All About Testspin

In our contest post from yesterday, We mentioned Testspin as one way to earn a little extra money, which generated a fair amount of interest from the comments we've received.

 

In essence, Testspin is one of a growing number of survey sites that will pay you to do online research questionaires. If you hear anyone telling you that you'll get rich from taking online surveys, laugh them off. It certainly isn't the financial cure that even some of the survey sites themselves make it out to be.

 

Basically, upon signing up to the site, you'll be asked to fill out a profile. This profile is used to match you to possible surveys. You don't get paid for these, but they will vastly increase your chances for future surveys.

 

Then the fun, or sometimes frustrating part, begins. Watch your Email for survey invitations. We've quoted part of one below so you have an idea of how they're written:

 

Dear Testspin Member:
TestSpin on behalf of its client is conducting an important research study. We are interested in getting some feedback from some of our members. This survey should take you about 15 minutes to complete. For completion of this survey you will receive $2.00 deposited directly in your TestSpin bank account approximately 4 weeks after the quotas have been filled and the study has ended. Please read the questions carefully and provide accurate responses, your responses may be reviewed from time to time as it is important that we provide valid data to our clients and maintain the integrity of our panel.

IMPORTANT: There will be several questions asked to find out if you qualify and you must qualify and complete the entire survey for us to deposit your gift certificate
award.

So you can see a few things from this Email. First, the pay isn't great. $2 for their 15 minute estimate is $8 per hour. On the bright side, this particular survey didn't actually take me that long, so $2 for 5-10 minutes of work wasn't as bad.

 

Also notice the section about qualifying questions. Survey companies are usually looking for specific groups of people. You will generally be asked a few questions to see if you qualify. There's nothing more annoying than filling out part of a survey only to be told that you didn't qualify. No qualification means no rewards, Amazon gift certificates in the case of Testspin.

 

Finally, when signing up for any survey site, it's important to note the minimum amount required to get paid. For Testspin, it's only $10 which I find reasonable. Others require higher amounts of $50 or more, so an amount of dedication is required for these sites.

 

If you have other questions about surveys or want to post experiences of your own, leave a comment.