I finally decided on Panda.com as the site I would sign up with. It has a sterling reputation, and many, many, satisfied users. I am going to use them as an example, because they are the company I went with.
DO NOT Take my word for this. Do your own research. Go to forums and read about the various options and make up your own mind. I am not telling you to go to Panda. I am telling you to investigate the various online survey providers and choose what is best for you. I am telling you to be careful, and don't follow me or anyone else blindly..
When you do survey jobs, the key is, as I said in the opening, attention to detail and self discipline. You one-track-minders and nose to the grindstone types will find this easy pickings. If you put in the time, this can be very lucrative.
Basically online survey work goes along these lines:
You will be evaluating various offers as if your were a truly interested customer. You will fill out an online survey from various companies that are trying to pick apart your thought processes so they can market better. You are their lab rats, and they pay you for the privilege. .That's pretty much it.
With Panda, as a new person, I wanted to know how much an hour I could make taking surveys. Because I wanted to take the most cautious approach. I chose surveys that pay between 2 and 4 dollars, and did not require a credit card. Now when I do this, I am always interested in the results in hourly pay. This helps me decide if the endeavor is profitable. In my case of Panda, I decided to see what me, as a new member could do. I set a timer for 30 minutes and started doing the surveys. When the timer ran out, I had earned $8.84. Since that is for 1/2 hour, it equals $17.68 an hour. Not shabby for a beginner, I think.
Before you go any further, I suggest that you do or get the following items for use with this endeavor.
- Create a user name on your computer for your online survey jobs and do not use this account for anything but surveys. This keeps things tidy. From this point on, do everything from this account, not your real life account. You will thank me for this later.
- Create 2 Google G-mail accounts. You want one to use to communicate with your survey providers when you sign up or they have information to put out to you. The second e-mail account is to use when you are actually doing the jobs. This is a critical component, do not skip this. By the way, Google doesn't mind if you have more than one account.
- Create a virtual number: Either get a phone number through Google, or a virtual phone number from a company that sells them. I use Vumber.com, and get 1 line for 9.95 a month. One is all you need. You will use this number so that when an online survey asks for a phone number, you give them this number. As you do more and more jobs, you will end up on all sorts of advertising lists. You can forward your Vumber to a "leave message" answering machine so all these calls do not come into your real phone number. Google phone is free, and all you do is ignore the phone call when it comes from Google. Taking this step will help you keep the survey taking stuff compartmentalized and away your daily life.
- Get a pre paid debit card and put a few bucks on it. Many jobs will require a credit card even though they are not going to charge it, this helps qualify a consumer in their eyes. This is especially true of the higher paying surveys. Some surveys will offer a reduced price trial that you may want to go ahead and sign up for if the survey payoff is large enough.
You must ALWAYS cancel any thing you sign up for manually to keep from getting charged
and you must cancel these things without fail, or the charges will eat up your profit.
At first, stay away from the credit card submits until you learn the ropes.
Now, some things to consider. I ended up on a couple of insurance advertising lists as a result of these surveys and they called the number for about 2 weeks before they quit calling. This is why I recommend a virtual number.
If I were going to do this as a money making project I would also do this. On each and every page you go to save the page in your bookmarks in a folder for that date. This way, there will be no doubt in your mind which ones to cancel the next day. The first thing you do each day is your cancellations. Cancel every thing you signed up for the day before. Don't keep anything. If you found a site or offer you want in real life, go to that site under your real username and access it that way. You want to start with a clean slate everyday, or you you will become confused about what you were wanting to keep and what you NEED to cancel. Get sloppy, and you will lose all your profits.
Look at the survey you are considering and read the specifics until you understand exactly what is required to complete the survey. I do have to say that Panda makes this information easy to find. You get complete information on each online survey before you take the job. By the time I choose the survey, I knew exactly what I had to do, and how much it would pay. All jobs are different, so pay attention to the details.
I also suspect that whatever site you do online surveys for will reward you over time with better jobs. It just makes sense to save the highest paying (and therefore most profitable) surveys for the dedicated closers who have a good work record. That is how I would do it, anyway, because it rewards initiative.
Another thing I would do if I were to really work this, is get a Virtual Private Network, or VPN. What this does mask your internet connection's source, making it appear that you are coming from a different place each time you get online.
There is nothing nefarious about this, and businesses do it all the time to keep their business information secure. VPN companies will immediately respond to a court order, so there is no real hiding anyway. It just makes your surfing anonymous and stops most trackers and hackers from finding out your real IP address. In short, it is just plain good security. In your case, as you do your surveys, your IP address may become blocked for a survey provider. This means that your participation on their online auto insurance survey blocks your IP address for any more surveys at all for a month, or longer.
If have a VPN, each time you go online you will have a new IP address, so the IP block would never stop you from doing new surveys, The only company I have any knowledge is.... Ahem, HideMyAss.com. They were recommend to me, and I use them. Once again do your own research {see rant above}. The cost is $9.99 a month, and it certainly is not a necessity, but damn sure worth it. I would find such a service if I were going hardcore into doing these types of jobs, and you should consider it after the first paycheck comes along.
In summary, if you go about it right AND have self discipline, you can make a good second income from online survey jobs. If you decided to dedicate 4-5 days a week, you cold probably make extremely good cash.
ONLINE SURVEY RESOURCES:
