Wednesday 5 March 2014

Everyone has a View!

Objective 6 - 'Make my money go further'

When I first finished work I was interested in finding out whether there were ways of making money, without having to actually go to work.  I searched the Internet and found this article on Money Saving Expert which gives a number of ways you can make money on line.  I was intrigued by the 2nd tip which was about Online survey sites.  In the words of Martin Lewis 'it's all about stashing cash by filling in online surveys. All you have to do is sign up, wait for survey alerts to land in your inbox, then zip through the questions'.

Could it really be that simple?
 
There are lots of these surveys sites out there.  I've actually signed up for 6 and completed a user profile for each.  During February I kept records of all the surveys I completed, how much time I spent on doing this and how much I actually earned.  I've put together a bit of a summary to share with you ....

Survey Company
No of surveys in Feb
Completed surveys
Screened Out
time taken
Points
Prize Draw Entries
Cash
Global Test Market
46
13
26
192
295
460
 
Ipsos
5
3
2
32
215
  
My Survey
12
5
7
72
270
60
 
Panel Opinion
3
1
2
10
 
 
40p
Quidco
7
4
3
35
 
 
£4.15
Valued Opinions
16
2
11
57
 
 
£2.25
Totals
89
28
51
398
780
520
£6.80
 
 
Global Test Market
  • E-mail notifications are received for every survey that is available
  • Surveys seem to come through thick and fast
  • Rewards for surveys are made in either Market Points or Prize Draw entries
  • The minimum number of Market Points that can be exchanged is 174 and some examples of rewards available can be seen below:
    • 174 Market Points will get you a £5 Amazon electronic gift certificate, a £5 donation to a number of different charities or 500 Nectar Points
    • 182 Market Points can be exchanged for a £5 PayPal payment
    • 221 Market Points will get a £5 gift voucher or card for Boots, BHS, Homebase or WHSmith
    • 331 Market Points can be exchanged for 1000 Nectar Points
Ipsos
  • E-mail notifications are received when surveys are available, but these seem to be very few and far between for me
  • Again, rewards are made in Points which can be exchanged for either charitable donations or store vouchers
    • 1380 points can be exchanged for a £10 donation to a wide variety of charities
    • 1380 points can also be exchanged for a £10 John Lewis, Amazon or Compliments voucher.  Compliments vouchers can be used at a number of retailers including: Argos, WHSmith, Boots, Topshop, Accor Hotels, HMV, Interflora, TGI Friday's, and many more
My Survey
  • Another company which is very good at sending e-mail notifications letting you know when a survey is available
  • Again, surveys are fairly few and far between
  • Rewards are made by way of Points or Prize Draw entries
    • 345 points can be exchanged for a £3 PayPal payment
    • 360 will give you a £3 donation to UNICEF
    • 500 points can be exchanged for 500 Nectar Points
    • 550 points is what you need to exchange for a £5 Amazon voucher
  Panel Opinion
  • This one has been a bit of a dead loss for me
  • Whilst it does pay in cash, rather than points, the surveys are so few and far between it will take ages to earn anything
  • You have to earn £10 before you can draw your funds
Quidco
  • Quidco doesn't seem to let you know when a survey is available, so you need to keep dipping in and out of the site to find out
  • Whilst not many surveys seem to be available for me, if you actually get through and complete one, the rewards are good. So far I'm earning on average £1 per survey
  • The thing with this one is that you need to earn £25 before you can take anything out at all
Valued Opinions
  • This is my second most prolific survey company and e-mail notifications are always sent through
  • I seem to get screened out of most of these surveys, but again, am earning on average £1 per survey that I actually fully complete
  • You need to reach £10 before being able to draw your rewards out
 

Overall Hints & Tips

  • Not all surveys can be completed on an I-Pad, some will need Flash
  • Not all companies notify you when surveys are available, so you will need to keep dipping in and out of the sites
  • Not all pay in cash and when they do, there will be a limit you need to earn before you can draw your reward
  • Some surveys are not available to complete for very long so you need to get in quick
and Finally ........
  • Am I going to make a fortune?  Definitely not.
  • Will I carry on doing them?  Yes, for now!

2 comments:

  1. Jesus... This blog suggests that you are missing work and need to get a job... Isn't it boring, also how many bits of junk mail have you received?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Bro!! No junk mail, but I have to confess to a fair amount of junk e-mail. LOL.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for taking time to comment on my blog. I love to hear what people think about what Martin and I have been up to.