Google Rewards: Quick Surveys with Real Payouts

   

 

     If you have ever looked into working from home or for things you can do to generate some spare cash in your free time you likely ran across survey sites, companies who claim to pay you for taking online surveys. Though a small number of these are legitimate most of them are structured to either pay you so little it isn't worth it or designed to not pay you at all. That said I've found at least one that actually pays to use it, Google Opinion Rewards.

Online Surveys: Tricky at Best

     I've tried a good handful of companies that do online surveys. Though you are "working" for one company these surveys often go through a chain of different providers before they end up in front of a potential "worker" to answer them. For the sake of brevity I'm going to briefly go over the main categories that I encountered:

1. Legitimate Surveys - Sadly the least amount of what I saw, these surveys ask you questions and add to your account balance like they should.

2. Bait and Switch - These surveys spend upwards of 30 minutes asking you questions only to tell you that "You aren't qualified" for the survey (being not qualified is a legitimate thing but should only take 5 minutes at most to establish).

3. "Error" drops - 20 minutes into the survey and it will "error" out and won't let you resume from where the "error" was. The amount of these leads me to conclude they are designed to do so.


     You can actually make some money off of these sites but in the end the frustration and time is not even close to worth the money.

Google Opinion Rewards: Surveys Done Right

     With that out of the way let me introduce you to Google Opinion Rewards which is a simple app that you install on your phone. It guesses what shops you have been to and asks questions regarding your shopping experience. Usually 1 to 3 questions that take a minute at most to answer. The rewards aren't going to make anyone rich at between $0.10 to $0.50 a survey and they are locked into Google's system. That said I've never been one to turn down free money and I've bought games and albums from the Google store with my Rewards money. Fast, simple, legitimate. All things that I love about this platform. Would I like more surveys and the ability to cash out? Yes of course but in the end this really is almost free money just sitting there. The surveys are so fast that I actually enjoy seeing them come up and saving up credit to buy a new CD or book or game.

     So what is the catch? The catch is that Google uses your GPS to figure out where you have been shopping. If you are even the slightest bit paranoid about data collection this probably isn't the app for you and surveys in general probably aren't your thing. Myself I'm not as worried about data collection so I choose to basically sell that information to Google.

     I've been using Google Opinion Rewards for over 2 years and pulled in over $60. I buy games, books, and albums when they are on sale, often for $0.99 each so the money has gone pretty far. I like it so I thought I would share it with you all. Enjoy.