Alternate Income Streams - Surveys

The next few days I will be posting on different methods to help increase alternate income streams. That is, income received by you that is not from your primary job, whether it be active or passive. By the end, I also hope to develop plans for implementing some of these options.

One popular method, which I have been doing for at least seven years now, is completing surveys for cash. There are various companies out there, each one with a different type of payment system. Some give away prizes, some send cash, and some enter you into a pool with every survey filled out to win. I personally stick to programs that give cash rewards. Since I can only attest to the companies I've completed surveys for, below is a detailed list of companies and feedback on their program.

1. Pinecone Research: I've been a member for at least 7 years.
Length of Surveys - The household surveys they send out are quick, around 5 minutes. There typical surveys for cash last anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes.
Incentive - The current process pays $3.00 for every completed survey. They do send out frequent household information surveys, which are not included in the pay out, but you get entered into a pool to win bigger prizes for every one of the household surveys you fill out. There incentive recently dropped to $3.00 from $5.00.
Frequency - This probably depends on your profile, but I'd say there is at least one survey invite a week.
How to Sign Up - This is the tricky part. They don't allow the option of going to their website to sign up. As far as I know, they offer sign up through advertisements if you happen to catch it websurfing. Or, current members get emails a couple of time a year inviting them to offer this opportunity to friends and family. Yesterday I received one of the friends and family invitation email from Pinecone. If you interested in joining, leave me a message or email me and I will forward you the invite!

2. MySurvey (NFO): I've been a member for at least 7 years.
Length of Surveys - Their surveys range from 5 min to 30 min. There are a few rare opportunities of getting a survey that has you keep track of something over a few day period. With this type of survey the incentive is usually high enough for a payout.
Incentive - They use a point system. 1000 points is equivalent to $10.00.
Frequency - I've realized that these surveys come less and less frequently. This probably depends on your profile information, but I'd say I get a survey at least once a month, but the point values for these surveys can really vary from 10 pts to a couple of hundred. My mother, who is also a member, rarely gets survey invites. Like I said, I assume its based on demographics.
How to Sign Up - You can sign up with them directly on their website.

3. Global Test Market: I've been a member for a year now.
Length of Surveys - Again this really depends, and can range from 5 minutes to 30 minutes.
Incentive - Similar to MyPoints, they work on a point system, but 1000 points = $50.00. If you do not qualify for a survey, they credit your account 5 points for filling out the basic information. If you do qualify, the point range seems to be anywhere from 30 points to 100 points, depending on the length of the survey.
Frequency - Multiple survey invites come a week. I probably only qualify for 25% of the incoming invites. In a one year period, I believe I was able to cash out twice.
How to Sign Up - You can sign up with them directly on their website

3 e-Rewards - In conjunction with Upromise: I've been a member for 3 months. I believe you can sign up with them without being associated with Upromise. In that case, the incentive are different than described below.
Length of Surveys - Again, these seem to range from 5 tgo 30 minutes.
Incentive - They also use a point system, which they call e-Rewards Dollars. For the upromise program, there are different tiers for payout. For example, $25.00 e-Dollars payout $10.00 to your upromise account, where $100.00 e-Dollars pays out $50.00.
Frequency - Since signing up three months ago, I average about two surveys a week. I'm saving for the $100 level reward, and am about 75% there.
How to Sign Up - If you have a upromise account, go to the upromise website, log into your account, and there should be a link directly on their website. Otherwise, I'm not exactly positive which, but various vendors offer this opportunity for incentives as well.


Note that even if you belong to multiple panels, the amount of money coming is pretty minor. And because of the frequency that the surveys come, when you get payouts is not guarenteed. It really is just a little bit extra that seems to help every now and then.

You also have to take into mind how time consuming these survey can be. As noted above, these surveys can range from 5 to 30 miutes. When I was in college, the timing factor affected me alot less. This is probably more because I had very little funds to begin with, and this little bit of extra had a much larger impact. Now that I bring home a decent salary, in the overall scheme of things, this amount seems minor, and many times I find myself thinking my time would be better spent working on other projects. So far, none of the panels drop you if you reduce the amount of survey offers you accept.


Beyond Your Horizon