American Consumer Opinion or ACOP Review
An online survey company that offers participants a chance to win a cash drawing for completing quick, fun surveys and actual cash (between $4 to $50) for completing more extensive, in depth surveys that they refer to as “focus groups.” The site contends that focus group participants generally do not make less than $50.
To join American Consumer Opinion, you need to go to www.acop.com. This will bring you to the ACOP home page where you can sign up for the site. After you complete the questions, a confirmation link will be sent to your e-mail address under the name of “Ann Parks.” The site warns that many of these e-mails end up in your bulk or spam folder, so if you are interested in receiving e-mails from the site, you should add the name “Ann Parks” to your e-mail address book.
American Consumer Opinion has been around for about 10 years. It’s a legitimate site, but, unfortunately, does not offer a lot of money. There are several pros and cons to joining American Consumer Opinions:
Some Pros:
- The site is open to international residents. You don’t have to live in the United States to participate and there is no age limit, although since many of the surveys pertain to work and other adult-oriented activities, teenagers will find the questions boring;
- There is a steady flow of both short surveys and longer questionnaires available to participants;
- Your information is private; they will never try to sell you anything, spam your mailbox with ads or telephone you.;
- The site has been around a long time and is respected in the marketing community.
Some Cons:
- There is no guarantee of earning anything for completing the short surveys, only an opportunity to win cash in a monthly drawing. To date, I haven’t won anything. Only one person wins each month and the winner receives $250;
- The cash received for participating in a lengthy survey is not paid to you by ACOP, but by the company requesting the information. You may end up waiting four to six weeks for a $4 check;
- You don’t get to pick which surveys you want to complete, you’ll receive them by e-mail;
- There are times when the site goes “down” in the middle of your survey, which means you have to take the entire thing over again. The reason the American Consumers give for this is that the site is experiencing “too much traffic.” But it is extremely frustrating.
American Consumer Opinion is a subsidiary company for Decision Analysis Inc., a Dallas based marketing research company. The company performs research for a variety of corporations around the world, including fast food chains, railroad corporations and airlines.
On a scale of one to ten, I’d have to rate this site a five. It’s not a big money maker, but is totally legitimate and private.
An alternative site that I recently discovered is called Your Free Surveys. Like ACOP, it is legitimate. We’ll have a full writeup in a future blog article. For now, they are running a special where they pay you a $4 bonus upon signup. You can read more about the site here:
