by Marianne Pelletier

Created on: December 03, 2010   Last Updated: December 04, 2010

There are a lot of traps that survey panels put into their surveys to keep you trying without having to reward you much. The biggest trick is that you're invited to do about 3 surveys that are for a sweepstakes entry only vs. one survey that involves points or cash.The survey panels that I participate on that does this is Survey Savvy and Global Test Market.

Another brand of survey panel is the one that has you gather rewards counted in currency, and then offers only magazine subscriptions, like BigSpot, or gift cards, like eRewards. You may find out that you are trying to qualify for surveys all these months, only to find out that you can cash in your meager rewards only for a subscription to Conde Nast magazine.

Survey panels that I'm on which send cash are Survey Savvy (minimum $10 and it took me a few years), mysurvey.com (minimum 1150 points and it took me a couple years), and Mindfield Online ($5 minimum and it took me a year; they pay through PayPal).GlobalTestMarket requires gathering 1,000 points but then sends $50 when they are cashed in.

e-Rewards offers more than just magazine subscriptions, but it's more like a credit card reward program than paying cash. So, one trades in, say, $25 for hotel points. There's much less flexibility that way.

The additional frustration with finding a survey site that pays is finding one that will invite you to do surveys that you will qualify for. I make about 5 survey attempts to get onto one survey. The panels that ask me to take several persona information surveys tend to do a little better, but none of the panels I participate on invite me to take surveys where I qualify (and get full credit) even every other time.

When you are looking for a survey panel, then, read carefully what their reward system is, how it pays, and what the cash out threshold is. You may find that you will spend over a year taking survey after survey to qualify for a few, and then find out that your rewards is a magazine subscription. Try out a survey panel for a month or two and keep a count of what percentage of your invites turn into credited surveys (only eRewards gives me partial credit for surveys that I don't qualify for). Mindfield Online is the only survey panel I work with that tracks my success rate.

When you find a comfortable range, keep taking surveys. You will not get rich doing this, but you may be able to while away idle hours earning a few pennies per hour.

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