Biden: Guilt, Shame, and Regret

So does every poll, you idiot….including your carefully cherry-picked ones.

They may in fact pay but, a deeper dive into their payment structure defies a payout for all participants of the recent “economist”/yougov poll. All participants in statistical likelihood do not get paid. It seems like there is much work for little monetary reward.

taliban joe is in the crapper with a 42% approval among independents. His numbers have only one way to go and that is down…

Simply, YouGov surveys is an online market-research site where you can do surveys and get paid from doing so. You probably already know that – you’re here to work out if it’s ever going to pay you any cash or if it’s just one big scam, right?

In this article we’ll let you know the truth about YouGov surveys. In short: yes they do pay out – we’ve tested this ourselves. But jeez, do they make it difficult! It’s going to be a long time until you see any money. We’ll explain it all below.

The rules of the YouGov Payments Game

We’ve covered in another article much more about what YouGov Surveys is and what type of surveys you’ll be doing, but everyone always wants to know: when will I ever get paid for doing these surveys!?

It’s not uncommon for online survey sites to set a minimum threshold for making payments to people who answer their surveys. It makes perfect sense – if you’re going to pay out every time someone does a survey, it’s going to be an administrative nightmare.

YouGov, however, sets the bar higher than almost any other survey site out there – waiting until you’ve built up $50 in credit before paying out.

It requires you to get 5,000 YouGov points before it will pay $50 by bank transfer. Each survey – between 5 and 20 minutes long – will earn about 50-60 points. So you may find yourself having to complete nearly 100 of the buggers before you see any payout!

Is the Payout Even Worth it?

Never mind the length of time it takes you to earn $50 – is it actually a good reward for the time you’ll invest?

Let’s assume that each survey will, on average, take 10 minutes and be worth 50 points. In order to get to the magical $50 payout mark, you’re going to be doing over 16 hours of surveys! That’s just over $3 per hour of work, which isn’t exactly putting you on the Forbes rich list.

The thing is, as you’re doing the occasional survey here and there – sometimes on the bus, sometimes on the loo – you tend not to realize the colossal total amount of time you’ve put in trying to get to the $50 payout.

But are the YouGov surveys interesting?

Naturally, there will be people out there who aren’t put off by the appallingly low hourly earnings and still want to get their hands on $50. I can only assume these are the sort of people who have some sort of desperate crack habit to fund (bonus-tip: by the time YouGov pays out you’ll probably have finished rehab – yay!)

If you’re still considering giving it a go, then you’re probably thinking – even if it’s not well paid – perhaps it’s interesting.

To many people YouGov may sound interesting. It often features in the news around topical issues, and particularly on political matters. Doing the surveys might appeal to you as a way to be heard. A chance to stick it to the politicians with both barrels – and we’d all like a shot at that!

Honestly, there is a fair bit of politics in the surveys. They do ask some genuinely interesting questions about topical issues. But these sorts of questions tend to be sandwiched between layers of utter dross. There are dozens of questions which are incredibly mundane. Endless questions about credit cards, banks, shopping habits, or the car you drive.

And worse still, these questions keep coming up. Sometimes week after week, month after month. At times, it feels a bit like some endless torment. A voyage through Dante’s circles of hell – where the punishment is eternal surveys about supermarkets.

Answering your 27th question in a row about what household electronics you own…

You get the gist: it’s not most people’s idea of fun. But that won’t stop there being plenty who do give it a go.

How often can I do YouGov surveys?

So, you’re still undeterred and thinking, “I’ve got several hours to kill, let me at the surveys”.

Again, I’ve got bad news for you. You can’t just access an unlimited stash of surveys waiting to be done one-after-the-other. Some of you would probably just do them back-to-back for hours on end, until you starved – or, more likely, went mad.

No, the surveys are only offered to you a couple of times a week. This means that the whole experience of earning $50 with YouGov is more strung out than that off-on relationship you thought you were having (but actually you weren’t) when you were 16 (Sharon, I’ve still not forgiven you).

The actual number of surveys you get can depend on whether you fit the profile they’re looking for in their sample. But either way, it’s going to take time.

The bottom line: how long will it actually take to get paid from YouGov Surveys?
So, as my contribution to the vast, important, pool of human knowledge and the furthering of mankind – I earned $50 from YouGov and logged all my data to show you all.

Here is it:

Total surveys completed (I answered all available surveys in that period):

85 – to earn points
7 – to earn prize draw entries (I know, I am an utter fool for doing this. I won nothing)
Total length of time to earn $50: 312 days

Here is a graph of my progress towards the dreamy 5,000 mark (which equates to a $50 payout):

YouGov Surveys Payment Progress
As you can see, it was a long, hard road to get my S50 payout on YouGov. But two things I do want to stress, to their credit, are:

Surveys do keep coming steadily. The cynic in me wondered if they would completely stop when I got close to the payout threshold.
When I reached the payment threshold I had no trouble getting paid out. I just entered my bank details and the payment landed in my account in a couple of weeks.
So, there you go. YouGov: it’s a way of making some side money. $50 is still a decent amount of money to be earning in your spare time, but it’s hard work and going to take you a long time to earn it!

If you do choose to do it then don’t say I didn’t warn you. But if you do, please consider doing it using this link – which gives us some bonus points and all contributes to the cost of counselling, which is needed to recover from 10 months of doing these surveys.