Friday, April 20, 2012

Make Money and Earn Rewards From Your Couch. Count Me In.

Photo: http://images.clipartof.com
That's right.  You can actually make yourself some money or earn rewards like gift certificates and points towards flights or hotels by sitting on your couch and staring at your computer.  How, you ask?  By taking online surveys.  Now,  don't go and quit your job because you think you can do surveys and be able to pay your rent.  That's just silly.  However, you can make a few extra bucks or get some fun stuff with very little effort.

First, I will warn you that if you haven't already taken  my advice and created an email address just for this kind of thing, please do so now.  Once you sign up for a couple survey sites, you will start getting multiple emails.  If you set up a separate email just for discount offers and surveys like this, you will be a lot less annoyed.  Promise.

Next, you need to sign up.  Here are the sites I have been using and have actually been paid or earned rewards.

1.  Daily Survey Panel:  This site offers multiple surveys per day and if you qualify for and complete the survey, you will earn points.  You then choose to either turn those points in for money deposited into your Paypal account or for gift certificates to places like Applebee's, Amazon.com or Game Stop.

The good and the bad: The good part about this site is that you will likely qualify for multiple surveys a day and quickly earn points.  Your points show up on your account in a few hours or at most a couple days (other sites can take weeks).  The down side is that you will answer the same preliminary questions over and over again each day.  That doesn't bother me, but it may bother you like it seemed to annoy the boyfriend after only two surveys.  I don't think he's used the site since.  I don't mind it because I can earn what I refer to as "Applebee's Points" while watching T.V.  It's great! In two weeks of spending about 20-30 minutes a day, I had $20 towards either Pay Pal or a gift card.  Nothing crazy, but I like a little extra money for barely any work.  I can't wait for those Applebee's nachos...

2.  Clear Voice Surveys: This site offers on average of a survey or two a week and if you qualify and complete the survey, you will earn a couple dollars in most cases.  That "money" can either be redeemed towards Amazon.com gift cards or Dining Dough (a program for eating out, duh).

The good and the bad: While you earn money faster for less surveys than Daily Survey Panel, there are less surveys to qualify for.  Also, be warned that you cannot redeem in most cases until you earn $10 and your points expire within one year, so you have to make sure you are keeping up with it.  You are also entered into a sweepstakes every time you do a survey.  I have not won anything yet, but I suppose you never know.  I'm not holding my breath.  

3.  American Consumer Opinion: I have not qualified for a survey yet on this site, and they only send about one survey every couple weeks.  So I am not able to tell you whether this site is any good, but I can tell you that it does get pretty good ratings on other websites that research and rate survey sites.  This is another one where you earn points.  I have done screener surveys and earned points, but have not qualified for any actual surveys yet.  I have a whopping 15 points.  Some of the surveys give you points and others give you prizes.  If anyone tests this out and actually qualifies for a survey, let me know how it goes.  I'm interested to see if this site is worth anyone's time.   

4.  EREWARDS: For this site, you have to be invited to join.  If you are invited, I would say to join because it can't hurt.  On this site, you get a couple surveys a week sent to you and you get partial credit whether you qualify or not.  This site does not pay out in cash, but you use your "money" to get rewards.  The rewards can be gift cards, discounts or flight/hotel points.

The good and the bad:  The erewards.com surveys have generally been shorter than most of the Daily Survey Panel surveys, which is nice.  However, you can't redeem the rewards as quickly because there are fewer options at the under $20 level.  Also, there is no option to cash out.  I'm at $16.70 in rewards after a couple weeks and am saving up to get Southwest Airlines rewards.  So for how few surveys I have done, I have a pretty good amount in rewards, I just can't redeem them for anything yet. 
Now this is just not going to happen. (photo: http://chicagoist.com)

My conclusion in all of this is that if you're interested in doing something easy while sitting at home watching tv, sign up and try out a couple surveys.  A little extra money, airline points or gift cards can't hurt.  Just remember, you're not going to supplement your income or get rich doing online surveys.  Fine by me 'cause I'm going to Applebee's for free.  Happy Surveying!