Paid surveys are one of the best ways to earn money online. You can earn money by simply answering simple questions and sharing your opinion. Unfortunately, as with all businesses, employees are at risk of getting abused. While there are no job contracts and managers, there are point systems.
Instead of telling the value of surveys and payout options, paid survey platforms go to great lengths to hide it under points. This article is an argument on why you should always avoid platforms that use point systems.
If I ask you to wash the dishes for $0.80, you’d probably refuse, but if I offer 80 points for an opportunity to get great rewards, you’d be more likely to do it. That’s the psychological effect aimed for by points systems in paid survey sites.
You feel better when getting shiny internet points than when you get some meager pennies into your account. At the same time, the real value is hidden under the guise of points as the mental math that needs to be done gets a lot more complicated.
It’s common here in the United States to count wages in hours. Thirty-four dollars per hour is an average hourly rate at the time of writing. So, ideally, you should aim for such a payment. Points systems confuse you as your hourly wage is now not dollars but points.
It’s more difficult to do the math and understand exactly what hourly rate you are getting. Two hundred points per hour means nothing if you can’t translate it into at least 12 dollars per hour. Of course, you shouldn’t expect to earn as if from employment when filling out paid surveys.
Your earnings will be more modest as this is just a side gig. Still, there is no reason for platforms to be intransparent with the value of work you have on offer.
Use Case: Branded Surveys
Branded Surveys is a part of a California-based consumer research company called Branded Research. They offer consumer data collection services for companies of all sizes. They survey customers about their satisfaction, loyalty, preferences, and other insights. Businesses pay good money to Branded surveys for such a service.
If you join as one of the participants on the Branded Surveys platform, you will earn money, too. Rewards are counted in points, which can later be exchanged into gift cards or other payout options.
- A poll that takes only a few minutes can be priced at around 10 points.
- A full-fledged survey can earn you up to 300 points.
- Referring a friend earns 50 points per referral.
Your earnings can be increased if you participate in poll or survey streaks or are in a top position on the leaderboard. These bonuses can significantly increase your earnings, but it’s a bit of a lottery, so you cannot count on them consistently.
Branded Surveys claim that one point is equal to one cent, so 100 points is $1. You can receive a gift card payout when you compile at least 500 points. The 300 points for one survey is the maximum size. More realistically, you will earn around 80 points per half an hour of survey.
So, you will need at least five or six surveys to receive a cash out of $5. If you receive one or two surveys each day, you can get a gift card per week. However, the gift cards and other payout options are also priced differently, which skews the value of points completely.
Some $5 gift cards will cost 500 points, but more popular ones can cost 1000 or even more points. That’s why you will never find an exact equation of how Branded Surveys count the points. The idea is to get you confused by the points system so that it would look as if you are progressing, but actually, it’s all for nothing.
Alternatives Without Points System
In no way am I claiming that you cannot make money on Branded Surveys. Surely, you can, but the points system is made to make things as confusing for you as possible, and it succeeds at that. If you want to earn money without much confusion, you better look for alternatives.
There is more than one viable Branded Surveys alternative. It would take too long to discuss all of them here, and besides, you are better off testing and researching them yourself. Here’s a short sneak peek to get you started.
Pawns.app
Pawns is best known for its bandwidth-sharing service, where you can earn money passively by simply installing an app and keeping it connected to the internet. Paid surveys are a great addition to their money-earning repertoire. They are less popular with their surveys, but that only makes them better.
Since there are fewer participants, it’s easier to qualify for surveys, and they pay better. I haven’t found a questionnaire that pays less than $1 on Pawns, except the demographic one, and you can cash out at $5. This means that with Pawns, you can easily earn $5 every week with minimal effort.
Surveys On The Go
As the name suggests, this platform is perfect for completing surveys while commuting, waiting in line, or on other time-wasting occasions. You only need a smartphone and can install the convenient Surveys On The Go app and start earning money.
They cover a variety of different topics, from health and business to entertainment and fashion. Surveys are priced at around $0.50 per survey with no point system nonsense. A drawback of Surveys On The Go is that there are no other ways to earn money on the platform.
Conclusion
Pont systems are made to confuse survey participants and extract more value from them. If we, as paid survey users, will boycott platforms that use points, we can make a change. Paid surveys are a great way to make money online, but tricks that point systems enable are very dangerous.
