for the call to be outside of your normal working hours.
- A lot of the studies seem to want VERY niche individuals, so I don't think this is the kind of gig you'll be doing any more than a few times a year. A lot of the studies right now are looking for IT professionals, so if that's you, you could end up quids in.

I looked up the reviews on Trustpilot and they are pretty harsh \ low scoring, but a lot of them seem to be from disgruntled users who haven't had any studies in months or didn't get paid for their participation. I got paid within a few days of taking my call though (had I not, I wouldn't be mentioning it here).

So it might work out better for some than others, but for me personally, it's a very nice addition to my small collection of side-hustles. I'm happy to supply my referral link, but if someone earns a few extra pounds in their pockets in these tough times, honestly that's enough to make me happy.

nandrews

ndf
Thanks for you comments and suggestion. I have now signed up to Respondent and will see how it goes.
I was with Prolific for about a month and got a couple of payouts. But after I made some complaints, probably about unreasonable rejects, they booted me out!

Nigel  

ndf9876

nandrews said:

ndf
Thanks for you comments and suggestion. I have now signed up to Respondent and will see how it goes.
I was with Prolific for about a month and got a couple of payouts. But after I made some complaints, probably about unreasonable rejects, they booted me out!

Nigel  

I hope it goes well for you. As I said, you may not get into the studies that frequently, but if and when you do, the pay for just one hour's chat has the potential to blow all other survey \ GPT site earnings out of the water. Besides, I think it costs nothing to be a member, and checking in every few days to browse projects and answering pre-screeners isn't too time consuming.