different types of rewards-random questions

[~~Who,Me?~~]

I was wondering what everyone's experience is with the different sites that do NOT offer either $$ or gift cards. Like synovate--they send me stuff all the time, and when I read the email it always says something like "when you do this survey, you'll get 50 entries in our monthly drawing to win $500." Personally, I'd rather just have 2 or 3 bucks, instead of a virtual lottery ticket, kwim?

It just seems like finding companies that pay you in either gift cards or cash is hard to find--all I have is Opinion Outpost, Valued Opinions and Pinecone (and they've only ever sent me 1 survey, ever!).

And does anyone else do FocusFwd? I've only been signed up since last spring and they don't contact me often, but I'm getting very leery of them. They always say that they have some focus group available, with big payouts--always $150 or more--and then it's a long, involved survey to qualify, and surprise, surprise....I never qualify. So I'm starting to wonder if this isn't their gimmick, to get me to do their surveys for free, by dangling that carrot in front of me.

[blossomed]

Synovate should also allow you to earn cash. It's like 100-500 points per survey and then 5000 points is a $5.00 check and so on. I earned a one $5.00 check from them and so far they have sent me 3 different products to try 2 foods and one perfume. The foods come on dry ice in these HUGE boxes. Tonight I am having a crostini that they sent.

log on to your account and check your points balance - you might be happily surprised!

I think the virtual lottery tickets are in addition to the points.

[amylynne01]

I get products to try from Synovate but they're through other survey programs like Opinion Outpost and Lightspeed. I really don't waste my time on the sweepstakes entries because they're not sure things. I can do a 10 minute survey for a CHANCE to win $500, or I can do a 10 minute survey for a SURE $1, so I go for the sure thing.

Here are the survey sites I use and get either pp or Amazon codes from:
Opinion Outpost (pp or Amazon)
Valued Opinions (Amazon)
MySurvey (pp or Amazon)
Lightspeed (pp or Amazon)
Reward Port (pp or Amazon)
Mindfield (pp)

[~~Who,Me?~~]

Yes, I've tested products several times from Synovate, but it's also always been because I did a survey from either VO or OO. I don't even remember signing up from them, but I get emails directly from them. Like you, I prefer the sure thing. Heck I won't even do free surveys anymore--like when the hospital sends them to me in the mail (after my son was in for a few days) or when I get a popup when I'm online shopping.

[sbp]

I don't do any of the surveys that pay you only in sweepstakes entries - they are not worth my time to do.

One of my favorite survey sites that no one else seems to talk much about is Viewpoint Forum. They don't send alot of survey invites, only 1 or 2 a month generally, but I qualify for the ones I do get 99% of the time. Cashout is 375 points = $10.00 and I've always received my checks fairly quickly when I've cashed out.

Opinion Outpost is another great one, but lately I don't qualify for more than I do qualify for.

There's 5 sites that I belong to that have surveys (which I rarely qualify for) but most of the points that I've racked up are from reading their emails and clicking a link to visit a site or to confirm I've read it. In my order of preference, Mypoints, Inbox Dollars, Send Earnings, rewardport and memolink.

I did an experiment last month to see how I did with my surveys and email clicking sites and posted about it over in our Referrals forum. Some companies I earned quite a few points for cash from, others not so much.

[faeryedark]

Synovate always pays me for PTs and I hardly ever get a survey for just a sweeps entry.
Say Nation is another I belong to. They always give you points even if you DQ you get 25. Some surveys are for 1000 points, others are for 500 and some for 4000. At around 12000 you can cash out for some GCs.
I also belong to E-Poll and I get amazon from them as well.

[honeybear1]

I qualified for a focus group with focusforward and did get paid $75-- so its not a scam. the calls from them are few and far between, but they are legit!

[pilesoflaundry]

I gave up on Synovate because I only ever got the entires.

Inbox or e-rewards is doing good for me.(though I only do emails from inboxdollars, I hate their surveys) E-rewards goes so much faster to get gift cards. Funny thing is dh and I both have an account but the better rewards only show in mine, no idea why.

Pinecone didn't want me but dh got accepted and gets paid at least once a month or so.

I'm also a mypoints member and I hate their surveys. They either ask me 30 questions and then suddenly tell me I don't qualify or they show up "offer not available". Though sometimes I get lucky and after 2 questions they decline me but at least that's 10 points.