MySurvey Reward - Payment

I officially received my reward from MySurvey and I couldn't be happier!

I initially was going to redeem my points at Opinion Square for the OXO 10 Piece POP Container Set but I was a couple hundred points short and I had no more surveys available - ugh. I was so close! I went on as usual with my survey taking and ended up doing one at MySurvey. I realized how many points I had collected there and began to browse the rewards center. Success! They had the same set available! I researched what would be cheaper, an Amazon e-certificate to buy the set or getting the set through MySurvey - I ended up getting it through MySurvey. The conversion from points to money would have only given me $75 to work with at Amazon and the price for the OXO 10 Piece POP Container Set is just under $100. I probably saved $20 or more doing it this way.

What kind of rewards have you received from MySurvey?

MySurvey Newsletter

MySurvey & Lightspeed Join Together

If you read the June2009 Edition of Opinion Matters then you may remember that MySurvey's parent company TNS partnered with WPP's information, insight and consultancy division, known as the The Kantar Group. Some of you may also know that Lightspeed Online is also a member of The Kantar Group. Since the same company now owns both MySurvey and Lightspeed Online there will be new changes implemented to make your membership more rewarding. Keep your ears open during the next three months for more information on how your membership may change. You can view the January 2010 Newsletter for more info.

I am not sure exactly how I feel about this announcement for the plain fact that I am not sure what they will exactly be implementing. I am defiantly hoping for the better in them being owned by the same company, I really hope that they way we receive rewards is not changed for the worst. I think payment options are a big factor in staying with a survey panel as well as the amount of payment for the participation per survey. Sometimes merging with other survey sites can be a good thing and other times it makes you stray away from them. I remember when Your2Cents merged with Toluna, although it may have been a good change in the companies eyes, I am still not sure if I like it. So changes can be good, bad or sometimes they just linger in the middle of it all.

Is BigSpot Legit?

While I was browsing through a forum I saw a question asking if BigSpot was a legit survey site. I had never heard of this site - I know and am a member of a lot of survey sites too. I then browsed more and found that people were seeing a commercial about them on TV. As soon as I heard that, I immediately thought its probably some type of scheme. I went to their website which is hosted by Survey Payoff, that name seemed familiar. I then realized I had seen the Survey Payoff logo on offer landing pages among other imitator survey sites. This told me that they were not very trustworthy - at least in my book.

I decided to sign up for BigSpot, of course using one of my "spam" email addresses just for this purpose. I filled out the form that is presented on the first page then clicked "click to join". They then informed me that based on my demographics I had "privately qualified"(what does that even mean?)for the Ipsos i-Say and that I would just have to check the box in order to join. Why how nice of them ..... to bad I am already a member. I was also assured that I would still have complete access to the database after joining. I was expecting them to tell me to check my email to activate my account, but this was not the case.

Click To See Screen Shot

Now here comes the fun part, they are so generous that before I get a chance to see this "database" I can choose some offers that may interest me. There are a couple survey sites listed as well as dieting and cheap travel offers. Well good thing I'm not on a diet or traveling anytime soon or I might have just check "yes" to those offers. This is the part where the privacy of your information comes into play, if you click "yes" to any of those offers you are giving them permission to contact you. Well, if you want more info on those offers then you probably won't mind, but how loose are their privacy policies?

Click To See Screen Shot

After clicking "Submit & Continue!" you are taken to the page below. At this point your probably thinking they are loading your demographics to match you up with surveys, at least that's what it seems. It does say "survey database" not "survey site database".

Click To See Screen Shot

Finally the page gets redirected to this great "survey database" .... oh wait its actually a "survey site database". When I saw the database of survey sites, the first thing I thought was "that's all?". Seriously, they only list a measly 12 survey sites, correction 11 survey sites "Quality Survey Panel" is nothing but the Quality Health website where you get free samples by basically completing offers. All the links lead to the correct sites except for "African American Panel" which actually leads to Mindfield Online. The other 10 survey sites they list are:

SurveySpot
Lightspeed Research Panel
GlobalTestMarket
Valued Opinions Panel
My Survey Panel
i-Say Survey Panel
American Consumer Panel
E-Poll Research Panel
eSearch Survey Panel
SurveySavvy Panel

That's it, they ask you to bookmark the page and share it with others via Myspace and Facebook. Seems like they want their "members" to do the advertising for them.

Click To See Screen Shot

The Gist of BigSpot: BigSpot is just another affiliate marketing site looking to make an extra buck from unsuspecting viewers. I'm not saying that affiliate marketing is bad, it can actually be a good thing. What I am concerned about is that they are somewhat misleading to the general viewers of their website. Also throwing in offers during the registration process just bothers me, the site is making you go through unnecessary tasks in order to join. A legitimate survey site wouldn't make you jump through hoops, they may want you to complete profile surveys but this is to your benefit. BigSpot's database is sad to say the least, if I was going to spend money advertising on TV I would be sure to add a lot more survey sites to the list as well as have the links send my members to the correct sites.

