Sassy Survey Sisters

I’m going slightly off the reservation on this one. I say slightly because I think that all of us are looking for other ways to make money besides just surveys. Don’t worry–I’m still on top of those!!
However, someone told me about a site that had been in business for years,BBB approved,member of a Fortune 500 company,etc. I’ve spent the better part of my day looking into this company for my benefit and,ultimately,yours. People who know me would say that I am one mistrusting S.O.B. and I’m damn proud of that. But I mistrust everyone–the companies AND the people who post about them. To many people vent on other sites when something bad happens but if you read between the lines you learn that those people didn’t follow the rules of the site, lied on their survey, etc.
Back to the subject at hand, I found that most thought it was an MLM. Don’t feel bad, I didn’t know what that was at first. It stands for Multi Level Marketing. When I learned the term all I could think of was “pyramid scheme.” But that’s just me.
Sometimes,as with this site, I look into comments posted on other sites before I go to the companies site. I get bored doing the same thing the same was all the time. Big mistake in this case. On site they didn’t give any information about HOW they operate and WHAT you are expected to do. All they wanted was your phone number,e-mail address,good time to call,and a slew of other info to allow them to “target” your needs and wants. Being the mistrusting person that I am I could have saved myself a lot of searching if I’d gone to their site first. Sometimes reverse engineering doesn’t pan out. Aren’t you glad I wasted my time and not yours?
Here’s the take-away from my mistake. Check the company web site first and if the don’t explain what they want from you, what you will have to do but only want your name,phone,e-mail,etc.—Run don’t walk to the nearest exit. That would be that cute red “X” to the top right of your screen.
I’ve learned from my mistake and hope you have too!!

You ask for it Debra, you get it. Awesome name BTW. You wanted more legit survey sites so my tip # 6 is join Global Opinion Panel/Synovate.   They’re one and the same.   I like them because even when you don’t qualify for the whole survey, you still get points. And they do add up!    “No sorry ’bout your luck, here’s a sweeps entry shit”.   And I usually get a fair amount of survey invites per month. Check ‘em out, and good luck. Let us know how you do.

Help for the new kids on the block.

When you are signing up for those surveys and get paid to sites I would suggest that you do one of two things…1. Use the same user name and password for all of them, I don’t recommend that, but it is easier to remember or 2. The user name should be the same except for the number you put after it, like Lucky1, Lucky2 and so on, then you can keep track of who lets your info “leak” out when you start receiving spam.  I use the same password for all my sites, but with different numbers at the end, example: ducks2060 or ducks1055 etc.

I started out using simple index cards to log the info for each site.  I still use them for each new site I sign up with, writing the name of the company, date I signed up, user name and password of course plus other incidental information like payout amount and type, (check or pay pal).  I could use these cards when I was ready to work; it made it easy to keep track of which ones I had done and which I still needed to do for the day if I got side tracked.

I have since moved up to regular notebook paper. I have a sheet for payments received. I also use one sheet per survey or get paid to site to track my earnings for each site on a daily basis.   I just make ruler width lines on the paper and note the date, my points, and cash totals for the day. It takes a little longer than just using the index cards, but I felt the need to track my earnings. You could also use a spreadsheet and keep the information stored on your computer. I tried doing that in the beginning, but was over whelmed with trying to do too much at one time. I have since found my rhythm, and you will too.

I am low tech and find the old-fashioned pen and paper works best for me.

Next blogs to come will be about the rhythm and email addresses.

Happy clicks!

Sass Ass 1

Your momma always told ya that honesty is the best policy,right? And if you haven’t learned yet, mom knows best–unless you’re sneakin’ out of the house to party, but that’s a whole different set of tips from me! Anywho, as far as your surveys go, keep it true. You can’t fill out a profile that says your a single white female, get a survey invite, and then fill out the questions like your a divorced male with three kids. A bit extreme, but you get my drift. You can’t edit your profile for each survey. They want honest, well thought out, responses. If you don’t, then you won’t get any more survey invites–plain and simple. And lets face it, who wants or can keep up with a batch of lies when your trying to build a rep as a legit survey respondent? They can only value your input if they know it’s honest.
On the same note,don’t take surveys from companies that are dishonest with you. You know the ones. They ask you a bunch of questions and then tell you don’t qualify. Fool me once, shame on you–fool me twice, shame on me. Why let them make the money and leave you with shit when there are PLENTY of companies out there who will compensate you for the input you give that makes THEM money?
We need to be faithful to the good ones and take down the bad!!!

Sorry, it’s been awhile–been surveyin’ the world and all. Tip #4 is to log in to your survey companies every couple of days. Not only will you sometimes find surveys available that you didn’t get an invite to yet, it shows the company that you’re really interested. If you think they don’t know every time you visit, think again.

I felt the need to explain our email address and I hope anyone interested can find this.I know a lot of experienced people will not need an explanation, but a newbie may be a tad confused.

