Make sure you check out my list of paid survey sites. I only list companies that I have experience with and I give you the low-down on each one. And if that’s not enough, you can check out surveypolice.com for ratings and reviews.
A few weeks ago I wrote about Big Spot Surveys and honestly I didn’t realize that so many people would be searching Google to answer the question: “is Big Spot Legitimate?”
So I decided to put on my detective hat and go digging a little further to help answer the questions that have arisen from my initial post.
First of all, I decided to sign up for Big Spot. I went through the sign-up process from beginning to end to see if my assumptions were correct.
UPDATE 8/2010: Their screens and graphics have changed since the writing of this article but the results and content remain the same.
The sign-up process:
The first screen that came up after I entered my information was this:
The next screen that came up after I entered my information and then clicked join was this:
This screen shows a list of “Free Sponsor Offers” that consist of other survey companies, newsletters and samples. They look interesting and exciting and the word FREE is very enticing. You can sign up for these FREE offers yourself and even earn money doing it by joining certain sites like MyPoints.com and other similar “pay to complete offer sites.”
The next screen that comes up will fill you with anticipation as you wait for all of your great, exclusive free paid survey listings:
The next screen is the “database” you have been waiting for:
This screen lists just a fraction of the market research companies who are willing to pay you for your opinion, and I actually signed up twice and filled out completely different personal information and you know what, I got the same exact list just in a different order.
What this means to you:
I don’t know all of their motives, and I certainly don’t know what they do with your personal information, but Big Spot and Survey Payoff appear to have basically set themselves up as an affiliate marketer. They are providing you with information, and you sign up through their links and they make money.
Is it legal? Yes. Is it wrong? No. Is it safe? Maybe. That depends upon what they are doing with your email address. To me, they are at least misleading people because not only is their “database” shamefully small, they do it under the guise that they have secret resources you can’t find on your own. I can even tell you why their database is so small. Because not all paid survey companies participate in affiliate marketing, so they only list the ones they get paid for sign-ups on.
If you have never signed up for a paid survey panel, and if you see their list, you can rest assured that their list does contain some legitimate market research companies who will pay you for your opinions and it does contain some of the most popular companies. But there is still the issue of why they need your email address and what they will do with it. Plus it also contains some questionable resources that I have seen other experiences survey takers claiming are not legitimate.
You will need to sign up SEPARATELY for each of the individual survey companies so it appears unnecessary for Big Spot to require your name, zip code and email address.
So, smarty pants, how do I get a list of Free Paid Surveys without providing my personal info to a third party?
If I had more time, I’d list every paid survey company known to man for you to sign up for. I don’t have that kind of time, plus there are a couple of resources I will point you to that have already done it. I have some of my favorites listed on my Free Paid Survey Sites page and also on my right sidebar. You will find that the sites I list are ones that I have been a member of for years (some since 2002 or earlier), have received surveys from and have received payment from.
When it comes to survey taking, there are a couple of “golden rules” that any experienced survey taker would tell you. The first would be to never, ever pay to receive information or access to free paid survey databases. The second would be to be extremely careful with your personal information because there are a lot of “cash for your opinion” offers out there that are not legitimate, in fact I would say the scam sites outweigh the legitimate ones. This means you have to be smart, do your homework, and read reviews and opinions from people who have experience.
The bottom line:
When it comes down to it, Big Spot does not appear to provide you with anything you cannot get from somewhere else without having to key in your personal information. You will still need to sign up with each individual market research company separately in order to receive survey invitations and payments for surveys. So the question remains about why they need your information, especially when the list they provide can be found across the web without having to share your personal info.
In addition to the sites we have on our Free Paid Survey Sites page if you want a complete database of paid surveys including actual participant ratings, check out FreePaidSurveys.net, and SurveyPolice.com. You won’t get rich taking paid surveys but you can earn some extra cash each month to order a pizza, or save it up to help fund Christmas.
Happy survey taking!
For more information on taking paid surveys:
About Kim
I am interested in online surveys, however I really don’t want to have to participate in their ‘Special Offers’ that I have to buy something. I have enough junk in my home, thanks to my trash collecting children, dogs and husband. How can I earn a little money without having to participate in these silly ‘Special Offers’?
Kimberly,
There are legit ones that simply pay you for your time. You take a survey, they give you points to redeem for a prize or $$, or they just give you money. These are legit market research companies. There are no special offers, no jumping through hoops to get your prize.
You can’t earn a living off them, but it’s nice to have the extra $$.
http://accidentalmommies.com/free-paid-surveys
Good luck!
Thank You for your information about BigSpot.
Dear Kim: My first question: Is there a “general population” that most survey sites are looking for? Such as when filling out your info, when you get to the end you either are given one or two sites or are not qualified for any sites, so is thre any way that one could use a “universal information” to fill in when applying to give you and everyone else a better chance at more sites? I am sure this is not the most honest way to go about, but all of us were at or will be at this or these ages, have children and so on at some points in our lives, so I would not feel bad about having a “universal information guideline” to fill in, if it allowed me to get more sites.
second question: Do you or does anyone else know of any legal and verifiable sites for RN’s (registered nurses) to do “Ask a Nurse online” for a fee sites (for profit sites) and or sites where nurses can work as tele-nurses, nurses answer phone calls from patients, then guide them as to what the patient should do, go to ER, Call physician and so on.
Or tele-nursing for insurance companies where nurses call the public population who have already started the process of applying for health insurance, the insurance agent usually has already paid them a home visit, and now the nurse calls to go through the medical form questions with the client again, sorting out medical problems of the past that agent missed, asking client what they do for hobbie’s, such as scuba diving, a tele-nurse would ask them how deep they dive, do they dive alone or do they buddy dive, are they certified, how long have they been diving and so on… as hobbies such as this will influence how the insurance policy is written up.
