MDX Research

5 Ways to Avoid Paid Survey Scams

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This is a guest post from our friends over at HowMuchIsIt.com. Enjoy the post!

Nowadays, a lot of people have maximized the use of the internet in order to earn money. Some websites sell products and services. Others offer several internet marketing ideas in order to help both online and offline businesses to succeed. However, there are also websites claiming to pay outrageously big salaries in exchange for a very easy task but only to find everything was just part of a scam. One example of this is an online paid survey scam. Please note that not all websites offering paid survey are scams. But, you have to be very keen in figuring out if a certain website is legitimate. Otherwise, you run the risk of working for a website that has no intent of paying your hard work. In order to avoid such thing from happening, check out the following tips:

Find out if their “contact us” page is valid.

Many people became victims of paid survey scams because they immediately jump into starting the job without checking first the validity or authenticity of the contact page. But, after all the sleepless nights and the hard work of taking those surveys, that is the only time that they try to check the “contact us” page only to find out that they will never be paid because there is no one to contact for the processing of the payment.

Be wary about paid survey websites offering to pay hefty amount of money.

If they claim to pay too much for too little work, then you should be careful. Do not allow yourself to fall into their beguiling marketing talk trying to make the impossible sound too possible. If it is too good to be true, then it could never be a reality at all.

Check the forums that talk about scam sites.

Search the internet for websites that talk about different scam sites and see if that paid survey website is there. Make an effort to join the forum discussion and try to ask the people in there if they know something about that particular paid survey website. If one or two people would say something negative about it, better be careful.

Read the company profile.

One way to figure out if the website is not just a fly-by-night site is to read their profile. A valid company profile would consist of not just one paragraph or one sentence. You should also find there the picture as well as the names of the founders. Then try to Google the names of these people and see if they truly exist in such paid survey world.

Do not ignore your instinct.

Most of the time your instinct will be the one to tell you first if the website is valid or not. As you read the website from page to page, what do you feel? If you are skeptical about all of it in the beginning, then better not take the risk. There are thousands of other ways to earn in the internet so, never allow anybody else the victory of making you believe it is true.

This was a guest post written by Hannah. She runs HowMuchIsIt, a website that helps you answer questions such as, “How much does a new pool table cost?”

4 Commonly Held Misconceptions About Paid Surveys

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This is a guest post from one of our regular readers. Hope you enjoy the post!

Manufacturers must get feedback from consumers of their products. If not it would have a negative impact on sales. Market research and consumer feedback is essential to the success of any product.

1. The Questions Don’t Apply To Me

The number one complaint from persons who have signed up to take surveys is that the questions don’t apply to them. All online survey companies ask the survey taker to answer specific questions and give pertinent information as to their likes and interests. If the survey takers profile indicates they have knowledge or have worked in banking and finance then they can expect to receive surveys along those lines.

2. I Got What I Paid For

Getting what you pay for should not apply to being paid for completing surveys. As with any other business you should never pay to be allowed to work. Imagine walking into a fast food restaurant or a retail store and stating that you will pay them a monthly fee if they will let you work. There are online survey companies that require sign up fees and monthly membership dues. These should be avoided.

3. Surveys Are Only Done Online and By Phone

Market research must be performed to maintain sufficient interest in the manufacturers’ product. There may be two almost identical items on a store shelf. If one of them is selling and the other is not the manufacturer will want to find out why it doesn’t sell. These questions can be asked on a survey to purchasers of either product.

It may be an online questionnaire or the survey could be carried out by an independent contractor, or a merchandiser in the store.

Manufacturers must utilize any and all resources to remain competitive.

4. Assuming All Survey Companies Want Something for Nothing

There are several legitimate companies online and otherwise that are happy to pay substantial fees to someone who can provide the information they need. The survey may be a simple comparison of certain foods and other purchases. It may involve getting opinions from consumers on new products or new product names. The most reputable survey companies offer choices in receiving payments for survey work. Either cash or reward points that can be turned into cash may be offered. Once a certain amount of reward points has accumulated they can be exchanged for cash, gift cards or store credits.

Brendan Mitchell is a blogger who relies on the Australian business directory HirePulse for all his marketing needs from hiring people to help survey his customers to finding the right advertising agency.

What is TRUSTe & Why Do They Endorse Some Paid Survey Companies?

