Online Surveys, Part 1: TestSpin and Valued Opinions

One way I have found to make a few extra bucks (and by a "few," I mean approximately $230 in the past 13 months) is by taking online surveys. I am a panelist of 10 (yes, TEN) different online survey companies. They all send e-mail survey invitiations, which I respond to at my leisure. Since I am at a computer for 8 hours a day while I am at work (often with plenty of free time to take the surveys), it is not a big deal for me to respond to surveys from so many different companies. It's definitely a great way to earn some money for things I would otherwise not be able to justify spending money on.

I'll feature all of them on this blog eventually, but today I will focus on two: TestSpin and Valued Opinions. Both of these survey companies send out survey invitations quite frequently, though I don't always qualify for their surveys. When I do qualify, however, the surveys are usually worth $2.00 to $5.00. Not bad for usually less than 20 minutes of my time.

TestSpin and Valued Opinions both offer Amazon.com gift certificates for participating. Almost immediately after requesting a distribution, the gift codes are in your e-mail, ready to be spent. Today, I requested $60 worth of gift codes between the two sites. I needed to replace an out-of-print piano accompaniment book, which was listed on Amazon for $43.65. I also decided to get the clarinet version of the book (an arrangement of hymns for solo, duet, or trio) for $9.95. I already have the flute version.

After redeeming my $60 in gift certificates, I paid $2.64. Gotta love it! I promise to keep better track of my piano accompaniment book from now on (read: never lend it to my accompanist again)!