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Valentines Day Infographic Driven By Marketing Research

As every reader of this blog is aware, Valentines day is quickly approaching. In fact, it is fifteen days away, so guys, make sure you start making your plans now.

I wanted to share this infographic with everyone today because this is the type of information that is collected via marketing research (aka: free paid surveys). Companies who make a lot of their revenue from Valentines day eat this kind of data up, because they need to know what men and women will be spending their money on each valentines day.

As you can see from this graphic, the typical Valentines gifts are as follows:

Candy – $30 Billion Dollars
Flowers – $6.2 Billion Dollars
Greeting Cards – $10 Billion Dollars
Chocolate – $17 Billion Dollars

If I were a greeting card company, I would be doing additional marketing research to find out what kinds of cards might be a hit this season and start producing those.

As you can see, marketing research plays a huge role in how businesses develop their products and marketing plans. That is why paid survey companies are legitimate and will continue to pay for completed surveys.

Filed Under: Infographics Tagged With: marketing research, Paid Surveys, valentines day

The History of Marketing Research

If you do a search in Google for the word “paid surveys” you will find some negative information regarding them. I think a lot of people talk poorly of paid surveys simply because they don’t understand where they came from. They think, there is no way someone would pay me for my opinions… this is far too good to be true. I think they might also talk poorly because they have had a bad experience with one of the companies who offer these surveys. Let’s face it, we all have bad experiences every day, I even had a bad experience today at Wal Mart, this doesn’t mean that Wal Mart is a scam, does it? If that were the case, every company, online or offline would be a scam. It just simply can’t be.

My goal in this post is to try and help everyone understand where paid surveys come from and why they are a legitimate way of making money on the internet.

I studied marketing research a lot when I was in college and it really has a fascinating story that all started in the late 1920′s. The idea of marketing research was developed by a man named Daniel Starch. During this time, advertising was just barely getting its start in the United States. The process of advertising back then was a lot different than it is today. At that time, copywriters would write what they thought an ad should be, publish the ad, and then they would hope that their readers would like the ad and then act upon the information provided.

A few years after advertising started, Daniel Starch came up with a theory… in order for advertising to be effective, it first had to be seen, read, believed, remembered, and then acted upon. Shortly after he developed this theory, he developed and launched the first marketing research company that would poll people in the streets. He would stop people and ask them if they read certain publications. If they did, he would then show them the magazine and asked the people if they remembered or recognized any of the ads found within them. After collecting this data, he then compared the number of people he interviewed with the circulation of the magazine to figure out how effective those ads really were. This was pretty much the birth of surveying also known as marketing research.

As the years past, many marketing research companies began to emerge. They would follow Daniel Starch’s example of polling people in the streets and over time, they worked to improve his techniques. Some time later, a man by the name of George Gallup developed a system that rivaled Starch’s system, it was called the aided recall. This system was different in such that is prompted people to recall the ads seen in publications without actually showing them the ads. This system went on to help measure the effectiveness of radio and television ads, not just ads in printed media.

In the late 1980′s, a Utahn named Ronald Lindorf founded what would grow to be the largest marketing research companies in the USA. This company was named Western Wats. What made Western Wats and grow at a rapid pace was the leveraging of current technology, the telephone, to conduct survey research. At this point there was no longer a need to go out on foot and interview people in the streets. Representatives in a call center, or in the beginning, Mr. Lindorf’s basement, can collect all of this data by simply making a telephone call. Because of this great efficiency, the number of surveys collected each year could help businesses really gain an understanding of their target market and ultimately improved the marketing research model again.

Over the last ten years, marketing research has taken yet another lengthy stride in terms of how data is collected. Yes, data like this is still collected via survey research, however, it is mostly collected via online surveys that are emailed to their recipients. Western Wats (renamed to Opinionology and recently merged with SSI) is now one of the largest marketing research firms in the world and collects a fair amount of their data via their online survey panel called Opinion Outpost (one of the companies we endorse at Survey Inferno). Instead of their agents having to cold call individuals, anyone interested in participating in these surveys can sign up for free to receive them and freely share their opinion. This method of collecting data is much less intrusive and the quality of data collected is much higher since people can participate on their own schedule.

So the last question is, where do these companies get the money to pay for completed surveys. It is actually quite simple, Fortune 500 companies all over the world, pay these online marketing research firms to collect the data. In turn, these firms “spiff” their participants with a monetary incentive for a completed survey. Each survey is typically worth a few bucks up to $15 or so. I’ve even completed a survey worth $50. It took about two hours, but well worth it.

I hope this helps you understand how paid surveys came to be and why they are legitimate so you give them a chance. It will be very interesting to see what marketing research evolves into over the next 5-10 years. Whatever it ends up being, I’m positive that it will be easier to collect and there will be more paid survey opportunities than ever.

