Survey & Focus Group Tips

Annika's Work From Home Tips

When you start doing paid Surveys or Paid to Read emails, you will need a separate email account so you don't mix up your personal emails with your paying Survey notifications or Paid to Read emails. You can get a free email account at such places as gmail.com, yahoo.com, hotmail.com, and inbox.com to name a few and use this email address when you sign up for paying Surveys and Paid to Read emails. It's important that you don't mix your personal emails with your paying Survey, or Paid to Read emails. This way you shouldn't have to worry about spam, and or false closing of your email accounts. Make sure you also remember your email address correctly and of course your password.

1. Want to get off to a fast start earning from paid Surveys & Focus Groups? Be sure to register with all the Survey companies on page 1 before you take a break - they offer some of the best paying Survey opportunities anywhere, and you don't want to miss them. Also, Survey Database This is a completely sortable listing. You can pick payment type, location and even method of either Surveys, Focus Groups or Product Testing.

2. When you complete a paying Survey or Focus Group, be sure to save your invite to make sure you've been credited. Also if you request payout save the confirmation numbers, and or email.

3. You MUST confirm your emails to complete registration with most paid Survey companies. And if that means filling in the first Survey profile, then you must do this. If you have not received a confirmation email, it could be your email is blocking it. You may need to get another email address or turn off any spam protection.

4. If you enter a lot of competitions, register at new sites frequently or, for that matter, are about to join a lot of paid market research companies, then Roboform is an essential tool. Roboform will fill out online forms at the click of a button saving you masses of time and effort and is an invaluable tool for filling in paid Surveys. Also, it can be used to safely store passwords and enter those at a click of a button as well so you'll never forget a password ever again. Roboform is 100% free for the basic version. You can download it here: Roboform.

5. Enter your information carefully when signing up for these types of paying Survey programs or Focus Groups. You cannot get paid if they can not e-mail you, or mail you a check! This means, to make sure you typed your email address correctly before you click submit. Also, make sure you remember your email password as well. This will make it easier to log into your email account.

6. On Spidermetrix, Lifepoints, and Surveysavvy don't fill in your profiles or as Surveysavvy calls them "Member Portraits".  You may have to do some testing, but last time we tested, we got more Surveys without our profiles filled in.

7. The most important information I can provide you is, DO NOT admit to the fact you done other Surveys, or belong to other Survey panels. This will disqualify you from MANY Surveys. It's a cheat by the company to even ask such a thing!

8. If, and when you fill out your Survey profiles, don't hold back information. Such as clicking the "Not sure" "Don't know" or "will not disclose". These will only harm you.

9. Try to be quick on the paid Survey invites. Should you get one and think "Oh I'll do that one later today". Later today might not come and it may be filled with all the people they need and you will miss out. Many Surveys lead to other more paying Surveys as well as Focus Groups. Just don't be quick on actually filling out the Survey, as you may not be paid for rushing through. I recommend you have something else to do at the same time as the Survey. Several Survey takers have been kicked from popular Survey companies for rushing even though they weren't. Find your comfort zone and your own distraction that keeps you in pace with the time and length of the Survey fill them in though in a thoughtful, truthful manner.

10. If you honestly don't know the answer to the Survey question or Focus Group question, guess!

11. Read the Survey emails slowly, oftentimes there are hints that the paying Survey you are about to take could lead to a Product Test or Focus Group. And the same applies to Focus Group emails and Product Testing emails.

12. Go to http://www.google.com and look things up if you don't know what they are asking during the paying Survey or Focus Group.

13. Keep an open mind. Doing so will allow you to be in Focus Groups. As they don't want people who are dead set on never trying anything new.

14. Any that allows referrals, get them. It will help you earn more, as well as show the program owners that you support their program. This could get you even more opportunities.

15. Get a PayPal account so you can get paid.

16. Check your e-mail often! Paying Survey invitations only last a few days, and sometimes hours! No joke. The Survey sites that pay you by PayPal verse points converted, invites may only last a mere 30 minutes.

17. Don't use the "forward" and "back" buttons on your web browser during the Survey - this may interfere with the paying Survey!

18. DO NOT USE THE WORD Surveys in your email address. Survey panels have been known to place users on a blacklist for being professional surveyists.

