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Any 10 year veteran panelist still taking surveys


yobry1

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 Remember the good ole days just 9-10yrs ago before incentives started dropping? I was making over $100 pr month back then mostly from 3 panels, Opinion Outpost, GTM, and Surveyhead before it became ipoll and around $250 pr mnth during the holiday months from almost 10 panels in total. For a few yrs I had to stop taking surveys for a month or 2 from GTM so I wouldn't reach the $500 mark and have to pay taxes as many of us did back then,lol.

 The tv show surveys that now pay $1-1.50 for 55mins, used to pay $5 and the 35min tv show surveys paid $3-4. Product tests paid anywhere from $5-15, now less than half of them actually pay you thinking the free product is incentive enough for you, lol. A 20min survey was rarely less than $2 or more and most survey panels paid 10cents or more pr min incentives for surveys. I was making almost $7 pr hour back then taking surveys.

 Then in 2010, incentives started dropping. 2011 incentives dropped even more. That's when survey panels started offering referral links and incentives for referring others to join the panel bcoz many of us would not take a 20min survey for $1.50 when we were used to getting $2 or more for so many years before. I remember CEO's of a few panels took the money and ran off to other countries which caused incentives to drop alot. There are now 3x more research panels than there were back then which means those same surveys are spread out over more panels which caused the incentives to drop more. If more panels keep being created, the incentives will be 25cents or less for a 20min survey in the next 3-4 yrs. Sadly ppl now are taking them for pennies pr min compared to what they used to pay. There were 3 other veteran panelists who'd been taking surveys longer than me that I used to see on here often. I haven't seen any of them for 5-6yrs now. I figured they quit taking surveys bcoz of incentives dropping every year. I'm now down to about 6 panels now from over a dozen 6-7yrs ago and make less than half what I used to. Many panelists back then could completely pay for their yearly vacation from the money they earned from the panels. I sure miss those days, don't you?

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I only really discovered this hobby in late 2015, and even then, while most of the companies I tried already stunk, there were a few good ones, pay-wise. Notably, and very weirdly now, Opinion Outpost. Maybe they were even better earlier, but even in 2015 the pay felt pretty reasonable. And yeah, that stopped not long after. Of the dozen+ public sites I tried at first that offered a firehose approach to surveys (always had a jillion), I'm not still using any of them. (I still use a few from the beginning that only offer occasional surveys so they can pay better.) The only site I still bother with that offers more than a few surveys a month, max, is One Opinion, and even they've gone downhill a bunch. 

I do wish I'd discovered it earlier, that's for sure. 

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Yobry1 - I agree with all your observations.  I started doing surveys in 2008.  Even then, payouts were starting to fall according to folks that had been doing surveys longer than I have.  I have actually been keeping track of all my income over the years.  While I have been keeping a fairly steady state of time spent doing surveys, the amount of income has steadily dropped.  From 2012 (when I started my spreadsheet) until 2019 my income has dropped 33%.

So the drop is directly due to a drop in incentives.  My guess is it's more like 50% since 2008.  This is with me setting a minimum hourly rate on the incentive return.  I don't do low incentive surveys.  My minimum is about $3 per hour.  It used to be higher, but then I wasn't doing enough surveys, so that has slowly dropped as well.

I still do surveys because the extra income is nice.  I have a full time job (in IT, which is why you see postings from me here on IT-related topics).  But even when I retire, I'm not going to lower my standards and do low-incentive surveys.  It's just too much time wasted, in my opinion.

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That's why I am thankful my daughter is older and I can go out and look for jobs with my business(house cleaner).It got me thru me wanting to be a stay at home Mom.Yes the money was better back then and it helped me immensely to have what income I did have coming in.However now it's not worth my time.I still do a few like One Opinion ,gongos.You gov and then a couple other of like Ipsos,but for the most part it's sporadic.But now I exit out when I think they are too long or the pay is to low.For me $3.00 a hour is low guess I never thought about it like that,probably should pay better attention .

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I did not do them that many years ago but even in the short years I have been doing surveys, I do see a decline. I still do them as I am retired and have the time. They make nice gifts for me to give to my kids.

