Start Sampling Review

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , — Cash for Surveys @ 10:59 pm

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If you enjoy receiving free samples of products in the mail and trying something new, sign up at a site called “Start Sampling.” This site — startsampling.com — is absolutely free and will not release your personal information to telemarketers or anyone trying to sell you anything. They do not pay cash, but participants, in addition to receiving free products delivered to their home, accumulate points redeemable for gifts.

Signing up for the site is easy. You simply fill out a questionnaire and submit answers to the site. The questionnaire screens you for which type of products you can try. The trick is to answer “yes” to most of the questions they ask, this way, you can receive the most products and gain the most points.

Upon signing up for the site, depending upon your answers to the questionnaire, you’ll be directed to various websites where you will give your name and address so they can send you the sample product. Some sites offer more than just “samples” and give you a full sized product to sample.

The products participants can try for free include household items, personal hygiene items, pet supplies, beauty products and even music CDs. After you receive the product and try it, you simply fill out a short survey that takes about 10 minutes and give your opinion of the product. You never have to pay a shipping fee or send anything back to the company.

About twice a week, startsampling.com offers contests participants enter. About 20 winners each week collect 50 “Frequent Tryer Miles” points in their account. You can enter as many contests as you like and most people win at least once. When you win a contest, the site notifies you via e-mail. You can accumulate your points

Participants earn points simply for visiting the recommended sites and additional points for sampling the product. Some of the gifts they offer include gift cards, travel items, household products and other merchandise.

The best thing about this site is the “no pressure” sales. Startsampling.com does not attempt to sell you any products. There are no “elaborate” prizes, but gifts a normal person would expect to receive for doing a minimal amount of work.

Another thing I like about this site is the opportunity to sample different products I might not otherwise try. Unlike some sampling survey companies, you know what the product is and if you enjoy using it, you can purchase it in the store.

Probably my favorite thing about this site is that it doesn’t represent magazine subscription houses, insurance companies or online education companies. In my foray into the online survey world, I’ve found that these appear to be the main “hard sell” items most companies push. Since signing up for the site, the only e-mails I’ve received relating to Start Sampling have been from their site; I have not received any unsolicited telemarketing calls related to this site. They keep their word when they say they will maintain your privacy.

The downside is that while the prizes and gifts are nice, there is no cash involved for participating in this site. But it’s fun, easy and takes only a small portion of your time.

Startsampling.com is a legitimate online survey/sampling company. You have nothing to fear if you decide to sign up to participate in this site and will have a lot of fun sampling their products.

If you enjoy market research and would like to get paid for your time, check out our section on paid market research reviews.

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.

ACOP Review

Filed under: Online Surveys — Tags: , , — Cash for Surveys @ 6:40 am

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:

http://fastsurveymoney.org/yourfreesurveysite

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