Online Surveys are a Waste of Time.
By Sherry
@norcal (4889)
Franklinton, North Carolina
December 5, 2015 5:38pm CST
2011 was kind of a bad year for me. I fell and broke my foot, and while I was still on crutches I got laid off from my job of 14 years.
While I was sitting home with a broken foot, I started exploring the internet. Like a lot of people, I checked out some online money making schemes.
Some of the first were those online survey sites. They made outrageous claims, like that you could make $90 per survey, or $20,000 per month. Of course none of that is true, but I did sign up with a couple of sites.
I rejected any that wanted to charge me for signing up, and I really don't remember any of the companies anymore, but long story short, I did not make any money. You had to hit a minimum before you could get a payout, and I never did.
Apparently, I am not in a demographic that anyone is willing to pay for an opinion from. They would send me a survey to fill out, and about ten minutes into it I would be informed that I did not qualify to take that survey.
At least I was smart enough to set up a separate email account for all the junk email I knew I would be getting.
The only time I ever actually got paid for taking a survey was on Mechanical Turk, but that's a subject for another discussion.
38 people like this
41 responses
@boiboing (13153)
• Northampton, England
5 Dec 15
I'm not in the right demographic either. So I once created an account for my cat, gave her a husband who worked in a warehouse, two kids and a job as a teaching assistant. She got invited to LOTS of well paid surveys - much more than me. She didn't do them though because she's a cat.
19 people like this
@ricextreme (964)
• Ecuador
6 Dec 15
@norcal That's one practical conclusion. When you forget about your honesty, your profile starts to fit to all the surveys! But it's not correct, is it?
4 people like this
@deeraj005 (132)
• Mumbai, India
6 Dec 15
Lol! I ate my foot after reading this... _
3 people like this
@ScribbledAdNauseum (104628)
• United States
6 Dec 15
I don't use MTurk anymore but I had made about $10.00 on that site at one time. The only site I Ever got paid for completing a survey was a site affiliated with AOL. I only earned around $2.00 but it was a quick $2.00 and easy. The site stopped sending me alerts for new surveys and I stopped manually checking. I don't even remember the name of the site anymore. I am also in the Demographic that companies seem to not care for.
3 people like this
@norcal (4889)
• Franklinton, North Carolina
6 Dec 15
I made about $80 on M Turk. It was a lot of work though. I haven't done in in a couple of years. Since I was stuck sitting at home it was something to do, besides it got me interested in online writing, which led to HubPages. That has worked out OK for me.
2 people like this
@ScribbledAdNauseum (104628)
• United States
6 Dec 15
@norcal About five years go I was in the same situation as you. Not that i had broken my foot or hurt myself in anyway, but that I had to rely on online income. I never did get as good at it as some of our fellow mylotters though.
3 people like this
@norcal (4889)
• Franklinton, North Carolina
6 Dec 15
@ScribbledAdNauseum Luckily, I never relied on it, otherwise I would have starved.
3 people like this
@youless (112561)
• Guangzhou, China
6 Dec 15
There are many websites which claim that you can earn a lot from them in a short time without much work. And I can tell you that all of these websites are scams. I just joined about three survey websites and it takes me a long time to be able to withdraw my earning. It is OK as they do pay for me. In fact doing the survey makes me earn the most via the net. It is important that you find the reliable survey websites.
3 people like this
@scheng1 (24649)
• Singapore
6 Dec 15
That must be a very bad year for you.
All of us have a period of bad luck in our life, and that particular year or two is very hard to bear.
I think that year tests you on your creativity and money habit.
I personally like to participate in clinical trial rather than online survey.
At least clinical trial pays a few hundred to a few thousand dolars.
2 people like this
@ricextreme (964)
• Ecuador
6 Dec 15
Setting up a different e-mail for your survey site accounts is always a smart move. I would have thought that making money from taking surveys in the US was easy. Here in South America it's nearly impossible.
2 people like this
@bluebirdfly (188)
• Guangzhou, China
6 Dec 15
There is no such thing as a free lunch.the earning equals to how much you pay out.i 've sought so many news about a grandpa be swindle for win a prize in a lottery or any other attractive reasons.
2 people like this
@everloving (439)
• Chennai, India
6 Dec 15
Yes, i too has similar situations. It all will look very prospective at first & as you spent more time in filling the surveys you will only then realise the traps. Mylot is a far better, people here not only want to earn money but make good friends & appreciate each other posts.
