Other good reasons to be a member of the Daily Survey Panel is that they have a $1 minimum pay out, they pay via Paypal very promptly and they have excellent customer service that responds immediately to any problems that may arise. PayPal incentives are processed with 24 to 48 hours and checks arrive within two weeks. The panel is open to residents of the USA, Canada and the UK. Although only one account per household is allowed, two or more people may join from the same household as long as they have separate computers with different IP addresses. For every friend you refer you will receive $1 for every month they are active on the panel. As long as your friend keeps participating every month (earns at least 200 points) your account will be credited $1 per month.

In addition to PayPal and check payments, you can also receive the following gift certificates:

$5.00 - Amazon.com Gift Certificate 1000
$25.00 - Restaurant.com Gift Certificate 1500
$10.00 - Olive Garden 2000
$10.00 - Starbucks 2000
$10.00 - Disney Dollars 2100
$10.00 - Home Depot 2100
$10.00 - Target Gift Certificate 2100
$10.00 - Walmart Gift Certificate 2100
$25.00 - Disney Gift Card 5200

The Daily Survey Panel has a very strict privacy policy. They do not collect any of your information for demographic purposes unless they have your permission; they do not trade, sell or share information that is registered with them; they never opt you into any mailing without your permission; and, they never require you to give them your address unless it is needed for incentive redemption or to investigate an account accused of fraud. Daily Survey Panel is a spyware-free site.

• Your Own Personal Hub - All members will have their own personal profile page on Toluna.com where they can share information.
• Enhance your personal website or blog - As a member, you will be able to easily export the topics and polls you create on Toluna directly to your own personal web site or blog.
• New reward choices - In addition to the current cash reward option, Toluna is planning to offer you more choices for point redemption. The value of rewards offered for survey participation will remain the same.

So stay tuned and for a preview check out their UK site at toluna.com.

In my opinion, Zoom Panel has the best variety of prizes and has quite a few books and DVDs that you can redeem your Zoompoints for, but most are not exactly recent blockbusters. I have recently rejoined, but I have yet to earn enough points to redeem for prizes.

I joined e-Rewards on October 26, 2008 and quickly earned $110.70. When I went to redeem my e-Dollars I found that the prizes were not that great. First I redeemed $25 for two previously viewed DVDs from Blockbuster, but the rules do not allow me to do that again for six months (July 10). Then I redeemed another $15 in Borders Dollars for a couple of overpriced DVDs, but I am not allowed to do that again until the beginning of the next calendar year. Next, I subscribed to Blender, one of their 32 magazine offerings (five in Spanish only), for $10. I still have $60.70 left with $45.53 expiring on February 1, 2010, but the only prizes left are magazines (Maxim, Golf Digest, Fast Company, Smithsonian, Forbes, Wall Street Journal, Wine Spectator) and others that I am even less interested in, such as frequent flyer miles and $10, $25 or $50 off purchases at Levengers, Macy’s, Neiman-Marcus, Zales, FTD, ProFlowers and Omaha Steaks, but you must purchase $50 to get $10 off, $75 to get $25 off and $125 to get $50 off.
If it took me six months to earn enough points for a Polling Point tote bag (17500 points), then how long will it take you to earn these other prizes: Polling Point T-shirt (20,000 points), Polling Point sweatshirt (30,000 points), webcam (40,000 points), iPod Shuffle (80,000 points), $100 cash (100,000 points)? Recently, Polling Point added movie tickets from Regal, AMC, or Cinemark (30,000 points) and a $25 Gift Certificate from restaurants.com (25,000) to sweeten their prize pot. Most of these prizes really just clever ways to advertise their own survey site.
Harris Polls is another site that takes forever to redeem prizes and their ‘portfolio’ of prizes is not very enticing. I had been a member for one year and was only able to cash out once for a DVD that I could have bought brand new for $8. They do not send nearly enough surveys, the surveys they do send are not worth very many points and their selection of prizes is poor. They constantly send you emails to attempt to get you to ‘trade in your points for sweepstakes entries’ and they occasionally offer a $5 Amazon gift certificate to attract new members or keep old members hanging on.

