The Survey Way of Life

Where can I make the most money when participating in market research projects?

Dec. 8, 2010

Depending on what your work or life schedule may be, participating in paid focus groups will definitely make you the most money.

What I mean by "what your schedule may be", is for many of these paid studies, you may have to be present at an office. Studies are also usually held during the day, or early evening. So, if you have a regular job during the week, you may not be able to participate very often.

The downside to having to travel to an office is you don't get reimbursed the expenses. If the project only pays $75, for instance, and you have to fill your gas tank to drive there and that costs $35, you will only make $40. You have to think to yourself if that's worth it, or not.

To some, the prospect of having to spend money, to make a little bit, isn't worth the effort. Fortunately, there are many focus groups that are held online either through a discussion board, kind of like a chatroom; or with an online diary.

With a discussion board, it's pretty much the same as if you were all in an actual room together. It's lead by a moderator who throws out questions to everyone to get their impressions and ideas about products they use, how they use it, where they buy it, etc.

It may be possible that how you answer will get the moderators attention on the content, or if it needs more clarification on what you mean. They're not doing this to single you out, but the best answers they can from you.

The easiest of all is the online diary. With this, you log on to website everyday for about 10-15 minutes. They're looking to have you talk about a product you may have to use for a week and give your daily impressions, or talk about conversations you have have had the day before.

At the end of the week, you may have to answer a short survey on what you did and any other thoughts you may have. These usually pay pretty well, up to $300 that I've seen.

The good thing about focus groups is, it's SO EASY! If you can qualify and complete one of these a month, that's some pretty good cash.

Some survey websites do hold focus groups, but these pay much lower, around $25, and aren't as common. The average pay for projects held by actual focus group facilities averages about $80-$150.

One important thing to note. During the screening questionniare, you will be asked when your most recent focus group participation was. They're mostly looking for people who haven't participated recently. Don't ask me why; but answer how you feel you should.

Understanding what a focus group is.

Apr. 18, 2010

 People who are regular survey takers know what a focus group is. Throughout their time of taking surveys, they’ve probably been invited to and qualified for a number of focus groups.

Many others, whether they’re new to the survey game or anyone else not associated with market research, have never heard of a focus group.

These are tools used by market research companies, hired by an outside business, to pool a select group from different backgrounds of the consumer population to get their impressions and input on new products or service ideas. 

This pool of panelists is a small-scale version of the general population as a whole. Once a focus group is put together and the session gets under way, it is lead by a Moderator. This person leads the discussion of what product or idea is to be the focal point for the group.

Hopefully, the group is isolated in a comfortable setting, preferably soundproofed to outside noises or distractions to keep the panelists attention to the task at hand.

The Moderator is supposed to encourage and stimulate conversation and participation amongst the panelists to try and draw out as much feedback as possible. The hope is to get as many different perspectives on what the positives, negatives, needs for improvement, and so on are.

The more information that is obtained the better, as far as the client is concerned. This is information is to help them make their product better and more marketable.

Getting involved in focus groups is easy. There are a few directory sites that have links to focus group/market research websites that you can sign up to be a panelist. Once this is done, they call you when a study comes up based on the profiles you filled out about yourself or the area in which you live.

You’re then asked a series of questions to make sure you fit their client’s specific requirements. If you qualify, they have different days and times set up for you to come to their facility.

Some of the directory sites you can find links at are; SurveyMoneyGuide, Greenbook and MySurvey123. Many of the market research companies listed have offices nationwide and some are specific only to certain areas.

If you don’t want to wait around for a market research company to call when a study comes up, you can always find individual studies yourself.

There aren’t very many sites to find focus group projects, but a few are; Wal-Mart-Oodle (search in the work from home section or market research), Craigslist (search for market research or focus groups), and FindFocusGroups.

Market research companies often post a good amount of upcoming studies on these sites to fill their quotas, so continually check back with them.

Now, for the most important part of a focus group; the pay! The pay scale varies from project to project, depending on how in-depth the information needs to be, how long the session will take, or how quickly the client needs to get it done.

The average pay for focus groups is around $50, but can be as high as $300, or more. There are also some focus groups that are done online that pay anywhere from $20 to $75.

If you want to get into surveys and market research for the money, focus groups is where you can make the most. But don’t get your hopes up that you’ll qualify every time.

Most companies will disqualify you from consideration if you’ve participated in a focus group, either with them or someone else, in the previous three months. Sign up with enough companies and you’ll be getting called eight or nine times a month!

Mystery shopping explained.

Jan. 24, 2010

Although some may know what mystery shopping is, many have never heard of it.  

Mystery shopping is an evaluation of services provided by an independantcontractor, a mystery shopper; contracted by a mystery shopping company that was hired by a commercial or retail business.                   

What this means is a restaurant, retail store, movie theater, bank, and so on; hires a mystery shopping company to send in a shopper to make sure their establishments are being maintained and employees are following company policies.

Getting started with mystery shopping is easy and free.  You should never have to pay to be a mystery shopper.  Finding legitimate companies is the problem, however.

Searching online can bring millions of results and finding which ones are real can be time consuming. Some of the more popular companies are Bestmark, Beyond Hello, and Intelli-Shop. 

A good way to know if the company is legitimate is to look on their site for any affiliation with the Better Business Bureau (BBB), Mystery Shop Providers Association (MSPA), or if they use the SASSIE system.  SASSIE is a scheduling and data collection program used by many legitimate mystery shopping companies.

These affiliations are displayed on the main page of their websites.

The actual performance of a mystery shop is very easy to complete. You are given an assigned date and location by a shop coordinator for which you are to evaluate.  Be sure to read the guidelines before you arrive at the destination. 

These guidelines will explain exactly what you are to look for, who you may need to interact with, a specific scenario you are to act out, and so on. They are all set up by the client to make sure their employees follow policy on how services are to be performed and professionality standards are being met.

After the shop is complete, the shopper is to wrap up with a detailed report on what happened. The report forms are on the mystery shop website and have a series of yes/no questions to be followed up with written details. Check these out, as well, before you complete the shop. They willgive you an idea of how you're going to need to answer the questions. An important piece of advice is to be discrete. If you get figured out, your shop cannot be accepted and you won't get paid. 

Now, for the question on everyone's mind.  How much does mystery shopping pay?  Well, the usual pay is between $12-$15. It can vary on the type of shop, how quickly the coordinator needs to get it done, how extensive and time consuming the shop is, etc.

Now, you're probably wondering how much you can make in a month. That depends on how many shops you get accepted to do.  Starting out, you may not get many shops.  Most companies have rating scales from 1-10, 10 being just about perfect. 

Once a shop is finished and submitted, an auditor goes over your report to make sure all requirements have been met and how clearly you communicated what happened.  You are then rated on your performance.

The higher rating you maintain, you will be accepted more often because you're considered a reliable shopper. If you do work for a number of mystery shop companies, you can make up to $150 a month.

There are some sites that you can pay a monthly fee, around $20, for a certification. The theory behind this is that you're supposedly a good shopper because you're certified.

Unless you've done mystery shopping in the past, this certification means nothing because you have no experience. This fee also is supposed to bring you more shopping assignments. Don't rely on that. One company will not have dozens of assignments for you. Keep in mind, there are probably two dozen other people in your area applying for the same shop. 

These are usually assigned on a first-come, first-served basis and can go by rating, as well. The more companies you work for, the more opportunities you will get.