Online Surveys for Money Reviews

Looking for the highest-paying legit surveys for money? As someone that has been an active participant in paid surveys for over 6-years, I’ve had my fair share of ups and downs (and have even been the victim of a scam or two). I put together this comprehensive guide to help you quickly find the best panels on the internet.

The 4 Best Survey Panels

Ipsos I-Say

One panel that I highly recommend to those starting out with paid surveys is Ipsos I-Say. This site has been providing people with legit paid online surveys for over 10-years, making it one of the oldest active survey panels.

Ipsos, the company that runs I-Say, is actually one of the largest market research firms in the world. Ipsos I-Say is their direct-to-consumer market research arm.

More importantly, they always pay people a fair rate for their time and effort.  If you’d like to get a handle on what Ispsos I-Say is all about, you can check out my recently updated Ipsos I Say review.

MySurvey.com

Next up on our list of well-paying online paid surveys is MySurvey.com. This site is older and more established than Ipsos, as they were originally known as NFO and began collecting consumer opinions over 50-years ago. Even better, this site has outstanding payouts and interesting surveys, such as product testing and online focus groups.

Want to learn more? You can check out my recent MySurvey.com review.

NPD Online Research

The NPD Group has been conducting market research since 1967. Their age is a huge asset as they’re able to provide survey panelists with surveys that no other site has. Actually, I just posted a NPD Online Research review in case you’re interested in learning more.

Inbox Dollars

InboxDollars.com is a brand new entry in the SurveySpencer.com top 5 list. Due to the fact that this site actually pays in cash (instead of nearly-useless points or rewards) they cracked the top 5 for the first time this week. Worth a look.

Here’s the criteria that I used:

1. The most important factor that I used to judge each survey panel was their rewards relative to other survey sites. Or put another way, how much they pay in terms of rewards points and cash! As this is what drives people to take surveys in the first place I wanted to make sure that this is where I put my emphasis.
2. Next, I judged the quality of the panel in terms of customer support and how well they treated their members. If their customer service team was prompt and respectful I gave them a thumb’s up! On the other hand, ignored emails and hard-to-find contact information was also taken into consideration.
3. Finally, I noted how often they emailed me about survey opportunities on a regular basis. Sure, it’s nice to have well-paying surveys for money but it doesn’t do much good if they only come around once every two-weeks.

How Paid Online Surveys Work

When most people hear about paid surveys, one of the first questions that comes to their mind is: “Why would anyone pay me just to tick off boxes on my PC?”. That’s a good question as (admittedly), taking surveys for money is pretty easy and doesn’t seem like something you’d get paid to do.

However, it’s important to understand that businesses spend $18.7 billion worldwide on market research, as reported by CASRO. While not all of this goes towards online surveys for money, a fair amount does.

These businesses know full well that people aren’t going to take time out of their busy schedule in order to help some market research company. Therefore they have to give them an incentive, whether it be cash, sweepstakes entries or redeemable rewards points.

Online Surveys for Money Secrets to Success

If you want to succeed with paid surveys you need to be able to do these two things very, very well: avoiding scams and maximizing your payment per hour.

Fortunately, it’s pretty easy to separate online surveys for money legit from potential scams…once you know what to look for.

Let’s say you’re searching the internet for free online surveys for money and come across a paid survey panel that you haven’t heard of before. How can you possibly know whether or not to trust the site?

Before you take your first survey for money or hand over your demographic and contact information, check for reviews on trusted sites like About.com and Wikipedia. While not as thorough as I’d like them to be, they generally contain reputable advice and insights.

Also, you want to check if the site is registered with organizations like the BBB. This will tell you if they’re a legitimate enterprise that people have positive experiences with…or a shady site that rips people off.

You may also want to find out if the panel is officially accredited by the European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research, the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association, or the Council of American Survey Research Organizations. These reputable organizations only give their stamp of approval to panels with a long-standing reputation of excellence. Any panel you see endorsed by any (or all) of these groups should be considered trustworthy.

Because each survey you complete only pays up to $25 (and averages at about $.50-$1) you need to be very productive if you plan to earn a significant amount of money from them.

Something I try to do is set specific times solely for completing surveys. It’s very easy to get distracted by instant messages and text messages, especially when a survey isn’t interesting to you. But if you can eliminate these distractions you’ll likely find that you fill out surveys faster and more thoroughly. Another incentive to keep you focused is that if you do a consistently good job, you may find that you get invited to fun, high-paying surveys such as product testing and online focus groups.

Next, you’ll need to join every reputable survey panel you can. While it’s possible to make decent money from a single online surveys for cash panel, no one website is going to become your personal cash cow, no matter how well they happen to pay.

Because most panels target specific demographics, you may only qualify for 4-5 surveys per week per site. The number of panels you choose to join depends on how much you’re interested in making and how much time you have on your hands. For some, this means 4-5 panels. But for people that are genuinely crazy about online surveys for money (like me!), you may want to join 20-30. The downside of joining this many panels you’ll need to stay organized, which means keeping track of your panel information in a spreadsheet and dedicating a special email address for survey panel-related correspondence.

You’ll also have to be quick in order to get access to the highest-paying surveys. I can say from years of first-hand experience that many high-paying survey invitations open their doors for a very limited amount of time. As you may expect, people rush towards the opportunity as soon as the invitation is sent out. If you’re late, you’re out of luck. I recommend linking your primary survey email with a smartphone so you’re notified of invitations even if you aren’t near your computer. Some panels even allow you to take surveys on your phone!

Another nifty trick I’ve picked up over the last few months is to follow your top panels on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. Sometimes they send out news, contest information and exclusive surveys to their social media followers instead of via email.

References:

Paid Surveys Information From OGE.gov

Avoiding Surveys Scams Via Phoenix.gov

Rutgers Information on Market Research