![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marahmarie discusses their experience using Opinion Outpost in this post. If you need a little extra money and have the time and internet access, it sounds like a not-too-bad way to get some.The sign up page requires you to choose whether you are either male or female.
Debating on adding this info to my post...some FYI for your readers
Date: 2014-01-15 09:39 pm (UTC)From:Most surveys will ask for your:
--Gender
--Age
--Marital Status
--Race, and often also your ethnicity
--Location (usually a zip code)
--Total yearly income before taxes
--Education level
--Population density of area you live in (suburban, urban, rural)
--How many people live in your household, total
--How many, if any, children live in your household
Some surveys go even further, depending on what they are about, what they want or will do for you afterward (ie, send follow up surveys or free samples) or what they think they must know to ensure you can legally use whatever they are polling you on (ie, cigarettes, alcohol, political views, religion) by asking you for:
--How you identify sexually
--Your religion, if any
--Your political affiliations/primary political parry, if any
--The gender of any adults living with you, and your relationship status to them
--Your street address
--Your phone number
--Your email address
On matters of race it seems particularly trying for Hispanics as most surveys don't consider hailing from any particular Spanish speaking country as being of a Hispanic "race". If you don't identify as white, black, or another broadly accepted race, but feel very close to and identify most with your Hispanic roots, it seems it can be very trying to fill out the demographic sections of these surveys.
Re: Debating on adding this info to my post...some FYI for your readers
Date: 2014-01-16 03:07 am (UTC)From:For gender, I'd likely choose the one I'm generally seen as. The male/female question often irks people like me though; that's why I pointed it out in my post. Especially as the answer might be used to filter which surveys one is presented with, which might be additionally irksome.
I'd be uncomfortable giving out my street address and phone number though, unless it were solely for the purpose of sending me something, and guaranteed not to be used for marketing. Do they usually ask those questions up front, or at the end of the survey? Is providing that info generally optional or required, when it is asked?
Something I was wondering from your post is, when you take everything into consideration, about how much money per hour have you been making? You listed the $ you earned, but do you have an idea of how many hours total you spent each month to get that money?
I'm not likely to be using the site myself, as I've got a full time job. But some other people on my list may be interested.
Re: Debating on adding this info to my post...some FYI for your readers
Date: 2014-01-16 06:22 am (UTC)From:It didn't bother me much until I noticed you can get dq'd (disqualified) from certain surveys for not fitting a still-open slot in the demographics that your particular profile might not match. Par for the course, I guess...
I'd explain how you can tell you're getting bounced out of a survey for "failing" a demographic question but the clues can vary so much from one survey to another that it's probably better for people to discern these things for themselves.
The male/female question often irks people like me though; that's why I pointed it out in my post.
It irks me, too, thanks to many years of enlightenment at the hands of my fellow Dreamwidthians as to why they feel it is an issue. So I'm glad you've pointed that out.
I think when marketers begin to realize there are more than two genders (he/she) to market to that they'll start coughing up more gender pronouns. I also think that will take at least another five years. Checking the "prefer not to answer/refused" checkbox is the only known third option in existence, and only on some surveys, and it's a piss-poor option at that and one that's highly likely to get you dq'd if you decide to use it.
I'd be uncomfortable giving out my street address and phone number though, unless it were solely for the purpose of sending me something, and guaranteed not to be used for marketing. Do they usually ask those questions up front, or at the end of the survey? Is providing that info generally optional or required, when it is asked?
To be clear, you can be asked these questions. You aren't usually or always asked these questions. And of course you're under no obligation to answer these questions, although not answering them on certain surveys that need to, say, verify your age using your name/address in order to poll your opinions on any alcohol you may consume may get you dq'd for obvious reasons.
Whether the questions are asked up front or at the end of the survey depends on the topic of the survey (and usually are asked up front only on certain alcohol surveys).
On certain surveys regarding alcohol, you may be asked these questions up front so the survey site can check your information against a driver's license database they have access to. If your info matches what's in it (that is, if they can prove to themselves you're 21 or older) then you may proceed to qualify for the survey.
Alcohol surveys (and only a few - certainly not most of them) are the only ones I've seen so far that might demand this more-personal data right up front. There may be other surveys that do so as well that I'm just not aware of.
Normally the only surveys that will ask you for such info at the end of questioning are those that would like to send you a free sample of something (usually the 'something' is the same product discussed during the survey, and you usually won't be asked if you'd like a sample unless you show some interest in it before the questioning concludes).
Phone numbers and email addresses are usually only asked for at the end (or toward the end) of surveys that want to a) send you a sample, then follow up with you offsite somehow (through a followup survey not offered by Opinion Outpost, for example, or by phone) or b) that are offering for you to join their panel, use their website, etc. The second scenario is rare but it has happened to me several times.
Something I was wondering from your post is, when you take everything into consideration, about how much money per hour have you been making?
I don't go by that, because if I did I might be tempted to stop doing surveys. The amount of money would have to be averaged out, anyhow, because surveys pay all different amounts.
The pay per survey is calculated by OO based on apparent length-of-time and tasks-performed-during-survey algorithms that I think they employ, based on "their own people" taking the surveys before we, the survey takers, can take them ourselves (and OMG, I would love to be one of those people just to influence, hopefully for the better, how much we make per survey).
The least you will make per survey is one prize draw (this offer is quite rare overall, though, thankfully). The second-least you will make is 50 Opinion Points per survey. (One point = 10 cents, 50 points = 5.00, 100 points = $10.00.)
On any given day you will make anywhere from .50 cents to say, $5 per survey, sometimes more. Because surveys are worth all different amounts depending on the algorithms employed, there is no formal or even informal per-hour amount to project my earnings on, because on top of that, even given an assumed .50 cent per survey minimum, there is no set amount of surveys you get to take each day. Some days you may pre-qualify for only five or seven surveys, and be lucky to take all of those. Other days you may pre-qualify for up to 27 surveys, and fully qualify for maybe just eight or 15. It all depends on what surveys are available each day and whether you qualify for some, all, or none of them. It's a crap shoot.
I can give you rounder, fuzzier figures, though: I make on average $10 every 2-3 days, and spend an average of 5-8 hours doing that. YMMV.
So my hourly pay would surely work out pretty close to the average amount per survey I stated in my post ($1.15) - that is, I might make $1-$1.50 an hour most of the time. That's why my OP said, more or less, if you're looking to make decent money (or heck, at least minimum wage) probably don't give up your day job - or look to replace one - by doing this.
Re: Debating on adding this info to my post...some FYI for your readers
Date: 2014-01-16 02:05 pm (UTC)From:Your comment must still have a typo, as you wrote the 2nd least amount you'll make is 50 points, with 50 points = $5. I assume you meant that the 2nd least amount you'll make is 0.50 per survey.
Re: Debating on adding this info to my post...some FYI for your readers
Date: 2014-01-17 12:54 am (UTC)From: (Anonymous)Re: Debating on adding this info to my post...some FYI for your readers
Date: 2014-01-17 12:55 am (UTC)From: