{Make money in your spare time} #1 – Online Surveys

A few years ago, when I had a lot more spare time on my hands, I started looking into how I could make a bit of money on the side. It’s a common question that people ask, and in these tight economic times a lot of people are looking for that little bit of extra pocket money. I wasn’t really looking to earn lots of money from this venture, but before the boy joined our lives I had a lot of spare time and often thought that there must be something more productive I could be doing than watching Prison Break box-sets.  In these dull moments I considered many options, from Medical research to secret shopper and most things in-between.

The other week I returned to this research to see if there were any easy wins or tips that I could share and I stumbled upon a couple of accounts I had set up with some online research companies and got a pleasant surprise:

The basic idea with these companies is that you set up an account for free and they email you links to online questionnaires, polls and surveys that companies and institutions will pay you to answer. In some cases it is about your political views, or how much you like to spend on clothes or groceries, but sometimes you get a sneak peak at a new product as part of their market research and this can be really interesting.

2 or 3 years ago I must have blocked the e-mails coming from these companies when I didn’t think I had the time or patience to participate. When I re-logged into my accounts I had over £30 of rewards waiting for me. I thought this was worth pursuing as I hadn’t remembered that I had built up so much.

I unblocked the emails from both companies and over the past 2 weeks I have been using some time in the evenings, just 20 minutes here and there, to get back up to speed with the program and have been pleasantly surprised with what I have been able to achieve.

Panelbase.net

This is is pretty good, it tries to create a community feel by encouraging members to create their own polls and research. This can be fun, but the only reward for answering member polls is entry into a prize draw.

The money is to be made by answering the surveys they provide. There is always a live list of surveys to take part in and they come around pretty regularly. I think i have received 7 email in 2 weeks from them. Rewards range from £0.80 to £2.00 for a survey. Occasionally a big survey will come up which will pay more but they are few and far between.

You have a profile which you should keep up to date. This dictates which surveys you are made aware of and can sometimes help them to not send you a survey you would be ineligible for. One frustration is that sometimes you have to spend 3 or 4 minutes filling in questions to learn that you are not eligible for the bigger survey or that they have filled their quota for your particular demographic. This can be combated by making sure you try and complete the survey within a day or two or it going live.

You can also get rewarded £2.00 for every 10 people you successfully introduce to the service.

You can withdraw money once you reach £10 in your account.

Populuslive.com

I prefer this site to Panelbase purely because they put a value to your time. As you can see on their homepage, £1 for every 5 minutes answering a survey.

There is no community aspect to this site, it is purely surveys and rather that have a list of open surveys, they just e-mail you when one is available to do.

You will earn more money on Populuslive than panelbase but the surveys don’t come along as regularly. I have complete 5 in the last 2 weeks, but this has earn’t me £7.

One thing you have to be careful with this site is that your answers are always consistent. It has clever software that spots if your answers don’t match up and will kick you out of that survey with no reward. I got kicked out of one the other day because I answered at the beginning that I had played cricket in the last year, but at the end, to a differently worded question, I answered that I had last played between 1 and 3 years ago. That cost me £2!

When you reach £50 in your account, you are sent a cheque by populuslive.

So if you have a bit of time on your hands, have a look at the companies above. There are others as well if you search around, but I found these to be pretty good. If you’re felling really kind, then send me and email with your name and I can recommend you as a friend!

Happy quizzing,

R