1. Complete Your Profile Surveys

Profile surveys are very important, because they are what most survey panels use to determine whether a particular survey is a good match for you. The profile surveys usually cover topics like your income, education level, profession, and the ages and genders of other people living in your household. Profile surveys also may ask questions about the products that you use, vehicles that you drive, and your spending or travel habits.

Each survey panel will have different profile surveys. Some survey panels offer rewards for completing their profile surveys, but even if they do not, it is important that you complete all profile surveys at every survey panel. When you fill out the profiles, you let the survey panel know more about you, which allows them to make better decisions on what surveys to send you. Generally, this will mean more surveys that you qualify for, and less time spent answering questions on surveys that really aren’t a good match for you.

Our suggestion is to try and complete the profile surveys for a survey panel immediately after joining that panel. Then the survey panel will have all the information they need to start matching you up with surveys immediately.

It is also important to update your profiles. We recommend updating them every six months and after you have an important change in your household. Important life events like the birth of a new baby or the purchase of a house or new car could qualify you for more surveys. Sometimes other things will also affect your survey prospects. For instance, buying a new video game console or e-Reader or other electronic device might open up opportunities to take surveys about those products- but ONLY if the survey panel knows that you have them. So, how do you let them know? By updating your profile surveys! If you update all of your profile surveys every six months, you’ll be sure to catch all these small changes, as well as be able to answer any new questions the survey panel added since your last update.

In order to join online survey panels you must have an email address, and while you can use an existing email address, we highly recommend that you create a dedicated one. This ensures that you do not get paid survey email invitations mixed up with your personal email, and it makes it easier to track individual survey panel invites. Three great sources for free email accounts are Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail.

Also, if you have a PayPal account, it is important to add this new email address to your existing profile. If you do not have a PayPal account, you should really consider creating one, because some survey panels offer cash payments via PayPal.

Today’s Recommended Survey Panel: Opinion Outpost

Opinion Outpost is very popular with our members, and has been in our top 10 list for quite some time. Our members like that it offers fun and enjoyable surveys, with reasonable rewards for the time spent, and low cash out amounts needed ($10 for PayPal, $5 for Amazon.com e-gift cards. Other awards are also available.)

Opinion Outpost is open to all US, Canadian, and UK residents aged 18 or older, is free to join, maintains high privacy standards, and will never spam your email address.

Get Started with Opinion Outpost

1. Join & Log InIf you are not already a member of Opinion Outpost, you can join by going to the Opinion Outpost Registration Page and filling out the registration form. When registering, remember to use your dedicated email address for surveys, as mentioned in our bonus tip above.
   Once you are a member, go to the Opinion Outpost website and log in. Be sure to bookmark the login page or add it to your favorites so that you can easily access it in the future.
   When you log in, you’ll see Opinion Outpost’s “My Dashboard” page. This page gives you a summary of your reward balance, the results of the last three surveys you took, and offers links to everything else you’ll want to do here.
2. Add Opinion Outpost to your whitelistSome surveys are only available through email invitations. To be sure you don’t miss out on these surveys, add the email address “[email protected]” to your whitelist in your email client. If you are unfamiliar with how to do this, just wait. We will cover how to use whitelists in tomorrow’s lesson.
3. Complete Your Profile SurveysAs discussed earlier, profile surveys are important! You’ll want to fill them out immediately to get the best results.To get to the “Personal Profile” page with Opinion Outpost’s profile surveys, click on the “Edit Profile” link. (This is located in the “My Dashboard” panel on the left side of the page.)
   You may have completed some of this information during registration, so some profiles may be already complete. Your job here is to finish all the rest of them. All completed surveys will show a date in the “Participated” column. This can help you remember when you last updated your profile. For now, though, the lack of a date just tells you that you have not yet filled out that profile. Note: The “Home Address” profile will NOT show the date you filled it out. Don’t let that concern you, just move on.
   To take a profile survey, just click the subject of the survey. For instance, in the screenshot below, you could click the “Computers and Internet” link to start the Computers and Internet profile survey. According to the site, this should take you about 1.5 minutes.

   

   After all the profiles are completed, it’s time to move on, and….
4. Take Surveys (An Overview)Opinion Outpost offers two different ways for you to receive surveys, which we will call “email invitation” and “site participation.” (These are our terms, you won’t find them on the Opinion Outpost site.)
   1. Email Invitation SurveysWhen Opinion Outpost finds a survey it thinks you would be a good match for, they will send you an email with a link to take that survey. The ONLY way you’ll be able to take this particular survey is through the email link, which is why it is so important to be sure that you do not miss emails from them. To take this type of survey, simply click the link in the email, then follow the instructions on the web page that opens. 
      Tip: Take “Email Invitation” surveys as soon as possible after getting the email. These surveys tend to fill up quickly, so the quicker you take it, the more likely it is that you will be able to get in.
   2. Site Participation SurveysYou will typically only receive a few survey invitations via email. Opinion Outpost states that they do this to avoid filling your inbox. If you want to take more surveys and have more opportunities to earn money, you can log in to the OpinionOutpost dashboard and click the “Take A Survey” link.
      Opinion Outpost will then search to see if there are any additional surveys you might qualify for. If no surveys are available, you will get a message telling you so. If you check back later, you may find that more surveys have become available.
      Sometimes, they will ask you a few short qualifying questions (for example, “Did you eat at any of the following restaurants in the past 30 days?”) to quickly eliminate some options.
      If you meet the criteria, they may offer you the survey to take. Be aware that since these surveys are generally looking for something in particular, you may screen out (disqualify) from the survey quickly. If so, don’t worry about it and try another survey later.

      Tip: Check “Site Participation” surveys often. This depends on your time available, but the more you check, the more likely you are to get more surveys and earn rewards.

5. Take Surveys (The Details)When you start either an “Email Invitation” or “Site Participation” survey, you’ll see a screen similar to the one below:
   You are clearly told how long the survey should last, how many points you will get if you complete it, and the survey number.
   Tip: If the survey offers a large number of points, you may wish to write down the survey number so that if there is an error, you have the number to use when contacting the company to request resolution.
   You should take most surveys all at once, as they will usually time out if left alone for too long. If for some reason, you run into an error, some surveys will allow you to restart them by clicking a link from the My Dashboard or Survey History pages.
   You will usually be redirected to a different website to take the actual survey, and when the survey ends, you will be sent back to Opinion Outpost to get your rewards (or consolation prize, as the case may be).
6. Redeem Rewards
   Finally, the part you’ve been waiting for. Once you accumulate enough reward points, you can redeem them for cash or other items. Opinion Outpost currently offers multiple options, including cash via PayPal and Citibank gift cards. To choose and redeem your rewards, click the “Claim Rewards” button at the top of the dashboard page, then select the reward you want from the column on the left.
   After selecting the reward you want, either enter the number of points you wish to use or select the “Request Total” box, then click “Redeem.” You will ONLY be able to do this if you have enough points in your account. Each reward has a different minimum. For instance, you need 100 points to use PayPal, but 150 to get a Citibank gift card. Instructions for each reward are given on the appropriate page.
   Tip: You CAN cash out for more than the minimum. For instance, if you have 115 points, you could get $11.50 deposited into your PayPal account.
   Congratulations! You’ve just earned your first reward by taking free online surveys.

When you disqualify from a survey, you will get a message similar to the one below: 

Conclusion