The Survey Pro Review Blog

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , — Cash for Surveys @ 3:22 am

This blog article reviews The Survey Pro website. Those interested in doing “paid surveys” online must realize that although some sites are legitimate, others either want money in exchange for registration into their data bank, or simply want to collect as much information about you to sell to telemarketing companies.

TheSurveyPro.com is of the latter. I clicked on the site and entered some basic information, such as my name, address, age and e-mail address. I then pressed the button to “join” the site, that promised to pay me for participating in online surveys. TheSurveyPro.com then sent me a confirmation e-mail.

I went to my inbox and clicked on the confirmation link and was directed again to the site where they asked me to participate in a brief “20 questions in 2 minutes” survey. Some of the questions they asked me consisted of the following:

Would you ever consider working from home? I answered “no.” In my experience, answering “yes” to such a question is giving the “go-ahead” to receive dozens of calls and e-mails from unscrupulous “work at home” scam companies.

Are you interested in an online degree? I answered “no.” Ever since I foolishly answered yes by mistake at another survey company, I get, on the average, four calls a week from “online education” sources using hard sell tactics to try to get me to “better” my education. At first I was nice, now I simply hang up.

Do you carry more than $10,000 in student debt? I answered “no” and this is the truth. But a “yes” answer will signal calls from debt consolidation companies, which is always bad news. Signing up with such a company ruins your credit as it is actually viewed as filing a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy.

Do you own a home or a condominium? I lied and said “no.” Because I know if I said “yes,” I would get a ton of mail asking me to refinance my home.

Do you feel it is important to know your credit score? I said “no.” Because I know if I said “yes” I would get mail and phone calls trying to “help” me raise my credit score.

Do you carry more than $10,000 in credit card debt? I truthfully answered “no.” This is just another attempt to get you into debt consolidation.

In the last 30 days, have you rented a movie? Again I truthfully answered “no.” This is an ad for Netflix. I’m not interested.

Do you consider yourself an expert in computer use? Another “no.” But I’m expecting to start receiving mail offering me instructions any day now.

Are you happy with your current body weight? I truthfully answered “yes.” I am one of the few Americans who is actually happy with my weight. Constant aggravation caused by my two kids has kept me in marvelous shape.

Do you belong to a fitness club? Gee, I signed up for three health clubs during my lifetime and ended up paying over $2,000 in fees. I think I used the club about five or six times. I wisely answered “no.”

Do you drink coffee? I answered “yes,” but I am not interested in receiving free gourmet coffee every month through the mail.

Are you interested in receiving free gourmet coffee? I answered “no.”

After answering these questions, I was directed to yet another site where they asked me to “help keep their site free” and check “yes” or “no” if I was interested in getting more information from their sponsors. As you may have guessed, most of their sponsors related to the 20 questions. They included various online universities, Overstock.com, Taste of Home (which is a wonderful magazine, but available at the bookstore), a few other magazine subscriptions and several “diet” sites.

I said “no” to all of these offers. They then asked me to “consider” another optional offer. I clicked on the site and saw a flashy car, huge house and the chance to earn THOUSANDS of dollars. All I had to do was give them my name, address and telephone number. Fat chance.

I clicked out of that site quickly and went to my inbox. There I found a link to confirm my membership to The Survey Pro website. I clicked on the link and quickly found how I can immediately earn $10 for only 30 minutes worth of work. All I had to do was sign up for 20 other survey sites.

While The Survey Pro is not technically a scam (they don’t want any money), it is not a legitimate “paid survey” site. It is merely a tool used to get information for businesses. The information that you provide to this site is sold to telemarketing companies that sell products such as diet pills, fitness equipment, magazine subscriptions, credit cards, debt consolidation, and – my personal favorite – online education.

Looking for a way to make a few extra bucks online? Skip TheSurveyPro.com. Unless, of course, you have a desire to have your mailbox flooded with offers and like to talk to telemarketers.

NPD Online Research Review

Filed under: Online Surveys — Tags: , — Cash for Surveys @ 4:00 am

If you are a sucker for online sweepstakes, then NPD Online Research is the place for you. Signing up for this site is easy and free. The url is http://www.npdor.com. As a matter of fact, if you choose to join the online survey world, you will probably end up signing up for it anyway. Just about every online survey portal provides your information to this company.

The surveys are easy. And in between taking each survey, you can rest assured that you will be automatically directed to a website for one of the following:

Online education
Health Insurance
Diabetes Care

Ever since I unwittingly signed up for NPD Online Research, I have received at least 20 calls from people trying to sell me either an online education or health insurance. I never have to worry about getting lonely; the phone is always ringing.