19. READ THE SMALL PRINT - Whenever you decide to use almost any online service, the first thing you get asked for is your email address. This is normally quickly followed by a set of checkboxes: "Yes! Sign me up for our free weekly money-making newsletter! ... Yes! Please include me in your best products and services mailing list! ...". etc etc. Worst of all, these boxes are of course all checked by default, relying on the fact that many people send in the form without reading all the small black print and deselecting these Special Offers box-by-box.

20. If you are going to lie on your profile, be sure you keep track of what you lie about, such as race, kids, etc. If you are caught you could end up getting a lawsuit filed against you for fraud.

21. Take your time filling in the Surveys, as they do fraud checks. If you zoom through, you will not be paid, and they will not tell you this is why. Also if you mark your profile as having no kids and all of a sudden you have five, they will know you are cheating and not pay you. The same thing applies to pets.

22. Be sure to read the "Getting Started Section" if you haven't already located here and the Survey Q & A located here

23. Don't ignore Survey panels simply because all they offer is sweepstakes. Survey panels are bought, traded and sold often! You may have joined one that stated all they did was sweepstakes but over time will change due to changing hands.

24. When you get a "Profiler Survey" or are told to "update your profile" be prepared to be kicked from that Survey panel. Log in and take screenshots of funds due to you for future contact. It's better safe than sorry. You should always keep track of your earnings. I personally refuse to do updates when requested and my excuse is I don't want to be a part of whatever they are "offering" to update it, IE sweepstakes etc. Which is true I do not. I also do not want to be a part of their game of kicking me for no reason.

25. Don't use the same email address with sister Survey sites. Survey companies such as SSI, Toluna, Vision Critical own a ton of panels. General practice is if you rush doing Surveys from one of their companies they will close your accounts at their sister sites. Please keep that in mind. Better safe than sorry. I find it good practice to set up multi emails to forward to another box just for these purposes. I also don't see this as a cheat tip or helping cheaters. It's simple facts from my HONEST dealings with market research.

26. If you are going to apply for #focusgroups you MUST answer your phone! So many complain about not answering their phone for numbers they don't know or private numbers then miss out on Focus Groups. If you don't want to answer your phone, don't apply for Focus Groups. Not all Focus Group companies have their name on their caller ID. Often they read private or State calls. While I understand not wanting to answer these calls, if you want the income after applying you GOT to answer your phone

27. There are scams going around whereby a fake company sends you a check (cheque in the UK) and asks you to deposit it. They ask you to send the rest to someone else at a Western Union or similar type companies. This is a fraudulent scam and should be reported ASAP. No real work at home jobs have nothing to do with this sort of thing. They can appear very legit and even a well-known company you may have worked in the past. You should inform that company about the issue as well. You are never mailed a check before you start any job via online or off. You are also never texted or mailed from a company you didn't sign up for. If someone texts you and you do not know them, don't reply. Doing so can alert them the number is active and the scam texts will not stop. To report such things, there are many companies listed here: http://www.annikaswfh.com/aboutblacklist If you hear of a friend or family member dealing with the same thing, please send them that page to help aid in reporting.

28. Be sure to use the search. It's refreshed every Monday. If you don't see something added it may be in a couple weeks. As we research each company we add. Unlike most sites that just throw up links for people to join, we like to make sure they are legit.

29. Not all Survey companies send out Surveys, you must log into the company website. If you aren't going to log in, don't bother signing up. You are just wasting your time.

30. When a Survey company calls me out of the blue to ask for my opinion, I always ask how much they are going to pay me. 100% of the time they say nothing. I tell them to remove me from their list. And inform them I am PAID for my time just like any other PAID Survey or job. Do not let Survey companies abuse and use you! Your time is worth being paid for. Let some other sucker do their free Surveys. Eventually enough people will clue in and they won't be doing FREE Surveys anymore. They will be forced to pay people for their time. Work together, spread the word!

31. We recommend getting a Google Voice number to protect your main number being breached either by a hack or a security issue with any given company you join.

32. With Gmail, you have unlimited email addresses, simply add a + to your email address and then whatever you want. Example emailaddress+anything@gmail.com This can help sort your incoming emails as needed.

33. Survey sites are bought and sold often without warning. So payments can change to. Be sure to log in at least every 6 months to your account to see what's changed.

34. Do not use VPN's, VPS, Proxies, or Emulators. Sometimes virus software, security packages, like firewalls automatically install one. You need to know if this is the case so you can disable it.

       
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