Mama needs her Outside Magazine

Most folks know about focus groups.  There are a ton of them out there.  And they are worth registering with although I've noticed that they tend to favor a more income heavy demographic .  The competition is stiff since the credit card companies have raised prices and stock dividends have gone into hopper.  More "desirable" candidates are making themselves available when they would not have considered giving there time to answer questions about a topic for a hundred bucks.   The good news is that if you happen to fall into a category that your income is still good on paper....say you are still employed but you are being battered by the overhead of your existence like debt ....this may be a decent way to pick up a couple of bucks.  The big drawback is that if you don't live near a major city that you can access, you probably won't be eligible.

That's why I like doing online surveys.  They don't take much time. This is the one that I use: http://www.e-rewards.com.  I register with the program and when the company feels like I would fit the demographic for a certain online survey, they email me with a link with a defined topic, like "consumer products" or "financial institutions".  If I don't like the topic, I don't respond, and so far I have not been penalized for lack of response.   The company gives me a price that I would earn for doing the survey and approximate time it will take to finish it. Upon completion of the survey, the agreed upon price is dropped into my account that can be redeemed for different rewards.

It usually starts with a couple of questions to accertain if I am a good fit and, if I don't, they throw me a little something (like fifty cents or so) into my account.  If I do fit what they are looking for, I spend any where from 10 to 20 minutes answering questions regarding the topic.  This is how I have managed to keep my Smithsonian magazine subscription as well as my Outside magazine and my husband's Men's Health as well as $15 that were added onto my Border's rewards program among other things.

The drawback is that the rewards can be a little limited.  There aren't tons in each price range and I seem to have used a lot of the magazines already.  But then again, no one says that a soul needs to cash them in right away.  Keep chipping away at them till you hit a money bracket that does have something that you like.  They also has frequent flyer mileage, gift cards, etc.  Tap a gift card that you don't want and flip it over on Ebay (you will see this mantra a lot in this blog). That makes you that much closer to one more latte in your life.

A good source of other sites like this is http://www.surveypolice.com/epoll.  This site tells you what's out there and details the level of trust they put in them. I give very little detailed personal information to the reward site and feel like its an easy safe way to get one more thing in your life that you may miss out on because of this whole poverty thing.  But this will give you details to help you make a decision on who you want to go to. With a good survey company, the only thing this is costing is your time and, if you want to get picky,  a small amount electricity to run your computer.  You don't even have to leave your house.

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