Making Money Online with Opinion Outpost Paid Surveys

How to make money online? This is probably the most commonly asked question on the internet for years. With the current poor global economy, people are experiencing a significant decrease in monthly income due to reduced salary, reduced hours, no bonuses, or one head of household being laid-off, or even both. In the meantime, prices including food are increasing tremendously. So, people are continuously looking for other ways to earn extra money. Two years ago, I joined several top online survey panels that are legitimate and free to join, and started to generate a steady monthly income of $200-$300 by dedicating less than 2 hours every day. In addition, I am currently experimenting with writing articles on Associated Content, EzineArticles, HubPages, and Squidoo along with maintaining 2 websites on completely different niches: “Earthquakes” and “Online Surveys”. The sources of income are, of course, Google Adsense as well as Affiliate Marketing with Amazon, Commission Junction, ClickBank, and ShareASale.

To have a passive income by writing articles on hubpages with Google Adsense revenue-sharing, a hubber should be knowledgeable about SEO optimization, driving traffic, backlinks, keywords and Google AdWords. On the other hand, paid surveys are the easiest and the most time-effective way of generating extra money online that do not require any experience or long-term commitment. Online paid surveys would be an ideal situation for housewives, unemployed people, part-time workers, college students, retirees, or anyone who can commit at least 40 hours per month. I have summarized the advantages of being a survey taker as well as tips on maximizing the earnings from paid surveys in other hubs. However, the internet has hundreds of survey websites that are actually scams. Joining legitimate survey panels and avoiding scams shall be your top priority! Opinion Outpost is one of the top legitimate survey panels that worth joining because of their quality surveys, good incentives, instantly crediting member’s account upon survey completion, minimal technical errors, and quickly processing cash requests.

Minimum Age to Join: 18

Membership: United States & Canada

Signup Bonus: None

Points System: 10 Opinion Points = $1

Payments: Cash via Check or Amazon.com Gift Card

Cash out threshold: 50 Opinion Points ($5)

• Initially, you will fill-in a short information sheet. After you sign-up, the survey panel will send an email to verify your email address. By clicking on the link, you will confirm your membership and become part of Opinion Outpost research panel. Keep in mind that the verification email may be considered by your email provider filter as a SPAM and it may be getting into your Bulk or Junk e-mail folders instead of your Inbox.
• Fill in your profiles. There is no incentive for any of the 9 member profile surveys shown in the capture below. However, this is the most important thing you need to do upon joining the panel as it uses your profiles to assess demographics, interests, and other factors to be matched to the available survey opportunities. You will then have a better chance to qualify, complete more surveys, and earn extra Opinion Points in your account.
• Your personal information will remain confidential and used purely for research purposes as the survey panel is legitimate and active member of the Council of American Survey Research Organizations, CASRO, which requires members to adhere to the CASRO Code of Standards and Ethics for Survey Research. This code is a tough, internationally-cited set of standards, which has long been the benchmark for the industry.
• Update your profiles upon major purchases such as a new vehicle, large appliances, consumer electronics, video games consoles, or upon being diagnosed with a new health condition. This will increase your chances to qualify for specific surveys.
• Add myopinioncounts@OpinionOutpost.com to your address book as one of your approved senders and the domain OpinionOutpost.com to your safe list to ensure that the survey invitations reach your email inbox.

• Check your email for survey invitations as you may receive up to 1-3 daily invitations which include the approximate survey length and the incentive offered. This allows you to make an informed decision on the surveys that you will want to attempt. Respond to survey invitations as soon as possible. Easy, short length or good incentive surveys reach the required number of respondents very quickly.
• Opinion Outpost allows you to continue a survey you have already started by clicking on the “Started” link in the “Available Surveys” area as shown in the capture below. However, I recommend that you complete the survey in one sitting, if possible.
• You will not qualify for every survey but most likely 1 every 3-4 surveys, which is normal for survey takers, so do not be frustrated! You may also be directed to surveys from another company named OTX where the possibility of qualifying is very low, may be 1 every 7-8 surveys.
• Upon completing a survey, the incentive will be instantly credited to your account in the form of Opinion Points in which $1 is equivalent to 10 Opinion Points. Very few surveys may be credited within 6 weeks of completion.
• If you feel that a survey you completed was not credited or credited with a different Opinion Points, contact their customer support by clicking on the “Contact Us” tab. They will respond within an appropriate time frame. Survey technical issues at Opinion Outpost are minimal but may occur.
• Stay an active panel member! You must take at least one survey every 3 months or your Opinion Points will expire.

A unique feature of Opinion Outpost website located under the “Survey History” tab is the well-organized listing of all surveys that have taken since joining the panel. Surveys are marked as “Open”, “Closed”, “Completed”, “Pending”, “Started”, “Not a Match”, and “Quota Met” which are explained in the capture below, and can help in understanding the success with Opinion Outpost.

The figure below captures the surveys received within 10 days time frame. I received 19 surveys in my email, attempted them all, and completed 7 surveys that worth 203 Opinion Points. My success rate is better than 1 every 3 surveys which is great. To be realistic, surveys are typically 20 minutes long and it takes up to 4 minutes to find out that I do not qualify. The total time spent on all surveys is about 3 hours (7 surveys x 20 minutes + 12 surveys x 4 minutes). Therefore, I earned $20.3 in 10 days for 3 hours of survey taking. Imagine joining the 10 top survey panels, which I will recommend on a series of hubs, you can earn extra money up to $600 on a monthly basis if you can dedicate 90 hours of your time.

Occasionally there are surveys that offer high incentive such as Survey #13 for 75 Points Possible which was a technology-related survey that researched my preferences for purchasing mainstream computers with several add-on hardware/software options for my company.

• The minimum amount you need to earn before you can cash out is 50 Opinion Points ($5). Payments options are either Cash via Checks or Amazon.com® Gift Card as shown in the capture below.
• Cash out requests are actually processed and approved within 2 weeks, much less than the time frame mentioned below.
• Amazon.com® Gift Card claim code will be available instantly on the survey panel website. This code will only work on Amazon.com® but not on other Amazon® branded sites like Amazon.ca®