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Chapter 5: Common Survey Mistakes

Now, let’s discuss some common mistakes people make when using paid surveys.

Surveys aren’t always reliable.

An important thing to notice, sadly although surveys are free and easy to get started with, they have their own fair share of problems. Sometimes you may find yourself disqualified from new surveys, you may find that you receive not many surveys and sometimes you may only receive low paying survey offers. It’s important not to get discouraged by this, most people who don’t make much money with surveys are the ones that quit early on, after the first problem or mistake. Always learn from your mistakes and find new, better ways to increase your earnings!

Be honest when you answer the questions.

Again, another common mistake to make is people trying to cheat their answers and finish more quickly. Some people think that they can just click buttons instead of thinking properly about their answers; they think they’ll get fast cash easy. This might happen in the short term, but large companies are paying for real responses, not fake answers. Keep in mind that survey companies have a number of ways to determine whether or not you are truthful or not. Here are several examples on how they can catch you:

• Using interconnected questions- For example, if they ask how many times you run a car, you answer 3 times a week, then they ask do you have a car and you answer no, it’s obvious you are not being truthful.
• Missing small details – Some of the questions may ask you to tick a certain box, for example C, but you tick A instead, which could show you are not paying attention to the question.
• The average time to complete surveys – Let’s say that the average completion time is an hour and you complete it in less than 10 minutes, it’s obvious again. You’ll end up being disqualified, losing all of the money in your account and getting banned after time.

Most of the survey companies include honesty as part of their terms of use, so it’s not something you can blindly get away with. Don’t try to cheat. Answer the questions carefully. That way you build trust, you get money and you will get much more high paying offers.

You don’t read their privacy policy.

Probably you visit a lot of sites every day and you never read their terms and privacy, right? OK, but you plan to start working with a company and you have to release your personal information with them. So, please make sure you read these things. And if not all of the things, then read at least the most important things. If you are interested to learn our suggestions, please read this article: https://www.elitesurveysites.com/why-we-have-to-read-carefully-privacy-policy . Although we monitor close all of the terms of all surveys we suggest, we can’t take guarantee 100% about these things.Disclaimer: These survey companies are not our and we can not influence their policies. Also they change them from time to time. You agree that you have to read these things carefully. Please understand that we are telling you this in your interest.

Don’t create fake accounts.

Some people decide to create additional accounts to take advantage of additional surveys they might not otherwise qualify for. You could even complete the same survey more than once to earn twice the amount, or more. Firstly this is frowned upon and against almost all survey sites TOS, and secondly you can be easily caught out. Instead of risking your account and the money in it, consider creating more accounts on different survey sites, where you may not get a survey invitation once a week, another site might give you an invitation in its place.

Also keep in mind that some companies don’t allow other members of your family, or those in the same household to participate in the same panel. Please check their TOS before registering someone else. If someone else in your family wants to complete surveys too, why not consider another panel?  There are literally hundreds of legitimate surveys.

Never pay for surveys.

There are some legitimate panels that ask for registration fees but it’s really not necessary to pay.

Never share your credit card information and your SSN.

No real company will require this information, and won’t ask it from you.

Start completing surveys as soon as possible.

Each new survey usually has a specific quota of people to fill, once these are filled then the survey will close to new applicants.

Make sure you know when your points will expire.

All survey sites are very different from one to the next and have different time frames that you can use your points within. Earlier we discussed creating an excel list of information about each panel you join. The period after which your points expire is certainly something you should include in this list. You should always try to withdraw your earnings as soon as possible when you reach the minimum withdraw amount.

Keep a track of your records.

In the rare case that you are not credited for a survey you complete it can be beneficial to keep a regular record of the surveys you complete. Such as survey number, date, screenshot , etc… That way you can give the survey company any relevant information and get your account credited.  This is also helpful to give you an idea of how many regular surveys you are getting and whether the number is increasing or decreasing etc…

Don’t give up.

One common mistake people make is if they don’t find enough offers they cancel immediately. There is no reason for this. Just stay registered with all survey panels. If you don’t receive good offers now, it is not clear that you won’t start receiving good offers in time. Probably they just don’t have offers for you at the moment. Let’s say that you qualify for only one but high paying offer in several months, wouldn’t be interested to complete it? Tip: In these cases, go and check are all of the information about you correct, then go and check are there any profile surveys that you haven’t completed. If you find more things to complete or some mistakes, complete that.

