Stephanie’s Top Ten Survey Panels – November 2010

November was a pretty good month for survey-taking, especially with all the holiday-related surveys popping up. This is always good because it means more surveys to take and I usually enjoy taking these surveys. I had a few Invoke interactive sessions that were hosted on SurveySpot and Toluna this month, which were pretty fun and were worth about $20-25 each. I also got a lot more product tests, including perfume, body wash, shampoo, conditioner, cookies, tea, sunscreen, and toothpaste, to name several of the items I received to test. The vast majority of these product tests came from SurveySpot and Synovate. My current favorite survey websites are still SurveySpot and Toluna, which I concentrate a lot on mainly for the possibility of getting invited to Invokes. Opinion Outpost and SurveyHead were pretty disappointing this month for me because of lack of surveys (especially SurveyHead) and not qualifying (Opinion Outpost). Please note that I have also added the total (approximate and rounded off to the nearest dollar) of what I’ve earned from each survey company during the month since there was some confusion related to my survey rankings in my last Top Ten list. My ranking will be based on the total earned for the month, as well as how many surveys I received from each company. I hope this clears things up a bit. Here are my current top earners:

1. 1. SurveySpot
      • Total Earned Since Joining: $500.00
      • Total Earned This Month: $100.00
      • Last Payment Requested: $50.00 Payal on November 24, 2010
      • Joined: August 20, 2008

I took part in two Invoke interactive sessions in the beginning of November. One paid $20 and the other paid $25. I also took many 50 point surveys and several surveys offering more points. I currently earn the most from them of all the survey panels I’m enrolled in. I usually get a few survey invitations a day from them, but I also go on their website and take surveys straight through the site (which is how I find Invokes and other high-paying surveys). I received several product tests from them this month, as well. The survey errors didn’t seem as numerous this month, but there were still problems encountered on some surveys. I am a bit tired of all the magazine surveys that don’t offer any points. I usually just ignore those and move on to other surveys. Most I do not qualify for, anyway.

1. 1. Toluna
      • Total Earned Since Joining: $525.00
      • Total Earned This Month: $75.00
      • Last Payment Requested: $20.00 check on November 12, 2010
      • Joined: August 15, 2008

I took part in one Invoke interactive session this month that was hosted at Toluna. It paid $25 in points. I also took many regular surveys (ranging from 1,200-12,000 points). I usually don’t waste my time on surveys offering few points for a lot of time invested. I also continue to take the sponsored polls and mini-surveys every day since every little bit helps to earn more points. One even led to an Invoke a couple weeks ago. I’m hoping to cash out with them again soon.

1. 1. MyView
      • Total Earned Since Joining: $225.00
      • Total Earned This Month: $25.00
      • Last Payment Requested: $25.00 Amazon.com gift card on November 16, 2010
      • Joined: November 12, 2008

I’ve been having pretty good success with MyView lately. Although they don’t send me many survey invitations, there seems to always be a lot of surveys on their website each day for me to take (and that I qualify for). I check their site in the morning and in the evening just to see if there’s anything new for me. There are a lot of magazine surveys that offer a lot of points and many holiday surveys that have popped up. I’m almost ready to cash out for another $25.00 Amazon gift card, too.

1. 1. Lightspeed
      • Total Earned Since Joining: $272.00
      • Total Earned This Month: $22.00
      • Last Payment Requested: $25.00 Amazon.com gift card on November 29, 2010
      • Joined: October 22, 2008

I didn’t earn as much as I would have liked with Lightspeed this month. I disqualified on more surveys, which didn’t help, but still received a good number of surveys each week. No product tests or special projects with them this month.

1. 1. GlobalTestMarket
      • Total Earned Since Joining: $150.00
      • Total Earned This Month: $20.00
      • Last Payment Requested: $50.00 check on September 26, 2010
      • Joined: September 21, 2008

I’m still getting a lot of surveys from Global Test Market. Some days I get as many as ten survey invitations (although qualifying is another story). I have been qualifying for most lately, though. Some have been a little longer than I’ve liked. I don’t really like all the sweepstakes-only invitations, although I didn’t seem to get as many in November for some reason. I did receive a couple product tests for this month, though. I’m hoping to cash out again soon, but it can take a while for points to be credited sometimes.

1. 1. Valued Opinions
      • Total Earned Since Joining: $270.00
      • Total Earned This Month: $20.00
      • Last Payment Requested: $20.00 Amazon.com gift card on November 29, 2010
      • Joined: September 5, 2008

I received several survey invitations from Valued Opinions this month (mainly having to do with technology), although not as many as in previous months. I qualified for most. I was able to cash out again at the end of the month.

1. 1. SurveyHead
      • Total Earned Since Joining: $520.00
      • Total Earned This Month: $20.00
      • Last Payment Requested: $50 Amazon.com gift card on November 9, 2010
      • Joined: August 15, 2008

SurveyHead has been an even bigger disappointment for me this month. I’m not sure what is going on, but I hardly ever get invites anymore from them and there’s rarely a survey on my dashboard as of late (not counting the iPad sweepstakes surveys). I seem to be getting more surveys on the SurveyHead-clone websites (like ERG Surveys and Focusline), so I’ve been sticking to those and not going on SurveyHead as much anymore. Qualifying for surveys has been quite difficult, too. I did cash out for a $50 Amazon.com gift card at the beginning of November, but have yet to see it (it takes 4-6 weeks or even longer… I was hoping to get it by Christmas, but knowing SurveyHead and their VERY slow payouts, I’m unsure at this rate).

1. 1. Synovate (Global Opinion Panel)
      • Total Earned Since Joining: $50.00
      • Total Earned This Month: $15.00
      • Last Payment Requested: $25.00 check on November 15, 2010
      • Joined: August 15, 2009

I’m still getting a lot of product tests from Synovate. They don’t pay a lot per survey or even for most product tests, but I still love getting things in the mail to test for them. I highly recommend them for the product tests.

1. 1. Opinion Outpost
      • Total Earned Since Joining: $335.00
      • Total Earned This Month: $15.00
      • Last Payment Requested: $45.50 check on October 28, 2010
      • Joined: August 12, 2008

I’m not a huge fan of Opinion Outpost anymore. I know many people who do really well with them, but lately I barely qualify for anything (or the quota is full… sometimes within minutes of getting the email!). It’s a bit disappointing, but I stick it out with them because they are a very reliable company. I cashed out recently and received the check in the mail within a week, which was awesome. I received a lot of survey invitations from them this month, but didn’t qualify for the majority of them. I did get one product test, though. I will try to jump on answering the email invitations more quickly in December and see how I do with them since I know quotas fill up very fast with them.

1. 1. Springboard America
      • Total Earned Since Joining: $50.00
      • Total Earned This Month: $12.00
      • Last Payment Requested: $50.00 check on August 26, 2010
      • Joined: January 24, 2010

I didn’t get a lot of surveys this month from Springboard, but I still like them for their short surveys and the many interesting survey topics they offer. I currently have about $28 in my account, so it will be a while longer before I can cash out again (it takes $50 minimum to cash out). Do you have a list of favorite survey panels? Please leave a comment below and let us know some of the survey panels that work best for you.