The Reason Why Paid Survey Sites Multiply Faster Than Bacteria

Imagine if you could make a dollar every time you handed someone a special sheet of paper. To earn the dollar, all you would have to do is get people to read that sheet of paper.

Normally, you would think that making money in this fashion would be a great thing. However, you would soon find out that you'd have a very big problem on your hands: copycats.

Generate huge amounts of cash for yourself and people will always take notice. Not only will they copy your business model, but they will do anything they can do make their business look good while making your business look bad.

Enter the infamous paid survey site. Websites that claim you can make big bucks by taking a few surveys online every now and then.

It wasn't long ago when I first saw one of these sites and thought to myself: "Wow, what a great way to make a little extra cash for myself."

Little did I know, this was just one of a million other survey sites out there basically offering the same type of deal. I was under the impression that the site I joined was reputable and unique.

That couldn't be further from the truth. Hundreds, if not thousands of these paid survey sites exist. Unfortunately 99% of them are exactly the same.

Why so many clones you ask? It's because paid survey sites are similar to the "sheet of paper" example that I mentioned earlier. Paid survey sites are a profitable business and they are incredibly easy to copy.

Let's take an example:

Joe spends a Sunday afternoon surfing the web and stumbles across a paid survey site. He reads that he can get paid for his opinion by taking surveys online. All he has to do is pay an upfront membership fee to access the database of companies who send out the surveys.

Joe signs up, pays the membership fee, takes a few surveys and makes a few extra bucks. Joe then becomes aware that this paid survey site business model works like a charm. It was able to convince him to pay to access the directory, so why wouldn't it be able to convince other people?

Joe then decides to create a survey site of his own. He already has the big list of survey companies from the site he previously joined. The only thing he has to do is register a domain name, purchase a web host, put a page together and voila: a new paid survey site is born!

So now, not only does Joe receive money from the surveys he's taking, but also from the upfront membership fee he charges his visitors to access the exact same list of survey companies that got him started in the first place!

Each person that signs up at Joe's new website represents yet another possibility that he or she will take notice of this survey site business model and create one them self.

Thus you can see just how quickly these types of sites are copied. They really do multiply faster than bacteria!

But what does this mean for you?

Well, quite frankly, you're getting ripped off. Not only are these paid survey sites copycats of one another, the list of companies that they charge you for is actually available for free!

Yes, you read that right. These survey companies are not classified C.I.A documents. They're out there on the web to be found. They're just looking to do market research and they need help from people like you to give opinions on their products.

The trouble lies in knowing where to find these companies. That's where these paid survey sites enter the picture. Upon paying the membership fee, you are given access to a huge, neatly organized list of companies that send out the surveys.

But I would wager you would have an uneasy feeling inside your stomach knowing you're paying for something that you know is freely available. Am I right?

Those were my feelings as well, so I decided to do some legwork and create a website listing some of the top survey companies without charging a fee upfront to access them.

After all, not everyone wants to be known as bacteria.

For over three years, Michael Hole has been an online entrepreneur and is the creator of several websites, including one of the best sources to find free listings of paid survey companies: http://www.WealthBySurveys.com

Are Paid Surveys For Real?

Do you prefer Frosted Flakes or Raisin Bran? What kind of car do you think you'll buy next? Can you name 10 brands of beer?

If you think it might be fun to answer questions like the ones above, you're a good candidate to take paid surveys.

While some people still find it hard to believe, it's absolutely true that companies are willing to pay you to take surveys. Why? It's simple; your opinions matter.

For example, before a company releases (or even makes) a product, they need to know if it's a good idea. After all, they don't want to incur the huge costs of creating and marketing something that won't sell. So they hire a market research company to survey people (like you) and find out what they think.

Similarly, some companies just want to identify trends or discover ways of improving existing products. Do you prefer their product or one of their competitor's? Why? Is it cost? Is it quality? Something else? If you could change their product to make it better, what would you tweak? All of that information is incredibly valuable to a company. And they're willing to pay for it.

That's where you come in.

All you need to do is join a market research panel. The more panels you join, the more paid surveys you'll get. The good news: there are a lot of panels online and they're all free to join. The bad news: there are a lot of panels online.

