Helpful tips from a ‘survey addict’

PMP veteran and self-confessed survey addict John AKA Attila the Budgie has written a helpful guide to making money from surveys, when you’re not checking your postcode here, of course. Hope you find it helpful. Thanks John! Over to you*

I’m slightly addicted to surveys. I use the income from surveys outside PMP as ‘play money’, treating my wife and myself to little indulgences, along with supporting charities more generously than I might otherwise do if the cash was coming from my pension alone.

If any of you out there in PMPland are interested, here’s a guide to the ones I use or have used in the past, and my thoughts about them. Please note that my experience won’t necessarily be the same as yours – as has been said on here so many times, demographic requirements vary widely.

Pinecone Research – Typically £3/survey – Infrequent, well-constructed, usually product assessment, very rarely screen out, long surveys, occasional opportunity to test product samples and earn a bonus.

YouGov – Typically 50p/15min survey – Fairly frequent, very well-constructed, rarely (if ever) screen out, interesting variety of subject matter.

Liquid Opinions – Typically 20p/survey – Frequent short surveys, which quickly screen you out if ineligible. Well constructed.

New Vista – Typically 50p to £1.50/survey – Quite frequent and well-constructed. I suspect I no longer fit their typical age demographic, as I’m screened out more often than not nowadays.

Populus – Typically £1-£4/survey – Moderately frequent, very well constructed, interesting variety and rarely screen out.

Ipsos I-say – Typically 41p-£1.24 – Moderately frequent, but (surprising as they’re part of one of the world’s biggest survey companies) the programming/logic can sometimes be a little flaky. They don’t appear to validate against candidate profiles beforehand, so you can spend some time on a survey only to be screened out, apparently on the basis of data they already hold. Interesting variety, nonetheless.

Prolific – Reward varies – Moderately frequent, varied and interesting academic surveys. Really enjoy these (thanks to a fellow PMP forumite for their recommendation).

E-Rewards – Reasonably generous rewards in Nectar points – frequent, well-constructed, but often screen out, sometimes a long way into a survey.

I gave up on: Lifepoints, Opinion Bar, My Paid Opinion, Valued Opinions and Crowdology, as I experienced frequent issues, my views regarding which would definitely fall foul of the ‘defamation’ rule!

I would again emphasise that this is only my personal experience; others may have more success with the companies I’ve abandoned.

If anyone can recommend companies not on my list, I’d be interested to hear about them.

* This post contains links that we earn commission from if you sign up