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Analysis and Current (June 5, 2007) Rankings of 20 Top Paid Survey Companies [Please note that as of May 1, 2007 we are updating these rankings twice monthly, on the 5th and the 21st of each month.] Here are the comparisons. Please read the explanation of the different factors used, in the "Explanation of Classifying Factors" and the "Commentary", below: [See especially the new 3-month moving average refund category, just added!] Current Ranking and Analysis:
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 4 sales made was at this special $29.95 rate, and the adjusted refund rate, based on that assumption, is 5.67%. If we had assumed that 1 in 3 sales was made at the $29.95 rate, the refund rate would have been 3.47%! 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, and the adjusted refund rate, based on that assumption, is 5.20%. If we assumed 33% of sales made at $24.95, the refund rate would have been 2.63%. * Quick Paid Surveys has increased their sign-up price from $39.95 to $47.00. We assumed that two thirds of their reported sales were made at the old price and one third at the new price, for a refund rate of 7.05%.
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 months. Every refund request is a tangible complaint filed by someone like you who signed up with that company within the last two months. 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. CAVEAT--This refund rate number is calculated based on data published by Clickbank, and, while it is a very good indicator it can be a bit deceptive. The refund is calculated by taking the gross income figures less the refunds. The gross income figures and the refunds are actual data for the last two weeks. This is mathematically correct and will be exact over time. However, the reality is that income is from current sales and refunds are for clients who began sometime over the last two months. So that means that if the company has, say, declining sales for the last six weeks or so, so that their sales today are half of what they were six weeks ago, and their "real" refund rate is 5.0%, then that amount being claimed by clients who came in six weeks ago will look like 10% against today's lower sales. Similarly, if there is an increase in sales, the refund rate of today will look smaller. It is what is called a "lagging indicator" and the current refund rate number can give a somewhat distorted reading when the weekly sales rate trends up or down. In the long run however, the moving average will be correct. That is why we now include the 3-month moving average refund rate as a comparison figure. The ideal guide company will have a low current refund rate AND a relatively low average rate for the past three 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 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.
Commentary: Why the rankings we made? 1. Legit Online Jobs. Large size, with the second lowest 2-week refund rate of all the companies at 3.99%. It has a recent history of low refund rates with a 3 month average of 4.35%! Good size and stability, proven performance. 2. Get Cash for Surveys. Has the third lowest refund rate of all the companies at 4.37% and a higher, but still reasonable 3 month average of 6.38%. We picked low refund rate for quality of service. It has enough size to indicate stability and proven performance. 3. Home Survey Workers. Remains in our top 5 this time with a good but not spectacular 2-week refund rate of 5.38% and the second lowest 3-month average refund rate of 4.54%! Medium size and excellent longer-term performance. 4. Top Online Surveys. Smaller company, growing recently. They must be doing something right. Two week refund rage of 5.09% and 3-month moving average refund rate of 5.77%. 5. Maximum Paid Surveys. Medium size, consistent performer with 2-week refund rate of 5.77% and 3-month moving average refund rate of 5.46% the third lowest in the top 20. Honorable mention: Survey Hawk. Small size. Gets honorable mention for its 2-week refund rate of 3.90%, the lowest in the top 20. However its 3-month average refund rate of 7.92% kept it out of the top 5 picks. It will bear watching in the future, to see if its current low refund rate will continue or prove a temporary fluke. Changes this month: Opinion Paycheck and Top Dollar Surveys dropped off our top 20 list last month. They were replaced by Home Survey Workers and Quick Paid Surveys. Home Survey Workers has been climbing the list (getting bigger than its competitors) rapidly. One company we had been following (we monitor several that are just below the requirements for the top 20) named Sir Look Survey Match-up, had a refund rate of 22.75% as of April 5, 2007! The following month and this month it is not listed with ClickBank! This tends to confirm our earlier observations and tentative conclusion that CB's "red line" is about 20%. Over that they either get their refund rate in line fast or they get the axe! The new 3-month moving average measurement adds a new dimension (time) to our ranking and evaluation techniques this time.
[What do you think? Does this 3-month moving average help as much as we think it does? We would appreciate your comments at jorcha123@yahoo.com!]
Note that none of our picks had refund rates as high as 6.0% (1 client in 17). 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. This month we have printed the refund rates of the worst 20% 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 this month, to point out that these are in the bottom quartile of the top 20and their refund rates have passed our "red line" danger mork. At this time we would NOT recommend them. Note that this month there are two companies with refund rates in the 10%+ range and four in the 9% range. The overall average refund rate this month is 7.33%. Note also that some companies seem to consistently stay in the high, 8-12% refund rate range... We looked at numbers of source companies on their lists as a qualifying factor, but generally discarded this number as the quality of the list is much more important than the shear number of names that are on it. The choices in some cases were very close. During the next few weeks we will continue to monitor the close contestants carefully. We are now updating our table 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 about current conditions warrant such changes. We now have six 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, and now June 5, 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 7.33% (means that on average, for the top 20 companies shown here, approximately 1 new member in 13 asks for a refund for one reason or another).
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Survey Scout - This very active site is very highly rated by various rating agencies.
Legit Online Jobs- Work At Home site includes surveys, "real" jobs, shopping, wholesale, grants, auctions, driving, more.