Become a Freelance Consumer Researcher

I have noticed a lot of web sites, and in fact many Squidoo lenses even, where the web/lens master has placed tons of affiliate banners saying that if you click the banner and join some club/group/site/team, you'll get paid loads of money for completing the surveys the group sends you. A few of the more common examples include: CashCrate, SnapDollars, Greenfield Online, etc, etc, etc.

As far as I can tell, the folks making money from these sites are NOT the folks taking the surveys, but instead are the folks promoting the affiliate banners telling other folks to take the surveys.

I've been getting paid to do survives since 1997, in my experience the ONLY survives that ACTUALLY pay you (checks ranging from $50 - $200 per survey or with the actual products tested in the survey) are the companies themselves: Hersey's, GMC, Kellog's ect, not some go between scammer site.

I'm a member of all 3 of the sites I just mentioned, as well as dozens more like them, for several years now, one, Greenfield, I joined in 1997, 12 years ago, and have yet to see a penny from any of them, or from any other third party site for that matter.

To date the only ones that have ever actually paid me are the actual companies. Write to the company, tell them you want to test their products and be on their consumer test team. They'll put you on a waiting list, and when they do their next round of product testing, you'll get the product (and/or a check to buy it) in the mail along with a survey to fill out and send in. (Or you may be asked to go to a hotel conference for a face to face survey - which usually pays you for the expense to get there).

In other words, if you want to do surveys for Sony and Nike, you don't need some third party middleman, all you have to do is write to Sony and ask to be put on their list. That's what I did and that's how come I actually get paid for the surveys I take.

As a result of taking these consumer test surveys, I have eaten candy and cereals as much as 2 years before they hit the store shelves (thanks to Hersey's and Kellogg's), I've used shampoos and beauty products that no one knew existed a year or two before the public knew about them. I've gone to conferences at hotels and had a free meal while we discussed what we did and did not like about the meal and what things we would and would not buy and how much we would pay for them - and on top of the free meal, the good company, and the exspences paid, we each received a $75 check just for showing up. GMC pays in scratch off lottery tickets and Walmart Gift cards for trying out new cars, only I don't have a drivers license, so I couldn't test drive the cars, but they paid me any ways just for showing up and telling them what I thought about the new models (I did not like the new models and told them so - they were very glad to get my bad review! LOL!) I was eating Wonka Runts and Rinky Dinks 4 years before they were released to the public.

Also, many local businesses will advertise in the Sunday classifies looking for testers, that's how I found the GMC ones.

Don't bother with the online third party sites - get out there and start contacting the companies directly. You won't make a full time income doing it, but you'll certainly have fun, meet new people, get to try out a lot of great products, and get a small extra check every once in a while.

There is a new site, Treasure Trooper, which has only been around since 2008, they claim to have actually paid members over $1million dollars since they started up. Since it's free to join, I figured I'd try them out and give them a chance to prove that they are NOT like the other sites. As of yet, it's too soon for me to say wither they make good on their promises or not. I'll let you know one way or the other, after I've had a chance to test them out. And if you want to try testing them out to, here's the link to their site. If you do try them out, let me know how it goes, because I'm always on the look out for money makers that actually make money.

When looking for surveys to take, keep these things in mind:

DO NOT PAY MONEY . . . no legitimate survey group will EVER ask you to pay to take their survey. Real legitimate surveys are part of a marketing champaign headed by a real live business. Marketing campaigns allow spending allowances - this means that the company has to use it's marketing fees to find panelists like you and PAY them to take the survey. If they ask you to pay money to take their survey, than they are NOT a legitimate business and ARE NOT using a legal marketing champaign to fund their consumer survey. Steer clear of these frauds. NEVER pay money to take a survey.

DO NOT JOIN A GROUP THAT REQUIRES PAYMENT TO JOIN . . . There are a lot of groups out there that claim to be compiling surveys for you to take. Many of them will ask you to pay a membership fee before they will allow you to see their list. These groups ARE NOT the businesses running the marketing campaigns, and therefor ARE NOT the ones doing the surveys. All they are doing is looking around for current surveys and gathering up a list of them. In other words, they spent a lot of time searching on Google, to find FREE information, that you could have just as easily searched for and found on your own. In fact, there is nothing stopping you from compiling your own list!

Now, I'm not saying don't join the groups that compile lists. I'm saying don't join the groups that ask you to PAY to join their group or ask you to PAY to read their list. This is one of the biggest scams out there, because every drop of information on these lists is so easy to find if you just take the time to search on Google, and thus, rather than make money taking surveys, these folks decided to make money by charging you to read their Google search results! It's so easy to do, that every one can do it, and that is why there are so many of these sites out there.

Here's something to think about: if it's so easy to do, so easy for them to compile these lists, than why not, by pass them all together and start compiling a list of your own? That's what I did, and that's what these links on this Squidoo lens are: 100% FREE sites. I'm sure I missed some of the sites out there, so don't just check out my list either, head to Google and start looking to compile your own list - it'll be your best ally when it comes to looking for new surveys to take.

NEVER SUBMIT ANY SURVEY WHICH ASKED YOU TO ENTER YOUR CREDIT CARD INFORMATION!!!!! . . . How many times have you spent 30 minutes filling out a survey, only to get to the last page and be told you must either:

a.) complete 2 of the following offers to continue

or

b.) please include your credit card information to submit your survey

or

c.) please submit your cell phone number to submit your answers

Yep, we've all seen them. These are NOT REAL or LEGITIMATE surveys!!!! These are database collectors. All they are looking for is your personal information so that they can put you on a mailing list. NONE of you survey answers are ever looked at, read, or acknowledged.

