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Every week I’ll pose a question for you to share your experiences and tips. If you have a question that you’d like me to post, I’d love to hear from you!
A popular way to earn some extra spending money — whether it’s to fund your Starbucks habit or save for the holidays — is to participate in online surveys. I’ve mentioned some of the most popular survey sites here before, but I don’t have experience with all of them, so I wanted to hear about your experiences.
What are your favorite survey sites? Which one has the best rates? Which one has the most frequent surveys? Have you had any negative experiences? How do you figure out what’s legit…and what’s not? (Please note that affiliate links will be removed from the comments.)
Join the discussion — add your two cents to previous Ask DSM Readers questions too!
Lori L
I must agree with a lot of fellow savers: Pinecone Research. The check is always in my mailbox in two days. It’s not much, but every little bit counts.
krystal
i like a site called u.talk.back, you have to be sent an email to even get into the program, and its a little difficult to earn the points, but i have been lucky enough to qualify for several of them and we got a $50 gc to gamestop, you can pick from a few places to get gc’s. we got an xbox hard drive w/ ours so it was way worth it to us, i also am apart of isosay, i get lots of surveys but rarly get in to them, and its nat a lot of points… would love to try pinecone if they open it back up soon!
Katherine
My favorite is Lightspeed. I’ve gotten quite a few $5 Amazon gift cards from them, and I qualified for a snack study last fall that got me a $10 prepaid Visa for agreeing to do it and a $50 prepaid Visa once I completed it and sent back the pda they gave me to record everything.
My other favorite is Opinion Outpost – it seems to not take very long to have enough to cash out a $5 Amazon gift card with them either.
I do surveys about once a week or so, and I usually get an Amazon card at least once a month from one of them.
Kaycee
I loooove Pinecone Research! And now that they let it go to Paypal I have been doing that and saving it up. It adds up quick!!
Kaycee
I forgot to say – I am a bit annoyed with Opinion Outpost though. I keep answering LOTS of questions and then not qualifying so I dont’ get any points. And it keeps spiraling back to the initial questions on surveys instead of letting me in lately. I have not saved up enough for anything yet and I spend a lot of time answering their questions. I may not do it anymore.
Laura
I haven’t tried Pinecone, but I think I will after reading some of these responses!
I use Surveyhead, but have recently been frustrated with it because a) you have to spend about 2 minutes answering a bunch of screening questions when you may not qualify for the survey; b) you can’t cash out until you reach $30; and c) it took over a month for my last cash out to hit my PayPal account. I’ll still continue with it when I’m bored and need something to do.
I joined e-Miles recently to earn airline miles by taking surveys. I usually get about 15 miles per week for ~2 mins of clicking on advertisements, which means it would take about 7-8 years to earn enough miles (40,000) for a free ticket. e-Miles can also be used with Continental Airlines, US Airways, AirTran Airways, Alaska Airlines, Frontier Airlines or Hilton HHonors rewards programs… those might have quicker returns depending on their mileage requirement to earn a ticket or reward.
PollyS
I gave up on survey sites a long time ago. I would spend time answering questions, only to be told I didn’t qualify, therefore not getting paid for my time. It was frustrating to say the least. I found out I am not the typical mom. I was quickly approaching 40, I am not brand loyal, didn’t/don’t buy a lot of baby gear and wasn’t their target surveyer.
I’m very loyal to MyPoints.com. I have been a member for almost 8 years and love it.
Jen
In my experience Pinecone Research is the best. While you won’t get rich on $3/survey, They do offer quick and easy surveys to complete and pay promptly. It is a very straightforward process. I highly recommend them. I’ve seen several recent opportunities to join and have received a couple of requests to refer interested friends and family.
Raelyn
I LOVE Pinecone!
Like everyone else has said…it is 3$ a survey…but it is to you almost immediately. I get roughly a survey a week. There have been a couple product reviews. It has been fun. Just a little extra money…pays for coffee. :)
Toluna is another that I have done. They are OK…lots of emails, not a lot of accepted survey opportunities though. It is a point system, which I haven’t yet cashed out on. I haven’t spent a lot of time with them, except for their ontro surveys….which it seems like they repeat over and over. Makes you wonder why they can’t remember any of your info…AS IF it changes often.
stephanie
I’m new to Pinecone and I like it. I get my $3 by PayPal right away. Very nice.
I make about $10 from Lightspeed and a $5 Amazon GC from Opinion Outpost every month. It takes me 3-4 months to make the $20 needed to cash out at FocusOnline/ Surveyhead [they are sister survey sites] but the do pay to PayPal. Synovate has been fun because I’ve gotten to test some interesting products even if it takes longer for the points to add up.
