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With February coming to a close, MySurvey.com has released their monthly edition of Opinion Matters, a newsletter that reviews the latest happenings in their corner of the survey world. For this month, they have announced the winners of several recent sweepstakes and giveaways, a few of whom asked that their names be withheld or have apparently forfeited their prizes, perhaps by not responding to the notifications in time.

Also included are a few examples of merchandise that can be redeemed for with our reward points, followed by the usual monthly survey results. This time members were surveyed about what they thought was important when dealing with the customer support departments of their favorite companies.

Meanwhile, if you would like to make some extra money by completing paid surveys and are looking for some other companies that are free to join, you can check out Survey Savvy, Opinion Outpost, or Creations Rewards.

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In addition to the Internet-based surveys that can be taken from within our member accounts, MySurvey also allows us to opt in for receiving occasional surveys by traditional postal mail, also known as “snail mail”. Any completed surveys that are mailed back to the company are eventually credited to our online accounts, awarding us with additional points that can be redeemed for cash after we have accumulated at least $10.

Yesterday I received one of these postal mail surveys on the topic of communications. It is an eight-page questionnaire that spans several areas related to cable television, satellite TV, telephone, and Internet services. Although this may seem long at first, it is actually not as time-consuming as it looks because many of the questions can be skipped over if they do not apply to our household and there are only 5-10 questions per page.

Before I get into the text of the introductory letter, I would like to take this time to thank those of you who have signed up with MySurvey.com or Top-Dollars.com through my strategically placed affiliate links. As you may have noticed, this site is sparsely monetized at present; the small commissions generated from your signups and purchases help to pay for necessary hosting expenses and keep this site financially viable.

Now we return to our regularly scheduled survey letter:

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One of my favorite paid survey companies MySurvey.com released its first newsletter of the new year yesterday. The company is in the process of restocking rewards merchandise after experiencing a higher than expected number of redemptions by survey participants in the last quarter of 2007. In addition to including a few testimonials, MySurvey has also released the results of the most recent member survey regarding New Year’s resolutions.

Reward News

As promised, we have begun restocking our merchandise shelves! Many of you are aware that we ran into some logistical problems at the end of 2007 with our Reward Point Redemption options. Members were redeeming faster than we could keep up, and unfortunately many merchandise options were temporarily removed. Most of our usual redemption options are now available and more are coming in every day. To view our current selection, login to MySurvey.com and click Rewards on the top menu.

Remember, each day you log into MySurvey.com you earn an entry into our Rewards Extravaganza Daily GiveAway. A new winner is selected every day to receive 10,000 MySurvey.com Reward points (cash equivalent $100). Take a look at what a recent winner had to say:

January 14, 2008 Rewards Extravaganza Give-Away Winner:

“I joined MySurvey.com because I want to have my opinion heard! Winning and rewards add to the great appeal of this site.”
Lakeesha B., Chicago, IL

You’ll also get an entry into the MySurvey.com Sweepstakes each day you login. One lucky winner receives $10,000 every other month. Here’s a recent winner:

September/October 2007 MySurvey.com Sweepstakes Winner:

“I was amazed and shocked that I had won anything! This is my first ever sweepstakes win. I am so happy to be associated with MySurvey.com. I love giving my opinion as a consumer and being involved in products and services that we use every day.”
Judith F., Tustin, CA

Each time you complete a survey you’ll be entered into our Survey Completion Bonus Sweepstakes. Each month we offer a different prize. This month 4 winners will receive $500 each! This winner received a $500 gift card:

October/November Survey Completion Bonus Sweepstakes Winner:

“Just a small amount of time has just made a very large impact on my finances. Thank you, MySurvey.com!”
Mark C., Port Charlotte, FL

Congratulations to all our winners!

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Today I received an email from Pinecone Research which seems to confirm what I had suspected may be an upward trend in the volume of market research activity over the past several months. Apparently the number of requests for surveys and product tests is increasing to the point where Pinecone is expecting an increased number of questions and surveys for panelists:

At this time PineCone Research is experiencing a high number of survey requests across many different clients and for the evaluation of many different types of products. In order to identify which of these requests is best suited to you and your household, you may be asked an increased number of questions than usual or receive an increased number of requests to respond about the types of products used in your household. We try to minimize the number of questions/requests needed to identify the various needs of our clients, but as the demand increases, so do the number of questions, as well as the number of possible surveys available to our panelists.

It is important that you answer all of the questions so that we can process your responses. We appreciate your participation and hope that you enjoy being a part of PineCone Research.

This coincides with the increase in the number and frequency of survey invitations that I have been receiving from the other companies. Of course, this is good news for paid survey participants because it means more opportunities for us to make money and receive free products.

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The December edition of Opinion Matters, the monthly newsletter of MySurvey.com, has been released to the membership and is now available here for your perusal. This month’s issue is relatively short, focusing primarily on the issue of charitable donations.