Finding the best companies to join is difficult. But you have a few options.

1) Do it yourself.

You can search online for market research companies, ask friends who may have experience taking paid surveys, etc. This can be pretty time consuming. Another difficulty may be trying to decipher which market research companies send frequent surveys or which ones pay the most. Why take the time to join a company if they're defunct, rarely send surveys, or pay minuscule amounts for your time? You'll either never receive any paid surveys or those that you do get won't be worth taking.

2) Pay a web site.

There are many web sites which claim to have extensive lists of companies that will pay to take surveys. Most of these sites charge people $35 - $50 to gain access to their list. If you go this route, make sure the list only contains active companies (so you don't waste time on companies that no longer exist) and gives details about which ones are the best to join. It's also a good idea to verify the site offers a money-back satisfaction guarantee. If you're not happy with the list or promises of riches that never materialize (some of the sites make pretty lofty claims about possible income), don't be shy about asking for a refund.

3) Visit a free web site.

If you don't want to shell out the cash, finding a web site that offers a list for free is your best option. You probably won't find a list as large as the pay sites offer but you should be able to discover at least a dozen quality companies worth joining. For most people, that's more than enough to keep them busy.

Whatever path you take on your way to becoming a paid survey expert, it's important to remember one thing: taking paid surveys is a hobby, not a job. Keep that in mind and you'll always enjoy it.

The author is the webmaster of http://www.GetPaidGuides.com, a directory of honest companies that reward people for doing things online - like taking surveys, accepting offers, and reading email

Make Money Online With High-Paying Surveys, Auto-Surfing, and Data Entry, Using Very Little Money

With the advent of the internet, a new world of hope and opportunities has been made available to everyone. The problem is, this same world has been laden with many scams and con- artists as well, taking advantage of people looking to make a good income online. While there are almost an unlimited amount of ways to make money online, I will just focus on the three methods that have personally made me a fortune and hope that someday it will do the same for you.

Method One: Paid Surveys Online This first method has been made quite popular in recent years due to its ease and speed of making money. You get paid on a one-time basis by various companies to take a survey of your opinions about either an idea, product, movie, or any consumer item you can think of. These companies pay money for real people to evaluate their products because they need legitimate, real-world opinions about how good or bad their products are, or if there are any flaws associated with them. It is done all the time and it is very cost-effective for these companies to do these surveys, rather than go ahead with mass production and simply put the product out on the mass market, untested, where it may or may not be successful.

There are always new products being put out by successful companies so that they can stay competitive in today's fast-paced world, thus ensuring that there will always be a steady flow of surveys that will pay anyone to evaluate their products. This is how anyone can make a decent living if they wish to pursue this type of occupation full-time.

Paid surveys are subjected to frauds and scam artists because some unscrupulous individuals actually trick you into taking their surveys that claim they pay you, but never do. The real objective of these scammers is to collect your personal information, bombard it with spam and unsolicited advertisements, and maybe even sell your personal information to other third-parties.

The most common method of scamming people is to get someone to join their paid survey program, fill in their personal information, and then take a few surveys. This is what legitimate paid survey programs do. However, when you take the scam-surveys, they ask you questions, you answer them, and then are redirected to another website that asks for more personal information, and sometimes money from you. A legitimate paid survey would never or almost never ask you for money from you or more personal information other than the information you already gave them when you first agreed to take their surveys.

Most surveys pay from $5 dollars USD to $75 dollars USD, sometimes more or less. They can take anywhere from a few minutes to almost an hour to complete, depending on how much the company is paying you. The higher the dollar amount, the longer the survey will take to complete, generally.

I personally can complete the $75 dollar surveys in about 50 minutes, so that can give you an idea of how much you can make if you did this full-time. The $5 dollar surveys takes me about 3 minutes to finish.

Method Two: Data Entry Online This method involves filling in a few blank advertising text-boxes for various marketing companies. You get paid a commission if the company is able to sell their products through the ad you just typed in for them. This is far more lucrative than doing paid surveys, but does require a little startup capital of say, $25 dollars in addition to the memebership fee to join these companies.

