I love a survey. While they can be a little tedious, they are easy money when you would otherwise be watching videos on youtube. I’ve been using a couple of platforms for a while; I’ve also been “removed” from a couple of platforms as they decided I wasn’t sincere in my answers and as a result have had to forfeit about £50 of earnings for TMM – a cost of doing business on survey sites, it seems.
I’ve been maintaining the surveys as much as possible while on lockdown using Opinium and YouGov as often as they are sending out new surveys. Focus Force was good to me early on in the lockdown with a couple of telephone/zoom researches which were very lucrative (Focus Force is a good one and pays well, but you have to apply for quite a lot of different research items before you will finally be selected); Opinium and YouGov typically pay out around £0.25 and £1.50 per survey (working out at roughly £3 an hour), so you’re not going to get rich quick, but is a nice little way to just keep things ticking over.
With a few platforms on the go, over the course of a year you can make a good 3-figure number from the comfort of your armchair. Where the issue lies with the “normal” platforms is the tedium. You will do sooooo many surveys about your bank, about pay TV, about broadband, about hotels and travel…it is a bit of a merry-go-round.
Brace for tedium?
Chris found Prolific (along with a couple of other sites) and brought it the attention of the group. Of all the sites with earning potential, Prolific was consistently cited as one with good earnings with some users pulling in over £100 per month, which is welcome at the best of times, but right now, with matched betting earnings severely impacted, it is even more useful. I was sold!
I signed up and waited. Whereas most of the other sites I use send you an email when there is a survey available, not so Prolific. They don’t come to you, you come to them. You have to keep monitoring their website for when new surveys/market research is released. When the survey/research is released you are given a title, advised as to the value of the research, how long it will take, how many places are available and what device(s) it is compatible with.
Typically, as I write this, there are no surveys/research up for grabs, so I can’t screenshot an example for you. When they are released, they tend to go VERY quickly, so if you log in sporadically and hope to find an abundance of surveys waiting for you, you are mistaken; at best you might get a lucky punch, but using Prolific does need a little patience. I open up my browser when I sit at my computer in the morning and sign straight into Prolific and just leave it running in the background so I can jump on the opportunities as they arise. Just don’t tell The Man that I’m doing other paid work on his time!
Is it any good?
The two key points for me with Prolific are:
It pays well
Well…sort of…it pays better than other platforms, that’s for sure. They ask more of you than the traditional sites, but more on that in point 2.
I did my first Prolific on 9th April and as of today my earnings are £46.32 (not showing in TMM’s earnings as yet, as I haven’t cashed them out), for a grand total of 42 successful submissions. I haven’t kept a track of the amount of time invested, but I would estimate it to be little more than 3.5-4hours, giving quite a profitable hourly rate, relative to the other platforms or indeed many jobs out there. Sadly however, you won’t be doing these for 40 hours a week.
It is quite varied
I am a little restricted in what I can say here as in many instances, there is confidentiality in the agreement between you and the researcher. What I can say however, is that it isn’t just always a tick box exercise. There are very often some quite unique exercises and curious questions, looking at behaviour and opinion of a variety of different things such as social matters; COVID-19 may or may not have featured in a few places as well. I could say that I almost look forward to the Prolific researches popping up as it is never boring.
Once you’ve completed your research, your submission is reviewed by the person/team commissioning it. Once they have reviewed it, your submission will be approved or rejected. I’ve only had two rejections so far; in both cases it was because I didn’t complete my submission correctly. What I really like is that you have direct access to the researcher where you can report any issues. I’ve had a few of these and every time I’ve had a really quick response and resolution.
How much can you make?
Working on my current run-rate, I will likely average around £8-10 a week by the end of the year, which is £416 a year. A welcome sum at the end of the year; add £25 a month from Opinium and £50 a year from YouGov and you’ve got yourself a tidy £766 a year to invest/spend on Christmas.
I am a fan and will persevere with it, especially while matched betting remains in short supply. TMM is also looking to hit our target this year, regardless of what COVID-19 throws at us. We’ll be giving you an update on some more of our plans in June.