I am a RN of 23 years, but am no longer able to work staff nursing due to being in a severe auto accident a year ago, but I love what I do and I am going out of my mind, I just know there is something out there somewhere that I can do at home to continue to work in the healthcare field, I know the survey thing does not pay much, I am much more interested in the telenursing, but would like to investigate and do the survey sites for a bit to bring in a bit of money, needless to say this was a blessed Christmas for us, as I am here alive, but one that was a very poor one, in 30 years of marriage we could not afford to buy our children, now all grown a simple present, they understood, but it hurt us greatly.
Hope to hear from you soon, feel free to email me privately if you wish as this is too long, sorry about that, or reply here, as I am sure I am not the only nurse out there in the same situation.
Sincerely,
Pam
Pam,
I think demographics-wise, 20&30-something parents with young children will get more surveys. I can’t be positive about that, and I’m certainly not recommending pretending to be something you are not.
If I come across something about the RN thing, I will certainly let you know.
Good luck.
A way to make larger amnts of $ if you live in a large metropolitan area is in-person focus groups. They generally pay $50-$200 for opinions on (some of ones I’ve done): food (some of mine were: spicy chicken sandwich); flavored waters; bras (true!); facial products (make up, new wrinkle creams), etc. Chk your area for focus groups…they generally don’t advertise. Good luck, & you’re spot-on w/ the advice you’ve given re: onlines. And I agree w/ the greenfield thing…must have done hundreds; never got anything; got a nice cd player from e-poll; maybe $20 from Survey Spot…everything I DID get required taking hundreds of surveys to build up points. I’ve pretty much aged-out demographically now, since companies don’t really care much re: opinions of 60yr. old women…a shame since WE shop, too. Boooooo.
Sorry, Kim, but 2/3 of the survey sites in your list are the ones I was talking about in my post below. Pray tell me, HOW do you make money on these sites?? I got so frustrated and felt so cheated with these very sites in the list that I gave up even trying to make money with online surveys.
Dixie,
Most of these will tell you right off after a few questions that you do not qualify. And depending upon your demographics, you might not qualify for a lot of them. GlobalTestMarket pays you 5 cents even if you don’t qualify and I remember one month where they were sending so many surveys, I didn’t qualify for most of them, but I did so many in a day that I had $50 at the end of the month in my account.
You will not get rich or even earn a living off paid surveys. Most people are lucky to earn enough to buy a pizza from it every month.
A couple of years ago when I was doing this with great passion and persistence, I earned $800 over about 10 months that I put aside for Christmas. Part of that came from a $175 focus group where I tested a product over a few weeks and I got to keep the product and they paid me.
Dixie, my Mom doesn’t qualify for as many surveys as I do. I’m in my 30′s with 2 kids. Demographics matters. But she would try and qualify for them, a few minutes of her time each day, and I know awhile back she won $100 from one of them where they had sweepstakes for those who did not qualify.
Another company that pays you SOMETHING for every survey, is MySurvey. https://www.mysurvey.com/index.cfm?action=Main.join&r=6735866
They have short 10 point surveys that you can then qualify for the longer ones if you meet their requirements. 100 points = $1 with them.
It’s not for everyone, and some will do better than others.
Good luck.
AMEN to getting frustrated and “just giving up”. About three-four years ago, I signed up for some surveys. I did survey after survey (mostly for Greenfield) and I got NOTHING in return! Everytime I would try to go into my account to see how much I had, the “bank” was closed. I never could get through. And it seemed to happen to the others as well…ones on your list. But, it’s cold right now where I live and I’m not working, so I’ll do it just to take up some time. Sure, I could DEFINATELY use the money. But, if I dont get any results after a while, I’ll do just like I did the first time. Jody
The trick with all the paid survey sites I have signed up with is, QUALIFYING for the surveys, or getting half-way through a survey and then getting a screen that says “We’re sorry. You do not meet the demographic qualifications we are looking for.” I have even gone almost to the end of surveys and gotten that message! They seem to take me far enough to actually get my opinion, then drop me, which I think is their whole aim–getting my opinion for free. I have taken many online surveys that supposedly pay you for your opinion, but I have never received one red cent for my time.
I had signed up a while back to take surveys and once I completed a 5-15 minute survey, i then was put into a drawing in order to get paid. What a scam.
I have gone to many of the free survey sites get paid big cash work from home sites but they are all a lie you have to pay money to try different things and wait months to get paid so be aware if you decide to go to the sites and Kim did the right thing by researching them all first.
Thanks for the support Tammy!
i am interested in possibly making some extra money. what survey sites do you highly recommend? – thanks!!
http://accidentalmommies.com/free-paid-surveys/
Those are my favorites, all the way down the page. The trick is to sign up for as many as you can.
Epoll is best for men, they don’t seem to send surveys to women, but I think all the rest should be fairly even for both men and women.
Good luck!
Hey .Kim..
Thanks bunches for letting us folks out here, about what NOT to do..=) God Bless & take care…=) Nancy
Thank you Kim! Saw the commercial just lastnight, as a matter of fact! Was thinking I could do this a give that little money to my boys for when we go shopping! Was very sceptically to start but I know now that to do so is best left alone! Thanks once more, Constance
If you sign up directly with legit companies you will make money, I’m not talking a ton but enough to give your boys some spending money. Check out my list here: http://accidentalmommies.com/free-paid-surveys/