When brands want to find out what consumers think about their product and services, they turn to market research companies. Market research companies are the ones actually administering the surveys on behalf of the corporations looking for data/feedback. Think of online surveys as a type of focus group, except in this case, everything is done online.

This is a service owned and operated by a Kenyan company known as Simba Survey. The company works with local and international businesses, government agencies, research institutions, NGOs and universities to create and deploy flexible and scalable mobile surveys. The survey rates can move from a minimum of Ksh. 50 upwards. There are two types of surveys one can take; the cash reward surveys and the draw entry surveys. Members can withdraw their money directly via MPESA.

Inbox dollars is a scam. They will pull you in by offering $5 to begin and another $7 for completing some other tasks. It all goes downhill from there. I quickly realized that filling out countless surveys. I really gave them a try, I tried and tried and tried. Finally I snapped and said “No More!” What happens is that once you start a survey and it could be 15-20 minutes of filling questions, they will reject you based on answering a question as “no”. So you could answer “yes, yes, yes” for multiple questions and after 20 minutes of tedious (and yes, boooring!) questioning you are rejected from survey by punching one lousy “No”. Then they offer “sweeps” which is a raffle ticket that will never win you anything, pathetic! So, after seeing what a sham I got myself into I just decided to get my $30 by strictly opening the “paid mail” and using “paid search”. I had opened the account with them 1.5 years ago and finally was able to collect my $30 (actually $27, they even take $3 for “processing fee” – a final slap in the face) after countless hours of filling surveys and opening stupid paid mail. They pay 2 cents per one paid e-mail so yes it will take a while. I will be closing my account with inbox dollars now that I recovered a small fraction of what my time is actually worth, and I recommend staying clear from them and finding another way of making $$$.


How it works: With Survey Club, you can take part in some of the highest-paying research, clinical trials and surveys available. There are often location-based opportunities (such as focus groups), and unlike some of the other companies on this list, Survey Club often gives you the chance to test products that researchers will physically mail to you free of charge.

Mind Swarms has two type of surveys. In majority of the surveys, you’ll be asked 7 questions; while in a few others, you are asked only one question. To answer the survey, you read out the question, and you proceed to give your honest answer, while recording yourself. The 7 questions survey pays $50 per survey; while the one questions surveys pay $10. This makes Mind Swarms literally the highest paying survey site.


In addition to the free offers, there are “paid” offers, too. i.e. Buy a bouquet of flowers through an online florist, get $7.00 back in your InboxDollars account. Lots of similar cash back offers for subscription box services and eCommerce sites. If it’s something you were already interested in, it’s not bad. Otherwise, no point in spending (read: losing) money in order to make money. 

You build your trait score simply by being active on the site and completing surveys. The surveys from Paid Viewpoints are some of the shortest surveys you’ll find. They even advertise that a survey will take only 2 – 3 minutes. In whatever case, even if a survey takes more than twice the advertised time, it will still be the shortest out there. On the average, they ask about 10 questions. To make things easy for you, they set a character limit for each survey answer (between 90 – 120).
These activities run the gamut from using the search engines to find the information you need, reading emails and taking online market research surveys, to online shopping, playing games, watching videos and many more. In addition to fast cash, this legit loyalty program serves up a plethora of amazing prizes on a regular basis. In a nutshell, Inbox Dollars connects brands and consumers in a mutually beneficial manner, generously rewarding members with cash and prizes for interacting with various brands via their everyday online and mobile activities.

How it works: LifePoints is the survey platform of a company called Lightspeed, which is owned by Kantar (one of the world’s largest market research and consumer data analytics firms). The platform was formed as a merger of two of the company’s other products, MySurvey and Global Test Market, and gives users a variety of ways to earn points that can be redeemed for cash:
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