Legitimate companies will tell you what to input into the text-boxes and do all the marketing for you. These companies actually find it cheaper to pay someone on a commission basis to do some of the grunt work for them, while they can concentrate on marketing and creating sales-ads (which is what these companies tell you to input into the ad text-boxes).

The scam companies want you to do all the work, come up with the marketing, pay for everything, including marketing costs, and then when the sales are made, they do not pay you your commission.

Method Three: Auto-Surfing This is my new favorite form of making money online. It involves joining a website that will require you to "auto-surf" webpages for you to get paid. Auto-surfing is simply letting your web-browsesr visit websites submitted by advertisers for about 10-30 seconds each. When your browser visits the minimum amount of websites (usually 50), you are rewarded with money based on how much cash you paid into the auto-surfing website (this is called your membership/upgrade level). Note that I said your web-browser, not you, doing the work. That means you just log in, click the auto-surf link, and then let the computer do all the work for you. Making money does not get easier than this.

Legitimate auto-surf programs will pay you on time. They spell out all the rules and agreements in their Frequently Asked Questions links. They also pay somewhere around 1% to 3% of your memebership level, each day. Any number higher than that is very likely a ponzi scheme. These auto-surf programs also are backed by businesses or foreign currency exchange, which is why they can afford to pay out such high returns. They also place a small cap on how high your membership level can go, which is how these programs stay in business and not make them go bankrupt. Some programs also have membership expirations, which means the amount of money you put into the programs disappears after a fixed time (usually 1 year). You are also usually limited to one or two accounts, in addition to the membership level cap.

It is entirely possible to earn several thousand dollars a month doing legitimate auto-surf programs, but that usually costs around $20,000 dollars initially. The upside is, you can start auto-surfing with as little as $6 or $10 dollars, and work your way up from there, and still earn that 1%-3% per day on that.

Scam auto-surf programs usually offer ridiculously high returns each day, with an impossible membership expiry duration. For example, an auto-surf that pays 7% daily and upgrades never expire, is very likely a ponzi scheme. However, an auto-surf that pays 12% daily with an expiry of 12 days, is not since if you really look closely at the numbers, the returns per month is relatively low, but high enough to keep everyone happy.

Another sign of auto-surf scams is that they simply do not pay but continually ask for more money despite the company's "problems." It is best to go with auto-surfs that pay on time and have had relatively good reviews by people on the internet.

Most autosurfs pay you weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. Any duration longer than that is asking for trouble.

Sarah Lauren is a self-made rich woman who runs her own business reviews and scam-watch website at www.richlemongal.com in addition to explaining her own personal experiences with various money-making online programs. She has spent several thousand dollars of her own money researching what are the legitimate programs and which are not (and losing thousands as well). She also explains

Manufacturing Optimism Survey by TR Cutler, Inc

Every two years the Manufacturing Marketing firm, TR Cutler, Inc. conducts a national survey about the optimism of manufacturers throughout the U.S. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported the survey results at: http://www.jsonline.com/bym/news/dec05/380879.asp

When last conducted, November 2003, the manufacturing sector was coming out of a long-term slump. Indeed the economy of the manufacturing sector has improved drastically in the past two years. Among the 2429 privately-held manufacturers surveyed, optimism was stronger in almost all geographic sectors, with few exceptions. The most optimist geographic regions are:

With a rating of >70% saying 2006 will be better or much better than 2005

Louisville (77.1%) Dayton (76.9%) Dallas (76.3%) Cleveland (76.1%) Milwaukee (75.2%) Kansas City (75.0%) Atlanta (74.1%) Nashville (73.6%) Memphis (73.1%) Tampa (72.2%) Charlotte (71.8%) Cincinnati (71.6%) Chicago (71.4%) Orlando (71.2%) San Antonio (70.8%)

According to Cutler, "Milwaukee has really rebounded since we last conducted this manufacturing optimism survey. The mean age of the manufacturing CEO's was considerably younger than two years ago and apparently some of this "fresh blood" has really impacted the overall enthusiasm and optimism for the manufacturing sector."

