Take surveys

“OK, just wanted to experience this, so over two years ago, I signed up for one of the "reputable" "get paid to take surveys" sites. I am emailed with a link whenever THEY decide I am eligible for a survey. Surveys range every topic from politics to health, and so on. Each takes anywhere from 3 to 20 minutes (usually about 7), and awards you a certain amount of points, based on the length. You redeem the points for cash (in the form of a gift card) or merchandise. They do not email me that often. Maybe 1 to 4 times a month. Sometimes, based on my answer to one or two preliminary questions, they just say I am not eligible for this survey and I get no points (although, they did get some data, of course). Other times, I click on the email, which is usually less than one day old, and I am told the survey has ended. After 29 months, so almost 2.5 years, I finally got to the lowest level to redeem my points for cash. $25. So, less than one dollar per month. And, this is not me failing to take surveys. I did virtually every one they sent me.”

“Yeah. For sure. It’s not even something that you can understand if you sign up and do it one time. You have to be at it for every day for a while. I know from my payouts that I took surveys 70 days in that year, so 70 sessions. Right? I’m still learning. I can’t say that I do that many. Right now I’m doing other things, but there’s always something to learn. I went into this with very low expectations. Right? Because we know that respondents or panelists are not making a killing there. I was still surprised that I ended up making 72 cents an hour once I did all the math. I was surprised for two reasons. One is most panel have a point system. You earn points, and then you can redeem them into gift cards. That is not very transparent. You don’t know how much you’re earning per survey or when you screen out. You know eventually you’ll get your gift cards. Then sometimes—and often—you’d get some random [stuff, too 00:10:17], that people want to size whatever they’re trying to do. Random PPIs that have nothing to do with you screening into the survey. You’re 5, 7, 10 minutes into this, and then you screen out. It’s not just the 50 cents that you make when you complete. Then, if you consider how much time you’ve wasted trying to get that 50 cents, this is what is pretty shocking, because you’re not really paid for this.”