CHAPTER ONE
HOW PAID SURVEYS WORK
Once you register with a paid survey site, you will receive surveys in your email. It is up to you which surveys you choose to participate in. You will be paid for each survey you complete, following the price per survey the site offers. Most of the time, these surveys will take you about 5 to 15 minutes of your time to fill out, and usually offer a payment of $10 to $75 for each. Focus groups pay quite a bit more per survey, usually up to $250.
The amount of money you make will depend on how many sites you join and how many emails you receive in a day, you could make several hundred dollars daily. Look at it this way, if you receive and complete at least 25 paid surveys a day at $10 to $15 each, you would be making anywhere from $250–$375 per day. At 5 to 15 minutes per survey you would be working anywhere from 2 1/2 hours, to a bit over 6 hours every day. If all of these surveys were from focus groups paying $75 each, you would have the potential to realize a whopping $1875 per day. You can see the potential to make a good deal of money participating in paid surveys.
Why Would Anyone Pay For Your Opinion ?
As a consumer, your opinion is important to companies before they introduce a new product or service to the market. Paying to have a consumer fill out surveys is a much more cost effective way to perform research, as the company cannot afford to introduce a new product or service that nobody will buy.
It is well worth it for a company to pay a consumer to fill out a survey, participate in an online focus group, or pay to watch a new movie trailer and give their opinion. This way they will get consumer opinions, good or bad, before they put any money into production.
Types of Paid Surveys
Statistical Surveys:
These surveys are used to collect information about the population. These surveys are used to measure political polls, for governmental use, health, social activities, and marketing research. The surveys will focus on facts or opinions, depending on the type of the information the company or institution is looking for.
The questions on this type of survey are standard and structured. Questions are offered in an order that will not influence a response to questions that came after. They are standardized so that the questions remain general and reliable. Every person receiving the survey will receive the exact same questions.
Serial Surveys:
These surveys repeat the same questions at different times to track changes in opinion. There are two types of serial surveys. Cross– Sectional Surveys are given to a variety of different people at the same time, and Longitudinal Surveys are given to the same person at different intervals of time.
Delivering Surveys to the Public:
Telephone Surveys– Are a popular way to get public opinion and are low in cost. This type of survey is limited in capacity because the responder is not able to view, smell, or touch the product. An oral representation of the survey is represented.
Mail Surveys– The survey is mailed to the respondent and are returned in the same manner. When bought in bulk, postage is usually quite reasonable, making this type of delivery cost effective. The biggest drawback to this type of survey delivery is the long wait to receive all of the responses, sometimes several months.
Online Surveys– Web surveys are sometimes preferred over email because the response rate is instantly available. Online surveys can be lower in cost to the company, and more convenient for the person filling them out because they are automated.
In-Home Surveys– People are interviewed at their door or in their home. These surveys are very high in cost and the company will get about a 40 to 50% response.
Man-on-the Street Surveys– Surveys taken by those encountered outdoors. Many times a booth is set up with an interviewer. The questions can be asked orally, or the respondent may be asked to fill out a written survey.