If you would like to join the panel, you can do so for free by clicking on the banner below. Each completed survey will yield a certain number of points that can be redeemed for cash. Minimum payout threshold is 1000 points = $10. Cash payments are made by check, but it is also possible to redeem for various prizes. As this newsletter indicates, you may also donate your points to a variety of charitable organizations if you are so inclined.

‘Tis the Season For Giving

The holiday season is usually hailed as a time for giving, not just to friends and families, but in support of charities and others less fortunate. For MySurvey.com members, the season for giving is 365 days each year; that’s how often members donate their Reward Points to charity.

The point donations add up. Between the beginning of January and the beginning of December 2007, over $30,000 in Reward Points were donated to our charity partners.

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The November edition of the MySurvey.com newsletter has just been released. Topics covered include a fundraising drive for children’s education in Cambodia, reward redemptions, Spam filtering issues, and results from a recent survey on what kinds of foods people are eating for Thanksgiving. There are also some interesting notes on the types of foods that were served at the original Thanksgiving back in 1621 vs. the foods that people associate with Thanksgiving celebrations today.

Reward News

UNICEF Imagine… Fundraising Target Reached!

In January 2005, TNS, the parent company of MySurvey.com partnered with UNICEF to fund a preschool project in Cambodia. The purpose of this project was to give children the best possible start to learning and schooling, in a country where many children, especially girls, drop out of school by age five.

We are very pleased announce that we have successfully reached our fundraising goal of $388,000. MySurvey.com panelists have generously donated over $7,000 in Reward Points to this charity partner. The money raised will be used to:

* Build and equip 120 new community pre-school shelters
* Expand access to pre-school learning for 14,500 children aged three to five years
* Train almost 1000 community pre-school teachers

As the UNICEF Imagine… project comes to a close, TNS is working with UNICEF to develop a new education and child development project in another part of the world where the need is great. Once the details of the new project are finalized, we will again give our MySurvey.com members the opportunity to donate to the new UNICEF project. Thank you for “imagining” a better future for Cambodian children with us.

Reward Redemptions for Holiday Gifts

If you would like to redeem your MySurvey.com Reward Points for any our current reward items to give as a holiday gift, we suggest you make your redemption no later than December 2nd. We cannot guarantee the delivery for any of our merchandise items, but if you order early enough there is a good chance you will receive your item(s) in time for holiday gift giving.

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The PineCone Research survey company that I reported on three weeks ago has been working out pretty well so far. I actually have two payments from them to report, one by check and other via PayPal. Here is the check payment:

As has been reported on various forums and message boards, they pay surprisingly quickly. After I took my first survey, I received the check by postal mail within five days. That is very fast by paid survey standards; the typical turnaround time for receiving check payments is usually three to four weeks.

Meanwhile, it is possible to receive payments even faster by using the PayPal option. According to the company’s rules, members are allowed to switch their payment method to PayPal after receiving at least one check payment. I’m not exactly sure why they require this, but my guess is that the company wants to see at least one check cleared so that they can verify that the member’s address is correct.

How to Change Your PineCone Payment Method to PayPal

In order to switch to the PayPal option, the first thing that you need to do is log into your PineCone account, go to the profile information page, and enter your PayPal address in the appropriate field. After you save the changes, you will then need to email them at scott(at)pineconeresearch.com to officially request the switch.

In order to make things easier for you, I have reprinted the text of the email that I wrote to them below. You can use this as a template for your own email requests; just make sure that you replace the obvious bits of information such as name, date, username, and email address with your own data.

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I can now confirm that I have found another legitimate, non-scamming survey company: GlobalTestMarket.com. I have been a member here for a few months and recently earned enough “Market Points” to redeem for payment. Although it took a few weeks to arrive, I did receive the check:

Interestingly, when they sent out this particular batch of checks, some sort of system error occurred that caused the checks to be printed with a slightly lower amount of Market Points than what the original redemption requests had stated. In my case, I had actually redeemed for 1050 Market Points (cash value = $52.50), but the check got processed with only 1019 points. Since the difference was so small, I didn’t bother challenging it; I figured that might be some kind of check fee deduction that I hadn’t seen in the fine print of the terms of service.

However, a few days after receiving the check, I got an email from them that acknowledged the error. They even gave me extra points that were more than the difference between the check and redemption amounts, so this is favorable news:

Dear MR. KARL ERFURT,

You recently redeemed MarketPoints from your GlobalTestMarket account. A check has been mailed to you, but due to an error in our processing system, we did not send you the correct amount.

For your patience, we have added 100 bonus MarketPoints to your remaining GlobalTestMarket account balance. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

We appreciate your understanding, and look forward to your continued involvement in the GlobalTestMarket community.

Sincerely,

The GlobalTestMarket Team

Meanwhile, they have also started a monthly newsletter and set up a blog, so it seems that the company is expanding nicely and providing more opportunities for communication with members about the market research survey business. The newsletter explains some of their latest developments below:

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Another bit of good news arrived tonight when I received an email from PineCone Research Panel saying that I have finally been accepted. I managed to find one of their banners about two weeks ago and went through their registration process. I wound up getting a couple of duplicate copies of their registration email over the next few days even after I had answered the additional questions from the original mail and signed up for the panel. Fortunately, I found out later that this was just a technical glitch and they had in fact received my original registration.

