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I am about ready to give up.


Applecrisp

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It really seems hopeless for me right now. All my favorite sites have deteriorated rapidly. In December of 2018 I was doing well. Since the start of 2019 it seems everything has changed. I have anxiety and depression and surveys afforded me a way to make extra cash and I don't have to leave my home. It gave me some extra money for clothes and essentials.

All of my sites have gone downhill and not sure if I have anything to replace them. It is not just  about not qualifying for surveys but also the way they are cutting back. Opinion  Outpost not paying for Pop research surveys and them having few other surveys to make anything. Branded has gone down also and has fundamentally changed for the worst. The Earning Station where I did very well has taken some draconian measures to decrease earning and they don't care if they get a slew of one star ratings. One Opinion is always a little uneven. 

My other sites are OK but by invitation so very sporadic like you gov or E Poll.

I am just feeling a little down and had to share because no one in my life knows much about surveys, so they don't understand my problems with this and why I feel hopeless and a little betrayed. I mean I do my part for the panels and I just want a little courtesy and gratitude and to be treated like my time is valuable. 

 

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I get where you're coming from. I've only been doing surveys since last summer, and the last month or two things have slowed down some for me. Others here who have been doing this for much longer than me can certainly speak more intelligently about how things have changed recently. I guess this is a slower time of year for surveys in general. And as far as payment, I guess I've come late to the survey thing, as from what I've read it used to be much easier to earn somewhat better money at one time. I suppose I've missed the "Golden Age" of surveys for pay.

Have you gone through all the survey site ratings here? That's what I did when I first started and used that information to choose what appeared to be the more reputable and reliable sites to use. So maybe you could use that information to replace some of the sites that aren't working well for you now?

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Thanks for the reply NJ. I have looked up some sites. One is Point Club which was recommended by the Survey Police Five top survey sites. I already belong to the others or at least tried them.  Point Club is actually OK but it takes a long time for points to be approved sometimes almost one month, so that is a little frustrating. I will say their customer service is good.

My main problem is Earning Station which was a great site for me and then made so many changes. I started in January 2017 and started on the not so great places like Swagbucks and Inbox Dollars, then went to some better sites. I really did well last year and then just a trickle. I am taking it too hard I know but I am still going to try a couple more. What are your fave sites? Just curious.

Thanks for your support.

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Swagbucks actually is one of the sites that has worked well for me so far. For you, I'm guessing not so much. And that's something that I've noticed. Different folks have different experiences with different sites. I'm guessing being a certain demographic may contribute a bit to that. I dunno.

Other sites that I find good (at least so far!) are One Opinion (you mentioned that one, too), Paid Viewpoint, Tellwut, mysurvey (but I know changes are happening there, so we'll see) and i-say. Also, a few months ago I started using Prolific, and I've liked them. Not a whole lot of surveys/studies from them but, as being discussed in another thread, the earnings per hour are better than most other sites I use. And the studies at Prolific are academic studies, so they're always different and much more interesting than what you usually get from other sites.

And there are a few other sites I use also. But they are mostly ones that don't pay much or offer very much to do, so I work at them when I don't find anything to do elsewhere and still have a bit of time to do more surveys.

Hope this helps a little! :-D

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20 hours ago, Applecrisp said:

It really seems hopeless for me right now. All my favorite sites have deteriorated rapidly. In December of 2018 I was doing well. Since the start of 2019 it seems everything has changed. I have anxiety and depression and surveys afforded me a way to make extra cash and I don't have to leave my home. It gave me some extra money for clothes and essentials.

All of my sites have gone downhill and not sure if I have anything to replace them. It is not just  about not qualifying for surveys but also the way they are cutting back. Opinion  Outpost not paying for Pop research surveys and them having few other surveys to make anything. Branded has gone down also and has fundamentally changed for the worst. The Earning Station where I did very well has taken some draconian measures to decrease earning and they don't care if they get a slew of one star ratings. One Opinion is always a little uneven. 

My other sites are OK but by invitation so very sporadic like you gov or E Poll.

I am just feeling a little down and had to share because no one in my life knows much about surveys, so they don't understand my problems with this and why I feel hopeless and a little betrayed. I mean I do my part for the panels and I just want a little courtesy and gratitude and to be treated like my time is valuable. 

 

Have you tried Univox I seem to do okay with them

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I've been doing surveys for years & every Feb/March all the sites I find slow down..not sure why but maybe has something to do with "taxes" or something like that...

I find come middle of March all the sites pick back up again & I tend to make more $$$$ then

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The way they are cutting back?

I've been doing surveys online for over 5 years and haven't noticed much difference recently. 