The good news about this site is that the questions that they ask you are easy. So easy that a 5-year-old can answer them. But NPD isn’t really interested in your answers. They are interested in obtaining as much information about you so they can sell you the following:

Online education
Health Insurance
Diabetes Care

Occasionally, they will surprise you with a chance to “earn” a free issue of “Taste of Home” Magazine. With the promise of a subscription. Don’t worry about giving them your credit card information; they already have your phone number and if you check the “yes” box without reading carefully, they will charge the subscription directly to your phone bill.

In exchange for sharing personal information with this company and fending off telemarketers, participants have the advantage of being entered into their monthly “sweepstakes” drawing…for $1,000.

Ever since I mistakenly signed up for this site, my inbox has been flooded with spam. I have contacted the company several times, via e-mail, and asked them to take me off their list. I have not yet received a reply. It doesn’t matter, however, because most of the mail they send me goes directly into my “bulk” mail. And I empty that regularly without ever looking. While I used to get about 50 pieces of “bulk” mail a day, I now get at least 200 pieces of “bulk” mail a day. All thanks to NPD.

Online surveys can be fun and can earn the participant a few dollars. I’ve researched many of them and found that NPD is not one of them. They take your information and offer you absolutely nothing in return. Unless, of course, you believe that you have the chance of winning the “sweepstakes” prize.

The worst thing about NPD is that it encourages young people to join their “panel.” The site is open to anyone over the age of 13, but adds a disclaimer that they “do not KNOWINGLY collect information from persons younger than 13.” In English, this means that just about any kid with access to a computer can click on to this site and participate under the guise of entering “sweepland,” which is the name given for the sweepstakes that you can win once you’ve given them every bit of information about yourself besides your blood type.

My sense of humor has made it possible to laugh at NPD. I particularly like their non-committal answer to whether people can actually earn cash for participating in their surveys. This is a simple, direct question that requires a “yes” or “no” answer. Their answer? Sometimes you might be able to earn cash.

If you are thinking about participating in online surveys for cash, please do yourself and your family a favor and stay away from this site. Unless, of course, you wish to receive incessant phone calls and e-mails about:

Online education
Health Insurance
Diabetes Care

If you have unwittingly joined this website by accident, keep a close eye on your telephone bill in case they have decided to send you a “complimentary” magazine subscription.

ClickIQ Survey Site Review

Filed under: Online Surveys — Tags: , — Cash for Surveys @ 3:50 am

ClickIQ is an online paid survey company that offers points for completing each survey. The points are called “Visor points” and you earn a certain number of points (usually around 50) for completing each survey. After joining the site, you will become what they refer to as an “E-visor,” and you’ll earn 100 points for joining the site. Unlike other online survey sites, you do not get points for referrals.

Joining ClickIQ takes about 15 minutes of your time. You need to fill out an extensive questionnaire regarding the household products you use, children in your family, occupation, etc. This information is collected to put you on a panel. When your profile is complete, you can view the number of panels you are eligible for.

ClickIQ collects information for a third party, ascertains the information provided to them from your survey then informs them of the results. Surveys are sent to participants via e-mail. You are under no obligation to complete any surveys, but the more you complete, the more points you earn. You need to accumulate 2,500 points in order to “cash out.” Each 100 points is worth $1, so on the average, you will make about $1 (sometimes up to $1.50) for each survey you complete. The surveys are very short, however, and take less than 10 minutes to complete. There are some surveys that take longer and offer more points. The highest amount of points I made for completing a survey was 500 and that survey took me approximately twenty minutes to complete.

I have mixed feelings about this survey site. I found the initial questionnaire to be quite extensive and time consuming. The other problem I have is that they offer surveys sporadically. You won’t even receive one each week, which makes accumulating points a lengthy process.

The good news about this site is that it is truly legitimate. They will pay you $25 every time you accumulate 2,500 points and do so by check. You can also request to have the money put into your Paypal account.

Another positive aspect of ClickIQ is the privacy issue. Since joining the site, I haven’t received any spam mail, as a matter of fact, I haven’t received many e-mails from them at all. Unlike some online survey sites that seem to flood your inbox every 15 minutes or so, ClickIQ is very low-key. They will never provide your personal information to a third party and you won’t be harassed by a series of unwanted telemarketing calls.

Prior to writing this blog, I clicked on the website to see if there was anything new and was surprised to see that at the current time, no surveys are available. Other members of Click IQ who I’ve met and talked to state that the site tends to be either feast or famine. There are usually many surveys available at once and then the site dries up for a couple of weeks. So you can’t expect to earn a steady income on this site. But then, I don’t think there’s a paid survey site out there where you can actually earn a steady income.

ClickIQ is open to US residents only. They do not specify age, but request that you are the “decision maker” and in charge of the grocery shopping, so it’s really not a site for young people, unless there are teenagers out there who actually do grocery shopping. This is about as rare as finding a paid survey site in which to make a living.

I believe this site to be legitimate, but slow to pay. It does no harm to join, but do not expect to receive a check for at least two months.

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