Brett Helling is the founder of Gigworker.com. He has been a rideshare driver since early 2012, having completed hundreds of trips for companies including Uber, Lyft, and Postmates.
Since that time, he has expanded his knowledge into the Gigworker site, as well as writing the book Gigworker: Independent Work and the State of the Gig Economy Paperback, now available on Amazon.
Founder, Gigworker.com
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Survey sites are becoming one of the most popular ways to earn a modest side income online as they’re easy to use, can be completed from almost anywhere on your smartphone, and have a low barrier to entry!
In this article, we take a look at some of the best options out there to see what potential survey takers can expect from each of them in terms of topics, compensation, and payment methods. Let’s jump right in!
On some sites, this compensation comes in the form of a payment to your bank account or cash app account, while on others it comes in the form of gift cards or free items.
So, why would somebody pay you to take surveys?
The information you provide is worth money to the companies and businesses who ultimately commission the surveys (and to be honest, they can be a bit boring to take!).
As such, survey sites are willing to pay money so people part with that valuable information.
Swagbucks is free to join and offers cash rewards, charity donations, and personalized gift cards for survey participants.
Some surveys are single-question polls, while others are large surveys used for market research. Surveys can be completed in a web browser or through the Android or iOS app.
In addition to surveys, users can receive rewards for trying new games, TV shows and apps, gambling, and scanning receipts.
Earnings
Swagbucks claims that most users can earn between one and five dollars on an average day, with some users earning up to a couple of thousand in one year.
Survey Junkie users can take surveys and earn points that they can exchange for PayPal deposits or electronic gift cards, just as they can on SwagBucks.
In fact, both platforms are owned by the same company, Prodege, so it would be a little weird if one were obviously far better than the other!
Like Swagbucks, Survey Junkie has a high Trustpilot score of 4.2, indicating users generally trust the service and review it positively
Part of Prodege’s affiliate program.
Cons
Some recent complaints suggest the Survey Junkie app sometimes glitches, causing frustrated users to lose their progress on surveys and consequently miss out on their rewards.
Like SwagBucks and Survey Junkie, InboxDollars is owned by Prodege. It is a very similar service with a similar reputation and most of the same basic features.
The main appeal of InboxDollars is that it’s still a separate service from SwagBucks and SurveyJunkie, meaning you can make independent accounts for all these platforms and expect to get even more decent quality surveys with similar payouts!
Earnings
While InboxDollars claims you can earn up to $25 from one survey, a typical survey takes between 10 and 30 minutes to complete – typically paying between $0.50 and $5.
LifePoints rewards come in the form of PayPal payouts and vouchers for some of the most popular food and retail outlets in the US. Surveys typically take between 10 and 20 minutes to complete.
In addition to the usual rewards, LifePoints has giveaways for bonus points and prizes – and the prizes can be worth a lot!
Earnings
Supposedly, a typical user can expect to make between $25 and $100 in PayPal deposits or rewards, while those who accept all survey invites can expect to make $1500 in rewards in a year.
However, users report that after a while, they are offered fewer surveys – so you shouldn’t expect to keep this up forever.
Users can choose to opt into the YouGov Pulse service (if they’re invited) to earn extra points by allowing YouGov to monitor some aspects of their phone usage via an installed app.
While OnePoll is available in the US, it is a UK-focused company and their website is heavily marketed towards those who want to buy the data rather than those who want to give it.
This makes it difficult to know how much you can get paid without starting the process of setting up an account.
Reviewers say their paid survey app is well-designed, safe, and easy to use, and that the customer service is high quality.
However, the rewards tend to be smaller compared to other services, the surveys are time-consuming, and you have to work and earn a lot before you’re allowed to withdraw your rewards.
Earnings
Reviewers say OnePoll only pays up to $0.25 per survey, and you can’t withdraw any rewards until you’ve earned $40. That means it will take months to actually see any of those rewards!
Toluna offers a software platform to companies that automates market research for them, which helps them make decisions about their services.
Their ‘social voting platform’ is where they offer surveys that reward participants with points, and their software platform uses data from these surveys.
Toluna’s surveys are focused on opinions rather than other information about your life – so if you find yourself getting into heated debates, Toluna is a way to get paid to speak your mind!
Earnings
5,500 points is worth around $1.23, and Toluna claims that each survey pays between 15 and 50,000 points – in other words, from less than a cent up to several dollars.
Misleading about earnings. Multiple regular users have told me that they never earned anywhere near $50 from a survey.
Final Thoughts
Survey platforms don’t tend to pay much, but the tasks are generally considered easy and the rewards can be maximized by signing up to multiple platforms.
Prodege’s platforms may appeal to people who are active in online communities due to their affiliate program, and their platforms are considered trustworthy.
Those interested in particular survey topics may be especially interested in Toluna, MyPoints, and YouGove, which is the most highly rated survey platform on the list!
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