 |
 |
Current Rankings (as of July 5, 2007) The list below shows the largest companies at the top (as measured by "Gravity"), and is sorted down in order, with the smallest at the bottom. Our selection and Current Ranking of our top 5 choices is in the next-to-the-last column on the right. The single most important ranking factor is their refund rate history. We use and show three numbers for this, each in per cent (%):
[Please note:
Analysis and Current Rankings:
Footnotes: * Paid Survey Program is currently charging a one-time fee of $39.95. However, if you visit their website and click away, a popup appears offering to let you in for $29.95! We assumed that 1 out of 2 sales made was at this special $29.95 rate, and the adjusted refund rate, based on that assumption, is 7.2%. So, as you can see, there is some uncertainty about the actual refund rate. However, at this writing, you can still get in for $29.95. * Express Paid Surveys has a new option, for a 3 month membership for $24.95. We used the assumption that 25% of their sales were made at the $24.95% rate.
Explanation of classifying factors: ** Cost to Join - Generally speaking, this is a one-time fee. ** Gravity - This is a ClickBank number which is a composite expression of the level of activity, number of affiliates involved, volume of business, number of transactions and so forth. Generally, the bigger the number the more business that is being done by that company. This number changes daily and summaries are reported weekly. We use the Gravity number to separate guide companies into three categories: Large (Gravity of 100 or more), Medium (Gravity of 15-99.99) and Small (Gravity of 5-14.99). ** Refund % - General: The refund rate is the strongest indicator of the value and quality of service provided by a paid survey guide company. Consider it a measure of the "no confidence votes" or "unhappiness complaints" made by others who have used the service in the last two to three months. Every refund request is a tangible complaint filed by someone like you who signed up with that company within two months of asking for the refund. They were unhappy enough to demand their money back. The more refund requests filed, the more votes against using that particular guide company. So a high (9% or more) refund rate is an indicator of problems that you want to avoid. A low (3-6%) refund rate indicates a high degree of satisfaction, many happy clients that you would be pleased to join. The ideal guide company will have a low current refund rate AND a relatively low average rate for the past three months. We believe that this measure is best expressed in our new Composite Index, which includes measures in the last 2 weeks and the last 3 months. You can also check the old list on the "Past Rankings" page here on this site, if you like. You can see what the refund rates have been, month by month, beginning over seven months ago, on December 5, 2006. ** Refund % - 3mo: This is the three-month moving average refund rate. It has been added for clarity, since sometimes the 2-week refund rate varies greatly from one time period to another. The three month average refund rate shows the company's history of past refund rates, for the 3-month period ending with this ranking date. ** Refund % - 2wks: This is the current refund rate, which is based on the experience of the previous two weeks up to the ranking date. It should be looked at in conjunction with the 3 month moving average to evaluate the specific paid survey guide company. ** Refund % - Composite Index: Finally, we get down to making a choice among candidates. To do that we must put a weight on the 2 week results and on the 3 month results and look at them together. This we have now done with the new Composite Idex. The formula used is: (1.5 times the 2 week average plus the 3 month average) divided by 2.5 or [(1.5 x 2wks) + 3 mo. avg]/2.5 = Composite Index. In words then, the Composite Index is composed of 60% of the 2-week average plus 40% of the 3-month average. This way of weighting the two averages seems to us about the right balance in importance between the two and gives us a single number which can be logically used to judge the past performance of all.