Will the minor offenders will only fill up you inbox with spam, the worst offenders will charge things like $700 airline tickets from Nigeria or $12,000 Rolex watches to your credit card. This happened to me, only I don't even have a credit card! A few years ago a hacker, used my email account info, to hack into my email, than from there hack into my eBay account, and than proceeded to purchase cellphones, computers, and Rolex watches at alarming speeds. eBay shut down my account after a dozen or so cell phones, more than 30 computers, and thankfully only one diamond encrusted Rolex. They than notified me that they thought my account had been hacked since I'd never spent more than $50 in one month and now I was spending tens of thousand in a few hours. It took me 6 months to fix the mess. And it was traced back to, yep, you guessed it, one of those surveys that ended by asking you to "complete 2 promotions".

So, learn from me and don't ever, ever, EVER hit the submit button on ANY survey that ends by asking for credit cards, cell phone numbers, or completing a promotional offer!

I had a friend who a few years back took a survey over the phone, a survey which ended by asking for his credit card information. A few weeks later, he received his credit card bill and found purchases of several airline tickets, and he hadn't been on a plane in years.

A few months ago a relative did an online survey which required her to submit her cell phone number in order to complete the survey. With in hours she had .90c charges being made on her cell phone at a rate of every 15 minutes - it added us to an astronomical phone bill in a matter of hours.

Know the scams. Know what to look for. And run like hell when you see them.

I think my favorite form of getting paid to take surveys (as well as the easiest, most fun, and highest paid form) is Consumer Panelists also known as Focus Groups. A Focus Group is most often a group of 12 strangers who are asked to meet at a local hotel (like Holiday Inn, Hampton Inn, etc), where they have dinner with some interviewers from (a usually unnamed) local business. Often they will be informed that the group is being video taped and or recorded.

The meetings are very interactive, so you can't just sit there and do nothing. You must enjoy talking to complete strangers, and be willing to get detailed information about your thoughts and opinions about products, as well as tell about life experiences that might influence the companies decisions in making new products. Most meetings will start out with the interviewing asking questions about your personal lifestyle, job, health, ect, so that the company can get a better idea of who their customers are.

Usually the interviewer will have a product (often unmarked without company labels) or a selection of products for you to sample, test, try, etc, and than the group discusses what they did or did not like about the product(s), wither or not they would buy them, wither or not they were able to recognizes them (if they had bought them before), how much they wold expect to pay for them, where they would expect to buy them, what changes they would make to make the product better, etc. The groups usually consist of the team verbally answering questions asked by the interviewer. Usually there will be multiple choice question forms for you to fill out before leaving.

Focus groups are the highest paid form of taking surveys. In most cases, the group meeting lasts 2 to 6 hours and pay from $50 per meeting up to $200 per hour. If you can do enough of them, it is possible to make a full time income doing nothing else. Unfortunately, the waiting lists for these groups is huge, and it is also possible to go weeks, months, or even years before your name gets selected to join the next round of groups.

Mystery Shopping is a very misunderstood job. If you were to believe the scam sites you would assume that you get paid cash for doing your regular shopping. This is not true. Mystery Shopping is a form of getting paid for taking surveys. When you become a Mystery Shopper, you do not do you regular shopping. Instead you are given an assignment. While each assignment varies, they usually consist of a survey form which tells you specifically which store to go to, what time to go there, which items to shop form, and includes a list of activities for you to perform, such as deliberately looking for items that were one sale last week and starting an argument with the clerk over the price. You must take note of the clerks name, the clerks actions and response, and wither or not they lost their temper or kept right on smiling. You will be asked to use the bathroom, to poke around behind shelves looking for dust-bunnies and spiders, and to make note of over all cleanliness and friendliness throughout the store.

In other words you are exactly what your job title says you are: a Quality Control Specialist masquerading as a regular customer. Thus the name Mystery Shopper. You look like a shopper, but in fact you are an under cover detective checking up on the workers.

How are your writing skills? When you finish you assignment, you'll have to fill out forms, take multiple choice surveys, and write up a report on the over all quality of your shopping experience. Ability to write essays is a MUST.

This is a labor intensive job, requiring you to be on your feet many hours at a time (no 5 minute running in for a gallon of milk here - each assignment will take you an average of 2 to 6 hours!) and may often be required to lift heavy items weighing 50lbs or more. To be a Mystery Shopper you need to be in good physical health.

Travel is another thing to consider: rarely will you be sent to a local store you regularly shop at. It is not unusual to be sent to a store across the state, out of state, or even a few states away.

And contrary to popular belief, Mystery Shopping isn't all about buying designer dresses and eating at 5 star restaurants. More often than not, you'll be sent to gas stations, auto repair shops, grocery stores, super markets, pet stores, big box marts, nursing homes, doctor's offices, dentists, and other "less exciting" not so glamorous places.

However, once you get the scammer stories of glizt and dazzle out of your system and know what to expect, Quality Control Surveys aka Mystery Shopping, is in fact the most profitable was to make money by taking surveys - if you do it full time working several hours a day 4 or 5 days a week, that is.

....info being written....