Pinecone Research is somewhat of an elite club and for many people represents the “cream of the crop” in the paid survey world. Although their panel is free to join, not just anyone can sign up with them, and there is no registration form on their website. The only way to get into PineCone is to find one of their banners, click on it, and fill out the registration form that appears. The initial signup is pretty simple; in fact, the questions asked are very similar to the ones on the MySurvey registration page. After a day or two, you should receive a “thank you” email that will provide you with an ID number and password, along with a link to another short questionnaire which you will need to fill out in order to fully complete the registration process. My email looked like this:

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MySurvey.com, a market research company that allows members to register at the site and get paid for taking surveys, has released this month’s edition of their newsletter, Opinion Matters. In its content, the MySurvey staff answers several questions that have been asked by members relating to issues in which some people get stuck in the middle of taking a survey for some reason and cannot seem to complete it.

There is also a detailed explanation for how to keep track of points that have been awarded for surveys. Information on how to track checks or other forms of payment that we have requested is included as well.

Finally, the results of a recent survey about how people celebrate Halloween are displayed in the table at the end of the page.

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After receiving a $20 check from Synovate earlier today, more good news arrived from another survey company in the form of a product sample notification, this time for a new formula for Apple Cinnamon Cheerios. I had already taken a survey on this topic a few days ago, but it was not 100% certain whether I would be selected to continue with the rest of the study or not. Fortunately, this email clarified the issue rather nicely.

Recently you completed an on-line survey about Apple Cinnamon Cheerios products and you agreed to participate in a second phase of the study, if selected. This note is to let you know that you have been selected to participate in the follow up portion of the research study. Thank you for your willingness to participate–the manufacturer is very interested in your opinions.

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The next issue of Opinion Matters, the monthly newsletter of MySurvey.com, was released as an email to members today. Apparently they are now awarding reward points for installing or upgrading their MySurvey Messenger software, which functions as a kind of alert system to let you know if there are any surveys currently available at the site. They have also implemented the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption technology on their web pages for additional privacy and security.

Meanwhile, after adding a few new reward items for redemptions, they have finally released the results of a survey about sleeping habits. As usual, the actual text of the newsletter has been published below for your reading pleasure. One spelling error from the original copy has been corrected (”securily” was changed to “securely”).

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Earlier tonight, I managed to complete another one of those Invoke interactive surveys, this time for $35 instead of the usual $25. Originally, the incentive amount was supposed to be $25, but I received an email yesterday informing me that they were increasing the amount of the incentive.

I am not sure of the exact reason for this; it is possible that they simply had fewer participants than expected who qualified for the survey through the original screener. If this was the case, they would have wanted to make sure that a large enough proportion of the people who qualified actually followed through to complete the main survey because they need a large enough sample size for the survey retain statistical significance. Here is what our invitation email looked like:

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One of my favorite paid survey companies, Synovate Global Opinion Panels, released the September issue of its monthly newsletter today. Overall, the news is looking pretty good; not only has Synovate increased the amount of cashable points received for each survey, but they are also planning on implementing PayPal and Amazon gift certificates as payment options in the near future. This should reduce the amount of waiting time required to receive payments, which are currently made primarily by check.

Synovate has turned out to be one of the better survey companies out there, and is also one where I seem to have had some positive influence. When I first joined their panel back in 2004, there was no points system in place and actual cash payments were relatively rare. Except for a few major market research projects, most rewards for completed surveys were only sweepstakes entries, which in practical terms were usually worthless.

However, after enduring these pitifully low compensation levels through most of 2005, I started taking some extra time to fill out the comment boxes that were provided near the end of most surveys where we had a chance to give them our opinions regarding the surveys themselves (as opposed to the products or services that the surveys were about). In the comments, I explained to them that they would probably get a better quality of responses to the survey questions and a higher level of participation if they would offer some form of cash compensation for our time, even if it was only a small amount.

To my surprise, they actually seemed to listen to this and a few months later, they eventually set us up with internal accounts and a points system where we could redeem the points for real checks and effectively receive small cash payments for each survey. Unlike many other companies, they even credit us with partial payments in cases where we “screen out” of the survey and do not qualify to complete the whole thing. They have also been nice about sending us other small “freebie” items occasionally, such as calendars, refrigerator magnets, water bottles, and stationery.

Below is the content of the newsletter, which explains the developments that are planned for the near future and includes results from some recent polling data on the opinions of Synovate panel members.

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The second product sample that I mentioned in last week’s consumerism article arrived today. We received a bottle of body wash that appears to be about eight ounces in volume and does not reveal any brand name on the label. The actual product is pale blue in color and has about the same consistency as Head & Shoulders shampoo. The fragrance is similar to Irish Spring bar soap, with perhaps a hint of Zest or Dial scents mixed in with it. Later today, I will probably have a chance to use the product and test its cleansing effectiveness. According to our instructions, we should be getting another bottle of body wash within three or four days:
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