Jun 8, 2010

Ways to Make & Save Money #15: Pinecone Research

You can read the rest of the Ways to Make & Save Money series here.

I realize it's Tuesday, but I got an email from Pinecone Research yesterday saying that they're accepting new members, so I wanted to mention them now. They are my favorite survey company, because they pay $3 for each product survey completed. It's not a lot of money for 5 to 20 minutes of my time, but it's a great diversion, can be done while multitasking, and there's always the chance that I'll end up getting a free product to test.

As with all reputable survey companies, you have to agree to a rather strict confidentiality clause when you sign up with Pinecone, and restate your agreement with each survey. Pinecone seems to work primarily with major, well-established companies, who are looking for input on products they are developing, so you'll get a sneak peek at quite a few products that eventually make it to the market.

It's been my experience that Pinecone pays very reliably, by paper check or Paypal. There is no minimum cash out threshold, so you'll receive payment after each survey - you don't even have to ask.

I used to get very few surveys, but lately I've been getting more. I don't know if that's because my demographic has become more desirable, or because the manufacturers are giving them more business. It's great, though - I've already done a dozen surveys this year, and the experience of taking them has been so unremarkable that I would have said I'd done half that number. (I mean "unremarkable" in a good way, because I'd probably only remember taking a survey if it was a bad experience.)

If you want to sign up for Pinecone, now's your chance. You can sign up here, hopefully the link will still be active when you click through. You can learn more about Pinecone here, and read their privacy policy here.

Note: Pinecone is notorious for leaving their sign up links up for a very short time, so you may have noticed that I posted the registration link yesterday right after I got the email. If the original sign up link above becomes inactive, I'll update this post when there is a new link and give you a heads up on Twitter.

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