Commentary: Why the rankings we made? 1. Paid for Free. Smaller company, (gravity 16.7) growing recently. They must be doing something right, at least recently. Two week refund rage of 2.16% and 3-month moving average refund rate of 7.31%. Its Composite Index is 4.2. 2. Maximum Paid Surveys. Medium size, consistent performer with 2-week refund rate of 5.14% and 3-month moving average refund rate of 5.55% the lowest in the top 20. Its Composite Index is 5.3 3.Get Cash for Surveys. Has the fifth lowest current refund rate of all the companies at 5.29% and a higher, but still very reasonable 3 month average of 5.92%. We picked low refund rate for quality of service. It has enough size to indicate stability and proven performance. Its Composite Index is 5.5. 4. Express Paid Surveys. Large size. Its 2-week refund rate was 4.05% and its 3-month average refund rate of 7.85.%, while still high, was not high enough to keep it out of the number four choice. Its Composite Index is 5.6. 5. Paid Survey Pro. Medium-sized company, (gravity 20.5) with an excellent current refund rate of 4.84% for the latest two weeks but a high 9.02% rate for the three month average. Its Composite Index is 6.5.
Changes this month: Refund rates are generally higher all-around. The average refund rate for the latest 2-week period was 8.55% as compared to 8.87% on the 21st of June and as compared to 7.34% , on the 5th of June. This number was pulled up by having 5 companies with current refund rates over 10%. We found ourselves moving the refund averages we sought up a bit, since it seems that all companies are experiencing relatively higher refund rates than they once did. The new 3-month moving average measurement adds a new dimension (time) to our ranking and evaluation techniques. Added on June 25, the new Composite Index is made up of 60% of the 2 week refund rate plus 40% of the 3 month moving average refund rate. This balance in the Composite Index, with the 2 week rate taken as most important, but taking into consideration the 3 month moving average also, seems to give us what we need to judge the overall refund rate of all in the same way, by a logical, consistent and (we believe) very useful criteria.
[What do you think? Does this 3-month moving average and Composite Index help as much as we think they do? We would appreciate your comments at jorcha123@yahoo.com!]
Note that none of our picks had either a 2 week or a Composite Index refund rate higher than 6.5% (1 client in 15.4). All things being equal we felt that the refund rate was the single most important measure of client satisfaction and determiner of quality of their service. We tended to favor larger companies over smaller ones, based on the market's choice and greater stability. We now print the refund rates of the lowest 25% of our top 20 in Red above, to highlight their lower quartile status and urge caution with these. Note that we have added a red "X" to the left of each of these, to point out that these are in the bottom quartile of the top 20 and their refund rates have passed our "red line" danger mark. At this time we would NOT recommend them. The overall average refund rate this month is 8.55%. We looked at numbers of source companies on their lists as a qualifying factor, but have generally discarded this number as the quality of the list is much more important than the shear number of names that are on it. We now update our tables twice a month, at which time we review and revise our picks. Paid survey companies change and market conditions change. Our selection of recommended companies is dynamic and will change as new information comes in. We always pick the current best choices for you! We now have seven months of history posted on this website, with the numbers and the picks for December 5, 2006, January 5, February 5, March 5, April 5, May 5, May 21, June 5, and now June 21, 2007. We invite you to look at the past numbers in Past Rankings for comparisons. In general, you probably won't go wrong with any of the companies listed, especially those with refund rates below the average. For the 20 companies listed above the current refund average is 8.55% (means that on average, for the top 20 companies shown here, approximately 1 new member in 11.3 asks for a refund for one reason or another).
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Home Current Rankings Get Paid to Shop Etc Getting Started Who We Are Legitimate Paid Online Surveys Paid Online Surveys Paid Survey Info Information on Paid Online Surveys Paid Survey Review ClickBank Refund Policy Articles Is (Paid Survey Site "X") a Scam? Scam Alert! Additional Ways to Make Money Working at Home Newsletter Free Paid Online Surveys eBook! Get Paid for Surveys Past Rankings Past "Get Paid To..." Rankings Get Paid for Online Surveys Get Paid to Fill Out Surveys Get Paid to Take Survey Contact Privacy Policy | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The 3-month moving average.
Survey Scout - This very active site is very highly rated by various rating agencies.
Maximum Paid Surveys - 500+ paid online survey companies, 200+ mystery shopping companies. They
now say they have 762 companies that want to pay for your opinion.