is there any program that lets you qualify for surveys?

[find-nicole]

NICOLE RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN FROM OTX!!! We've all boycotted them, so they started sneaking their surveys through other sites until somone caught on (I still check browser, etc. when sent from one site to another to make sure it's not OTX.) OTX as far as I am concerned is so low, they need a ladder to reach the belly of a snake, robbers and theives refuse to be seen with them. OTX cheated so many of us for a very long time and got away with it, no legal recourse, we had to take it. But we banded together and this is the first I've heard anyone receiving an invite in ages. Greeneyeddevils and Vipercat would probably remember, maybe footfree, leefall (?) maybe even Fiestyvermin may remember. OTX is bad, bad news.

BTW.....Hello there! (lol) Meant to say that first, but you really threw me for a loop on OTX. Good to see you in the forum. You've been missed.

OTX has "infected" many survey sites. Stay away. Opinionshere is OTX, ssi the same format as OTX. Opinion Outpost ssi surveys always available, stay away from these. Multiple prelims, info gathered and then disqualified.

thank you sooo much for you two!!! now i know! i've disappeared for awhile. didn't realize that's how much i've missed!

[insomniac]

Hi ana, I’m glad you posted your opinion, that is what is so great about internet forums, people coming together with common interests. Your view on surveys and incentives are precisely the profile of people the whole system is intended to not reward significantly. I’m sure there are other insiders or ex-insiders in this forum (I haven’t read all of the posts) but when we did studies for children’s cereals for example, we didn’t have to pay people. People were so eager to give their opinion because that was the type of people they were, we didn’t even need to compensate them. They came to us. When we tested products for a major electronics retailer, we didn’t need to pay people, they couldn’t wait to give their opinion. For some products, sure, people are not as interested. If you pay people too much, there is a phenomenon where their opinion is inflated and that is not good data.

As far as .50 for 30 minutes, this is all about supply and demand. There are clearly enough people who care about just giving their opinion and don’t care what they are paid given lower incentives. This is why many panels ask you why you are joining up front… “to win cash and prizes”…”to influence decisions”…etc. The quality of your answers also influences the types of studies you will get in the future. There are checks and balances in surveys and your survey will be thrown out and you will be flagged. Sure you can move on to another survey company but with all of the mergers in the industry you will eventually be reduced to .50 surveys. I am on my third week getting back taking surveys and because I have provided thoughtful, honest and consistent answers, I already have $200 cash in hand or on the way in check/gift cards. I have been invited to 4 online panels and 3 online focus groups. I work part-time and have two kids so I’m not answering surveys all day. I have put in some time but well worth $200.

Hi, ascott55313,

While I do agree with you that it is up to respondents to be honest and thorough while doing surveys, it is also up to the survey companies to provide user-friendly and intuitive surveys, to be honest about survey data sampling and information, and to offer an incentive that makes it worth the respondent's time. It's a system of push and pull, and let's be honest, neither side is exactly scotch-free of blame. However, to insist that people take a survey for little or no incentive is a bit disingenous and unfair. I have been a survey-taker for a long, long time and while I don't expect to be paid an outrageous amount for a survey or minimum wage, I do expect to be fairly compensated for a survey. If you believe that taking sweeps only surveys are fine and it works for you, then so be it. Unfortunately, due to a poor economy, people are signing up for any survey company because they believe they will earn enough money as part-time job or get lucky and win a sweep. In a way, I feel the survey companies are taking advantage of their desperation in a time when it is easy for them to do so.

I understand you are advocating for the survey companies (noting that you stated you work(ed) for one), and I think that is fine as it is very true survey companies are prey to fraud and abuse due to some people who do it just for the money. However, there are many of us who do give honest answers and love to give our opinions, but it is not unreasonable to ask for some compensation for our time and it is definitely not outrageous to ask for honesty and integrity from survey companies as they demand it from us.