OpinionSquare (owned by TRMG, Inc. along with Permission Research) requires that you install software on your computer, which is one thing I prefer not to do. Their list of prizes is very limited, but includes some interesting video games. Some other prize sites that you may want to try are: Opinion Central, Opinion Place, Opinion World Business and Reward TV (where you ‘bid’ on prizes against other members).

The other gift certificate sites on my list of Top 30 best paying survey sites are less significant to my overall plan, but I include them because they do pay in Amazon gift certificates, which I often redeem for DVDs or CDs that can easily be resold after viewing or listening. ClearVoice ($37.20 since 2008-02-18 has been very slow lately sending surveys and crediting me for surveys that I have taken, but they are still ranked #23 out of 30 for me. Keynote ($20 since 2008-03-01) has stopped sending me surveys entirely, but I occasionally take surveys from them through other sites. Datatelligence ($20 since 2008-03-01) is another site that I cannot recommend very highly; however, I still receive the occasional survey from them. Their customer service is close to non-existent if you fail to be credited for a completed survey, as I have on several occasions.

BuzzSponge ($20 since 2008-03-01) is a very innovative and fun survey site that pays in Amazon gift certificates. Although I haven’t earned much from this site, its online community is so much fun to be a part of that I continue to participate sporadically. Some survey sites, like Survey Exchange, offer Reward Choice certificates, which allow you to redeem for rewards from various merchants, offline and online, but they also offer you the option of redeeming your points for Amazon gift certificates. A few other legitimate survey sites that pay exclusively in Amazon gift certificates that you may want to try are: TestSpin (rumored to be considering offering a PayPal option), Baker Street Solutions ($12.50 since 2008-03-01) and My Business Insight.

Finally, I would like to point out that I have also been a member of several online communities, often through CommuniSpace, that pay in Amazon gift certificates. The best example was the Capitol One forum that I joined through SurveySpot, which not only paid me a $10 Amazon gift certificate every month from May through December 2008 sent via an email promotional code, but which also awarded me an Apple Macbook and Apple iPod Touch when I won their year-end contest.

Although not rated in my top ten, HCD ($87.65 since 2008-02-07) is still a very reliable, hassle-free site that pays in points that are worth 1 cent each. Checks arrive in about two to four weeks; although, I have currently been waiting about two months for my last check to arrive. The Daily Survey Panel ($85.75 since 2008-06-08) is another great point site if you don’t mind doing surveys every morning that only pay $0.55 to $0.60 each and occasionally $1.00 or more. The points are worth $0.05 each, but you will pay a $0.45 fee for every $5 that you redeem via PayPal if you have a Premiere or Business paypal account, which is why I now request checks that arrive in two to four weeks. MySurvey.com ($70.00 rec’d since 2008-02-02) isn’t my biggest earner, but the products they send for testing more than make up for it. YourTwoCents ($63 since 2008-03-01) is a fairly good survey site that now pays in points, but their points are the least valuable of them all: 30,000 points for $10!

The rest of the survey sites that pay in points don’t earn me as much. The points are worth less and it is more difficult to remember the value of their point systems; however, here are a few that you may want to check out: Epoll ($45.00 since 2008-02-19), LightSpeed ($40.00 since 2008-04-02) and Global Opinion Panel (Synovate) ($40.00 since 2008-05-02 plus LOTS of free products). Viewpoint ($34.67 since 2009-01-21) is the exception since I just joined them recently and the points are worth 3.75 cents each.

Here is a summary of the value of the points from the best point sites.

• Daily Survey Panel 1000 points = $5 PayPal (0.5 cent each)
• Epoll 3500 points = $5 PayPal (0.14 cents each)
• Global Opinion Panel 5000 Reward points = $5 PayPal (0.1 cent each)
• GlobalTestMarket 1000 Market points = $50 check (5 cents each)
• HCD 1000 points = $10 check (1 cent each)
• Lightspeed 575 Lightspeed points = $5 PayPal (0.87 cents each)
• MySurvey.com 1000 Reward points = $10 check (1 cent each)
• Opinion Outpost 50 Opinion points = $5 check (10 cents each)
• Viewpoint 375 Forum points = $10 check (3.75 cents each)
• YourTwoCents 30,000 points = $10 check (0.033 cent each)

