How to get free coffee

I’m in marketing, and I love asking questions. My company doesn’t have the resources to do a lot of focus groups, but we often survey our customers (or prospective customers) for their opinions.  One of the best ways I’ve found to learn about good survey techniques is to take other people’s surveys.

So I figured, if I’m going to take surveys, I should make some cash.  I mean, everyone and their mother “makes money at home, taking surveys,” right?  I was skeptical, but gave it a ride.

I had some success, so I thought I’d share it here.

I explored a bunch of sites:

• HCD Surveys
• MySurvey.com
• Global Test Market
• Opinion Outpost

None of them delivered on the perception that taking surveys results in a huge stream of cash, goods to test and free services.  But one did manage to make me $50 in 7 weeks.

Opinion Outpost is the best

First, this was the only site that actually gave me a chance to take surveys! I got Opinion Outpost surveys daily, sometimes multiple times daily.  I got 72 Opinion Outpost surveys in the time I got 4 total from the other 3 sites.  There are pre-screening questions before each survey (for the benefiting company to control data), so I got kicked out of a lot of surveys before taking them.  I actually only completed 24 of those 72 surveys.

Second, each survey has some meaningful value.  Surveys average $1.50-$4.00 each.  On the other sites, they were a factor of 10 less.  Do the math.   Also, each averages about 15 minutes.  So I spent about 6 hours taking surveys in nearly 2 months, and averaged $8.33/hr.

Free Coffee

So, while spending dead time at work or home learning about proper (and sometimes crappy) survey techniques, I earned about $7/week.  That’s 14 coffees/week for my handy dandy Nescafe Dolce Gusto machine (man I love that thing).  That’s more than enough coffee for this guy.

Spend idle time (or get a break from work) to learn about how to ask good questions, and earn a few bucks that I can cash in for my coffee habit? Not bad.

Click here if you want to sign up for Opinion Outpost, and I’ll get $2. How altruistic of you.