I do MyPoints a well and it takes me 3-4 months to have enough to get a$10-$15 GC but usually I use it for seasonal clothing changes for the kids so it’s always timely. HCD Surveys is fun too and since they are current event surveys there is sometimes video involved. It can be fun. Oh, and you can ‘unoffically’ vote for American Idol:)
Telisa Griffin
Those of you who are looking to join Pinecone Research here is a link for you to join. I got an email from them with this link.
https://www.pineconeresearch.com/Signup/Signup_Form.asp
Martha McGhee
I like Pinecone the best & Opinion Outpost after that.
CJ
I get 2-3 surveys a month from Pinecone, have made $30 so far. The surveys are easy and checks come fast. It’s interesting to see a new product in the store just a few weeks after I do the survey on the same product!
Michelle
I’m on mysurvey and lightspeed. I prefer mysurvey. There are fewer surveys but they’re quick and easy to do. With lightspeed, I often don’t qualify or I get most of the way through and have some kind of technical difficulty and have wasted my time – no points and you can’t go back and redo it or start over even if it’s their fault there was a glitch. Their surveys seem more repetitive too. Every once in a while I get one that really drives me nuts by asking something like “if this toilet paper were a person, would you describe it as outgoing or shy? etc. WTH?! It’s toilet paper! lol I’ve tried to get on with pinecone, but haven’t be able to yet. I use swagbucks too.
Sheryl
These are my faves ranked in order:
1. Valued Opinions – Pays you via $20 GC of your choice (from a list on their site). They also have a prepaid Visa GC. I have got 4 $20 GC since this time last year!
2. Global Opinion panels/ Synovate research – pays you in points and you cash out in $5.00 intervals ($5 = 500 pts, $10 = 1000 pts, and so on). Points vary by length of survey (5 min survey may earn you 150 pts, 30 min survey, 750, etc) They also give you 50-100 points even if you don’t qualify for a survey. I usually cash out $5 every 1-2 months.
3. MySurvey.com – They do the points as well with the minimum cashout being a $10 charity donation of your choice for 1000 pts. A $10 Paypal payment is 1100 pts. They recently added a whole slew of various GC and other items for you to cash out with. I have been paid a few times by them, but for me this has been a very slow earner.
Also, I have recieved several products to try out for a few days and answer follow-up surveys on – including jumbo-size packs of diapers, wipes, paper towels, tp, food, etc.
*mindi*
I like Pinecone, especially now that they send my money instantly to paypal.
Has anybody tried dollarsurveys.net? You enter your paypal e-mail address, and can qualify for at least 1 survey a day. They put the money into your paypal account weekly, usually on Mondays. I’ve gotten about $10 in my paypal account in the past two weeks. I’m surprised nobody’s mentioned them on this thread yet?! :)
I do Surveyhead, Toluna, Opinion Outpost, InboxDollars, etc., but no feedback about them yet, as I’ve not tried to cash out yet. We’ll see.
Fawn
My two favorites are American Consumer Opinion and Pinecone. I have also tried MySurvey and Opinion Outpost, but I got kicked out of more surveys half way through for not meeting the “requirements” than I was allowed to complete with both of these companies. A big waste of time with no compensation. I am also a member of The Juicy Bunch, which is a focus group specifically for Juicy Juice, and they have nice compensation for completing activities/polls.
jessica stewart
I just looked up Pinecone Research after reading this post and the panel is open. I was able to sign up. Yay!
Carol
I haven’t found one I really like. I get tired having to commit to something that not wrong with me, something I don’t care about or something I don’t like to get .5 oz sample of shampoo–or end up with 50 different spam emails everyday.
I would really appreciate if you would post a great list of survey sites that actually won’t waist my time.
Anna
I’m a member with most of the sites that are being talked about in the comments and they’re all great! You should look into them!
David
I like PineCone, they do pay fast, but I guess I don’t qualify for many surveys, it get about 2 every 3 months.
Opinion Outpost has been paying me about $50 per month, but slow as death.
lisa
does anyone know how to sign up for myview??
Karen
@lisa: you inquired a while ago so I don’t know if you will see this or not…if you are a member of Swagbucks they have invites to MyVew quite often. that is how i signed up and i also got a few swagbucks for it. check either the swagbucks home page offers scroller or on the special offers walls. if it is not on there now it prob will be again soon. i have also seen it on other of my survey sites/special offers places but dont remember which. (sendearnings, my points, inbox dollars ???)
also on my MyView home page it says “coming soon: refer a friend” so pretty soon you should be able to get an invite that way as well.