Survey Hints and Tips

Surveys are all different but some of the tips that I can give are applicable to all the surveys I undertake.

Be Honest

The first thing is, of course, to be completely honest in your replies. When the screening questions begin it can become quite clear exactly what the target group will consist of. For instance, in a survey I recently undertook it was quite obvious from the first couple of questions that they were looking for owner / drivers of luxury car models. I knew that and could have easily lied but didn't - I have a compact and very very rarely drive (I hate it!) . The result? A few days later a better paying survey dealing with the advertising of compacts turned up.

It does you no good, in the longer term, to lie. Survey companies only want people they can trust.

Respond Quickly

This certainly does not apply to all survey companies and I can offer only anecdotal evidence but in my experience if you respond to surveys quickly you will get invited to complete more. If you stop doing them, for any reason, when you pick them back up they do not flow as quickly for some time. Check your Inbox and the survey sites themselves regularly.

Keep your personal profile up to date

Some time ago I went from being a full-time employee to being self-employed. It is important to update your profile of changes such as this in order so that you get correctly targeted surveys to complete.

Surveys To Join

The first thing to be clear about is that you need not pay to join any survey panels. There are ads around for sites which not only expect you to pay them for the information but also expect you to join using their referral id. Don't do it! You can get the same information by spending some time with Google.

Here are the best of the ones I have joined:

Lightspeed. This organisation is regularly sending surveys for completion. Each of them gets you 110 Lightspeed Points. Points can be redeemed for a wide range of goods but most people would probably like to know that 115 Lightspeed Points will get you a £1 PayPal credit.
It is important to logon to the site regularly and complete Mini Polls and Quick Matches. It appears that the more assiduously you complete these the more surveys you get invited to.

There is currently no Affiliate scheme.

YouGov. This is an excellent survey company which has the distinction of being taken very seriously by governments. I have received a steady flow of surveys with rewards from £0.50 to £3.00 covering a wide range of subjects. You will not receive payout until your account reaches £50, and reaching this could take some time, but you will be paid.

There are also regular Prize Draw surveys to carry out with prizes ranging up to £1000.

To be continued...

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