As I mentioned before we are all skeptical and believe “better safe than sorry”.   We hate spam as much as everybody else does.   The address was written the way it was to cut down on spam.

Being a newbie to the whole “net” thing, not just blogs, you may not “get it” right away.   Not to worry, you will eventually learn about spiders, web crawlers, and the like soon enough.  The SassMan may even find time to write a blog post about it here, (if asked just the right way.)

To get on with it……it is very simple really the bold spelled at would be the @ in the address and the spelled out dot would be a period as in .com.

I’m ready for another payout from Opinion Outpost!

I will admit I was getting a little frustrated with seeing the DNQ, but I persisted, and there were a few, OK several surveys I missed by not getting to them quickly enough.   Had I been able to get to all of them,  I could probably double, OK, triple my money.   There just isn’t enough hours in the day right now.

I also have to admit my 11 year old got me over the last stump, the last survey was about games especially for him. I think he completes more than I do!   He certainly enjoys being able to share his opinion!

Surveys can get a bit monotonous for me, but for the most part I enjoy some now and again.

Must remember to check a couple of kid friendly sites I found so he can make his own pocket money.

Opinion Outpost still remains my favorite survey site.

Ok, some of you may know what Squidoo is, some of you may not. A free guide to making Squidoo lenses may not sound like a really cool thing to those who haven’t heard of it. Let me assure you, SQUIDOO ROCKS! Basically, a Squidoo Lens is a free webpage that is easy to build and share whatever you want with your family, friends, and the world.

A very nice lady by the name of Jennifer, aka PotPieGirl has generously offered her 50+ page eBook on how to make Squidoo Lenses available FOR FREE! She uses them for affiliate marketing, and  is VERY successful with them. As a matter of fact, she has outlined how she does it in a step by step format called One Week Marketing that is an excellent source if your wanting to make some nice cash from home. That will be the subjet of a different post. You can CLICK HERE if you’d like more information now if you like, and see what it has to offer for yourself.

Ok, back to the FREE SQUIDOO GUIDE. You’ll be taken from the very beginning ( setting up a new Squidoo account) all the way to lens creation and steps to get your first lens live and online!

Anyone who is confused by Squidoo or unsure of how to make an effective lens will really appreciate this free guide. This market is NOT only for affiliate marketers, either. Think local businesses, e-commerce sites, or ANYONE who wants to increase their online exposure via the power of Squidoo.

You definitly need to check it out. Let me know how it worked out for ya. And keep it tuned here for a post about the One Week Marketing Guide that totally rocks, and is well worth it as well.

OK, this is the skinny on what gets me pissed off trying to find legitimate survey and paid to sites.

There are forums, many forums and there are blogs, oh sooo many blogs!

The problem with that is a lot of these forums and blogs are out dated.    Some are over a year old!

What’s up with that?   Are you interested in my opinion?   Then read on.

Well, the way I see it the forum or blog was started to gather referrals for the blogger.   This is not a crime and that is part of our intention here also.   The problem I have with these sites is that they are not kept up to date and I have found several sites that seem to be copy and pasted from another site.   Also not a crime, at least not until congress decides laziness is a crime.

I realize that these people are trying to make money just like we are, but stay on top of things for Pete’s sake!   Things change all the time with people and companies.   Surely something happens during your time with the survey and paid to sites you listed with.

We spent more time weeding thu out dated information and bogus sites than we actually did “working” our sites.    It was frustrating to say the least.   Then the bulb went off, why not start our own blog?   Why not try to help others in the same predicament as us?   Hey, and maybe get our own list of referrals?   Sis could add her input and everybody (hopefully) will benefit!

So here we are, typing information like we know something about something.   OK, we are just relaying the positive information we have found and listing our own experiences, but we are trying to help you also, in the hope that you will in turn help us.

Yes we would appreciate you signing up to the sites you are interested in thru our links on the page.   We do this on the sites that we have found helpful, it’s a fair exchange for the information they provided. In return we will do something for you, and that will be…..keeping this blog as up-to-date as possible.

I wish to say thank you to the blogs and forums I did find pertinent up-to-date info on.   It’s a tough job and all of us at SSS say thank you!

P.S. We also hope to add a link back section in the near future.

Now stop reading and start clicking, that money ain’t gonna make itself!

Opinion Outpost is added to our list of approved affiliates!

The low pay-out of $5.00 is very reasonable.

They pay in points, 10 Opinion Points = $1.00 and you must accumulate a minimum of 50 Opinion Points ($5.00) before redeeming. They will send a check in the mail.

They are open to people in the U.S. and Canada.

You can be notified of surveys thru email, you can also login and check the “Members area” daily.   You should check often as some surveys are filled fast, you can also opt-in for phone surveys!

As always, check out the TOS  pages.

If you are new to the survey scene Opinion Outpost in a good starting point.