Monday 18 February 2013

Survey sites and little ways to make money

Hi guys, I know this post isn't exactly related to my blog as a whole but I thought it would be an interesting/good (?) idea to share my little ways of making bits of money. Whilst I've been out of work and ill, the government has decided I'm entitled to no income whatsoever as my partner works full time (and I'm still living with him up until next month). I don't like relying on people so I thought I'd filter out the scams and have a look online at ways to help with paying the bills and buying the christmas shopping. They've come in quite handy actually and have been a real godsend when I've been worried about affording my phonebill. Plus they keep me busy when I'm not doing my course (I'll probably blog about the online course I'm doing in my next post).

SURVEYS

Here are the survey sites I am a member of:

MySurvey: There's a fairly good choice of rewards with this site (including paypal money, yay!). You get 'points' for each survey; which can be used to buy the rewards. You can also buy actual products (like Xbox games, blenders and golfing gear I think) if you rack up a lot of points. I'd say I get 2 or 3 survey invitations a week but sometimes I can get a few more. This just depends on what you qualify for based on your profile. Just a heads up, when you start getting invitations, the sender will be Emma Morrison just so you know this isn't junk mail :) I signed up to this site in October 2011 and have found I've been able to redeem anywhere between £5 and £15 worth of paypal money pretty quickly. With quick responses to survey invites, making sure you take part in every survey and some patience, I think you could earn some good money from this website.

Valued Opinions: Your survey 'points' are counted in pounds and once you reach £10.00 you can claim a voucher. I tend to go for the amazon ones (more choice!). I do like this site as you get at least one survey invitation a day so it doesn't take long to reach your first £10.00.

Yougov: I've been a member since November 2012 and so far I've earned 250 points. I've found you do get a survey invite at least 5 days a week but I tend to screen out of these a lot (not qualify). There's not a lot of choice with rewards on this website but I'm staying with it as 5000 points = £50! It's worth giving it a go anyway. You can always unsubscribe if you get nowhere with it!

Vindale: Similarly to Yougov, with this site I find I get invitations regularly, but I screen out of them a lot. I signed up in June 2012 and have only earned $2.00. I wouldn't personally recommend this one but, due to the regularity of survey invites, maybe have a go?

Pinecone research: I've only recently started using this site so if my opinions change, I will edit this post. So far it seems ok. This particular research panel is invite only, but if you're in the right place at the right time, you can find banner ads to click on in order to join. The survey invites don't come regularly but each survey earns you £3 worth of luncheon vouchers. So far I've earned one of these. These vouchers can be used in really well known places; such as McDonalds, Burger King and Sainsburys (very useful!)

Inspired Opinions: I joined this one in December 2012 and have not received many survey invites. Only about 3 in total? I have, however, earned 300 inspired opinion points from this; with only 200 more to earn before I can redeem. You redeem your points for Amazon vouchers on this website; starting at 500 points for a £5 voucher and going up to 10'000 points for a £100 voucher. Again, I'm going to hang on with this one and see how far I get.

Panelbase: I joined this website in November 2012 and find I get about 2 or 3 invites a week. I have earned £7 so far and need to reach £10 before I can redeem. The good thing about this website is that you can have funds transferred directly to your bank account once you have reached the threshold. You can also swap them for vouchers or even donations if you like. I may add more details once I start redeeming.

Justtheanswer: I've been a member of this website since November 2012 and have earned 200 points so far. When you reach 500 points, you can swap these for a £5 amazon voucher. I tend to get around 2 invites a week but I do screen out of a few.

Populuslive: I originally signed up to this in June 2012 but just realised I didn't fill the demographic in; which is why I haven't been receiving survey invites. Oops! I'll keep you posted on this one. I may do a 'part 2' to this blog post, as I can see it is going to be a fairly long winded one.

Ipsos: I have been a member of this survey site since October 2011 and find I get invites 3 or 4 times a week. Since I last redeemed (December 2012), I have earned 1215 points. I've found that you do only get rewarded with prize draw entries for quite a few of these surveys, but when you are offered points, you reach the redemption threshold fairly easily. In order to earn enough for vouchers (rather than donations), you must reach 1380 points. These vouchers are for places like Amazon, John Lewis and Capital Bonds and are valued at £10. I would only have to take one or two more surveys in order to reach this threshold so I'm hoping for a decent invite soon!

Toluna: Now this survey site was originally called Ciao surveys, and I have to say I preferred the way it worked back then. You used to be able to redeem points for money and it didn't take too long to reach the threshold. Since the change to Toluna, you can only redeem points for vouchers (amazon vouchers being your best bet again). The points system is pretty ridiculous and it takes a heck of a long time to reach the threshold (unless you manage to qualify for the big long surveys). Since I last redeemed (at least 2 years ago), I have racked up 36750 points, which does sound like a lot, but you have to get to 80'000 points to redeem a £15 amazon voucher or love2shop voucher. You do get a lot of survey invites (at least one a day) but can easily screen out of surveys. A reason for this could be because the website appears to be extremely popular so quotas are filled fast. One good thing I'll say about this website is that you can sign up to test products; which you get to keep afterwards. You'll also get points for filling in the survey to review the products too. I currently don't need to buy shampoo or conditioner thanks to the two tester bottles (full size) of the shampoo and conditioner I like :)  

Opinion Outpost: I joined this website in June 2012 and find it's quite useful if you need a few pounds fairly quickly. I tend to get survey invitations 2 or 3 times a week and, since I last redeemed, I have earned 15 points. The threshold is 50 points; which will earn you £2.50 in paypal money. You can also earn snapfish vouchers if you like (you have to earn at least 80 points with that).

