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The smartphone is everywhere, and any time you look around, you're surrounded by people using them - on the bus, train, at the airport. While some people might be playing games, others are using their phone to make real money. Here’s how you can too, without getting burnt out from it.
Whether it's going to the car dealership or browsing the sales rack at your favorite store, we have all had what brands call a poor "user experience" ("UX"). Retailers, gyms, websites - any company that sells anything is looking for feedback on how to improve their products and experiences. That’s where you come in and cash in.
- Brands will pay you for your honest feedback.
- Most online surveys take less than 10-15 minutes to complete and pay out anywhere from pocket change to a few bucks.
- Some active survey takers earn hundreds of dollars per month taking surveys.
- You may not be eligible for every survey, as some brands want feedback only from a specific segment of their customers.
Surveying Survey Needs
Tech Requirements
Thankfully, it’s now much easier to complete surveys from your phone, and you no longer need a desktop PC, phone line and printer to submit and cash in with surveys.
Do make sure you have a reliable cell signal or WiFi connection, as you may not receive credit for completing a survey if your internet connection is disrupted. It can be frustrating to be 10 pages into a lucrative survey you know will pay well, and your mobile connection cuts out. The page may crash or reload, which could kick you back to the beginning. This is an unfortunate side effect of how many survey sites build their infrastructure, which means it might not be the best idea to plan on answering surveys while traveling.
Financial Requirements
You’ll need an account to deposit the money you earn answering surveys. Some firms will allow you to connect and deposit into a Paypal or Venmo account, while others require a traditional bank account. Should you take surveys for prepaid debit cards or gift cards that someone promises to mail to you? Probably not, and as a general rule, the longer it takes for you to get your compensation after completing a survey, the more suspect the site.
Important Note
If you expect to be waiting around in your car, doing work far from an office, or in places where up/download speeds are known to be terrible, test before you take a survey! It’s always better to find out your surveys can’t work in 3G before you schedule time to crank through them in your truck.
If you don’t have the banking paperwork required to start answering surveys for a new site, take a moment to evaluate how much money you can reasonably expect to make on the site. If what you make won’t cover the fees needed to open a new account or the hours needed to get set up, get back to surveys on the sites you know work well for you.
Red Flags & Warning Signs
- You won’t be asked for your Social Security number, and should beware of anyone asking for info beyond account information, and banking info for your payment.
- Unless you were friends with a survey employee before, if they reach out anywhere besides pre-agreed channels, that's a big privacy violation and the employee should be reported.
- Onboarding varies from site to site, but generally, new user onboarding should boil down to four steps:
- You fill out an application to join the site.
- They ask you for verifying information & an account for your pay.
- You get a verification email or SMS code to your phone.
- You verify and get to your dashboard where you fill out profile info and start taking surveys!
Anything before, beyond or besides that? We’d recommend checking out reviews on the site before giving them any identifying information. They could be sleeper hits, they could be scams.
Heating Up!
We talked to a number of survey takers on and off the Bridge app to learn how you can take more surveys, earn more money, and if there are any hacks that you should be using. Here’s what we learned:
Entering your information correctly the first time is critical, or else you may be disqualified from the survey. For example, if you mistakenly enter incorrect info for your age, location, or any other qualifying demographic fields, your entire survey could be thrown out when it’s reviewed.
Surveys rarely remain on platforms for long. If you see a survey you know you qualify for, start right away. The highest paying surveys usually fill up in hours, if not minutes! Power users have kept a notes file on their phone to quickly copy and paste longer fields they know will be on multiple surveys. Others will even test surveys on different browsers, finding out which offer the most streamlined survey-taking experience. Top earners open their survey apps & sites in places where they know they can set aside 15-20 minutes just in case they see a survey they would hate to miss.
Veteran survey takers will seek out more lucrative surveys that pay more for providing audio or video responses or those that require more time to complete. Generally, 4 out of 5 surveys can be completed on the go. If you’re really grinding though, you may want to be somewhere quiet and comfortable to complete the more immersive surveys. Keep some headphones on you when taking surveys to make audio or video responses easier to complete.
Many veteran survey takers also reminded us to not overthink it. There is money to be made if you put in the time and remain patient. If you stick with it, streamline your survey-taking, and block time accordingly, the coins will add up.
Get Started!
Your phone is charged, you’ve got a few minutes of quiet and your accounts (perhaps even your Bridge account) are set up. It’s time to earn! If you still have questions, check out r/SampleSize, a subreddit dedicated to polls, surveys, and survey research!