Thomas R. Cutler, who founded the consortium in 1999, has grown the participation from 300 journalists to more than two thousands key clients, journalists, editors, trendsetters, and key business leaders worldwide. Cutler has authored more than 1000 articles for a wide range of manufacturing periodicals, industrial publications, and business journals including most of the leading monthly trade publications. TR Cutler, Inc., (www.trcutlerinc.com), is the nation's largest manufacturing marketing and public relations firm, based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

TR Cutler, Inc. www.trcutlerinc.com Thomas Cutler 954-486-7562

How Online Surveys Can Make You Money?

Have you heard of the websites that offer payment in lieu of taking online surveys? Yes this is true. Anyone who has recently browsed the avenues of work-at-home jobs must have seen such alluring ads. It must have made you wonder? how online surveys can make you money. I am here to explain you all that. So, keep reading.

In fact, the online surveys include the whole process that claims to help people to earn money. For that, first you need to register with the website and then file out for consumer surveys. Whether you can earn money out of them or not, is altogether a different story.

The Internet these days is full of such websites that offer to pay their visitors for filling the surveys. As you register on the website, they ask you to fill out a questionnaire that lists your individual ?consumer preferences? and ?interests?. Once you are through with it, you will be requested to wait till they make contact with you for the apt survey.

Do companies actually pay money to know your favorite brand of dog biscuits or how much time you spend viewing a particular television programme? According to the grapevine however, the money doesn?t come to you always. The company that seeks for consumer information will directly pay the survey company
, who will pile up the survey details and statistics. A very little amount out of it, if it is any thing, is transferred to the persons who had filled out the online surveys.

If you seriously want to make money through online surveys, you really need to invest your time and money to search for the companies who actually pay money. The legitimate online surveys from genuine companies take quite a long time. They make you think and then give valid answers to fill out the form. The companies do advertise boastfully, but most of them actually end up not paying.

There will also be some companies who will offer you points for incurring their online surveys. You can save up these points for the exchange of money. Imagine the little mouse of your computer could be worth more than 500 points! But the reality of the situation is also that you may get just two to three points per survey.

Some companies enter the survey fillers in a drawing after they complete the survey. The chances of anyone winning these drawings enough number of times or earning part time or full time income are actually very slim. If you will spend your worthy hours filling the online surveys and get a little sum of money as compensation, do you think it is fair?

In your search for the genuine companies, beware of those companies who may require you to give money to get a list of the online survey websites who really pay. If any website asks you for money to let you take online surveys, it can instantly be considered as a scam. You must avoid such sites at all the costs.

Online surveys can get you fun and money both but only when they are genuine. If you consider the online surveys as a source of good income or employment, honey better get a career switch!

Matt Garrett www.Paid-Surveys.Co.UK/a> www.Surveys-For-Money.Com

Ten Reasons Why Online Surveys are the Future Of Marketing

 

Customers are tough cookies. They're extremely media aware and increasingly cynical it's a clever marketeer who can get under their skin. Online surveys reinvent the traditional format and offer a unique way of interaction all the benefits of the internet without the programming.

Here are ten reasons why they may be the silver bullet marketeers' need, complete with examples supplied by Martin Day, managing director of Survey Galaxy - one of a new breed of websites making online surveys quicker and cheaper.

1. It's cheap as buttons

Select the right survey website and creating surveys can be free of any charge and the cost to publish is minimal. Useful information harvested from surveys can be reused and repackaged in other marketing and PR for use in press outlets making it a very efficient form of information gathering.

2. It's easy peasy

Anyone can develop an online survey. Survey sites allow people who are interested in the benefits of surveys, rather than technicalities, to side-step the required programming skills and create relevant up-to-the-minute surveys, instantly surveys that are even easier to complete than they are to make.

3. Anyone can play

Once the survey is online it's a simple step to promote it, either through email (with a link enclosed), via a link from a website or referenced by other forms of advertising. Anyone who has the link can be connected instantly to the survey, at a time that's convenient to them, 24x7.

