The Ultimate Guide to Special Paid Survey Opportunities – You Always Can Make More
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The Ultimate Guide to Special Paid Survey Opportunities – You Always Can Make More

EPF October 20, 2014

You might be coming to this article as someone who is familiar with paid surveys and you want to learn about the full range of opportunities available so you can always make more.  You might be coming as a complete beginner, in which case you are certainly in the right place!

Either way this is the ultimate guide to special survey opportunities,learn about the extra ways to earn money from paid surveys and how to squeeze each panel with the most amount of money available!

These special opportunities are used by paid survey experts and those who make $1,000s every month, and you could too!

Earn as much as 10x that of normal surveys and even more! Get more survey invitations – Increase your survey invitations overnight & dozens more tips to making the most from survey panels.

 

So let’s get straight to it:

In this guide we are going to cover most, if not all of the special survey opportunities available from the most popular survey panels.  Alongside each you will find helpful tips on how to take advantage of that opportunity and which survey panels offer it.

Most survey takers might know about one or two of these special opportunities to earn extra cash, we’re going to give you over 10 of the best!

  • Focus Groups
  • Product Reviews
  • Sweepstakes
  • Mobile Surveys
  • VIP panelist
  • Higher paying surveys
  • Webcam Surveys
  • Mystery shopping
  • Searching the web
  • Photo contests
  • Online ad exposure

 

Focus Groups – Earn as much as $20, $30, $50 or more!

Did you know that survey sites offer their survey takers higher paying focus groups from time to time?

Focus groups take slightly longer than ordinary surveys, anywhere between 1-2 hours for example and usually involve other participants who you can share opinions and ideas with.

Focus groups tend to be offered to regular survey takers that research companies know they can trust.  They don’t usually have open registration, so you won’t necessarily know when or where the next invitation is going to come from.

The way that people are invited into focus groups from survey panels is usually off the back of a particular survey.

The company paying for that research

What can you do to increase your chances of focus group invitations?

  1. Complete all surveys you are invited to
  2. Be an active member & check your emails often
  3.  Let them know that you are interested in taking part and what you can offer to the panel

There aren’t any open registrations for the below panels, so just make sure you are registered and keep active.

Which survey sites offer focus groups?

Note that not many survey companies offer focus groups, here are a few that do:

 

Product testing – Try new products & keep them!

Occasionally as well as a survey about a new product, a company might want you to try it out for yourself to see what you really think, this is where product testing comes in.

product testing sample

The products that you can be given to try out can vary significantly from cosmetics and healthcare products to the latest tech if you are lucky!

Like focus groups there isn’t usually an open form of registration so you won’t always know when product testing is available, with the exception of Toluna which allows members to apply for each of their product testing campaigns for the chance to be selected.  For the rest all you can really do is stay active and complete each survey you are given to increase your chances.

What can you do to increase your chances of Product testing invitations?

  1. Complete all surveys you are invited to
  2. Be an active member & check your emails often
  3. .Let them know that you are interested in taking part and what you can offer to the panel

Which survey sites offer product testing?

Product testing is a much more common opportunity than focus groups and you will likely find it spoken about more from the individual survey panel.

 

Sweepstakes – Chances to win big, big money!

If you have been a survey taker for some time you will most likely have come across their sweepstakes when you didn’t quite meet the criteria for a survey.  Just a small token to keep you sweet…

Because surveys notably don’t pay all that well, survey companies use sweepstakes as a way of giving back something more.   You may find that you are given a sweepstakes entry just for registering, and when you don’t meet the requirements for a particular survey.

However there are other means that can increase your chances too.

What can you do to increase your chances of sweepstakes entries?

  1. Completing daily polls/taking part in blogs etc…
  2. Follow/like the company page on Facebook/Twitter and check their blog to keep up to date with the latest sweepstakes, how to enter and whether you have won or not.
  3. Post your entry (This can be hard to find, but looking around the contest terms you may find an address to send an additional postal entry)

Which survey sites offer sweepstakes entries?

You would find it difficult to find a survey company that doesn’t offer some form of sweepstakes.

  • MySurvey – One winner wins $100 every month
  • MyView – Win as much as $50,000!