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On 5/23/2019 at 10:40 AM, jberri12 said:

Yobry1 - I agree with all your observations.  I started doing surveys in 2008.  Even then, payouts were starting to fall according to folks that had been doing surveys longer than I have.  I have actually been keeping track of all my income over the years.  While I have been keeping a fairly steady state of time spent doing surveys, the amount of income has steadily dropped.  From 2012 (when I started my spreadsheet) until 2019 my income has dropped 33%.

So the drop is directly due to a drop in incentives.  My guess is it's more like 50% since 2008.  This is with me setting a minimum hourly rate on the incentive return.  I don't do low incentive surveys.  My minimum is about $3 per hour.  It used to be higher, but then I wasn't doing enough surveys, so that has slowly dropped as well.

I still do surveys because the extra income is nice.  I have a full time job (in IT, which is why you see postings from me here on IT-related topics).  But even when I retire, I'm not going to lower my standards and do low-incentive surveys.  It's just too much time wasted, in my opinion.

 I work in IT also (Computer Repair Technician, for a small private owned repair shop) if you can call it that bcoz 99% of IT surveys don't recognize me as such. All I do is repair pcs and a few tablets now and then for the general public and use very little software other than diagnostic and antivirus/malware, etc. I only like the hands on aspect of repair work and could care less about software,lol, and work 30-32hrs pr week which I love not having 40hrs. Most of all I like when a customer calls or I run into one while shopping and thanks us for fixing their pc. It's very rewarding.

 I remember the same back then when ppl were complaining about the incentives dropping. I'm sure most of those ppl quit panels yrs ago.

 I lowered my standards to 7cents pr min and refuse to go any lower which is why I make less than half of what I did when I started in 06.

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On 5/23/2019 at 9:02 PM, footfree said:

That's why I am thankful my daughter is older and I can go out and look for jobs with my business(house cleaner).It got me thru me wanting to be a stay at home Mom.Yes the money was better back then and it helped me immensely to have what income I did have coming in.However now it's not worth my time.I still do a few like One Opinion ,gongos.You gov and then a couple other of like Ipsos,but for the most part it's sporadic.But now I exit out when I think they are too long or the pay is to low.For me $3.00 a hour is low guess I never thought about it like that,probably should pay better attention .

I'm making less pr month now doing surveys than what I made in the early 90s mowing yards in the summers as a kid.

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23 hours ago, mnleona said:

I did not do them that many years ago but even in the short years I have been doing surveys, I do see a decline. I still do them as I am retired and have the time. They make nice gifts for me to give to my kids.

 I agree. This is how I'm able to afford to give gifts to family. GCs make the best gifts.

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I have been doing them longer than 10 years.  I never got into it full time, but I loved it when I joined Pinecone.  $5 per survey.  I don't do nearly as many as I used to that is for sure.  I have never made near $50 a month doing them.  Some of them didn't even pay $20 after 4 years.  I used to do very well with mypoints, but I also shopped through them, so I got some nice gift cards.

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On 5/26/2019 at 4:33 PM, rosiesmom said:

I have been doing them longer than 10 years.  I never got into it full time, but I loved it when I joined Pinecone.  $5 per survey.  I don't do nearly as many as I used to that is for sure.  I have never made near $50 a month doing them.  Some of them didn't even pay $20 after 4 years.  I used to do very well with mypoints, but I also shopped through them, so I got some nice gift cards.

I Joined Pinecone less than a year after they went from $5-3. I remember a whole lot of complaining that year,lol.

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On 5/25/2019 at 12:29 PM, yobry1 said:

I'm making less pr month now doing surveys than what I made in the early 90s mowing yards in the summers as a kid.

I would rather make $3 then the money they are offering us now.

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One Opinion lately has been getting on my nerves I know that I have done surveys and competed them but then get kicked out.If this one goes down the tubes then that will get rid of my biggest money maker.Still do surveys to give as gifts.Where have the Product tests gone?Plus I am not getting any focus groups either - they seem to be disappearing also.

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Yes, there's a few sites I've passed the ten year mark and still take surveys even though the incentives have gone down on some.  I think part of it is simply my life has changed, while extra cash is always nice,  I don't feel the need to take every survey sent me now and try to milk them for all they are worth.  There's a least once site I can think of I wish would get it's act together and offer Paypal incentives or online giftcards I'd actually use. 

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