First, thank you for providing this extensive list. I wanted to offer a quick follow up. After reading your post I decided to give Survey Junkie a try and I’ve already closed the account. Yes, I can tell it’s well organized and it is definitely a user-friendly platform. The problems I experienced were first that not one of the surveys they emailed me about were available. I did, however, complete several surveys from the site itself and I found them to be lengthy – in itself, not a problem, but 3 out of 5 told me I didn’t qualify after I’d already invested 10 – 12 minutes filling out the forms. They got more than enough information from me to be useful which is an old and highly unethical trick in market research – which happens to be my background. All in all, it was a LOT of wasted time.
Like other sites we tested, InboxDollars is a survey aggregator. So clicking on a survey opportunity typically redirects you to a third-party site. In most cases, I was led to a typical survey setup: starter questions about my age, gender and ZIP code, followed by either a disqualification or questions on a specific topic. A few survey topics I covered include McDonald’s, insurance and grocery stores.
The survey sites online fall into three broad categories: (i) those that are outright scam sites that will only waste your time and not pay you after taking the surveys (ii) those that will pay only paltry amounts that do not justify the time spent on the surveys (iii) those with which you can earn decent additional income and get paid instantly through Paypal.
In a few cases, InboxDollars directed me to “exclusive offers” instead of straightforward surveys. One required me to give my name, address, phone number and birthdate to earn money and enter a sweepstakes for a Target gift card. Another time, I was prompted to give my email address and choose between Coke and Pepsi in exchange for $1 and a sweepstakes entry. I didn’t want to give my contact information to what appeared to be third-party sites, so I clicked out of these promotions.
How it works: Panda Research is a market data company that claims to have paid out over $2 million to date. Users complete surveys, which can take anywhere from 10 to 45 minutes each. The sign-up and survey completion process are both easy and typical, but there are a few things you should be aware of before investing too much time on the platform:
After InboxDollars acquired SendEarnings in 2005, a new holding company – CotterWeb Enterprises Inc – has since owned and operated both entities. InboxDollars also acquired DailyRewards, a Canadian company, in 2014. The company has a number of corporate associations with large companies like eBay, Stamps.com, Netflix, Target, H&R Block, Walmart and PCH (Publisher’s Clearing House).
Most of the surveys on Inboxdollars actually range up to $5.00 on surveys depending on the survey provider. Please note that InboxDollars works with Market Research companies (survey providers) who create, provide, manage and credit the surveys. InboxDollars does not make any requirements or qualifications for a survey. Each advertiser may be looking for a particular demographic to get the information they need for their services/products/etc so they will have qualification questions when this occurs. Our minimum requirement is $30.00 as a minimum and members can get there pretty quickly if they do a variety of activities on the site. We have some members who cash out once a month but again this is due to how often they are on and how much they do.