Survey Sites Are Not Created Equal

If you have spent any time looking for work at home opportunities you have most certainly come across Survey Sites, these are usually prompted as “Get Paid To Take Surveys”. While it may seem enticing and easy work, before you commit your time and energy do your research, some are scams.

Some that are not legitimate are designed to confuse you and end up requiring that you pay for the “prize”. Often the ones that are not legitimate are flashy, movement filled banners on top of websites that you visit.

So what happens when you sign up to get surveys offering you money and rewards? You have links sent to you like this one: “Free Candy Offer inside!” You will be asked to participate in a survey which is supposed to show which Candy Bar you prefer. The choice given is between Snickers and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Sounds like a legit little survey and your gift offer is between $50.00 worth of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups or $50.00 worth of Snickers. You click on the link and are taken to their official landing page which is very attractive and very professionally done. You need to click on your choice of which reward you would like to participate in. Once this is done you are requested to enter your email address and hit continue. After all you are just required to answer some simple questions.
This is where it gets ugly for the consumer. If you didn’t pay attention to the bottom of the page and the small print you missed a very important fact. This is what keeps it legal for them. In order to receive this type of promotions you are required to accept and complete offers in return. No big deal? Sure if you don’t mind spending a lot of time going through at least 9 different pages of offers and about $30.00 or in some cases more.

You will also need a credit card. You will have to accept 1 offer in the first section, 3 in the second and 5 in the third. After all have been verified you will get the gift- or do you?

In most cases no you don’t, the majority of these are so difficult to follow that by the time you figure out it is a scam you have wasted 25 minutes or more and given up your email address. Most of these require a credit card sign up and once approved, activated and used you are than eligible for that $50 worth of candy bars, hmmm not really worth it in my opinion.

In this article we are happy to review the five of the top survey websites that offer legitimate surveys for pay. You won’t get rich, but if you like sharing your opinions and have the patience to wait for quality surveys to come your way, than these might be an option for you.

* Harris Poll Online: Harris Poll as a company has been in business for 10 years as of 2009 and ranked 13th largest market research firm in the U.S., according to cited reports in 2008. The parent company Harris Interactive has thousands of clients all of which use the members of the online survey group to ascertain the value of their brand, pricing or name changes of products. The majority of the polls and surveys through Harris Poll are based on consumer interaction and purchasing habits. This is different than product related questions and makes for some very interesting survey options- after all who wouldn’t want to earn money by voicing their opinions? Recent changes to Harris Poll Online is the introduction of an incentive program, where you earn points for each survey that you complete, once you build enough points you can use those points to purchase a variety of merchandise and gift certificates. While it doesn’t sound the same as cash the benefits are still there and easy to redeem for items you want.

* NPD : NPD Group focuses on major corporations including South Pole, Olympus, Maxell, Permatex, and Phillips to name a few. These surveys are fun to take and specific to particular brands and company’s. NPD is very respected in the research industry and often thought of as one of the best performing online data collection survey sites. There are currently 3 million registered users with NPD and they are screened participates for each survey, if you don’t meet their needs than you don’t fill out the survey. This creates an advantageous relationship with NPD and their clients creating very powerful data that they in turn use to improve the quality of products. Signing up is easy, the waiting is the difficult part for you, as a survey participant. On the up side, the pay for the surveys is extremely reliable when available. The rewards system with NPD encourages you to earn points and use those points as entries into their ‘Sweepland Sweepstakes” game. With a daily, monthly and quarterly drawings for cash. Otherwise they use a reward system offering prizes for points, which are run monthly. The prizes vary but are high end and well worth the time to participate in the fun and interesting sponsored surveys.
* Greenfield Online: Greenfield Online offers lots of surveys, and the compensation generally ranges in the $1 to $10 dollar range. They also send many sweepstakes only surveys, and some of the surveys tend to be a little long. There is no minimum threshold to receive payment and they will have a PayPal payment option soon. They have a great member web site which makes it easy to keep track of your balance and surveys that you have taken. Greenfield Online sends lots of survey invitations; however only about a quarter of them are cash surveys. Most of the others are for their sweepstakes entries. In comparison GreenField Online offers more cash incentives than the others who offer strictly a points system.
* Lightspeed: The Lightspeed Consumer Panel website is owned by Lightspeed Research, which was founded in 1999 by its parent company, WPP. WPP is one of the world’s leading communications services groups. Lightspeed Research’s clients include Fortune 500 companies worldwide. From major transportation companies to global media conglomerates, their clients understand that market research plays a vital role in their business decisions. In addition to being able to view current surveys in the member’s area, Lightspeed will automatically email you survey invitations that they feel may be a close match for your profile. Each invitation will include the estimated time to complete the survey, the reward for completing the survey, and sometimes may include the topic of the survey. The amount of surveys you will receive depends on your profile and the current studies being conducted, but in general you should expect several invitations a week. The surveys are rewarded with some point offering, a sweepstakes entry, and the Points-A-Day Giveaway. Most surveys average about 75 to 300 points, but some more in depth surveys and product trials have higher rewards. Currently 115 points = $1. One of the best features of LightSpeed is that they offer payment via PayPal. If you choose to redeem your points for PayPal cash, you will receive payment by the next business day.

* IPSOS: You could win $5000 by joining the Ipsos i-Say Panel and sharing your opinion. Earn points for every completed survey. Take more surveys & earn more rewards. As part of the Ipsos i-Say Community, you get to see new products and ideas before anyone else. As a panel member, you influence political, social and consumer decision makers with the thoughts and opinions you provide on surveys. You’ll earn reward points for the surveys you take – points can be redeemed for gift cards and merchandise from popular retailers. Ipsos is one of the largest survey research companies in the world and among the most trusted research brands in North America. Ipsos conducts over six million surveys each year in over 100 countries. Their clients include leading companies around the globe in telecommunications, computer software and hardware, health care, retail agriculture, financial services, consumer goods and other industries. Panel members seem to be generally happy with the payoff and contests with Ipsos- Isay survey site membership.

In the end with all online offers, do your research and examine the possibilities and if it sounds too good to be true, than it probably is. Good luck and email Beat The Recession with your opinions on this and any other article at tips@beattherecession.com.