Paid Surveys

Want to earn a little extra cash, gift cards, or merchandise? If you have some spare time now and then, there are tons of free sites that will pay Canadians to fill out surveys or to use their search toolbars. I have signed up for a lot of them over the years and created a detailed list of the ones I’m most familiar with:

TOOLBARS:
Swagbucks: Definitely my favourite toolbar. There are a lot of different ways to earn swag bucks like doing web searches, checking out special offers, playing trivia, etc. There are fun features and a huge variety of merchandise and gift cards to spend your bucks on. Plus, for each friend you refer, their bucks are matched to your account until you earn 100 swag bucks as they do their searching. This really helps the bucks add up quickly!

Search & Win

Air Miles: The Air Miles toolbar is powered by Yahoo and allows you to earn up to 30 Air Miles per month (5 Air Miles for every 50 searches). I find it takes a lot longer than on Swag Bucks to accumulate enough miles to actually redeem for something worthwhile. But, if you love Air Miles and are using search engines anyway, it’s a nice bonus.

SURVEYS:
Web Perspectives:  I’ve been with Web Perspectives since around 2002 and it’s one of my favs. They are always reliable and have the most frequent survey opportunities. The surveys reward you with either points (1000 = $10) and/or sweepstakes draw entries. The points for a survey usually range between 100 – 500. Points can be redeemed for cash, Air Miles, gift cards, or tax deductible donations to the Canadian Cancer Society.

Toluna Survey Center (formerly Greenfield Online): Greenfield Online was one of my favourite sites by far, but has recently changed to Toluna. I am getting frequent surveys from them (most in the 900  – 1500 point range) but their lowest payout threshold is now 60000 points. I thought that seemed like a lot until I took some time to explore the new site. They do offer a variety of ways to earn points on their site with polls, opinions, personal interest surveys, referrals, etc. Points can be converted to cash, gift cards, or monthly sweepstakes tickets.

Surveyhead:  Offers a $5 sign up bonus and has frequent survey opportunities. Rather than waiting for emails, I find it’s best to check the site regularly because there are always survey opportunities listed. You earn cash for filling out your account profiles as well as surveys. Once you reach the payout threshold, the cash can be transferred to PayPal, awarded in gift cards, or used for donations to a variety or charities.

Opinion Outpost: I’m new to this site, but really love it so far. The surveys reward you with Opinion Points (50 points = $5) and they can be redeemed for cash (cheques by mail) or for Amazon.com gift cards. They also have a great referral program which awards you with 200 points ($2) when your friends join and complete their first survey.

Survey Lion: Their survey invitations seem few and far between but, when they come, are usually really good.  They pay in cash (cheque by mail) and there is no minimum balance to request a payment. Their referral program pays you $5 for each friend that becomes an active member!

Ispos I-Say: I get usually get several surveys a month all varying in reward point incentives. At the end of each survey, there is also an opportunity to play a Poll Predictor game and earn entries into monthly sweepstakes draws.  50 points = $5, which is the minimum payment amount. The points can be redeemed for  cash (cheque by mail), American Express gift cards, or charitable donations.

ZoomPanel: I am new to ZoomPanel and have accumulated enough points for a redemption yet, but am including it in the list for the sake of options. ZoomPanel awards ZoomPoints which can be redeemed for merchandise or gift cards in electronic reward catalogues called Folios. The Folio with the lowest value is 1000 points (average value of the reward choices is $10) . The highest is 3000 points (average value of the reward choices is $50). They offer a referral program which allows you to earn 100 points per friend, up to 4 per month.

Shopper’s Voice: Shopper’s Voice is a bit different than the above mentioned sites. A few times a year, they conduct consumer research surveys and reward you with FANTASTIC coupons, free samples, and special offers. They also offer sweepstakes and contests. I always look forward to their packages in the mail and definitely recommend Shopper’s Voice surveys!

Don’t expect to get rich doing surveys online or you’ll be sorely disappointed. But, if you do have some time to spend filling them out, surveys are a great way to earn a little extra here and there (think of how handy those gift cards could be at Christmas time!). And remember, most surveys are targeted to specific people of  groups/ages/incomes/consumer habits and not everyone may not be eligible for each survey a site offers.

If you know of any other survey sites worth checking out, please share!


7 comments

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.