Paid online surveys give internet users the chance to earn pocket money for simply airing their opinions. Anyone can register with a market research website to receive a few 15 or 20-minute surveys by e-mail every month. Each one completed – usually multiple-choice questions on brands and consumer goods – earns between £1 and £10. Signing up with several sites can net keen respondents hundreds of pounds a year.
One of the most popular survey websites is ciaosurveys.com. Members are sent about four surveys a month on products that match their profile. The surveys, most of which pay between £1 and £5, are on anything from holidays, breakfast habits and pets to cosmetics and white goods. Members can participate in as many or few as they like. Nicolas Metzke, of Ciao Surveys, says: “Most people make £2 or £3 a month. Helping to improve the brands they use is a bigger motivation than the money.”
Members can supplement their survey income further by reviewing and rating consumer goods at ciao.co.uk. The site pays between 0.5p and 2p each time a reader clicks to say that a review was helpful.
A significant downside of Ciao is that respondents may not be eligible to complete all the surveys they are sent. Mr Metzke says that the typical member can participate in about 40 per cent of the surveys. In some cases, respondents answer several questions before being told that they do not qualify. “It is a problem we’re fixing,” he says.
Nick Sparrow, of It’s Your View, at itsyourview.com, a survey website run by the market research firm ICM, says that members of his site should be able to complete all the surveys they receive. It sends members about two or three each month and pays the equivalent of £12 an hour.
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Another reliable alternative is valuedopinions.co.uk, which pays in vouchers for Amazon, HMV, Boots and Marks & Spencer, or makes donations to charities such as the British Red Cross and WWF.
For more cerebral surveys, you may prefer YouGov. You can join the “panel” at yougov.com to receive surveys on topics “from politics to painkillers and pensions”. Members receive £1 for registering and 50p to £3 per survey, receiving about four to six surveys a month.
The surveys have a high media profile and give an opportunity to air views on current affairs, from the effectiveness of policy on terrorism to Gordon Brown’s likeability. The site hosts regular columns by the broadcaster John Humphrys.
All the survey companies expect honest and thought-out answers. Their software identifies members who tick boxes at random, so there is no scope for get-rich-quick hopefuls.
CASE STUDY: Profitable points of view
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Karen Inskip-Hayward, of Bristol, has signed up to about 15 market research websites and spends many hours online each week completing surveys and reviewing consumer goods. The 37-year-old housewife says that she loves being able to make money simply by sharing her views.
She particularly likes Ciao because the surveys tend to be interesting. One example asked for opinions on possible Harry Potter DVD covers. She was delighted when she saw her first choice on the shop shelves weeks later.
Mrs Inskip-Hayward makes about £200 a year from surveys and spends most of it on “treats” such as books and DVDs. She has recommended Ciao and YouGov to friends and family. Her eldest daughter, Leigh-Ann, 16, is one recent convert.