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truste logoA lot of our site visitors email us and ask us about TRUSTe. Most of their questions revolve around what are they and why do they endorse some of the paid survey companies out there.

So first, what is TRUSTe?

TRUSTe is the leading provider of online privacy solutions. They have a robust suite of privacy services that help businesses, big and small, build trust with their visitors and help them create and increase engagement across all of their online channels. This includes their websites, mobile applications, their advertising and marketing efforts, etc.

TRUSTe’s mission is simple… “Trust in Privacy”. They review and hold companies (not just paid survey companies) accountable regarding the collection and use of personal data and information. When they provide a business their seal, this is a sign of responsible privacy protection practices and this seal is trusted by millions of consumers all across the world.

Second, why does TRUSTe endorse some paid survey companies?

I think the answer to the first question pretty much answers this second question. When legitimate paid survey companies engage in responsible privacy protection practices, they are endorsed by TRUSTe and this is an organization that you can trust to not only protect your privacy, but to do business with.

I hope that this has answered your questions about TRUSTe. If you have any others, please feel free to contact us.

Why Are Paid Surveys Conducted?

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One of the mor common questions that are asked by the visitors or MDXResearch.com is, why are paid surveys conducted? To most, it just doesn’t make sense that someone or some company would be willing to pay a person for completing a survey.

The answer to this is quite simple, paid surveys are conducted because businesses (big and small), government agencies, public bodies, and other types of organizations are interested in the views and opinions of average people like you and me who already use their products or services or who might be interested in using their products or services.

By conducting survey research (paid surveys), they are able to know more about what their customers think about their product or service offering and from there, they are better able to tweak it to better fulfill their wants and needs.

What it comes down to is that businesses want to make MORE money and the way they do that is to find out what their current and potential customers want in a product or service and tweak their current offering or add to it so that they can offer something that more people will buy.

This is why paid surveys are offered and why companies are willing to pay you for participating in this research. If you put simple math to it, if they pay you $10 for taking a survey and they can get you to buy a product or service from them for more than $10, that is a win. So the next time someone tells you that paid surveys aren’t legit or are a scam, now you know the truth and can point them in the right direction.

How To Use Autofill Forms For Quick & Easy Paid Survey Registration [Video]

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Hey everyone… I got to thinking the other night that there has to be a much faster way to register with so many different paid survey companies.

I mean the ultimate goal of taking paid surveys is to earn cash… that’s it! And in order to do that, you have to sign up for dozens of paid survey companies and take surveys with each one. The daunting part is the registration forms for each site and I think I’ve come up with a great solution. Please watch the video below and if you have any questions, please leave them in the comments section below.

Video Summary

I wanted to introduce you to something called “autofill forms”. It is an addon (plugin) that you can add to the firefox web browser that will let you save your information and with the click of a button load that information into a form.

To get started you need to download the addon and you can do it here.

Once installed you will want to click on the pencil in your navigation area and start filling out the form section. You will want to enter as much information as you can including your name, email address, mailing address, and phone number.

After you do this you will want to visit the paid survey company and get started. Once you get to the registration form, you will want to click on the pencil and it will start autofilling information for you. If it doesn’t know what piece of information to fill in, it will drop down a box that you can choose the data from.

Depending on how many survey sites you sign up with, this can save you anywhere from a few minutes to an hour or so. After you zip through the registrations, all you need to do is confirm them and you are off and running.

What’s The Difference Between A Paid Survey Company & Paid Survey Directory

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Many of our site visitors have the same question… what is the difference between a paid survey company and a paid survey directory. Let’s start with what is a paid survey company.

Paid Survey Companies

Paid survey companies are the actual marketing research firms that small and large businesses pay to gather data for them. These companies are in business for only two reasons, first, to build online surveys to administer to their members and two, to collect the data & analyze the results. They then take the data and their findings and turn them over to the companies looking to create or revise a product. These are companies like Opinion Outpost, Lightspeed Research, MySurvey.com, and Global Test Market.

Paid Survey Directories

Paid survey directories are websites like ours which produce a list of paid survey companies to sign up with. The legitimate paid survey directories are those that never charge money for their lists such as sites like Survey Scout. Yes, site like Survey Scout will produce a list very similar to ours, but they charge for something that is freely accessible to the general public, which in our opinion, is dishonest and downright fraudulent.