 

Mobile Surveys

Recently more and more survey companies have started to introduce mobile surveys into their lineup.  Mobile surveys come in different shapes and sizes, with iPoll for example there are opportunities to get paid for walking into shops and giving your opinion as well as other “field tasks”.   iPoll also offer shorter “mobile friendly” surveys that you can complete while out and about.

How much can you earn with mobile surveys?

This really depends, for plain surveys probably $1-$2 each.  For field tasks and fast-food missions perhaps $5-$10 or more.

What can you do to take advantage of mobile surveys?

It’s important to note that mobile surveys are not advertised that well by some survey sites, some require specialist invitation (and a separate login), others allow you to use your same panel login with the mobile app.  All you need to do is download the app from either Google Play or the IOS App Store.

Step 1:Make sure you have an account with iPoll (You get $5 just for signing up!)

Step 2:Download the iPoll mobile app and login with your account details to start getting mobile missions & surveys:

Google Play: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ipoll/id422370120

Apple App Store: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ipoll/id422370120

Which survey sites offer Mobile Surveys?

 

VIP Membership

Occasionally survey companies introduce their own VIP memberships to reward and encourage their dedicated members.

For some panels this means extra points/cash for each survey, for others it means extra privileges such as faster payments and other ways to earn.

Inbox Dollars is a survey site that has an easy to join and rewarding VIP membership.  “Inbox Dollars Gold” is automatically granted to any member who earns the minimum withdrawal amount of $30.

 

vip panelist inboxdollars

 

Rewards for gold members include:

  • Double earnings when searching the web through inbox dollars
  • Double sweepstakes entries
  • Exclusive monthly offers & more..

What can you do to take advantage of VIP Membership?

Most legitimate survey sites don’t charge for any aspect of their website, even for VIP membership.  Generally vip membership is granted to regular members, in the case of Inbox Dollars this is when a member earns their first $30.

Which survey sites offer VIP Membership?

 

Higher paying surveys

Depending on the length and complexity of each survey, you can earn very different amounts from one survey to the next.  Each panel pays different amounts and have different ranges of surveys you can earn from.

One survey site might pay between $2-$5 per survey, whereas others can pay as much as $20 or more for a more complicated survey.

There is nothing to say that your next survey will or won’t pay this amount, it really comes down to two things:

  • Whether the survey panel actually offers higher paying surveys
  • Whether there are any higher paying surveys available at that time

What we do know is that higher paying surveys are usually offered to a panels “more trusted” members, those who have completed more lower paying surveys beforehand and those who consistently provide quality responses.  Other than that you won’t usually find any other ways to “request access” to higher paying surveys.  Just remain active, and give good quality answers.

What can you do to take advantage of Higher Paying Surveys?

Just keep active and be aware of what is available, for example find out what the maximum amount is a survey could offer, that way you know what to expect. (We let you know this information on our site too).

 

Which survey sites offer Higher Paying Surveys?

Vindale – Vindale Research offers surveys up to $15

Survey Downline – Survey Downline has surveys between $1-$20

 

Webcam Surveys

Did you know that you could earn extra money from surveys just for having your webcam plugged in?   Companies pay more money just to have your reactions to their advertisements, videos and survey questions and you can take advantage of this through webcam surveys.

They are completely anonymous and you don’t have to do anything special other than to answer the survey as you would normally, then make sure that your webcam is installed so that you can start increasing your earnings.

 

What can you do to take advantage of Webcam Surveys?

Depending on the site you can opt-in to webcams within your account settings, since most survey takers probably wouldn’t want to take part in webcams it is not automatically sent to all members.

Step 1:  Make sure you have an account with MySurvey (A popular site which offers higher paying webcam surveys).

Step 2:  Register for CamSurveys so you can start receiving invitations – Typically they pay 250 points, which is 50 more points than the average survey on MySurvey, however if anything the good thing is that you have a greater chance of more regular surveys.

Which survey sites offer Webcam Surveys?

 

Mystery Shopping

Mystery shoppers have long-been relied upon by retailers, restaurants & businesses to get real data from ordinary shoppers.

Mystery shoppers are usually required to answer certain questions such as the customer service they received, the staff’s level of product knowledge and the general feel of the store for example.  Sometimes this might require making a purchase, which may be paid for and which the mystery shopper may get to keep, other times it will be a contribution towards the bill in a restaurant for example.

iPoll is one survey panel that offers such opportunities, through their mobile app you can complete local “missions”, by visiting stores and giving your opinion.  Earn upwards from $5, sometimes a lot more!