If you are interested in getting started with paid surveys, we recommend starting with the following companies: Opinion Outpost and Global Test Market. We also recommend signing up for our 100% free, ten step email training to help you learn how to maximize your earnings from paid surveys. You can sign up here.

Filed Under: Market Research Tagged With: Daniel Starch, George Gallup, marketing research, Opinion Outpost, opinionology, Ronald Lindorf, ssi

$6.7 Billion Spent On Marketing Research Each Year

casro I thought this was interesting and wanted to share it with you today.

According to CASRO (Council of American Survey Research Organization), spending on marketing research in the United States has reached $6.7 Billion. If you look at spend world wide, it is closer to $18.9 Billion.

This is money that fortune 500 companies (and of course smaller companies) spend to collect data from people like you and me, either via phone surveys, or online paid surveys.

A large percentage of that money is paid to the marketing research firm conducting the survey. This goes to pay to set up the survey, the management software that manages the survey, the collection of the data, the storage of the data collected, and interpretation of the data, and delivery of the data to the client.

Lastly, a good chunk of that money goes to pay people like you and me for taking those surveys. This is either awarded in cash, points that convert to cash or other merchandise, or rewards.

Needless to say, there is a ton of money being put into marketing research and a ton of money to be made by taking paid surveys. If there is ever a time to get involved, now is the time!

Here is a link to their report

Filed Under: Market Research Tagged With: casro, marketing research, online paid surveys

Make Money Doing Online Surveys

Have you ever wondered how it is that thousands of people make money doing online surveys? It is really quite simple and in less than ten minutes, you too can be making money doing online surveys!

Truth be told, dozens of reputable paid survey companies are looking for people just like you to participate in online marketing research. They are willing to pay good money for you to take some time (15 to 30 minutes on average) to fill out a survey that is emailed to you. These online surveys can be about anything from makes and models of cars that you drive, to the kind of food you purchase at the grocery store. Large corporations want this information because it makes it easier for them to market these goods and service to you.

In the end, everyone wins… The marketing research companies make some money, you make some money, and the big corporations get the data they need to make more money. That is why it is so simple to make money doing online surveys and if you aren’t particpating… you are missing out on good money to be made.

If you are interested in this, click here and you can get started in as little as ten minutes.

Filed Under: Paid Surveys Tagged With: make money doing online surveys, marketing research, paid survey companies

Are You Frusturated With Online Paid Surveys?

One of the negative things I hear most about online paid surveys is the fact that some people just can’t qualify for a survey for the life of them. I can completely understand and relate to everyone of you who feel frusturated because of this. You see, marketing research companies are looking for a very specific demographic (traits of an individual) to take certain surveys. Because of this, if they are looking for hispanic females who are pregnant, those who aren’t hispanic females who are pregnant will not qualify.

So, what is there to do? As we talk about in our free training, you need to take about an hour and fill out every profile and bit of information that these paid survey companies are asking for. You might be asking yourself why? Isn’t this dangerous? NO! They companies are restriced by law from sharing your information. They need this information to have more accurate records of who is interested in what so they can send you the exact surveys that you will qualify for. So, if you want to avoid the frusturation, you need to put in some extra effort.

One free paid survey company, Global Test Market just recently launched something called Survey Shuttle. This is a very innovative tool that they have provided their members to help alieviate some of this frusturation you are feeling due to closed and non qualified surveys. Survey Shuttle immediately re-directs you to another survey if you do not qualify or the study is closed. By doing this, they allow you to make even more money than you can with their competitors.

Please keep in mind that paid surveys are hard work. They take effort and dedication, but it is possible to make money on the internet with paid surveys. You actually get paid to take surveys and you can do it from your current job, school, or at home.

Best of luck to all of you in this endevor. If you will fill out profiles, I can promise you more money!

Filed Under: Demographics, Market Research, Paid Surveys Tagged With: Free Paid Surveys, get paid to take surveys, Global Test Market, internet paid surveys, marketing research, online paid surveys, Paid Surveys, profiles, survey shuttle

Why Free Paid Survey Companies Are Legitimate!

There is a lot of negativity around the principle of paid surveys and how they are scams. These individuals and companies have no reason or evidence that this is a true statement. I, however, have been there and done that and want to share with you some very personal and detailed information about legitimate free paid surveys and how they are a great way for anyone to make money on the internet!

I believe that 99% of the websites and individuals who are promoting paid survey companies have no idea if they are for real or not. I, however, have had the opportunity to work for one of the paid survey companies that I represent. Not only did I work for this company, but I had many opportunities to work with the other survey companies in the industry and know of their validity.

