One thing that I have been doing won’t get you rich, but it will make you a little bit of money (and might just get you some free product) is surveys.
I wrote about doing surveys back in June…but things have changed since then and I’ve learned a few things:
Demographics is everything. A company that works well for me may not work well for everyone. Example? Opinion Outpost. This is my absolute best money maker out of all of the companies that I use, but some people have had much different experiences.
Stay away from any survey conducted by OTX. This becomes tricky because some good survey companies are occasionally linked to an OTX survey. Rather than go in to detail, let me just say that my experience with OTX mirrors these experiences. I don't bother with them any longer, even when the survey is a link through one of my "good" companies. While you're at it, stay away from CashCrate, unless you like 100 Spam emails a day!
Just signing up for one survey company doesn't cut it. With an average rate of 6-10 surveys a month, you need to sign up for multiple ones. It may take a few months to hit the minimum payout amount (anywhere from $5 to $50), but I'd rather get a $50 check than a whole bunch of $1 checks...wouldn't you?
It's not just all about the money. I have two companies that don't pay very much money, but I stick with them because I qualify in to a bunch of product tests, many for products I already use. For example, my spending on diapers and wipes has gone down dramatically because I keep qualifying in to a "premium brand of diapers" (you figure it out) tests where they send me what would be a $10 pack of diapers or a $5 tub of wipes. That has just as much value to me as a check because it frees up what I would have spent that week on diapers for other things (although your mileage may vary)
So with all that in mind, what are the survey companies that I recommend (meaning that I use and have received a check from them)?
Opinion Outpost: my best-paying one. No increase in Spam. I get a survey from them about every other day and qualify in to about 65% of them (which is a pretty good rate
SurveySpot: this has been good for me both with qualifying in to high-value surveys ($30 for a 1-hour scheduled interactive survey) as well as product testing. However, there are a lot of unpaid "chance to enter our drawing" surveys that I had to get through first before they started giving me the good ones....just a heads-up on that!
GlobalTestMarket: the surveys are sporadic and you have to hit $50 before they payout, but I've been pretty happy with them!
MySurvey.com: surveys come in at a rate of about 2-3 per week, but this a great one for me for qualifying in to product tests
Ipsos Survey Panel: I'm new with them, but so far they have been great! Surveys come at a pretty decent rate and I haven't had a problem qualifying in to them.
Coming soon! My favorite sites for product testing!
The Deal Diva
Another great one is Pinecone Research. I've been doing surveys with them for the past 5 years. They are difficult to get into as you have to find a banner on the web when they happen to be accepting new members, but their surveys don't take long and often they send products to test along with additional payment for testing.