4. We've all got an opinion and we like to give it

Customers like surveys they're not seen as spam, but as an empowering opportunity to make their voice heard and a chance to have an impact on a brand. They can be particularly good for broaching sensitive subjects with concerned employees; a survey asking a workforce on their opinion of change allows the key issues to be raised in a positive way and encourages employee participation. Online surveys allow the message to reach each individual and invite feedback in a manageable form.

5. Get inside their heads

You can lead a customer to an advertisement but you can't make them think. Surveys actively engage the respondents, who think about the question before giving their response.

6. Beautiful relationships start here

It needn't all end at the end of the survey while you have their attention and are in the mood you can ask if they want to sign up for more information or a regular newsletter making the most of the window when you have their interest.

7. If you like this, you'll love

Perhaps one of the strongest elements in a survey is the ability to make inspired or useful connections instantly to other areas. By including links within the survey to websites that offer detailed information you are able to reinforce the marketing message.

8. Subtly does it

Surveys can be used to associate a product with positive attributes. By listing the many features of a product and asking the respondent how important they are, regardless of their response, the product will be associated with the features; if they are rated as important the positive impact is endorsed by the customer.

9. It's not just about selling

A survey is an effective, quick and easy method to promote and gain acceptance for a difficult proposal; maybe a public body trying to gain acceptance and support for a particular scheme. Take the example of a city trying to gain support from the general public for their bid to host a future Olympic Games. A survey can explain each benefit putting the respondent in a much better position to appreciate what the real advantages are that might just combat any negative headlines. As well as promoting the cause, useful feedback is gained that can be used to fine tune the overall marketing strategy.

10. Fresh topics engage interest

Thinking laterally a lively and imaginative approach to surveys can provide the 'hook' to engage respondents. The survey subject can be focused towards a particular group on a subject close to theirs hearts. The survey's marketing message can take the form of a simple brand awareness message by stating that 'this survey was sponsored by brand name', or by finding a link from the subject matter to the product something that is surprisingly easy and highly effective. Discover the benefits of including in your website a Public Survey section as many people who enjoy completing crosswords and doing word puzzles enjoy completing surveys. Having a public survey notice board as part of a website is a low cost and automated method that helps to increase traffic and establish a loyal and returning following. Unlike discussion boards there is no opportunity for people to disrupt the site by inappropriate remarks as the survey results are displayed in summary form enabling them to dispense with moderators free and maintenance.

Many of the techniques and a few more to boot are contained in the following sample survey:-

http://www.surveygalaxy.com/surPublishes.asp?survey_id=956

For an example of a Public Survey area please click on the following link:-

http://www.surveygalaxy.com/surPublic.asp

Martin Day is owner of Survey Galaxy Ltd. For more information visit http://www.surveygalaxy.com

martin.day@gmail.com

Paid Surveys - Interview with a Legend!

Josh: I'm here with Rob Davis today and he's going to tell us a little bit about his success with Paid Online Surveys.

So Rob, when was it that you first decided to start taking part in Paid Surveys and Focus Groups?

Rob: I've been doing Paid Surveys for about 4 years now. When I first started back in 2001, there were only a handful of Market Research Companies - who provide you with the surveys - listed on the internet. I signed up for I think 5 of them. I didnt want to turn it into a full time job because I was already working 40 hours a week down at the factory and didnt really think it would be suitable to have to complete a whole lot of surveys as I wanted to have some spare time for myself too!

Josh: Ok, yes I can imagine! So you signed up for 5 Market Research Companies(MRC's) How did that go?

Rob: It took I think 3 days before one of them replied and asked me if I wanted to take part in a survey about home appliances. I accepted and filled out their survey, which was 60 questions long and it took about 10 minutes of my time overall. Next minute I checked my account and found out that there was $50 in it! I was dumbfounded. It was at that moment I decided to start taking it seriously and have never looked back since.

Josh: Wow! So how many MRC's have you joined so far?

Rob: I'm currently a member of over 300 MRC's. There was a time where I had joined over 400 and I was making on average $6000 a month, but it was taking up too much time and I'd rather be playing golf or going on holidays with my family, so I decided to cut back a little.

Josh: Now there's probably people out there who are wondering how you came to sign up for 400 MRC's. Can you offer them some advice about; firstly how to find them and secondly which ones to go for and ones to stay away from?

