SURVEY UPDATE: Earning Money, Rewards and Gift Cards Doing Surveys

Back in April I wrote a post about doing surveys to get money, gift cards and other rewards.  I have now been doing surveys at home for about six or seven months and have a much clearer idea of what is worth spending time on.  Now, you don't make a bunch of money doing surveys, but I have earned thousands of Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards points, over $100 in gift cards, Hilton Honors Points and made some money doing surveys.  A little extra help with the cost of a flight, hotel stay or a free dinner here and there is really nice and worth the time doing surveys while you watch tv or are bored on your lunch break. 

OK, fine.  This isn't going to happen.  (photo: dogsportgear.com)

Here's the details on Survey Sites.  Remember to create a separate email address for these type of things because you will get a lot of emails.

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 Starbucks, Applebee's, Amazon.com, Walmart or Game Stop.  The best deal is to use the points for gift cards.

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 mind it, I am just always prepared to take a couple different quick surveys before qualifying and earning points.  I have earned the most gift cards on this site.  I have cashed in for multiple Starbucks, Walmart and Applebee's gift cards.  So I say that Daily Survey Panel has the most annoying surveys but with the biggest rewards.

2.  Clear Voice Surveys: This site offers a couple surveys a week.  You won't qualify for all of them but the preliminary questions are usually shorter than on Daily Survey Panel.  If you qualify and complete the survey, you earn 50 cents to a couple dollars and then can cash those out.  I highly recommend cashing your points out for Amazon.com gift cards.  The Dining Dough does not seem to be that good of a deal.   So far I have earned three gift cards to use at Amazon.com. 

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 a sweepstakes yet and I do surveys multiple times a week, so I doubt that will ever happen.  This is a good site to get some extra money to use on Amazon, which is great for me. 

Love Amazon gift cards (photo: techcrunch.com)

3.  American Consumer Opinion: This site offers less surveys but you will qualify for most of the surveys they personally email you. This is not my favorite site as it is slow to earn you anything.

The good and the bad: There aren't as many surveys to do, but you will most likely qualify for a higher percentage of the surveys you start.  It is a little slower to earning points, but they are usually fun surveys and you make a couple hundred points for the longer ones.  Be sure to remember that you cannot redeem your points until you have reached 1,000 and that equals $10.  I just redeemed my points for $14.50 in my Paypal account.  Nothing crazy, but the little extra cash adds up for buying myself little treats online.

4.  EREWARDS: For this site, you have to be invited to join.  I highly recommend joining if you are invited.  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.  This is my favorite survey site.  I have thousands of Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards points and Hilton Honors points from here.  I have also used my points to order food from Omaha Steaks when there was a sale online.

The good and the bad:  The erewards.com surveys have generally been shorter than most of the Daily Survey Panel surveys, which is nice.  There is no option to cash out on this site, however, if you fly or stay at hotels, then this can really be worth it.  You can rack up points pretty quick.  Just be aware of each program and how often you can cash in for rewards points.  It is 30 days for Southwest and long for Hilton.  There are plenty of other airlines, car rental services and hotels participating in this program.  I love erewards.com! 

Photo: blogs.sun-sentinel.com

5.  e-miles: I have just recently discovered this site.  Sign up for e-miles to earn rewards points to programs like Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards.  You earn points for doing really quick 3 question surveys, buying deals on Groupon and buying products online through Nordstrom.  Just sign up and get started.  I have cashed in 1,500 Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards points so far.

The good and the bad:  This is a quick and easy way to earn rewards points.  Most people buy Groupons already, so just be sure you are signed up on e-miles and buy your Groupons through the link on the e-miles site.  The only downside is that you have to wait until you get to 500 points to cash in your rewards.  There are other ways to earn points as well, by donating to charities, buying other products or services through the site or signing up for other programs.  I just use my junk email address for any of the offers. Definitely check out e-miles.