What can you do to take advantage of Mystery Shopping?

Step 1: Make sure that you have an account with iPoll – Join iPoll here.

Step 2: Download the iPoll mobile app on the Google Play Store, or Apple App Store.

Google Play: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ipoll/id422370120

Apple App Store: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ipoll/id422370120

Step 3: Sign in with your account using the app and wait for your missions.

*TIP* Mystery Shopping agencies like people who are analytical and can point out good & bad points easily, preferably people with particular interest in what they are reviewing too.  So if you are a mystery shopper for restaurants then it is probably best that you go to restaurants regularly so you have an understanding of what standards to expect etc…

 

Get paid to search the web

How would you like to earn money for something you already do anyway?  Each time you search something on the internet, no matter what it is.. You could be making extra earnings, think about how many times you use Google to search for something each week, each day.

The earnings are quite small, but better than nothing!  You can earn $0.01 for each search as a normal member, and $0.02 for a search as a gold member.

If you could, wouldn’t you want to earn money for these searches?  It’s really easy.

 

What can you do to take advantage of Paid Searches?

It’s really easy, you don’t have to take many steps to get started, although there are a number of sites that offer this, there are few survey sites that also offer paid searches, and to be honest you only need one anyway!

Step 1: Make sure you have an account on Inbox Dollars.

Step 2: Go to the Inbox Dollars search page: http://www.inboxdollars.com/search

You can also set the search page as your browser homepage, you might prefer to set the search results page as your browser homepage (So you don’t forget to use it): http://www.inboxdollars.com/search/infospace?query=&category=web

To do this here are some guides to setting your start page for the most popular browsers:

Google Chrome: https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95314?hl=en-GB

Which survey sites offer Paid Searches?

 

Photo Contests

Some of the more “community friendly” survey sites such as Toluna and Vindale have regular contests such as photo contests for their members, these contests give members the chance to win $10 for uploading a photo of their pet for example, or commenting on a photo.   In a lot of cases there are multiple winners, in a post by Vindale where users were asked to submit a simple answer to a question, 20 winners were chosen: http://blog.vindale.com

 

 

What can you do to take advantage of Photo Contests?

  • There are more than just “photo” contests, for example, share a funny story. However these are the most common.
  • Check your account regularly for new notifications – Toluna for example gives notifications within your account for a lot of opportunities that you are not necessarily emailed about, so make sure to log in regularly!
  • Check the Vindale blog daily – The Vindale blog has regular opportunities, including photo contests and more, to earn cash and prizes as well as their ordinary surveys. – http://blog.vindale.com
  • Actively follow your favourite survey site on Facebook/Twitter, see an example of a photo contest from Vindale posted on Facebook below:

 

Which survey sites offer Photo Contests?

Online ad exposure

A relatively new technology that survey companies are using to improve their data is by tracking the online ad exposure of their users.

This essentially means that the survey company can determine which ads you have seen online, which you have engaged with and from which companies.

The way it works is through browser cookies, much like the ones used by millions of other websites worldwide, all that really happens it that when an ad is loaded in the browser, it stores that information in a cookie which can then be tracked by the survey site. (No other information is parsed).

This then allows the survey panel to send you a related survey about the ads you have seen and the companies behind them.

Asking questions such as:

  • Do you see the ad?
  • How did the ad make you feel?
  • Would you buy the product after seeing the ad, and so on…

There are very few survey panels that use online ad tracking at the moment.  You may find that the surveys you are given through such schemes pay little more than any others.  However the benefit is that you will definitely have a much greater chance of increasing your survey invitations, and subsequent opportunities such as focus groups, product testing and so on..

What can you do to take advantage of Online Ad Exposure?

When you register to MySurvey and confirm your email address you should be taken to a page that looks similar to this, ensure that your preferences are set to “I would like to participate”.

 

 

If you are already a member or haven’t seen this page then visit:

My Profile > My Cookie Preference

You should see a page that looks like this:

Overall there are 6 different schemes that you can participate in, by default these are not set to either yes or no, the more you join the more survey invitations you will receive!

Which survey sites offer Online Ad Exposure?

MySurvey

Elite Survey Sites

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