Rob: Sure. Firstly it's imperative that you sign up for a Paid Survey Database, that lists all the immediate MRC's on the internet. They are usually quite cheap - about $60 for a year membership plus they also give you some free bonuses aswell. They always update their site with new information on what's going on with with all the MRC's on the internet. I'm a member of Paid Surveys Free and I believe you are aswell Josh?

Josh: Yes, yes I am.

Rob: Yes, well they provide you with more than enough MRC's to sign up for. Also they rate which ones are the best with a little information about who they provide surveys for, so you know if they're worth your time or not. I suggest you sign up for 20 of the top MRC's to begin with. Now remember MRC's are free to sign up with, so you've got nothing to lose. Within a couple of days you should get some responses for some survey invitations. If not then go and sign up for more! It's that simple. If you're looking to take it a step further and turn Paid-Survey-taking into a profitable home business like I have, then get out there and sign up for as many as possible. Don't be lazy! Make a real effort to get your name out into the world of Market Research. I didn't get to where I am today by filling out the occasional survey here and there. I spend a great deal of my day partaking in surveys and focus groups, aswell as researching new companies on the horizon. It's very important to keep up-to-date with all the new MRC's flooding the market. Infact I find that the new ones are usually potential goldmines! Sign up for them straight away and as the saying goes - "First in best dressed!"

Josh: Great. Just one final question before I let you go Rob. Can you give people, who are looking to get started, some tips about how they can maximise the number of invitations they can recieve?

Rob: Sure. Every MRC requires you to submit a small amount of information about yourself so they can find out which surveys will best suit your personality. The most important thing to remember when submitting your information is to not lie about yourself! I made that mistake once, thinking that if I made myself out to be this great person who knows pretty much everything about anything, then I might just get more responses than if I just sent them the truth. Not true. Infact some MRC's responded to me, saying that they decided to decline my membership. I was shocked and replied by asking why they would not let me join and they said that "due to my unbelievable portfolio, they were unable to find suitable surveys or focus groups for me to take part in." Which pretty much meant - "We know you're lying!"

Josh: Interesting. Anything else you'd like to add?

Rob: Create a separate email account that you will make only for your paid survey business. Turn off all the span blockers that your email provider offers as some reponses may show up in your junk mail or bulk mail. Make sure you check your email at least twice a day. You want to make sure you accept invitations straight away as they may only be offered for a short time only. Treat it like a real job! Because in theory, that's what it is. If you want to become as successful as me and many others alike, start taking it seriously, focussing as much time and energy towards building your Paid Survey business.

Josh: Thanks for your time Rob. let's just run through it again quickly. First of all, sign up for a Paid Survey Database like Paid Surveys Free. Secondly, create a separate email address just for your paid survey business, turning off your email provider's span blocker. Thirdly, join the top 20 MRC's using good truthful information about yourself. Last of all, wait a couple of days for responses and if none come, try signing up for more. If you would like to turn it into a highly profitable business, then sign up for as many MRC's as possible!

Rob: You got it!

Josh: Thanks for your time Rob. I'm sure you've helped alot of people out there looking to get started with Paid Surveys.

Rob: No worries Josh. Glad to be of service.

If you would like to find out more about Paid Surveys, visit my site with free information - Infotrate.com - and get the latest reviews for the top Paid Survey sites on the Internet, plus you can read some more articles just like the one above! http://www.infotrate.com

Josh Stanton is the Owner of infotrate.com, which provides free information all about Paid Surveys. Visit his site to find out what the Top Ten Paid Surveys are. You can also view infotrate.com's free list of Paid Survey articles - nfotrate.com/articles

 

Happy Surveying!

Are you looking for a way to make money on the Internet? Have you been fruitless? There are the schemes you sign up for that actually want money from you! Well Ive been on the web for 7 years. That is a long time to find out how the Internet works, and how I can make money from it. I believe the secret is online surveys. They are fun to do, free, you get to give your opinion to popular companies, and get money in the process. Anyone can do it and companies want people on their survey panel.

How does it work you say?

