Stephanie’s Top Ten Survey Panels – March and April 2011

March was a somewhat disappointing month for me, survey-wise. Although I was doing well with Opinion Outpost in February, I noticed a sharp decline in the surveys I qualified for in March. Although I was receiving many more surveys from them, I barely qualified for any, which was very frustrating. I only had one Invoke in March (with Toluna), which had a lot of technical problems, but I did get paid in the end. I’m still doing quite well with many of the others listed, but SurveySpot is still at the bottom of my list for several reasons. I did fair better with SurveyHead in March, however, although not by much. All in all, March was an average month for me. April was also an average month for me, although I faired a bit better with Opinion Outpost and qualified for more surveys. SurveyHead and SurveySpot still disappointed me in April. It was an unfortunate month for Invokes, as well. There seems to have been a major drought in Invokes as of late, which means less cash flow for me. I couldn’t find a single one on Toluna or SurveySpot in April. I also spent the beginning of April updating all of my survey panel profiles. I try to update them at least a couple times a year. I’ve noticed that sometimes I get more surveys right after updating them, but I’m not sure if this is related to that or just a coincidence. Rankings are based mainly on what I earned for the month from each survey company, as well as the number of survey invites. Here are my current top earners for March and April combined:

1. 1. Toluna
      • Total Earned Since Joining: $750.00
      • Total Earned in March: $60.00
      • Total Earned in April: $30.00
      • Last Payment Requested: $20.00 check on April 15, 2011
      • Joined: August 15, 2008

I took part in only one Invoke in March, which was a little disappointing in several ways. First of all, the Invoke was supposed to be scheduled in February, but got canceled at the last minute and was rescheduled for mid-March. What was most irritating was how poorly this Invoke was run. It was very slow, went 30 minutes overtime, and there was no link to click at the end to register your participation. It was my most frustrating Invoke yet. I emailed Toluna to complain shortly after it was finished, but they took a few weeks to respond with a generic email. Thankfully, I was eventually paid, so it wasn’t a total bust. Other than that Invoke, I had a few high-paying surveys for March, but nothing Earth-shattering. More Invokes would be awesome, but I just don’t see that many of them anymore no matter how hard I search for them. There were no Invokes in April, which was disappointing. I still managed to make about $30 or so by taking several surveys with them each day. I’m still waiting on two $20 checks in the mail.

1. 1. GlobalTestMarket
      • Total Earned Since Joining: $300.00
      • Total Earned in March: $25.00
      • Total Earned in April: $25.00
      • Last Payment Requested: $50.00 check on March 7, 2011
      • Joined: September 21, 2008

I received a lot of surveys from Global Test Market in March and April. I seem to be qualifying for the majority of them, unlike Opinion Outpost this month. I also received a couple of product tests, which was a bonus. It took over a month to get my last check, but that’s usually to be expected.

1. 1. Opinion Outpost
      • Total Earned Since Joining: $490.00
      • Total Earned in March: $15.00
      • Total Earned in April: $25.00
      • Last Payment Requested: $50.00 Amazon.com gift card on March 18,2011
      • Joined: August 12, 2008

I wasn’t very impressed with Opinion Outpost in March. I seem to have a lot of ups and downs with them lately. For one or two weeks in March, I kept getting tons of survey offers, but disqualified on probably close to 90% of them even though I answered the emails almost immediately after receiving them. It was incredibly frustrating. I still think they’re a great company, but I really wish they’d stop sending surveys that I clearly do not qualify for. I did manage to cash out for a $50 Amazon.com gift card, though, so that was a plus. I fared a bit better with Opinion Outpost in April. I still get several surveys a week that I do not qualify for, but things seem to be improving a little bit with them lately. I hope to cash out again in May.

1. 1. MySurvey (merged with Lightspeed recently)
      • Total Earned Since Joining: $460.00
      • Total Earned in March: $15.00
      • Total Earned in April: $20.00
      • Last Payment Requested: $25.00 Amazon.com gift card on March 12, 2011
      • Joined: October 22, 2008

I’m starting to like MySurvey more and more. I wasn’t happy with them when they first merged with Lightspeed, but now that they are sending me a lot more surveys (that I qualify for), I’ve become quite happy with them. I’m hoping to cash out again with them soon. I’m also glad that they seem to be resolving some technical issues with the site (like leaving surveys that I did not qualify for or that had the quota filled up on my dashboard for weeks).

1. 1. Valued Opinions
      • Total Earned Since Joining: $345.00
      • Total Earned in March: $15.00
      • Total Earned in April: $15.00
      • Last Payment Requested: $20.00 Amazon.com gift card on April 27, 2011
      • Joined: September 5, 2008

I’m still doing quite well with Valued Opinions. I haven’t been getting as many surveys as of late, but I do qualify for the vast majority of them. I wish some of them paid a bit more for the time invested, though. I received a few surveys in April that paid a good amount for watching a TV show.

1. 1. MyView
      • Total Earned Since Joining: $290.00
      • Total Earned in March: $15.00
      • Total Earned in April: $15.00
      • Last Payment Requested: $25.00 Amazon.com gift card on April 11, 2011
      • Joined: November 12, 2008

MyView has still been a little slow for me, but there are days when I get 5-6 surveys available for me on the website one right after the other. I get a lot related to women’s magazines a few times a week. There were a few technical issues with some movie and TV show surveys in April where I could have earned a lot of points, so that was a bit of a bummer.

1. 1. SurveyHead
      • Total Earned Since Joining: $616.00
      • Total Earned in March: $15.00
      • Total Earned in April: $12.50
      • Last Payment Requested: $25 Amazon.com gift card on April 12, 2011
      • Joined: August 15, 2008

I’m still not very impressed with SurveyHead lately. I did manage to make a little more money with them in March and April, but not much. I still get a lot of emails from them, but I just can’t seem to qualify for most of their surveys anymore. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong since I used to make so much money with them a couple of years ago. If anyone has any tips, I’d love to hear them. The amount of “win an iPad!” sweepstakes entry-only surveys is annoying because it clutters up my dashboard at times. I’d much rather have more paying surveys than sweepstakes-only surveys, which I tend to avoid unless an Invoke is a possibility.

1. 1. Synovate (Global Opinion Panel)
      • Total Earned Since Joining: $150.00
      • Total Earned in March: $10.00
      • Total Earned in April: $10.00
      • Last Payment Requested: $25.00 check on April 15, 2011
      • Joined: August 15, 2009

Product tests have still been few and far between with Synovate lately, but I did receive a couple in March. I only received one product test in A