Earning money through surveys

[cindycindy]

Hi all, Has anyone had any success earning cash or gift cards through completing surveys? Wondering if anyone had advice in terms of which sites are legit and which are scams. I'm usually surfing the net while DH watches TV; seems like a possible good idea to fill out some surveys for a benefit rather than mindless surfing. Any experiences or advice? Thanks!

[rosarugosa]

I do surveys for Pinecone Research. They are part of Nielsen and pay $3 per survey. It won't make you rich, but they are legit.

[cindycindy]

Thanks. I will google that!

[razz]

Do surveys really work? If only those who are interested in earning money from doing surveys respond, how accurate can they be? I have often wondered about that.

[Zoe Girl]

I tried them and really didn't make anything. I kept on thinking I was close but the systems are made intentionally tricky. I did get to one that looked pretty good when I stopped however, a legal one? It would have to be a job and read the fine print.

[catherine]

Do surveys really work? If only those who are interested in earning money from doing surveys respond, how accurate can they be? I have often wondered about that.

I think what everyone has in common is a propensity to be incentivized with money. I worked for a company that did large consumer studies, and they sent the survey to the participant and included a $5 bill in it. Kind of the same principle as non-profits that give you the gift before you agree to send the money.

But I can tell you from a market research perspective, paying a few bucks aids participation and very, very minimally impacts results. We pay doctors who participate in market research interviews a LOT of money to participate, and it doesn't skew the findings, but sometimes we have to watch out for "professional respondents"--the ones who sign up all the time for every study.

[Tammy]

These gifting schemes work nonprofits cause the people who feel guilty send money. That fine for them.

But for surveys, it would skew their results toward people inclined to take surveys, people who have computers, people who need money, and people who have time. Yes it’s a totally non-scientific method. There’s no random sample anywhere in this model.

[catherine]

These gifting schemes work nonprofits cause the people who feel guilty send money. That fine for them.

But for surveys, it would skew their results toward people inclined to take surveys, people who have computers, people who need money, and people who have time. Yes it’s a totally non-scientific method. There’s no random sample anywhere in this model.

It's as about as scientific as you can get. Even clinical trials are subject to the same types of patient profiles that enroll. It truly does not skew the results significantly, unless you were doing a survey on motivations for doing surveys. If you are doing a survey on taking care of cats, how much would a survey be skewed based on the people who agree to take the survey? I would argue not at all. And often data is "weighted" to take certain variables into account, such as age, computer literacy, household income, etc.

[Tammy]

Example: Poor people with no internet access who love their cats would not be represented in the survey.

True random sample - would require a sample of all cat owners. Including those who never go online.