You will gain nothing from joining BigSpot, maybe extra unwanted emails but that's about it. You do not need to sign up with them in order to find survey sites that are available to you. There are free directories out there that will provide you with much more information then BigSpot's database. I know for a fact I even have more survey sites listed on my blog then they do, and thats pretty pathetic. If you notice on the main page they state:

"If you have access to the Internet and live in the United States or Canada, you can be an online survey taker."

What about people that live outside of the United States and Canada? What about the rest of the world that wants to voice their opinion? Well, I guess International members just don't bring in enough income for them to list sites that would allow them to join and make some extra money. I am pretty sure that is exactly why they state what they do, they only get paid when people from those countries join the panels they list. Maybe I am being a little harsh, but I believe if you are going to list survey sites why limit them to people of certain residency when there are survey panels where international members can share their opinions and get paid for it.

MySurvey Update

You may have trouble completing surveys for a couple of days at MySurvey, this is because of the new survey system being implemented. When you login you will see this statement in the "My Surveys" section:

Over the next few days we will be making some necessary upgrades to our survey system. During this time some of our surveys may be unavailable, however not all surveys will be affected. If you receive a message that a survey is unavailable please try again at a later time. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.

MySurvey's New Look

MySurvey has updated the look of their website, a blog has also been added to update it's member with info. If you are a member you can login and view the blog here Here are some screenshots of the new look:

We left the basics of MySurvey.com the same but updated the look. We hope you like the new and improved site! Take a look around and let us know what you think. Send your comments and feedback to mycomments@mysurvey.com.

I personally like the new look, it seems more organized and fresh looking. The old template looked okay, but was kind of dull and outdated. It seems a lot of survey sites are freshening up their website lately which is always a good thing. I think if I were not a member and stumbled upon the new look of MySurvey I would be more intrigued to join not only because of the look itself but what the look tells me about the website. Since the site looks updated and innovative, it gives me the assumption that they will most likely have active surveys and good customer service. I'm sure they didn't just update the look for themselves, they updated to make it easier for their members to find things and give them an overall appealing site to look at. This is a good strategy since the survey industry seems to be growing faster compared to 10 years ago, more people are seeking opportunity online to share their opinion.

MySurvey AdTrcker

MySurvey now has another way to gather consumer opinions, it's called AdTracker. When I logged in (to complete a 10 question survey worth 10 points) there was a link in red saying to click to learn more, well I did just that. Here is what it stated about MySurvey AdTracker:

MySurvey.com AdTracker
There are many different ways that MySurvey.com gathers consumer opinions - taking online surveys is the most frequent way we ask for your opinions. Another research program, MySurvey.com AdTracker, is used to understand the advertisements you see when browsing the internet. (The latest research shows consumers don't mind online advertising, but they prefer to only see ads relevant to them.)

Here's how MySurvey.com AdTracker works:

• Browse the internet as usual - cookies are used to track the advertisements that are served to you (no software applications to download). Visit our privacy policy to learn more about how we use cookies.
• Not every advertisement you see is tracked, only a select number of advertisements that our clients have registered through this research program are tracked.
• MySurvey.com AdTracker does not track if you click on that advertisement, only if it was served to you. Additionally, this research program does not track any websites you visit, click-stream data or any other internet activities or behaviors.
• As always the data collected is kept in the strictest of confidence and only aggregated data (group level) is released to our clients.
  

Benefits for participation:

• Help companies target advertisements that are relevant to you and your lifestyle.
• Receive surveys that are targeted more to your lifestyle and the things you own and use.
• Receive an entry into our bi-monthly $10,000 sweepstakes each day you participate.
• Receive an entry into the MySurvey.com AdTracker monthly sweepstakes. Members opted-in to MySurvey.com AdTracker the entire month will receive one chance to win $1,000.
  

As an active member you are automatically enrolled in MySurvey.com AdTracker unless you chose to opt-out. To opt-out, click Update Your Info on the top menu and uncheck the MySurvey.com AdTracker option on that page.

What do you think of this new way to gather consumer opinions? If you are a member of MySurvey will you stay opted in for AdTracker or will you opt-out? I think I am going to stay opted in, I mean I don't have to download anything. I also can improve the amount of surveys targeted to me plus get entered into two separate sweepstakes, its pretty much a win-win situation.

MySurvey Product Test

Today I received a product test from MySurvey, I totally forgot I completed a survey that stated I would get this product to test. Of course I can't disclose to you what the product exactly is, lets just say it's a food product. So for all those people out there that want to participate in product tests, MySurvey sends invites here and there considering you qualify of course.

MySurvey is part of TNS(Taylor Nelson Sofres PLC), TNS is ranked as the world’s largest provider of custom research and analysis, operating globally across 70 countries. TNS has been collecting the opinions of US consumers since 1946 as National Family Opinion and then NFO. The current MySurvey.com website was created in 2001 to enable consumers to express their opinions online. You will notice the panel for Canadian and European residents is called TNS where as the panel for United States residents is called MySurvey(also known as NFO).