Why I Enjoy Taking Online Surveys
Sometimes, reading all the background information in the world about a survey company doesn’t really make a difference to how confident you might feel about giving them your time and effort – not to mention your personal information. Sometimes what you’re looking for is real first-person experience and stories about what a site is really like, how they really treat their users. To that end, I spent the past month signed up as a user at Opinion Outpost, to see if they really followed through and paid people for taking surveys as well as websites and comments claimed they did. Here’s what I found out.
You may be interested in survey sites because you could really use a little extra cash at the end of the month. Your biggest question is whether or not you will get paid, because that’s really why we’re all doing this. Will they really come through with the money, or are sites like Opinion Outpost a scam? I’ll tell you up front: They paid me, and they paid me the instant I requested it. I clicked a button, and boom – there it was in my PayPal account. Pretty nice!
I’ve only been a registered member for about a month, and I’m getting 3 to 5 email invites to surveys every day. From what I understand, that number increases with the amount of time you spend on the site and the number of surveys you answer, peaking at about ten per day. However this rate is not too shabby either. I put an absolute minimum of time into answering surveys every day, and I ended up making between $7.00 and $10.00 a week. That’s not too bad! It’s not going to make me rich, but for a few minutes of my time every evening, while I’m sitting on the couch in my pajamas, it will buy me a latte.
So, what is the site like? First, like any survey site, you register. You can do it manually or via one-click with your Facebook account. Then you fill out your profile so you can get matched with surveys. That does take a few minutes, but isn’t horrible. The surveys come to your email inbox or can be accessed at the website via your dashboard. For each survey you take, you are awarded points, and sometimes sweepstakes entries as well. Even if you get screened out and can’t complete the survey, you can play a mini-game to try and win more points. Currently it is a “What’s behind the door?” type game, where you see three doors and have to click on one to try and win extra points. The site also features badges, which you can earn for filling out surveys, winning points, and spending time on the site. They are a fun addition and make me want to spend more time there.
Your points can be converted into Paypal cash, Amazon gift cards, and other prizes with the click of a button. Opinion Outpost has a very low cash out level, just $5.00, which is fantastic. There’s also the very nice option of donating your points to charity. Currently you can donate to the Red Cross, the World Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, or Concern Worldwide, a group working to fight poverty.
The surveys are great. I found that many of them started off with what seemed like a random mix of questions. “Do you like pasta sauce, have you been in jail, and do you own a digital camera?” But after a few screening questions they always get down to business and start to make more sense.
So, to sum up: What do I think of the site? What’s it really like? Is it worth it or is Opinion Outpost a scam? It’s absolutely worth it, it pays real money, and using the site is even kind of fun, like a game. I signed up for it just for the blog, to try and give you readers a better idea of what it was like, but I’m glad I did. It’s been a fun month plus I earned coffee money. It absolutely makes the grade for survey sites worth signing up for.
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