OO - Amazing as ever. Good payouts every single week with them.
VO - Went downhill since SSI merger. Mostly due to scripting problems though (Slow crediting/some not credited at all).
Cint - Yes they have gone to the dogs. They turned rogue by deleting many members accounts for no reason and then blaming it on the members who complained, saying they breached T and C's.
Swagbucks - Same as usual, all good (mostly).
Citizenme - Good minus recent software bugs (payout errors and logging members out which staff originally blamed on members)

So yep, for me nothing has slowed down and the only differences are some sites now have buggy scripting and in the case of Cint, they have gone rogue and unethical by closing lots of members accounts for no reason and forfeiting their earnings.

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I think this time of the year things are kind of slow anyway.  Some folks are in different demographics and they will cash out often.  I have never had that luck, but I keep plugging away and sometimes I am lucky enough to get a test product.  I have been doing surveys for over 15 years, and things have gone down.  This is a good place to come for who to stay away from and who to sign up with.  Sorry you are feeling down.  

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I quickly abandoned many of the sites in this discussion pretty quickly, the following I've resigned or stop interacting with

Opinion  Outpost - frequent survey failure in, surveys that i was screened to complete, closing demographics and support could only provide generic canned responses. 

The Earning Station - Awful support, slow payout

Branded -  "upgraded" themselves to near zero completion but gave many more surveys with which to screen out with.

One Opinion - too readily accused me of TOS violations.

Valued Opinion  -  Does not value panelists, paltry rewards, left in less than 6 months.

Cint - They reverse points awards months after the survey for "quality reasons". I left every one of their panel permutations after reaching payout threshold.

Tap Research - Inept survey administration, they lose track of surveys you have complete and can't figure out why. Support did not respond until ESOMAR complaint.

mysurvey - The "F Troop" of the LightSpeed Brigade, often used as the router between KTRMR, GTM, and others. mysurvey will return you to an "expired session" after completing a survey and they have no idea why or what the survey was. I lost rewards for 30 surveys over 2 years and still do when they are employed as the router on other survey panels. I also have been trying to get a copy of my survey history for 9 months and it never comes. Total ineptitude and lack of competency. For some reason, though GTM works, I just hate the survey, Roulette used by GTM. I complained to support, I complained to the BBB, I complained to the C-Level and I complained to their clients, and they nixed my account. These guys are in my ESOMAR complaint queue.

Points2shop - Simply a den of deception in all their panel permutations. I have been trying to get uncredited TAP Research points for over a year. Not a lot of points but I want all the ammo I can get for the next ESOMAR, complaint and every other professional marketing association they admit subscribing to. Lousy customer service conduct.

SwagBucks - They have multiple panels with which they share information with which to freeze your account if there is a mismatch, like "MyPoints". It was so bad I left a lot of points behind. 

 

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I like your take on these sites. It is quite clear so many of us have different experiences on all of these sites. Some still think Swagbucks is good and they are earning on them very well. Which is great. So many different sites. For me, I did well on the Earning Station site and then they just changed. They also socked me for taxes, not telling me about the $600 cap. Other places at least warn you.

I am finding other sites and I hope they don't change the way many have. Started with Univox as was recommenced by Peach6, am trying Point Club that made the top 5 survey sites on Survey Police and agree they have good customer service. Also, became more active on Paid Viewpoint

I am feeling down and had a little pity party but will plug away for now. I want to thank my fellow posters.

 

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Really depends on a lot of things I'm sure you know. Lately I've been getting so many surveys I actually have to delete many before I go to bed. Then there are other times I don't get a thing. I would say keep trying and the money will start coming in again. I do agree that the sites aren't paying as much as they use to.

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  • 8 months later...

These survey companies have trends. I am taking completely different surveys for all different companies than I was 5 years ago. The only one I’ve been with for a while is mypoints. They’re usually very fair. Knock on wood. I just come on this site to figure out which ones I should join or jump ship from, because usually if others are having issues I will as well, and vice versa. I think there must be a lot of turnover in the industry. It is what it is.

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I come here mainly to hear about new sites, because in my experience, there's about a 50% chance a new site will be awful from day 1, but a 50% chance they'll start off wanting to attract people by paying half-decent, and that's where I want to be. Of course, every site slowly starts moving towards paying increasingly terrible - I just took my last survey ever for One Opinion a few days ago :(. They used to be fantastic, then they were decent, then they were ok, now they're garbage. I'm just sad cause that was the last site on my list like it, of a list that once had like a dozen. (I still take surveys from probably half a dozen sites that email surveys to me occasionally - but no longer any sites that offer surveys whenever I feel like it, as opposed to once every week or two.)

Still check here regularly because, again, I'm hoping some new ones will pop up that pay more like One Opinion used to. 

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