The number one survey site that pays in cash, in my opinion, is Survey Spot ($370.80 earned, $351.80 received since 2008-01-30) because they not only pay in cash, but they pay me the most per month on average ($24.72) of any other site. They currently only pay by checks, but they recently announced that they would begin to implement PayPal, making them perfect in nearly every way. This brings us to point number one: survey sites that pay via PayPal as opposed to checks are preferred as your payments are generally received much quicker. There are exceptions, such as Surveyhead ($25 since 2009-02-05), another fairly good paying survey site that pays in cash via PayPal, but whose payments often do not arrive in your PayPal account for two weeks or longer after they have been requested. Greenfield Online ($104.00 since 2008-02-13) is another survey site that now pays via PayPal and though I have not earned nearly as much with them over the past eight months as I did during the first six months, they do send out plenty of surveys, including lucrative Invoke Interactives that pay between $25 and $35 usually and sometimes as much as $100 or more. Another very solid survey site that pays in cash via PayPal is Pinecone Research ($66 since 2008-04-03). Their $3 survey payments via PayPal are almost instantaneous once their surveys have closed; although, many people complain that they do not send out enough surveys. Remember: everyone wants more frequent, higher paying surveys, but if a site is a consistent, hassle-free earner that provides you with regular, shorter, well-constructed surveys and no surprises regarding payments, that is a very good site to include in your portfolio.

Next we will consider survey sites that pay in cash via checks. Hopefully, payment by checks will soon be a thing of the past, as checks can sometimes take as long as two months to arrive. Such is not the case with American Consumer Opinion panel ($77 since 2008-03-01), as their checks arrive promptly after they are requested and, as with Pinecone Research, they are a very legitimate, professionally run survey site that should be included in everyone’s survey portfolio. Although they may not earn you the most money, ACOP is a hassle-free survey site that you will never waste time haggling over payments with. The same cannot be said of BuzzBack ($27 since 2008-03-01), who have promised that improvements are on the way, but who have also made me wait over eight months for a $3 survey check. SurveySavvy is much better in the time they take to deliver checks; however, the problem with this site is waiting for completed surveys to clear, which usually takes six weeks. Fortunately, their customer service is excellent and most disputes are cleared up quickly. Netverdix ($64), Mindfield Online ($62), Socratic Forum ($60), Elite Opinion ($30 since 2009-03-11) are a few other sites that pay by check that you should add to your survey portfolio.

Finally, I just want to note that I also am a member of several sites that are hybrid survey/trial offer sites, which are also very good earners and pay in cash incentives, but are not suitable topics for this particular blog for various reasons. The most well-known of these sites are InboxDollars and SendEarnings, which are identical for all practical purposes. It’s easy to get caught up in trial offer sites and not cancel offers in a timely fashion so it’s probably best for most people to avoid these sites.

Guest Author LapisLee’s Bio

My name is LapisLee and I have been taking paid online surveys for the past 15 months. This series of articles, based on my own experience is to help newcomers and more experienced survey takers improve their earnings, while minimizing the time spent in front of the computer. I started keeping records of my paid online surveys on January 31, 2008. I spend an average of one to three hours per day taking surveys. I have earned $2570.74 in 15 months from 32 survey sites, which is $171.38 per month. My actual receipts are $2422.79, which is $161.52 per month. The average survey site earned $5.36 per month, but that does not take into account how recently I have joined some sites, so I predict that this number will go up dramatically. I also won a $1200 Apple MacBook and $200 Apple iPod Touch from being a member of an online forum. The number of products, such as shampoo, conditioner, body wash, deodorant, toothpaste, chewing gum, mints, pasta sauce, salty snacks, etc. are far too numerous to mention; however, they are a also a large part of why taking paid online surveys is lucrative for me.

In addition to products and monetary incentives, I also enjoy being the first to view new movie trailers, television shows, commercials and products. Expressing my opinion and influencing new product concepts is also another enticing part of taking surveys. I always try my best to give honest, thoughtful opinions because not only does this preserve my own integrity, but survey companies often recognize and reward the respondents who give the most in-depth, insightful and honest answers. They will also disqualify those whose answers are not consistent over time.

10 Good Tips for Taking Paid Online Surveys

Everyone wants to know which surveys pay, but there are a few other things that you need to know before you even sign up for your first paid survey site. Here are ten tips, tricks and techniques that I have learned and I will add others as they occur to me. I am sure other members will add their own as well.

