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Surveys are not for disorganized or impatient people.
Most surveys ask up front that you provide honest and accurate information,
and that once you start the survey, you promise to complete it. Always
be sure you have planned enough undisturbed time in order to complete survey
assignments. Don’t cheat. The survey company may kick out your survey,
or even kick you off their survey panel, if you try to be someone that you’re
not.
Survey questions are often repetitive. You may be asked to rate three
or four different brands of a type of product on the same 50 characteristics.
Unless you like detailed and exacting work it is easy to get bored and give
up mid-way through such a survey. Set aside enough time to answer these
detailed surveys undisturbed. If you get distracted it may become impossible
to complete the survey and all the time put into it will be wasted.
If you engage in surveys that require signing up for a number of offers
and actually buying something before you can claim the reward, you must
keep stellar records in order to document that you have followed all of
the steps to claim the prize. You need to keep track of how and when to
cancel in order to avoid unnecessary fees.
If doing paid surveys is a side business, you need to keep track of income
and expenses in order to prepare accurate business and tax records. You’ll
want to record how long you spent each day on survey taking so you can determine
if your time is being expended wisely.
If you are product testing there may be reports to submit by a deadline.
Failure to produce will probably get you disqualified from future testing
assignments.
Keeping all survey work in one separate email account will go a long way
to keeping this activity separate from other aspects of your life and will
help to keep this activity better organized.
Clearly, survey work is not for everyone. Whether you just want an interesting
hobby, or you want to make a little supplemental cash from home, doing surveys
will work best if:
- You are a typical consumer with a typical spending demographic;
- You happen to be a member of a minority;
- You have a minimum of 30 minutes per day to devote to taking surveys;
- You have other sources of regular income and are not depending on survey
work for a full time income;
- You have a high tolerance for detail and organization;
- You have a wide variety of interests, activities and general knowledge.
If you fit the description, then you may find survey taking an interesting
and rewarding thing to do.
Important Questions You Must Ask and Answer Before You Do Surveys
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