You go to an online survey companys website, and they ask you usually Do you want to join our consumer panel? You press the link, and up comes a form to fill out with your name, address (so they know where to send the check), email address, age, and other demographic information. Press Submit, and they tell you that they will email you when a survey is available. In one or two days they may send you an email with a link to a survey. They will usually tell you about the prize you will get such as If you qualify for this survey, you will receive a $5 check. Since qualify sounds like an iffy word, it is best to sign up to many survey sites, so you know at least a few of the surveys you will qualify for. They dont usually send a lot of spam or junk mail. Surveys sites do not send spam so unless you are signed up to 100 sites, you will only get about 1-5 emails a day for surveys to do. After completing a survey you can wait about 2-4 weeks for your check to be mailed to you, or can acquire points in your private account until you reach a certain amount ($10 or $25).

Its EASY, and FUN, and your actually earn CASH. So start signing up, and remember A survey a day keeps the boredom away!

Danielle Watson is a student who has made money on the Internet since 1997.
Her email is danie3304@aol.com and she has a website dedicated to listing online surveys at
http://www.webspawner.com/users/danie3304/index.html

Survey Your Site Visitors!

The Internet is changing the face of marketing research. Time was when research involved among other things, printing and mailing surveys, data entry, and long distance telephone calls. Because of the time, effort, and expense involved, surveys were done infrequently or not at all. Without valuable information collected from surveys, marketing opportunities and client feedback were often missed. The Internet is changing all of that.

Online surveys provide a fast, efficient, and flexible way to learn more about your customers and prospects. The speed of response and the flexibility of online surveys can provide an organization with critical information quickly. A product concept developed in the morning can be tested and results received the next day! Strategic decisions can be made in a fraction of the time.

Online surveys can take different forms. Below are examples:

General Website Survey - This survey is placed on a website and is open for all site visitors to take. Because the survey is open to all, the sampling cannot be controlled or considered a statistically valid poll. However, general website surveys can be significant for two reasons:
oWhile not scientific, the information collected can provide an organization with valuable information. For example, a professional baseball team asked the following question on their website, "What item would you most like to see offered at the concession stands next season?" Following this question, several food items were listed. The number one response was, cheese curds(of all things!). Although this cannot be considered the definitive answer to proceed with cheese curds next year it does give the team reason to test market the product next season. Without this information, the team would have missed a potential opportunity to provide their fans with the food they desire and additional revenue from concession sales.
oWebsite surveys can also increase repeat visits to the website. A well done, fun survey that changes frequently can provide the motivation for site visitors to return to the website repeatedly. It is also important to provide the respondent with the real time results of the survey once they have submitted their responses. This provides the satisfaction of seeing how their responses stack up with other respondents.

Market Research Survey - The market research survey involves developing a survey for a targeted population. If you are a diaper manufacturer you may want to purchase a list of women between 20 and 35 with children under 3 years old in the home, for example. The difference between purchasing a list for a standard survey and a list for an online survey is that you are buying their e-mail addresses rather than their home address or phone number. A market research survey involves the following steps:

oThe development of a survey in a password-protected area of your website.
oPurchase of an opt-in e-mail respondent list. (Opt-in lists are available from companies like Survey Sampling, Inc.) Make sure sample size is proportionally related to the size of the population you are targeting.
oSend broadcast e-mails to members of the list. The e-mail will instruct recipients to click on the link to take them to the password-protected survey. An incentive will help boost the response rate.
oUpon completion of the survey, the database of answers can be queried to pull information based on selected variables. The data can also be exported to a statistical software application for further analysis.
oUpon completion of the survey, a new survey can be developed using the online administrative screens provided by high-end survey developers and the process starts over again.

The advantages of the online market research survey are numerous. From the development time to the delivery of results, these surveys present distinct advantages over traditional research methodologies.

Online surveys can also be designed to appear in a pop-up box at specified locations on a website. Such surveys will ask the visitor if they have a few seconds to take the survey and then proceed to ask them a few questions about their site experience to that point. By asking a series of questions the company can ascertain if the site is well received by the visitor. If not, the survey should provide specific clues to improve your site.

