Online Survey Groups

I dub today "Day #2 without naps ..."

Usually, I find a bit of time to write shortly after I put Carmen down for a nap and shortly before I myself catch a little bit of shut-eye.  Unfortunately, that hasn't happened the past few days because Carmen has inexplicably decided NOT TO NAP.  She's also been waking up (screaming) at 5 am for no reason.  I enjoy snuggle time, so I bring her into our room to snuggle for a few hours before she goes back down, but still ... weird ...

Carmen's occupied with building a tower out of the blocks my Mom gave her for Christmas last year, so I'll take this opportunity to write about ....

MAKING CASH THROUGH ONLINE SURVEYS!!!!

So I feel somewhat lame being the stereotypical stay-at-home Mom.  I guess I don't have an Etsy account and I don't run a home business, but I still like finding ways to save money and earn a little cash on the side.  One of the easiest ways to do that is by filling out online surveys!

What are online surveys and why do they exist and why the heck would SAHMs be useful to the people doing the surveys?  Businesses want to know more about their customers, and moms tend to be in charge of the family finances and shopping.  This way, consumers can let businesses know what they do, what they want, what they dislike, etc.

I'm a member of several online survey groups:
E-Rewards
Survey Spot
Ipsos I-Say/Home Testing Institute
Valued Opinions

The first group I joined ever-so-long ago was E-rewards.  It's cool because we get free rentals (hello, Inception!) once a month from Blockbuster.  The upside is that you always get some kind of compensation for every survey you take, even if you don't fit what they're looking for.  (It's like, you get $4.00 to complete the survey or $.75 if you don't qualify.)  The downside is that the rewards generally stink.  The coolest things you can get are 15 Borders Bucks to spend at Borders, and free video game or movie rentals from Blockbuster, but you're limited to ONE reward from Blockbuster every 6 months and ONE reward from Borders per calendar year.

So I've got about $100 in "rewards" to spend and nothing to spend it on, because the Blockbuster thing is only worth $25 and the Borders thing is $15.  All of the other rewards are lame things like miles for random airlines and money off of overpriced flower deliveries and expensive gourmet Omaha Steaks.  *waves pom-poms*  I tried to use up some more rewards by signing up for every interesting-looking magazine, so now my friends tease me because I get issues of Women's Health with things like, "Get Sexy Abs Fast!" written all over the cover.  Um, at least it's not Cosmopolitan?

Survey Spot gives you real cash through PayPal and PayPal doesn't charge you any fees!  So you cash in $10 and $10 appears in your bank account!  The only thing is you have to have more than $10 in your account and you can only withdraw $50 at a time or something.  Yeah, like I'm going to build up $50 in survey points any time soon.  They send you emails with a link to a survey and say you'll get 50/150/300 whatever points for completing the survey (a point is worth a penny.)  After you finish a survey, you can click a link to take another survey!  It's practically indefinite!

The downside?  First of all, they can spam your inbox with zillions of survey invites.  This may sound like a good thing, but it seems like most of the time you don't qualify for a survey.  So you an spend 5 minutes filling out the initial questionnaire (I'm a 23-year-old female mother in this state and we make this much money and I'm white ... THEN they ask whether or not you smoke and you say no and they're like "AHAHA YOU CAN'T FINISH THE SURVEY!) and then this sad-looking lady pops up and the page says, "Sorry, you don't qualify AND you don't get any points!  Better luck next time!" and the next page says, "Want to try another survey?" and you're like, "Not if it's about how much I smoke, jerk face!"

But, you know, overall, pretty nice and easy to cash out.  They used to have this scratchcard game thing and I won $50 to spend on Amazon.  Yaaaay!!

Ipsos I-Say is probably my current favorite.  They're a bit like E-rewards in that if you don't qualify for a survey, you still get a few points.  Each point is also roughly worth a penny.  At the end of every survey, you get to do this "Poll Predictor" game where they ask you a question that goes something like, "Guess what percentage of Americans answered 'Yes' to the following question:" (do you floss daily? were you born in May? do you ever take clothes home without trying them on first? etc) and then you can be entered into a drawing to win something.  You get more entries the closer you get to the right percentage.  Anyway.  They have way fewer surveys than Survey Spot, but you will always get something in return for clicking the link.

I also love the Ipsos Home Testing Institute.  Like the title says, it's a home testing thing.  They paid me $30 to bake 4 kinds of devil's food chocolate cake and give them my feedback.  I got to try some new Burts Bees Baby Wash for Carmen.  I got to sample some shampoo and let them know how much I went through in a month.  I also got to try out the nastiest most headache-inducing cat litter EVER.  But it was free!!  I got to try free stuff!  They just sent me something in the mail saying, "Write down everything everyone in your household eats for a day, and if we pick you for a follow-up study you can get a free thing!" and I'm looking at this cute little food processor going, "Hmmm ...."

Valued Opinions is another one I like okay.  It pays out a bit like Survey Spot but sends fewer emails and I usually find myself qualifying for more surveys.


So on days when I'm bored, I go online and check I-Say and Valued Opinions to see if they have any surveys I haven't tried out yet.  If I'm really bored, I play some weird version of Survey Spot Roulette, hoping maybe I'll qualify for something and make two bucks in 15 minutes.  YAY.  (Hint: the 50 point surveys are easier to qualify for, so it's worth clicking on those email links.)


If you sign up for an online survey group and find yourself disappointed that you don't qualify for a bunch of the surveys, let me tell you something:
You have to be a consumer.  They're doing market research and need people in the market.  It's easiest to qualify for surveys if you're the mother of a young child in disposable diapers.  I've started qualifying for a LOT more surveys since I had to switch to disposables this summer because of Carmen's diaper rashes.  But our diaper story must wait for another entry because this one is too long already ...


And, you know, yes, you're earning less than minimum wage, but you get to answer surveys and it's kind of fun being like, "Hey, I made 40 bucks last month!  NEW PANTS!"