Day 2 Wrap Up

Signed up for the following:
Survey Spot
Panda Research
Lightspeed Consumer Panel
Greenfield Online
Pinecone Research

As a side note, I'm not going to include time spent on this blog.

Time spent signing up...a couple hours.

Pinecone Research - Find a Banner

I saw a recommendation on a site to sign up for Pinecone Research, it's supposed to be great. I then found out that it's not as easy to sign up, you have to find a banner to click to get to the signup page. After googling a few times and finding sites pointing me to banners that were gone, I found one pretty easily by doing the following:

Do a google search for "Pinecone Research banner"
click on "Advanced Search"
click the button on the bottom for "dates, usage...etc"
change date to "past week"
do your search again, and hopefully someone will point you to a recent banner.

So anyway, I signed up for this Pinecone Research and they said it would be a few days before they review my application and let me know if I am being accepted.

Survey Site - Greenfield Online

I was actually a member from this site from 2002, although I don't remember signing up for it. I updated my profile and took some screening tests. I wonder if they sent me anything 6 years ago and if me not replying will effect if I get any new surveys....huh.

Survey - Lightspeed Consumer Panel

I signed up for Lightspeed Consumer Panel. It looks like a professionally built site. Easy signup, and I started doing "screening" surveys that will supposedly help get me more surveys. Those took a while to complete.

"Survey" Site - Panda Research

Welp, looks like I ran into my first scam site. Once you sign up for Panda Research, they send you to a page (actually 2 pages) listing all the "surveys" available and how much they pay. Unfortunately, after every survey you are directed to click the link and order the trial, information, product, etc.

It's obvious to me that Panda Research has signed up for tons of affiliate programs, made up stupid 15 second surveys regarding the product and put a link button at the bottom. The "pay" is a portion of the affiliate fees.

On the bright side, they probably DO pay you what they say. On the dark side, if you did every survey and request regarding credit bureaus, you'd credit would probably drop about 100 points. Not to mention "trial" subscriptions you forget to cancel and whatever other affiliates they've had you sign up for.

First Impression...Panda Research is a scam site. We'll see what comes in the email.

Survey Site - Survey Spot

Day 2 has started. This morning I checked my email and....no surveys. Spent a little while googling to try and find some more free survey sites. Eventually I'll pay money to sign up for some pay sites, but I'd like to see if the free sites can make me any money. At least enough to pay for the pay sites.

The latest I've signed up for is Survey Spot. It was a quick signup, then they offered my first survey which took awhile. Hopefully its worth it, as it was information about purchases and interests that may lead to actual paying surveys. For spending about 15 minutes doing the survey, I got 25 entries into the $25,000 grand drawing. I think its a long shot, heh.

1st Day Wrap Up

OK, I think I'm going to start a diary to wrap up what I accomplished each day in this journey into paid surveys. So, here goes.

Day 1.
Started this Blog.
Signed up for American Consumer Opinion
Signed up for Executive Advisory Board
Signed up for Valued Opinions
Signed up for Survey Savvy

All in all, I spent about 3 hours on my laptop doing this while watching tv.

Survey Sign Up - Survey Savvy

OK, last one for tonight. surveysavvy.com gives $2 to $20. Well, actually they give you "points" you can trade out for cash. Registration took about 10 minutes.

3rd - Valued Opinions

With Valued Opinions, sign up is free. Took me about 5 minutes to register. They pay out earnings in gift cards (Marriott, Macy's, Amazon.com). www.valuedopinions.com

2nd - Executive Advisory Board

www.executiveadvisoryboard.com was recommended when I was signing up for the American Opinion. It is for business executives and claim to offer $10 to $300 for each survey. Took me about 10 minutes to sign up, with confirmation by email.

The First - American Consumer Opinion

Well, I found this site, American Consumer Opinion. It says that they'll send me several surveys, and there is always some type of incentive (product, cash, etc.).

I filled out a survey to register, it took me about 10 minutes. Then I had to go to my email to confirm the registration When I confirmed, it prompted me to sign up for another survey company, because of my profession (executive for a major publicly traded company).

the website is www.acop.com. Let's see how this goes.

Introduction - The Paid Survey Study

I've been thinking that I need to make a little extra money. Who doesn't, right? So, after googling the usual "free money online"..."make money online"..."win free money" etc. etc. I noticed that quite a few of the sites that came up were along the lines of "get paid to take surveys". Of course, it's not quite that easy.

You have to pay to get onto the website, to find out where these paying surveys are! Definitely sounds like a scam. In doing a bit more research, I've found some nice blogs that rate the sites you have to pay, and also a few free sites with paid surveys, and yet some more sites that you get "points" for taking surveys that you can trade for cash and prizes.

So I've made this blog to check out if you can REALLY make money taking surveys. I'll document when I take surveys, what site it was sent from and when/if I get paid.

A few rules for myself...

1. Try to spend at least 30 minutes a day signing up for/taking surveys.
2. Be 100% honest about the sites...if they suck, they suck.
3. If I put up a link to a site, I'll try to be an affiliate. Might as well see how easy/hard it is to sign up for affiliates and make money.
4. If I think of more rules when I get going, I'll post them here.

Wish me luck!