Emphasis here is very much on the little. Online surveys are not going to make you rich, but if you get the right platform, they can take the edge off Christmas or maybe help you treat yourself once in a while.
I’ve been doing online surveys for a good number of years now. I was invited to a platform called e-rewards at least 10 years ago, maybe even longer…I can’t remember. I was definitely slimmer at the time though.
As e-rewards was something I started before The Money Mountain came into being, it is not allowed to be included in the funds, but it is worth mentioning as it could be useful for someone.
Firstly, as mentioned, e-rewards is invitation only; don’t let that fool you however. It isn’t laden with surveys about upmarket hotels, first class travel or expensive watches; most of the surveys are about normal everyday subjects: what TV do you watch, which supermarket do you use, what ailments have you got etc. I was invited by an airline, if I remember rightly, it was so long ago I am pretty sure they’re no longer in existence anymore, but still I persevere.
e-rewards invites you to answer questions in a survey and rewards you with points for your time. The amount of points is in relation to how long the survey will take/how much effort you have to put in. i.e. a survey which will take a couple of minutes might earn you 100points, a survey which takes 25mins might earn you 500points. Other factors which impact the number of points you earn are the subject matter and also if you are asked to complete a diary or review a product. I’ve been sent food and drink to try as well as having to keep a diary over a period of several days; these tend to be more lucrative and you get a bit of grub thrown in for good measure. I’ve reviewed some well known brands…but unfortunately I can’t tell you which as that is a condition of taking the surveys.
Now, it’s all good and well earning points, but what does that actually mean? What does it do for you? To give you an idea, I earn approximately enough points every month to exchange for a £20 Amazon voucher (8250points), so if you think about it like that, it is probably an hourly rate of about £2.50-£3 an hour.
Like I said: you’re not going to get rich doing the surveys, BUT, I do them when I am doing nothing else, such as on the lav or when I need to do something different for 10mins because my paid employment is winding me up. In that sense, it is quite an efficient use of my time, and at the end of the year, I’ve got £240 worth of Amazon vouchers that can be used for Christmas presents or whatever I choose. Nice.
But how does all this relate to the Money Mountain project? I can’t use my e-rewards points and more to the importantly, the points are of no real use to us. I need cash.
Which are the best online survey companies to go with at the moment?
In the past I used a platform called Toluna, but they banned me as they felt I was being insincere in my answers – they were probably right as I was just trying to get through the surveys as quickly as possible to make the £££. I made about £70 from Toluna before they pulled the plug on me; the money from them was transferred via PayPal. I don’t know if there is some reason they can’t pay the money directly into your bank account, but I would imagine there is some ridiculous basis for it.
A look around brought me to two sites:
Both of these work on a points system but the points can be converted to cold, hard cash…exactly what The Money Mountain needs and after my two disastrous ventures so far, me more than most!
Opinion Outpost
They send notifications to your email address telling you when there’s a survey for you to complete. Like e-rewards, the number of points on offer relates to the length of the survey.
One of the more frustrating aspects of survey taking is when you don’t qualify: the first few questions of the survey are to screen you to see if you qualify, i.e. if you belong to a demographic the researchers are looking for, if you have the right job, tv package…anything can potentially disqualify you from a survey.
With e-rewards they offer a handful of point to compensate you for the time it took to find out if you qualify or not, Opinion Outpost rewards you with an entry in a quarterly prize draw to win £5000 (I would guess this is taxable if one were to win?!).
But back to the points…
For every 50points you earn, you can convert this to £2.50 of PayPal money. Again, to give you an idea, since 10th November 2018 (17 days), I have earned 355 points which will yield £17.50 if I were to cash it in now. The rule I have given myself is that the points will be cashed in on 9th of each month, so with this in mind, I could be on for around £30 for a months worth of surveying – no one is retiring soon, but it’s money earned while I would have otherwise been idle.
The surveys themselves can be a bit tedious and it is easy to just click on random answers, but beware as the surveys have wised up to this and every now and then they drop a trick question into the mix. You need to be paying attention.
Yougov
Yougov is a different kettle of fish altogether. They award points, but the points can only be exchanged for £££, BUT only once you hit 5000 points.
Given that I have been earning a maximum of 50points a survey and they come through maybe once a week, it is going to take an awfully long time to hit the target so I can cash out.
I will persevere, but as a stand alone platform you’ll be waiting a couple of years before you can get your hands on the money. On the plus side with Yougov, I have yet to be screened out of a survey.
So, are online survey companies worth it – can you make much cash?
In my opinion, yes. They are a bit of fun and like I say, even the most dedicated of workaholics has to visit the throne room once in a while, so why not make use of the time?
If you’re on a few of different platforms there is no reason you couldn’t make £1000 a year in surveys, which isn’t bad £ for zero brain power. The only consideration is the amount of time it takes to do them and whether that is a reasonable use of your time. For me, yes, absolutely.
We all have those moments where we’re doing nothing, so why not do something, it might get you a bit of holiday spending money, it might help you get a bigger tele than you had planned on…who knows?!