Don’t reveal information about products you test if it is not allowed.

Some companies will send you products to test and if it is written that you don’t have the rights to share it or talk about it, don’t. First of all these people are good that pay you, so why you won’t be good to them too? Why not? They just don’t want to reveal their new products before their competitors. And second, if you for example decide to write something about that online, they can find that. And you risk your account.

Don’t complete one survey from many accounts you have in other panels.

It is not recommended to complete the same survey across multiple survey panels. This is unlikely to happen, but can and does in rare cases. Although this may seem like easy money, the reason you should avoid this is because survey sites prefer not to take on “regular survey panelists”. This is because they think their responses are more likely to be biased and less “natural”. Yes it seems good because survey sites are actively encouraging people to sign up “for the sake of earning money”.  Either way, it’s something they don’t like so it’s best to try and avoid taking the same survey on more than one website.

Be wary when anyone “guarantees” you a certain income

There is no guarantee how much you will earn from paid surveys, as you control when and how many surveys you take part in. Avoid any websites that try to guarantee you a certain level of income. There is little skill to surveys, anyone can do them and they don’t take up too much time, so companies are not going to pay huge amounts for them. That said however there are plenty of tips you can use to make more from surveys.

You don’t start making money now!

This is a serious mistake. You lose money. Just start today.

Daily Task 5

Join Toluna

Toluna is a fun, easy to use and rewarding survey panel, where everything you do earns you points, and points mean cash!

The site offers regular and interesting surveys so so you could be enjoying that free Starbucks coffee, or Amazon shopping trip in no time at all!   You will get 500 points just for registering and by the time you have completed your profile fully, you should be well on your way to receiving your first reward..

A bit part of Toluna is creating discussions and making your voice heard. It’s a bit like an active forum of people, where you can share your opinion, AND GET REWARDED!

Step 1: As always, make sure to start out right with your profile so you can receive the right surveys that suit your interests..

Step 2: Once you have completed your introductory survey you will be taken to the survey center which shows all available surveys and how many points you can earn from each.

What we want to do before anything else however, is fill out some more of our profile with Toluna’s “Interest surveys”.   Which each earn you 100 points.

It’s very important that before anything else you try to complete all of these if possible, this will help you to receive a much higher level of new survey invitations.

*NOTE*You can back and update any of these at any time if any of your personal details change.

Step 3:  I said it was easy to use and I wasn’t exaggerating, all important notifications and new survey invitations will appear in your notifications stream.   You can find a whole host of opportunities to earn points from here, some are very simple questions such as “how did you feel about our new website design” which might earn you 60 points, others are sweepstakes entries.

*NOTE* It’s important to log into your account and check your notifications as you won’t be emailed all of these opportunities.

For example there are regular opportunities to win points and prizes, they might only be open for a day or so but are available each week so you can always check back if you missed one.

Toluna is well known for its community where people regularly share their thoughts and experiences.  One of my first notifications invited me to discuss my childhood baking experiences, where each participant would receive 500 points just for taking part!

Step 4: Ensure that you’re getting the email notifications you want. Under “Profile > Settings” you will find the ability to turn on and off certain email notifications.  For the most part, the only thing that’s going to earn you points here is new survey invitations, whereas everything else will be sent in an “on site” notification.  Although becoming an active member of the community will certainly help to increase your chances of bonus points and prizes, and Toluna gives out regular prizes of $1000’s.

Step 4: Keeping up to date with your earnings
It’s easy to see where your points are coming from and how your time on the site stacks up.  Within 30 minutes I had racked up 1,350 points and 3 entries into the September 2014 Sweepstakes.

Step 5:Want to test products? 
It’s easy to express your interest for product testing, it’s mostly for cosmetics and health products.  Testers are randomly selected from a pool of people who express their interest in testing a particular product.

Note that you have to:

• Regularly complete surveys on the site
• Create content on Toluna.com (Topics, Polls, Battles, Thumbs) in some form

Battles are a fun way of voting for your favorite between two popular people, or objects.

For example: 

Winter or Summer, Coffee or Tea, Angry Birds or Cut the Rope…

All content you create on the Toluna website gives you a chance of earning extra points, and it’s all a bit of fun, like taking part in a community forum, where you earn rewards too!

Overall Toluna is a breeze to use, with a wide spectrum of rewards available and a host of ways to earn them.

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