[insomniac]

NICOLE RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN FROM OTX!!! We've all boycotted them, so they started sneaking their surveys through other sites until somone caught on (I still check browser, etc. when sent from one site to another to make sure it's not OTX.) OTX as far as I am concerned is so low, they need a ladder to reach the belly of a snake, robbers and theives refuse to be seen with them. OTX cheated so many of us for a very long time and got away with it, no legal recourse, we had to take it. But we banded together and this is the first I've heard anyone receiving an invite in ages. Greeneyeddevils and Vipercat would probably remember, maybe footfree, leefall (?) maybe even Fiestyvermin may remember. OTX is bad, bad news.

BTW.....Hello there! (lol) Meant to say that first, but you really threw me for a loop on OTX. Good to see you in the forum. You've been missed.

OTX has "infected" many survey sites. Stay away. Opinionshere is OTX, ssi the same format as OTX. Opinion Outpost ssi surveys always available, stay away from these. Multiple prelims, info gathered and then disqualified.

thank you sooo much for you two!!! now i know! i've disappeared for awhile. didn't realize that's how much i've missed!

I have to agree about OTX. Stay away as their surveys are pure crape and a total time waster!!

[ascott55313]

If you are dissatisfied with your survey experience, you can do something about it without having to be dishonest. Sorry to be all Pollyanna above to those who didn't like it, not everything is perfect in the survey world but there are other ways to go about things. Because you don't like what your insurance company charges, you don't go make your own insurance cards. Because you don't like what you pay on your taxes, you don't pretend you're someone you're not or make up a wife. Well maybe you do. You can make a complaint with CASRO which every reputable survey company belongs to. Their four guiding principles to respondents are:

"I. Responsibilities to Respondents

Preamble

Researchers have professional and legal responsibilities to their respondents that are embodied in the procedures of a research study. Underlying these specific responsibilities are four fundamental ethical principles:

Respondents should be:

a. willing participants in survey research;

b. appropriately informed about the survey's intentions and how their personal information and survey responses will be used and protected;

c. sufficiently satisfied with their survey experience; d. willing to participate again in survey research."

We know if we complain to the survey companies themselves we get a lot of canned answers and I know I have had technical difficulties on the survey site's fault and I complained and they came back with the canned "quota" wasn't met answer or I screened out which wasn't true (I was at the end of the survey). I just made a polite complaint stating the facts and quoting the above and their members need to uphold their part if they want respondents to. You can complain about the company and use the above and complain to [email protected]. Enough complaints might get someone noticed. Complaints about compensation probably won't be taken seriously but complaints about making us go beyond screening questions and getting real data and then terminating is not okay. They are also required to send us surveys that reasonably already match our profile, technically meaning we should have a better chance of qualifying.

[ascott55313]

I always put honest answers, why wouldn't I? If I get into a survey that turns out I don't like, I "x" out of it, but that has only happened twice since I started doing surveys.

I don't take surveys as a full time or a part time job, because that would make me a "professional" survey taker, which I believe is NOT what these companies are looking for. I take them because I want to be a part of something new, give my opinion, help shape a new product, I enjoy taking them, and get a few extra dollars on the side. HOWEVER, I agree with Footfree when he/she states that what we are being paid is "like we live in a third world country". The companies that hire the survey organizations putting out the surveys we take pay a lot of money. The survey organizations can tell the good surveyers from the poor ones by monitoring our time spent, responses, etc., and have canceled some people they thought were being dishonest in answering surveys; therefore, I think that they can afford to pay more and send the invites to the honest ones and either cancel poor performers, dishonest surveyers, or let them work 45 minutes for a 50 cent reward.

As for making $200 cash in hand within 3 weeks, I'm lucky to make that in 6 months, but again, I'm not taking surveys every day of the week either. Perhaps it is my honesty that goes against me and why I do not make that kind of money. Who knows? I would also like to know why it takes 6 to 8 weeks to receive a $5 check? How many of them have to wait that long until they are paid? And would they work for a company if they knew that they would not receive pay for services rendered until 6 or 8 weeks after the fact?