1. Use a brand new email address that is dedicated solely to surveys, because you will want to ensure that you have a dedicated email account to store and organize your survey invitations. This ensures that you do not get email invitations mixed up with your personal email, and it makes it easier to track individual survey panel invites. A good one to use is Gmail, because it has color-coded labels for labeling different surveys from different panels. You can also use Hotmail.com, Yahoo.com, AOL.com, etc.
2. NEVER pay for a list of paid online surveys because we will provide that list to you freely. You do not need to pay anyone for anything. All you will need is a list of 20-30 good legitimate paid online surveys. You also do not need to sign up for 100-200 surveys. A basic list of 10 legitimate survey sites is enough to get anyone started and 30 survey sites is enough to make over $200 per month within six months time.
3. Get Roboform in order to save all of your passwords and personal information. Roboform will fill out online forms at the click of a button saving you time and effort. In addition, it can also be used to safely store passwords and enter those at a click of a button as well so you’ll never forget a password again. Roboform is 100% free for the shareware version. You can download it here: Roboform
4. Get a PayPal account so you can get paid FAST. Checks often take six to eight weeks to arrive and most of the larger legitimate survey sites are now implementing PayPal into their payment systems.
5. AVOID all Get Paid to Try (GPT) offer sites that tell you to sign up for Silver, Gold and Platinum offers. These never lead to legitimate paid survey sites.
6. NEVER give out your Social Security number or credit card information. Legitimate survey companies will not ask for either of these numbers except for tax purposes if you earn more than $600 with them during the course of the tax year, in which case you will receive an IRS W-2 form from the company at the end of the year.
7. ONLY give out your cell phone number for text-based surveys that you opt-in to; otherwise, I would avoid it.
8. When you complete a paid survey, ALWAYS save the email invitation and keep an accurate record of every survey that you complete, particularly surveys of $5 and above. If there is a discrepancy and you do not receive credit for a survey it is very important that you have the survey number to reference in order to collect your incentive. Also, save the original email invitation for each survey company that has the link to the home site and the support email, as well as create a link in your browser favorites for quick access. Browser links are particularly important for daily survey panels that you will access first thing every morning after completing higher paying surveys from your email inbox.
9. ALWAYS fill in all of the profiles when you sign up for each paid survey site. This will insure that you receive the maximum number of surveys that you qualify for and allow the survey company to target you more accurately so you disqualify less often. Also keep them updated.
10. Check your email FREQUENTLY as the highest paying survey invitations and, especially the lucrative panel forums, often fill up within a few hours or even sooner of the email invitation arriving in your inbox.

Also, just in case you haven’t seen the announcement on the Member’s Area profile page, be sure to Complete or update your basic and houshold profile surveys to be automatically entered in a sweepstakes for a chance to win. GlobalTestMarket is giving away a total of $5000 USD in cash and prizes. However, this offer ends on May 30th, 2009, so be sure to do it soon!

Surveyhead is an online survey panel is a product of the United Sample Network,  a company that provides online sample services to the market research community. United Sample was founded in March, 2008 by Matt Dusig and Gregg Lavin, who were previously the Co-founders of goZing.com.  They owned and operated goZing from 1999 until 2005, when they sold goZing for $30 million in cash to a public competitor. They then founded UnitedSample in March 2008.

I recently spoke to a representative of United Sample about some of the issues our visitors were having, and here is what he had to say about his panel, and its efforts to improve the panel.

“United Sample recently took on funding from a top tier Venture Capital firm.  They are using the funds to better target surveys as well as to increase headcount.  The sales team In particular is growing quickly which means a much greater number of unique surveys and other market research projects”

“United Sample recently made some key hires to their support / customer service team.  The result will be faster payments and conflict resolution for all survey takers.  Our goal is to respond faster than any other market research firm in the near future, we’re putting the team in place to accomplish that goal.  Growth has been tough to keep up with though so continued patience is appreciated for a bit longer”

Having joined the panel myself I do know that Surveyhead is a little rough around the edges, but I have seen some improvements with the panel recently. Plus, they have made every effort to update me with their latest news and help our readers that have requested help from us.

Please share your comments below if you are a member, and if you wish to join here is the link to Register with Surveyhead.