Intro to Survey Sites | Making Money from Home

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Give Us Some Context

Survey sites were one of the first ways I discovered you could make money online. It's something many people will have come across and tried. But I went in. All the way in.

Not everyone is as familiar, so join me on a tour of the wonderful world of surveys.

How Do Survey Sites Work?

Survey sites invite you to fill in questionnaires, in exchange for rewards. This could be money, gift cards or product-redeemable points. After you answer the questions, you are usually thanked and notified about how much you earned.

These sites send out emails or get you to log into their platform (either online or through an app) when new paid opportunities arise. When they do this, usually it's a first come first serve as to who gets rewarded, as long as they attract enough people that fit their clients' recommendations.

They all roughly work along the same lines, and reward people for their time. You get paid per survey, usually depending on the time it should take to complete it. Once you have reached a certain number of points or value, you are then able to redeem your earnings.

What Do They Ask About?

Consumer products, adverts, politics, general societal opinions and many other things are on the cards. Once they have an understanding of who you are, if you match the right criteria, the more pressing questions will follow.

Most website mix up the style of question. At first, you're likely to be met with lots of multiple choice questions. A few clicks and you will get through those. Sometimes it then requires a bit more brain power. They will want you to mark on a scale of 1-10 how you feel about something, and then potentially get asked why you feel this way.

They don't want essays, but they don't want to be able to record something meaningful, so they can feed this information back to whoever it concerns.

What About My Personal Data?

The catch with all survey sites is that you are exchanging personal data for these rewards. It has to be this way. If you don't tell them who you are – or at least a rough description via multiple-choice answers – the data isn't much good to them.

Most surveys begin with them asking general demographic questions such as your age, location, employment status, education level, marital status, number of children and household buying influence. From there, it varies from site to site how deep they dig into you.

If this is a concern to you, turn away. It's the reality of surveys. Get with it or jog on.

How Do They Afford to Pay Everyone?

The survey sites are usually commissioned by companies, who pay a set fee for to get x number of respondents. This fee will cover the cost of writing (or adjusting) the questions, structuring the format, incentivising those that answer the questions and presenting the data back in a digestible way.

As long as the websites continue to attract clients, they will be able to fund more reward-paying surveys to its users. In some cases, these sites actually use one another's database of users to fill in the questionnaires, ensuring that if their own sign-UPS don't match the right criteria, they will find others that do.

What Websites Should I Use?

New survey websites pop up all the time. Others rename. Some merge. I've been around to see various developments. As of right now, I would suggest that you sign up to these:

Prolific Academic (pays more than most)
YouGov (makes you feel like you've contributed towards something tangible)
CitizenMe (slick little app)
Global Test Market (been about for ages, so one of the more consistent ones)
MintVine (quick, easy, decent turns)
Valued Opinions (redemption on here feels like a mini lottery win)
Google Opinion Rewards (Android only)

They vary in pay rates, frequency of new surveys, redemption points etc, so try them all out until you work out what suits you best.

How Much Do They Pay?

The amount you get paid usually depends on the length of the survey. There are serious extremes in this regard.

Generally if you don't qualify for a survey, you will be screened out after a few questions. Sometimes this doesn't happen until you're deep into it, to the frustration of users.

Some websites get special surveys in which they might make you submit your answers in a different way.
Rather than clicking at your own pace as you read through, they might do it live in a chat room. Others ask for videos. Some send you products to test and then feed back.

What's My Experience with Survey Sites?

I went against my mum's advise when I explained I could get paid to answer surveys online. She asked why they were asking about where I lived, the household's income and what electronics we bought in the past year (which, looking back, would seem a bit off) but it paid off to ignore her.

I spent years filling out questionnaire for cash and know what works, what doesn't and what's the best use of your time. It was so much fun at first. Most evenings I would go through my emails, while watching the TV, answering as many as possible. Back then, I didn't care how many screen outs I got, as long as money was coming in.

I was already into other forms of online money making, and this was a nice break that didn't require much thinking. The more you do surveys, the more you find screen outs unfair. Sometimes you'll be doing a survey for half an hour before they decide they don't want you.

Survey-exclusive sites are against my religion now. It's too much effort for too little reward, when I could spend that time doing something more productive (matched betting, sourcing, developing other ideas). I'm still signed up to loads and I might fill out the odd one on Prolific Academic and YouGov when I feel like it, but I wouldn't miss them.

Should You Sign Up to Survey Sites?

As an entry into making money online, surveys were an essential revenue stream for me. Teenagers, I recommend you all give it a go. Those that need to get their funds up without spending a penny should also go for this too. You will make money through surveys. You won't make masses, but you will definitely earn cash.

Be sensible and productive with your time. If you're planning on working from home full time through online revenue streams, it's unlikely that surveys will contribute much toward these goals. For an occasional boost to your income, they are perfect. Long term, too much agg.