I was lucky to get into one online focus group for $50 and the ongoing panel forums pay well, nothing dishonest about those, once you qualify you are in as long as you participate. Seems like my political views have qualified me for some good paying surveys. Luck of the draw I guess, perhaps because I'm new too after a hiatus and am fresh blood. I'm sure it won't continue. I didn't come on the forum to get attacked but to help. I wasn't advocating for the survey companies but for the clients who hire the survey companies. I have my Master's in Marketing Research and worked for General Mills, Kraft Foods and Best Buy corporate headquarters. You get a lot of surveys from all of them. To see the quality of the data disintegrated by the posts I've seen on here is disheartening. Many surveys require responses of 200 - 300 people for a rep sample and just 10 people could throw off the sensitivity of those results. If someone feels good about that, I hope they feel good cheating on their taxes too. As a client to the survey companies, if I would have known there were professional survey takers who were dishonest and so peeved, I would have thought twice about using online panels and gone the traditional route.

[insomniac]

Hi, ascott 55313,

If I feel uncomfortable with a company or notice patterns of behavior that I object to, I simply drop the company. This way I will not waste their time or my own on engaging in something that is not a benefit for either side. I don't go along with skewing their information on purpose or firing off rude and insolent emails telling them what I think of them, this really makes the whole situation worse. At times I have been asked why I was leaving the panel and I have given my opinion in a straightforward manner without resorting to attacks, insults, or ridiculous accusations. And I am also well-aware that just because I feel a certain towards a company or have had a bad experience with them, that it doesn't hold true for all people involved with said company.

Not everyone here is a dishonest survey-taker nor a professional one. I don't believe in lying or engaging in fraudulent behavior and being a professional survey-taker ruins it for everyone. As for myself, I do surveys because I do enjoy giving my opinion and it certainly isn't wrong to be compensated in some way (although for me, for example,I feel even trying out a product say like cat food is a good compensation without expecting a monetary compensation on top of it!). My opinion on compensation is rather simplistic compared to some, I do not expect ridiculously large amounts of money or minimum wages as survey-taking is at best a small hobby and NOT a job. However, this is my opinion and is not meant to reflect how others may or may not feel.

I also wanted to say if you felt you were being attacked in my previous post, I do apologize. It was not my intention to put you on the spot or make you feel like you were being personally attacked.

[footfree]

If you feel I have attacked you I'm sorry! I didn't mean to.It's that after 8 years of doing this and not as a professional survey taker ,I feel like I deserve a little compensation for giving honest answers that not only benefit the company but me as well the consumer.Hell they get their money back from me when I go out and buy their products after doing their surveys.

I'm not sure what or how much people think is a decent wage to ask someones opinion but why I think minimum wage is fair is this.............If minimum wage is $7.25 then doing a twenty minute survey for roughly $2.41 seems a fair price.If not then please tell me what you think to be a fair wage?I don't do this as a second job but I do do this to earn some extra money.I'm lucky to get $100 a month and yes I do mean lucky because I get to sit at home and spend time with my daughter whom I'm the primary care giver.I have a part time job and I DO THIS .I dont need to justify why I do this other then to say I do it to benefit me and the companies I support with my business.

I know we are all going to have different views on this subject and that's probably why we do surveys.(LOL)As you can tell we all have an opinion on this!

[theskyhunter]

Yeah, I'm with nicole on this one. The whole point of this site is to help us with reputable, non-scamming research companies. We owe survey & companies commissioning these vendors the same - to be honest. If we're not what they are looking for, we aren't what they are looking for. Reputable companies pay billions of dollars every year and are honest in their search for the truth about developing products and services that will mean something to consumers. If we aren't honest we devalue the whole research process and there will be a time when the other people in companies won't believe data and won't even both asking us what we think.

Marketing research departments are filled with honest people who are championing the consumer, sounds silly but it is true. Most of the people running these departments have Master's degrees in marketing research because they care so much about us. The other departments inside companies (marketing, product development, packaging, advertising) are always challenging what the consumer wants, putting them second. I've been there, for eight years. It is a daily battle to bring the consumer to be the #1 motivator and not some political motive or a personal pet project of a person.

Just give it some thought, if I can help keep one person honest, I appreciate your time.

you nailed it. there are some bad apples out there, but dont let that keep you from being honest.