How it works: Pinecone Research is owned and operated by Nielsen, the billion-dollar data and measurement company responsible for TV Nielsen Ratings. With Pinecone Research, you earn $3 per survey, which typically take 15 to 20 minutes to complete. The downside to Pinecone is that they often have strict demographic requirements, which means that you may not qualify depending on your age, education, race or other profile factors.
Apart from the surveys, you can earn points by completing some daily polls that you’ll find when you log into your account. These are quick polls that’ll earn you 5 points. There’s also a referral program that can earn you between 50 – 200 points for each referral you make. Lastly, there’s an incentive to be very active in the site in completing surveys. This is because at the end of every month, Branded Surveys rewards the top 100 active members with an additional 100 points.
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.
Unfortunately, a lot of people think that because they didn’t qualify for a survey, the company conducting it is somehow scamming them. Remember, companies want to gather data and feedback from their target customers. Remember the Starbucks example above? Well, if you are not a coffee drinker, it makes sense that Starbucks doesn’t want to spend money on giving you a survey on something that doesn’t apply to you!
Hiving is a French company, founded in 2009, which specializes in market research and consumer feedback. They are also among the online surveys that pay through Paypal. The company now has a presence in 20 countries around the globe. You give your honest opinion about products/ services in surveys, and they reward you with points which you can convert to cash and gift vouchers.
InboxDollars is an award-winning company recognized by Inc. 5000 for outstanding growth. We have been featured in Forbes1, Mashable2, Bustle3, Yahoo! Finance News4, and numerous other news outlets a top way to earn money online. We are also A+ Rated and Accredited with the Better Business Bureau, giving our members extra peace of mind about signing up.
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.