Momnesia

Make Money and Get Free Stuff - Seriously!

AUGUSTA, GA. - So, you wanna get free stuff? Try products for market research companies? Perhaps earn some extra money? Then ignore all those scammers who send you "Take surveys and make $400 a day!" e-mails. They're lying to you, or they're involved in some kind of pyramid scheme.

Below, I will list reputable companies for whom I participate in market research and product testing on the side. Let's get real: It's certainly not a second income. Most of these companies deal in "points" that you earn from each survey, that you can then convert to cash, gift cards, or merchandise.

Some do offer paid surveys each time to take one, and others offer "chances to win" but send out enough big-money paid surveys to make the little sweepstakes-entry ones worth it. I've made as little as 50 cents for a survey, and as much as $100 for a survey. But I've also redeemed my points for hundreds of dollars worth of merchandise, checks and gift cards this year alone. All total, I might have "made" an extra grand this year doing this. But you never know. I might actually WIN one of those sweepstakes entries and bust out of here with a fat $25,000.

In the meantime, I'll share the info with you. There are tricks to maximizing your membership. For example, if they're offering money or points for a study, never admit that you work in marketing or journalism. They won't want to talk to you. But if they're not offering money or points, but they are offering sweepstakes or prize entries, you're ALWAYS a market researcher. Because that still gets you your entry, but you don't have to go through the entire survey.

Pay attention to what they're asking. If they ask if you take your coffee with sugar, cream, sweetener, flavoring, black or with any combination or all of the above, NEVER choose black. No one ever polls people who drink their coffee black. They want to know how you like the additives they're selling.

Most of these require the invitation of an existing panel member. So leave me your info in the comments section, and I'll send you an invitation to the ones in which you're interested.


I haven't used Global TestMarket for long, so I don't have a lot of knowledge. I know that you build points and redeem them for cash, but I don't have enough points to do that. You need at least 1,000, and I seem to be accruing points very slowly on this interface.

Deals n Cash offers you .02 cents for every ad you click. Yeah, it's not a lot. But the point is to be patient and let it build up over time. My current balance: $8.37.




Inbox Dollars offers you a $5 membership boost, and then .05 cents for every ad you click or survey you take. Yes, again, it's not a lot. But it takes only seconds, and the point, again, is to be patient and let it build over time. I have about $40.08 right now. Whaever. That's $40 I didn't have before.




Send Earnings offers you a $5 membership boost, and then between .02 and .05 cents for every ad you click or survey you take. Hey... this sounds familiar... Yes, it works EXACTLY like Inbox Dollars. Their interfaces even look the same. I'm not entirely convinced that they aren't two arms of the same company, since I frequently get the exact same e-mails from both companies. Oh, wait, are they both paying me money? Great! I'll keep clicking.

My Points works much like Inbox Dollars and Send Earnings - but instead of getting paid a few cents, you earn points. This is, by far, the most reliable of the sites I've used. There's no BS, no questions, and the accounting is always reliable. I've cashed in for $50 Home Depot gift certificates, hotel stays, Amazon.com e-gift cards, Old Navy and Target gift cards, and more. In addition, if you do online shopping (and I do... heh... sorry, honey...), when you purchase your goods (like the new shoes I got from Target), click through the My Points site and you earn more points... to, you know, then cash in for more Target gift cards. Hee...?

Zoom Panel offers between 30-500 points for taking their polls. The prize folios begin at 800 points, and go to 10,000. I cashed in for a 10,000 prize, a smoker/griller. It was totally free, and they don't even charge shipping. Of course, it took me about a year to get to that level. But luckily, we didn't have any smoking or grilling emergencies during the wait.

Polling Point offers 500 points for each survey you take. I have about 19,000 points, but until you get to a stupid-high level, the prizes SUCK. They're Polling Point T-shirts and tote bags. But then you get into gift certificates, web cams, iPod shuffles, cash and savings bonds. I'll keep accruing points until I get to the level I want.


Harris Poll is generous with points (75-800 points each survey), and has an easy redemption policy for the goods they offer on their site. They have an 800 point level beginning redemption level, and that's worth about a DVD or book or some other little item that costs about $20. The larger levels get nicer and nicer. But Harris Poll doesn't send surveys nearly as often as Zoom Panel.


Survey Spot is a pain and a pleasure all at once. It sends you a crap-load of surveys, so you have a lot of opportunities to make money. But most of their surveys do not offer money. They offer between 5 and 100 sweepstakes entries. However, they do offer between $3 and $100 for each paid survey, and I've probably cashed out about $200 this year. It does take 6-8 weeks to get your money, so plan ahead. But, again, never any problems.