Four years ago, I was fortunate enough to be hired by a local marketing research firm in Orem, UT. The name of this firm is Western Wats. When I was hired, I, along with another individuals (who I will not name) were responsible for the launch and growth of a new paid survey panel called Opinion Outpost. Honestly, we pretty much started from scratch!! When I was first hired, I had never heard of online paid surveys before. In fact, I was probably as skeptical as you are now about their legitimacy and validity. I thought, first “who in their right mind would want to take surveys for cash”, second “who in their right mind would pay someone cash for taking surveys on the internet”? Of course, being a new employee at the firm, I just did what I was told and didn’t think much about it again.

About three months into my employment, the lady in the accounting office who was in charge of printing checks for the survey takers came to my desk and dropped a stack of checks that I needed to seperate, put in enevelopes, stamp, and deliver to the post office. I thought, “WOW, this is for real! People actually make money doing this!!!”. That night I went home and signed up with every survey company that I could so I could make as much money as possible. The surveys started rolling in and so did the cold hard cash!

Shortly after I received my first check from one of the companies (if you think I can remember which company, you are insane, it was 4 years ago) I went to my boss to ask how we could afford to cut all those checks to those people. I really didn’t know anything about marketing research, how it worked, and how people made money from it. He taught me all about it that afternoon and I am going to share with you exactly what I learned.

Companies such as General Motors, Target, Sony, Apple, Blackberry, Fisher Price, and thousands of other companies need to learn how their current customers and others who are not their customers feel about their current products and possible future products that they might release. This is called marketing research. It is very obvious that we, as individuals, respect our own privacy and expect others to do so as well. In the past, we have received so many telemarketing or survey research phone calls that we have become frusturated and flat out annoyed to the point where we just hang up or not even answer the phone at all. From this was born the Do Not Call Registry which pretty much put every telemarketing company out of business. Let me be clear, marketing researchers collecting data are not restricted from calling you for research purposes, however, the industry has suffered a huge blow because people think that any phone call from any company falls under the registry.

Because of this, marketing research companies needed to evolve and provide a way for their clients to still collect the data that they need, while making it worth while for the people taking the surveys. They came up with a business plan of how they could provide value to both the client and the average person spending their time taking surveys.

So, they came up with a non-intrusive way of collecting market research data. They have people sign up to make money by taking paid surveys. These people volunteer their time for compensation. The marketing research companies charge their clients extra money for this type of research so they can reasonably compensate their survey takers for their time and effort. This is how you and I can make money by taking paid surveys!

Now that we have cleared up the legitimacy of Opinion Outpost, how about those other companies that Survey Inferno and hundreds of other survey sites represent? Well, first off, we personally test every offer that we present to our users and make sure that they provide sufficient monetary value. Also, toward the end of my employment with Opinion Outpost, we had many opportunities to work with other companies like Greenfield Online, Harris Poll, My Survey, Ipsos iSay and other marketing research companies. If they could not collect enough data for their clients, they would have us fill the rest and provide compensation for our members. This is a testimony to me and hopefully everyone reading this post that these paid surveys are legitimate and you can make money from them!

The last three months at Opinion Outpost was probably the most miserable months of my life! I hardly got any work done because I was stuffing checks for our survey takers for 8 hours a day, about 3 or 4 days a week. We literally sent out hundreds of thousands of checks a month to our survey panel members. I have created a video that is currently on YouTube that talks about paid surveys and shows a couple of the checks that I have received. This is legitimate, if you want to make money on the internet, this is an excellent way to do it!

I left this company about a year ago to pursue other opportunities including the launch of Survey Inferno. I knew first hand that this was for real and wanted to share it with people like you, that is why I compiled our paid survey directory. It has been very rewarding receiving countless emails from happy users of Survey Inferno. It has also been very challenging trying to overcome all of the negativity and lies that are surfacing about this industry.

I want everyone to know that I appreciate you visiting our site and I highly encourage feedback and suggestions. You can emails us with questions, feedback, or suggestions by clicking here.

You will probably also notice that our site has begun adding international paid surveys for individuals living outside the US. We are also providing surveys for Hispanics and teens. Over the next six months, you will also see a re-design of the website that will provide more information about each company, their contact information, and anything else that we think will make this a better experience for you.

I strongly encourage you to click here and sign up with the top ten paying survey companies on the internet today! You will start getting surveys and start making money within a day’s time.

Filed Under: Market Research, Paid Surveys Tagged With: Free Paid Surveys, greenfield online, ipsos i say, legitimate paid surveys, make money from home, Market Research, marketing research, my survey, online paid surveys, Opinion Outpost, Paid Surveys