To summarize, online surveys offer the following benefits over standard surveys:

Speed of set up - using web-based administrative screens, online surveys can be set up and delivered quickly.
Data entry - Respondents do the data entry, so no data entry staff is required. Additionally, accuracy is greatly improved since no data is being rekeyed.
New designs and concepts can be presented online. Respondents can view new products, packaging and other offerings online while they are responding to the survey. Standard surveys required mailing package concepts to the respondent in advance. The costs associated with printing, postage and data entry, combined with the time inefficiencies, make online surveys far superior in most instances.
Results are tabulated quickly for fast analysis.
Early results are showing better response rates. One company that has typically surveyed their employees in the past by traditional means has seen a response rate improvement from 25 to 50% since moving their surveys online.

The opportunities to learn from your customers using the Internet are enormous. By surveying your customers, prospects, and employees online you can uncover opportunities and address issues faster, more accurately and at greatly reduced expense.

Brent Niland
Spindustry Systems, Inc.
ph. 515-225-0920
bniland@spindustry.com
www.spindustrysystems.com

Simple Survey Leads To Big Profits Online

Success online follows a simple formula...

"Ask and you shall _______."

Most people fill in the blank with "receive". Not only is it a well-known phrase from the Bible, but it's also a very powerful online marketing principle.

If you operate a business and want to sell massively more products and services quickly, the fastest way to do it is by simply asking your customers and prospects what they want... and then give it to them.

In the past, gathering critical research information through customer surveys represented a very time-consuming, expensive and labor-intensive process available only to large organizations.

However, with inexpensive online tools, even a one-person business can now quickly and easily conduct powerful surveys to discover exactly what customers want - and then give it to them.

Virtually any business can benefit from conducting a survey because the information you get is priceless for your planning purposes.

Do you know what your customers plan to purchase next? (If you did, you could be the one to sell it to them!)

Do you know why they've purchased from you in the past? (If they've bought once, they'll buy again for the same reason!)

Do you know what other products and services they have purchased from your competitors and why? (So you can be the one they buy from next...)

Knowing the answers to those three questions could literally transform your whole business plan (and wallet) overnight!

The sad fact is most business owners just *guess* what their customers want. Sure, they might make an educated guess based on past experience, but it's still just that -- a guess.

By conducting a survey you don't guess what people want - you *know* what people want!

When conducting a survey (online or offline) it's critical to remember these three points:

1. Keep your survey short and sweet.

People don't want to spend more than a couple of minutes answering your questions.

I personally try never to ask more than 6 questions and they are always "yes/no", multiple-choice questions that don't take much time.

Short questions also allow you to get instant "gut-level" reactions from people, which is helpful in figuring out what people will buy. People purchase on emotion, so a fast response will show you their true feelings on a subject since they don't have time to think about it.

2. Give people a "bribe" for taking the survey.

You will increase response rates by 1,500% (15 times) or more by offering people a reward in exchange for 2 minutes of their time to take your survey. With so many time constraints, giving people a "perk" for giving you some of their valuable time will make the difference between getting a dozen responses and getting several hundred.

3. Use simple, easy-to-understand questions.

When first surveying any group, you simply want to know what they like/dislike, will/won't buy in the future, have/haven't bought in the past.

As you get to know a group better, you can ask more detailed questions, but also make sure you offer better bribes if you expect people to take even more time answering your questions.

When choosing an online survey tool to help you administer your survey, make sure it meets the following criteria:

It should require no programming on your part. You want to just plug in your questions and have it generate all the code, etc. so you can copy and paste it into a web page and send it out.

It should automatically calculate all survey results for you in 'real-time' so you don't have to manually calculate responses. Do not get stuck doing "number crunching" because your survey tool doesn't automatically calculate results.

It should send a "thank you" letter to people taking your survey so you can send them a "gift" for participating.

Thanking people for participating goes a long way toward leaving them with a favorable impression of you, as well as setting the stage for both your next survey and your next sale.

For a free report on how to quickly and easily conduct your own simple surveys to increase business profits, go to http://www.ebookfire.com/survey.html. Though the report is aimed at a specific online audience (ebook publishers), the principles will help any business succeed using surveys.

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