Online Survey Reviews

When I first turned to the Internet as a way of earning money, one of the first things I did was take online surveys. I don't do a whole lot of it anymore...I enjoyed it but eventually tired of it.  However, there are many people that absolutely love taking surveys online, so I thought I would share with you some of my favorite online survey companies by writing some online survey reviews.

Note: It should not cost you anything to sign up with any of the online survey companies. If you are asked to shell out money for a list of companies or to join some forum or club, run in the other direction. The information you seek can be found freely all over the Internet.

Here are some of the online survey companies that I had the most luck with:

1. Survey Savvy
One of the most frustrating things about taking online surveys is that you typically have to meet a threshold of earnings before you can cash out.  The nice thing about Survey Savvy is that the threshold is only a buck. However, they do send earnings by mail, and the check can take weeks to arrive.  This is okay if you just want some fun money.

Survey Savvy also has a referral program, which means that you can make a little kickback from the earnings of others who've signed up under your link. You can post a link on your blog (like I did above) or invite friend to join via email.

2.  Survey Spot
Survey Spot rewards you with points that can be traded in for gift cards or cash if you have a verified PayPal account.  You need a minimum of 1000 points to cash out.  I never traded for gift cards, but it only took a day or so to get the money through PayPal.

3.  testspin
testspin works much like Survey Spot.  The rewards you can get are points you can use on Amazon.com or cash through PayPal.  You need a minimum of 10,000 points before you can cash out.  Typically, it takes five to seven days to get money through PayPal.


4.  American Consumer Opinion
This one is almost* my favorite.  Before sending you a survey, American Consumer Opinion sends out a "screener" survey with a few quick qualifying questions first to see if a survey is right for you.  I like that because you don't have to waste your valuable time answering a bunch of questions on a survey to find out that you don't qualify to take it. (one of the things I don't like about online survey taking)

I qualified for a phone survey about gift cards through them....made 50.00 for a one-half hour phone call. Loved that.  I received points which I redeemed for cash through PayPal. One penny equals one point and you need a minimum of 1000 points to cash out. It took several weeks to get paid, if I remember correctly, but all in all, I found my experience with this online survey company far easier than most.

*I called that last one "almost" my favorite, because there is still a better way to take surveys, and that is through Amazon Mechanical Turk. However, because it's unique, that subject deserves its own post, and I'll get to that shortly.

Don't believe any advertisements that tell you you're going to find a full-time income taking online surveys. You won't qualify for every survey, and you can spend a lot of time trying. The bottom line is that you're not going to get rich doing this.  But if you just want some knocking around money and are looking to kill some time, online survey taking can be fun and rewarding.

Tip: Make sure you fill out your profiles at these companies so you're more likely to receive invitations to surveys that you will qualify to take.

Because every little bit helps...

Carole Tee