Other paid survey directories like ours which are legitimate resources for finding paid survey companies to sign up with are as follows:

GetPaidSurveys.com

YellowSurveys.com (Watch out… their site looks like it was built in the early ninety’s)

SurveyHead.com

SurveyClub.com

I hope this has been a helpful little post about the difference between paid survey companies and paid survey directories. If you have any questions about either, please do leave a comment below.

 

End of An Era

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As many of you know, late last night we migrated SurveyInferno.com over to MDXResearch.com. We received many emails about the switch, mostly our members wondering why we decided to make the change.

There were many reasons we decided to make the change, but the biggest is the fact that the name Survey Inferno meant nothing to us. MDX Research is what we do. We help people find the highest paying survey companies online and then help them leverage their memberships to earn as much money as possible. This name is something we can really get behind.

It will probably take us some time to get everything rebranded, the site, our social profiles and channels, etc. But we will continue to be the exact same organization and have the exact same goals as when we were Survey Inferno.

So what do you think? Do you like the name? If so, share with us in the comments below!

The Guide to Taking Paid Surveys – Tip #1 [Recap]

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Here at MDX Research, we are working on a five part video series walking people through how to make money online with paid surveys. Here is the first video of the series. If you don’t want to watch it, you can read the transcription below.

 

If you are like most people, you are probably asking yourself why you aren’t making as much money as you would like to be making with paid surveys. In fact, you are probably wanting to put your fist through your computer screen right now.

The truth is, you probably aren’t making as much as you would like to because you aren’t receiving as many surveys as you would like to. This probably is probably two fold:

  1. You aren’t taking and completing all of the surveys
  2. The surveys aren’t hitting your inbox… they are hitting your spam filter

Both of these are serious problems because if you aren’t completing all of the surveys each of the paid survey companies are sending you, they are going to slowly stop sending them to you because you are wasting their resources and their time. It is as simple as that.

What you need to be doing is as follows:

  1. Answer every single paid survey sent to you. This means you have to hit the complete button and get to a thank you page. If not, your survey will not be recorded and will be considered “ignored”.
  2. Check your spam filter and your email account on a regular basis. You don’t want the surveys to expire on you while you are out and about doing your thing.

If you really want to make money online, you absolutely need to take this seriously. If you take it seriously, the paid survey companies will take it seriously and they will reward you with a plethora of opportunites.

If you have any questions or comments, please and or share them below.

Why MySurvey.com Ranks At the Top of My Survey Taking List

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my survey paid surveysMySurvey is one of the survey sites that are actually legit. There are so many survey scams out there but this one is official. They never ask you for your credit card information nor do they have you pay a fee to use their services. However, one thing that you should know from the beginning is you are not going to become rich off of MySurvey but you will have a chance to earn some extra cash here and there or claim some great items.

How Does MySurvey Work?

MySurvey is a survey website that is free to join. Upon joining you will fill out a profile which will allow the system to help generate surveys that you will qualify for. Also, from time to time you will find that you have lifestyle surveys available as well that will help the system determine which surveys will be a good match for you.

How Many Surveys Can I Expect To Take?

The amount of paid surveys you take depends on how active you are on the website, your profile, and your responses to the lifestyle surveys. Personally, I usually log in once a week to take surveys and I have about 10 or say waiting for me to complete. However, not all of the surveys that show up for me to take are a good match for me so I instead of receiving points I am entered into the sweepstakes.

What Are Points and Sweepstakes?

Points are how MySurvey rewards you for taking surveys. Once you have reached a certain amount of points you can go under My Rewards and redeem them for money via PayPal, gift certificates, or other things that you see that you want or need. The Sweepstakes that MySurvey allows you to be entered into for taking certain surveys in for a chance to win $10,000.

How Long Does It Take To Receive Rewards?

After you choose your reward you will then receive it in a few weeks. From my experience when cashing out via PayPal I have the money in about 7 business days and when getting something such as a DVD I usually receive it in the mail in about 3 weeks – sometimes sooner.

Overall rating

Overall I rate MySurvey at a 10/10. This rating comes into play because out of all of the other surveys I have participated in they are the only one that I have actually received something from. Usually, the others I have tried have ridiculous payouts that you have to reach, surveys are never available, or it takes weeks for the surveys to clear.

About The Author

This guest post comes from freelance writer Victoria. She uses MySurvey as a way to escape from writing and has been dealing with them since April 2011 with no complaints.