Gratispoints: I've been with this website since October 2011 and find I get fairly regular survey invites (at least one every other day). I have earned 1785 Gratispoints here which apparently I can redeem. The rewards section of the website is quite confusing however and I'm not entirely sure how many points I need for paypal money. From what I can see, so far I can redeem for spa vouchers (but it doesn't actually say the value of these vouchers). That is no use to me as there aren't any spas near me! If anyone could give me some advice regarding this website I would be very grateful.

Globaltestmarket: I know I've been a member of this survey for a while but I may have lost the welcome email with the exact date. My 'marketpoints' balance is currently 480 points. I need to reach 1000 points in order to redeem but the website is not entirely clear on the rewards offered. Again, this is a survey site which sends invitations regularly (almost every day!) but you can easily be screened out of the surveys. If I reach the redemption threshold in the not too distant future (ha) I will add more details of rewards etc.

Harris Poll: I have been a member of this site since June 2012 and have earned 260 'hipoints' so far. To earn amazon vouchers, you must have at least 1600 points but I feel it will take me a few months to reach this goal as I only get invites once or twice a week (not always qualifying for every survey either).

Springboard: I'm not sure whether or not to bother with this membership anymore as I have been with this website since Jan 2013 and have only earned £1.75 after taking part in 4 surveys. The redemption threshold with this particular site is £25 which I don't see happening anytime soon! I will keep you posted on this one.

Univox: I joined this site in June 2012 and have taken quite a few surveys a week (averaging out at about 5 per week) and have earned 1075 points. The redemption threshold is 2500 points, so if I continue to receive invitations regularly, it shouldn't take too long to reach that. The only reward offered is a $25 amazon voucher code which you redeem every time you reach 2500 points.

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PRODUCT TESTING

BzzAgent: I only recently signed up to this website, after googling genuine product testing websites. I've already received some well known stain remover to use and review and so far, it looks like this website does offer some useful products for testing.

Toluna: As mentioned before, this website offers product testing as well as paid surveys. You register your interest in certain products and I find that I get accepted for most of the products I apply for. Don't expect to get offers for this very regularly though.

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CASH FOR STUFF!

CLOTHES

Clothes For Cash: Now this website appears to be UK only so any readers from other countries, please feel free to comment if you discover something similar elsewhere! Basically, you fill the form in to receive your collection bag. In a few days time you receive the mahoosive bag. You use the instructions to fill the bag with clothes, shoes, jewellery, accessories that adhere to the company's rules. You then request a collection online and make sure you're in for that day. This collection is completely FREE btw. You can choose to have the money sent to your paypal account or to donate it. The company keeps you informed via email of what's happening (e.g. confirmation of collection, they've received the bag etc) and your money is processed within 24 hours of valuation. They pay up to £18 per (completely filled) sack and will accept sacks from half filled to completely filled. My sack weighed about 36 kg and I received around £12 for it. I would definitely use this service again although paypal payments do take a while to be authorised.


PHONES:

Here, I review a variety of cash for phone websites and give an example, using my current phone, of what you can expect to receive for each site. It's ALWAYS good to shop around for the best deal as you may find that one site will pay you considerably more than another. Again, these are UK companies so if someone outside the UK finds similar deals elsewhere, feel free to comment and suggest! Also, it is useful to note that the value of phones decrease very rapidly so it is best to recycle your old phone using one of these websites as quickly as possible!

Fonebank: My Nokia Lumia 800 would fetch me £72 for a working model. If faulty, I would receive £36. These payments can be made by cheque or bank transfer and will be processed on the same day the phone is received.

Envirofone: My Nokia Lumia 800 would earn me £64.04 for a working model if I opted for bank transfer or cheque. If I opted for the Argos e-voucher, I would receive one to the value of £70.44 There is no estimate for a damaged model but they DO accept and, if you are not happy with the offer, they will send your phone back free of charge. Offers are made within 24 hours of receiving the phone.

Mazuma Mobile: My Nokia Lumia 800 (working) would earn me £63 by cheque, £63 by bank transfer or   £69.30 if I opted for an Argos voucher. If faulty, I would receive £30 by cheque, £30 by bank transfer or £33 for Argos voucher.

Cash4Phones: My Nokia Lumia 800 would earn me £63.42 for a working model or £19.03 for a non-working one. Payments are made by cheque or bank transfer. 

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FREEBIES YOU'll ACTUALLY WANT!

Here are a few websites I use to receive free samples of things like moisturiser, tea bags and cleaning products.

http://www.latestfreestuff.co.uk/ : A very varied selection of things such as Anti Ageing Cream, Twinings Tea Samples, Coffee Samples and Breakfast Biscuits. It takes a week or two to receive but is quite useful if you want to try new things.

http://freesamples.me.uk/ : This is quite similar to the previous website in what it offers, but on the flip side, that means you get more of the samples!

http://www.freestufffinder.co.uk/ : This website appears to be quite useful for new mums; with its free samples of baby food and mum-to-be starter packs. You can also get free samples of health food, snack bars, sweeteners and tea. 

http://www.magicfreebiesuk.co.uk/ : I do like this website due to its wide choice of freebies and regular updating. Freebies include tea, moisturiser and fragrance samples. The samples run out quickly, however, so snap them up quick! Also, check out the discount code section of the site.


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Feel free to comment with any suggestions :) . It's always good to share the knowledge; especially in very broke times such as these!

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