Quest for Quiescence

Welcome to the third survey panel review of my online survey experiment. Check out my previous reviews of SurveyLion.com and GreenfieldOnline.com if you haven’t already. Opinion Outpost is a survey research division of Western Wats. According to the Western Wats website, they are the leading provider of survey research data collection. They collect quantitative data for clients via live and automated telephone as well as the internet. They have been around since 1987 and are partnered with “the most respected research teams in the world”. Basically, Western Watts conducts surveys to provide data to research firms. The portion of this research that is conducted online is done via their online survey panel, Opinion Outpost.

How it works

After a panellist signs up, they will receive emails in their inbox as studies become available. The email contains a link to the survey as well as information such as estimated time to complete, the topic and the incentive value. Opinion Outpost uses a points system to reward members for completing surveys. Each survey is worth a certain number of points. These points can be banked and later exchanged for cash. The value of each opinion point is 10 cents. So, for example, if a survey was worth 25 points, those points could be redeemed for $2.50. The only disadvantage to this approach is that conceivably, they could reduce the value of a point at any time which would impact any outstanding balance in your account.

The sign up process

In order to sign up you must be 18 years or older, live in Canada or the US and provide the following information…

• Name
• Email
• Home Address
• City
• State
• Zip Code
• Date of Birth
• Sex
• Marital Status
• Education
• Employment Status
• Household Income
• Industry
• Race
• Are you Hispanic? ***What the heck kind of question is that!?!? Is race not enough?***

After signing up you will be asked to fill out some profiling surveys. You will not be paid for these surveys but they will establish a profile that is used as criteria to provide you with surveys targeted specifically to you. These profiling surveys take a couple of minutes each and include categories such as Health, Professional, Household Technology, Travel, and Personal Finance. In total there are 9 profiling surveys.  Since signing up with Opinion Outpost I am not aware of any spam being received as a result of joining the panel.

The Panel Website

The Members area of the website has a navigation bar on the left hand side of the page. The Members Home section (AKA Dashboard) tells you how many surveys are available. The Available Surveys section shows a list of all surveys available to be taken. My Profiles provides access to the profiling surveys and also indicates which have been completed and when. My Account displays all of the details that you provided during the sign-up process and gives you the option to update them. My Rewards shows you a summary of total points earned, points redeemed and current balance. You can also request a cheque from this section. The Feedback section gives you access to a contact form while Survey History shows a detailed listing of previous surveys including the date it was issued, the current status, points offered and points earned. There is also a Refer a Friend section which explains the referral system and allows you to send out invitations by email. The final two options, Opt-Out and Logout are self explanatory.

Referrals

A referral bonus of $1 is available for every referral who joins and completes at least one survey. To refer someone, you need to enter their name and email into a form from the members area of the panel. However, Opinion Outpost also provides you with a referral link to send to friends. The link is preceded by the following text

You can also email your friends the following link to join Opinion Outpost. 

But, it doesn’t say if the link can be posted up on the internet. That said, Opinion Outpost does have an affiliate program. Affiliates earn the same $1 per referral as any other member. Affiliates are paid monthly for earnings over $20. Affiliates are provided graphics and html code for tracking, and given access to tracking reports. This may be a nice option, but if you don’t care about the graphics and tracking, you might be better off using the referral link. This way you can collect a check after $5 instead of the $20 required by the affiliate program.

Payment

All cash incentives (referrals and survey completion rewards) are banked and can be seen from within the Rewards area of the panel. Once you have $5 in your account you may request a payment by clicking the “Request Payment” buttonl. Opinion Outpost makes payments by mailing cheques and indicates 4-8 weeks as a typical lead time.

Conclusion

Opinion Outpost is a nice panel. The website is really well laid out and probably the best I’ve reviewed so far. I also really like the fact that they provide an referral link and have an affiliate option. Click here If you’d like to try out Opinion Outpost for yourself. By the end of this week the one month online survey experiment will be complete. Starting next week I’ll be posting follow-up reviews based on the experiment results. Be sure not to miss that. Also, be sure to check out the reviews of the two other sites used in the experiment. Survey Lion and Greenfield Online.

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