2 people like this
@nanette64 (20364)
• Fairfield, Texas
6 Dec 15
The same thing has happened to me @norcal (not qualifying). I once did a 30 minute survey and at the end, they told me I didn't qualify. I put in a complaint. They said I did complete the survey and paid me. It is aggravating though and after about 5 minutes, they kick you out.
2 people like this
@ElizabethWallace (12074)
• United States
7 Dec 15
I think the demographic they want isn't the one who has money to spend.
1 person likes this
@ElizabethWallace (12074)
• United States
8 Dec 15
@paigea Okay. That makes sense for them.
1 person likes this
@Cherry3330 (213)
• Philippines
6 Dec 15
Making money through online surveys is a sloooooow process. I look at it like I look at saving money. One day when I've gathered enough - whenever that will be - I might be able to buy myself something cool. But as a stable source of income? Nah. And yes, you're right, there are a lot of sites out there that promise too much but get frustrating soon. There are good ones, too, though. Have you checked out GlobalTestMarket?
And yeah the others are right. The country you're in is another factor. People from the US and other big countries are luckier.
1 person likes this
@Cherry3330 (213)
• Philippines
7 Dec 15
@paigea That's good to hear. I haven't been paid because I haven't accumulated enough, but it's the best I've seen so far because the other sites don't have as many surveys for our country.
1 person likes this
@softbabe44 (5816)
• Vancouver, Washington
6 Dec 15
Did mechanical Turk pay anything?
1 person likes this
@softbabe44 (5816)
• Vancouver, Washington
7 Dec 15
@norcal What kinda things do you do for them if you don't mind me asking.
1 person likes this
@norcal (4889)
• Franklinton, North Carolina
8 Dec 15
@softbabe44 I gravitated to hits that involved writing. Sometimes it was a product review. Often it was writing a certain number of words on a given subject, or rewriting a paragraph. I guess they were avoiding duplicate content, but reusing the same information.
1 person likes this
@birjudanak (14320)
• India
6 Dec 15
i not like online survey to because they not pay sometimes and sometimes after long survey they said you are not eligible so i mostly avoid it.some times if we survey then they are email us for more survey but nothing pay.
1 person likes this
@Traceyjayne (1784)
• United Kingdom
6 Dec 15
I have found that the surveys that I did paid very little ....or else after answering many questions I was then screened out. I rarely do them now unless they are short ones.
1 person likes this
@Traceyjayne (1784)
• United Kingdom
6 Dec 15
@norcal some of them do yes. I never do them if they don't say how long as I don't want to be doing a survey for half an hour just for 2p ( or something as daft !)
@lovebuglena (44713)
• Staten Island, New York
6 Dec 15
My friend had send me links to some survey sites (per my request) in the past but I never actually went through with it because I was skeptical. Didn't want to get ripped off.
Recently, I heard someone talk about a site called swagbucks where you earn points called swagbucks (SB) which you can later redeem for gift cards or paypal cash. There are a number of ways to earn SB on the site and one of them are surveys. I decided to give this site a try and took some surveys. I can't say I am thrilled about taking surveys, especially long ones but it is worth a shot. There is a minimum you need to earn before you can redeem, however, and for paypal cash it is 2500SB, which is equivalent to $25. That is a lot of SB to earn for a mere $25 cashout. I only have around 213SB so far. It will take a whole lot of surveys to complete before I will get to the minimum.
1 person likes this
@paigea (36316)
• Canada
10 Dec 15
@lovebuglena I am in Canada and I don't thing encrave works here. I let the videos run when I am on the computer anyway, like right now. That gets me around 30 cents per day. I play the games which makes me 10 cents per day. Lately I get about 20 cents per day for searches. I happen to log into a lot of websites daily and I use Swagbucks search bar (not the swagbutton as that has to be downloaded onto my computer). So, that is 50cents per day (searches and videos) without spending any time. So if I qualify for a survey or two I can have over a dollar. Some days I don't qualify for any, somedays like today I don't have time for surveys. So, that is how I use it.
2 people like this
@lovebuglena (44713)
• Staten Island, New York
9 Dec 15
@paigea Do you just do surveys on swagbucks? Have you tried any of their offer things?
1 person likes this
