The following is a guest post from Koupon Karen.  This is the third post in a series.

I’m back again to share more of my experience with taking surveys online.  The Part 1 was pretty much about how to get started and prepare to sign up for survey companies.  The Part 2 I talked about another fun part of taking surveys, getting free products to try and then getting paid to do it as well!

Today I want to cover a few things that were mentioned in some of the comments of the previous posts.

• One reader was concerned because she had to give a lot of personal information when she signed up for one company and she wanted to know if this was normal.  Yes that is very normal. Of course you want to make sure the company your giving all this information too is legit.  That’s part of what I’m trying to help you with.  I’ve worked with the companies I’m recommending and they are legit.  You can also do a google search on them and I’m sure you’ll find more information and other people who have worked with them as well.  Of course there could be some negative comments as well.  Unfortunately someone has a bad experience with just about any company at one point or another.   But they will ask for a lot of information.  Sometimes I get surveys that are about banking.  I don’t feel comfortable giving out a lot of that information so I’ll pass on those surveys.  If you don’t feel comfortable with something that’s OK too.  You can pick and choose what surveys you take and even what information you give them.  As long as it’s not wrong information.
• One reader signed up with My Survey and received a bunch of surveys the night she joined but hasn’t seen much of anything since.  That is also normal. She did nothing wrong.  I find that with My Survey they go in spurts.  I’ll get a bunch one month and then not so much the next.  Just make sure you always take the little screener surveys the send you because sometimes they are gathering information for an upcoming survey.  And those will give you 10 points too, so it’s not a complete waste of time.  My Survey really is my favorite company.
• One reader asked about a survey company that you have to buy stuff from, then you get some money back.  Those aren’t real survey companies in the sense that they are paying you for your opinion.  Those are more of what they call GPT (Get Paid To) Sites.  I’ve joined a few of them and really have earned money back when I’ve made certain purchases or clicked links.  BUT a lot of them are big spammers.  If you don’t want that sort of thing, that’s OK.  It’s not for everyone.  But if you have a lot of time on your hands and want to check them out, just be sure to use a completely separate email address because you WILL get SPAM!  The one I like is Squishy Cash.  It’s a funny name but I’ve earned almost $600 with them over time.  If you want more information about them, just contact me.
• One reader mentioned how several times she spent about 10 minutes on a 20 minute survey and then was told she didn’t qualify. I know this can be VERY frustrating.  It does happen to me too.  I’d be lying if I said it didn’t.  It would be nice if they could tell you sooner but the criteria for the survey may be so specific that they need to ask all those questions before they know if you qualify of if a quota has been met.  Most times it’s just because they already received enough responses from the profile that you fit.  Unfortunately there really is no way of knowing this before hand and as frustrating as it is, try not to let it stop you because it’s not going to happen all the time.  One way you can avoid this is take the survey as soon as you receive the invite, if you can.  It may help a bit.

In Part one I talked about my experiences with My Survey and Survey Spot and then in Part two I talked about ePoll, SayNation! and Survey Savvy. Here are 3 more that I have also worked with.

1. Opinion Outpost – This is my 2nd favorite survey company.  Their site is very easy to navigate.  When you sign in, it will tell you exactly how many surveys are available for you.  You don’t have to wait for emails and it clearly tells you what you’ll earn if completed and then it shows what surveys you’ve taken as well.  If you look in the members area it will tell you how many points you’ve earned since you’ve been a member and how many points you have available to cash out.  50 Points is $5.00 and once you reach that you can cash out.  You have a choice between Amazon gift cards and a check.  I usually go for the check.  I like the cash!  You’ll receive your check within 4-8 weeks but an Amazon gift card is immediate, which is a really nice perk.  I receive about 2 survey invites a day from Opinion Outpost and they are worth about 25 points, on average.  I’ve worked with customer service in the past and they were great.  I was actually able to get a person on the phone, which is unusual!  They will also tell you when your profiles need to be updated.  That makes it easy to stay up to date.  And most times right before you take a survey, they will ask you about 2-4 questions for upcoming surveys.  That helps to get more surveys that fit you.
2. American Consumer Opinion – Another really good one and they just got better. Before, once you signed up you’d get surveys to take occasionally and then if you completed it, you’d receive a check in the mail about 4-6 weeks later and completely forget what it was for.  It was a bit of a pain getting $3.00 checks so I’m really glad they changed their system.  You now open an account and can sign in and see all your money accumulating.  Then you can cash out when you are ready, as long as you have $10.00 and they send you paypal!  So much easier that way, at least I think so.  My favorite part about American Consumer Opinion is they will send you a short screener for an upcoming survey.  If you qualify they will then send you the survey in a few days to a week and since you already qualified before, there’s no chance of getting that horrible message “sorry you don’t qualify”.  So you know you were be able to finish the survey and earn your money.  It’s a nice perk and I wish more companies did that.   This is another company that goes in spurts.  Some months I get a lot and others I don’t.  That’s why it’s good to belong to a lot of companies so your always getting surveys.
3. Mindfield –  Mindfield is another site that is user friendly and you’ll pretty much find everything you need right on your home page.  You can cash out once you reach $5.00 and you will be paid by check within about 3 weeks or paypal within a week.  They send paypal payments once a week so it depends on when you request it.  There are a lot of profiles to fill out for Mindfield so be prepared. You don’t need to fill them all out at once, you can go into your account and do them as you have time.  But the more you do the more chances of getting surveys.  When you sign up, you must activate your account by clicking on the link they send you in an email. Otherwise you will not receive any surveys from them.

Once again, I’ve probably overwhelmed you.  If you want to see more you can check out the Paid Survey Sites page on my blog.  And if you have questions feel free to either leave a comment on this post or email me.  You can get my email address on my blog.

Disclosure: This is my honest opinion of these companies. My words are my own and I have not been compensated by these companies to say anything about them. However when you join some of them, it does helps support my blog.

About KouponKaren:  Karen is a stay at home mom of 2 girls and a wife to a wonderful Engineer that totally supports her blogging habit.  She blogs at KouponKaren.com about saving money on everyday products and shares her coupon & freebie finds everyday.