Online survey taking is quickly becoming a very popular side gig. Everyone from stay-at-home moms to busy executives enjoys the opportunity to earn cash, e-gift cards, and other rewards from simply clicking on survey responses online. However, it can be difficult to know where to spend your efforts. Which market research companies should you consider signing up for and which sites should you pass up for greener pastures?
One of the many online survey sites to choose from is a company known as Valued Opinions. We’ll take a look at what you can expect from this site, and whether or not it is worth your valuable time in this complete Valued Opinions review.
Without further ado, let’s dive in!
What is Valued Opinions?
Valued Opinions is an established online survey site that has been around since 2004 and is based out of Plano, Texas. The site has more than 3 million members from around the world, although Valued Opinions panel membership is currently only available to residents of the United States. Unfortunately, UK residents and others are no longer eligible at this time.
The site is owned and operated by Dynata, LLC. Dynata describes itself as the “world’s largest first-party data company” and claims to have a global reach of more than 62 million consumers and enterprise clients through its various platforms and business solutions. As a top market research company, Dynata operates more than a few online survey websites in addition to Valued Opinions.
Is Valued Opinions legit?
Valued Opinions is definitely a legitimate and trustworthy website to get started with your online survey side hustle. While your experience may vary, you can rest assured that you will not get scammed.
The company has a 3.8 rating on the consumer review website Trustpilot, with the majority of the 1500 reviewers rating the company a solid “Average”, “Great”, or “Excellent” rating. Valued Opinions claimed their Trustpilot profile in 2016 and verified company details, which allows them to respond to consumer complaints and boosts their transparency.
On the BBB website, Dynata, LLC has an A+ rating, which is a great indicator of its trustworthiness.
Although there are some negative customer reviews and complaints on the BBB, the majority of these have nothing to do with the Valued Opinions brand or site. It seems that these complaints mostly deal with other survey sites operated by Dynata or with other aspects of the Dynata organization such as receiving a large number of spam calls.
The company remains dedicated to data privacy and is a member of both The Marketing Research Association (MRA) and The Market Research Society (MRS).
In addition, the site has a standing monthly $10,000 donation to the American Red Cross, a charity focused primarily on disaster relief and other humanitarian aid.
How does Valued Opinions work?
The site works in much the same way as other market research survey sites. Brands partner with the organization to gain valuable insights and consumer feedback from a selected pool of survey takers.
For the consumer, becoming a part of Valued Opinions market research panel gives you access to various opportunities including online surveys, product tests, and focus groups. The rewards you can earn on the site range from gift cards and airline miles to magazine subscriptions and charitable donations. When you are ready to “cash out” your rewards points, there are more than a dozen brands to choose from.
Valued Opinions: Getting Started
To join Valued Opinions, you simply need to create an account and fill out your profile information. You must also verify your e-mail address by clicking on the verification link within your very first welcome e-mail and confirming your account. This is all standard in the survey site industry.
The more information you provide in your profile, the more survey opportunities you will receive. Those who reach 100% completion of their account info will receive the most surveys offered.
It is important to note that Valued Opinions members must be at least 17 years of age. It is always free to create an account on Valued Opinions.
Valued Opinions Rewards
Once you have completed your account registration, available surveys will begin appearing on your member dashboard. New surveys will also be sent to you periodically via e-mail. Each survey invite will let you know what to expect by providing a time estimation of how long it should take you to complete the survey and how much you will earn for your efforts.
Survey invites do have a deadline for responding, and a quota for the number of participants, so be sure to respond quickly before the survey has reached its max responses or its time limit. New surveys are typically only open for a few days so act fast!
The surveys that you will be matched with will depend on the information in your profile, so be sure to fill out all of the info you can in order to receive the most relevant surveys. You may not qualify for a survey based on your provided demographic information.
Make sure that you are always honest with your survey answers and take your time submitting the correct responses. There are systems in place to double-check that cheating and dishonesty are not taking place.
Surveys can be accessed and completed from computers and mobile devices, making earning some extra cash on the go super convenient. Most rewards are distributed to your account right away, with the exception of some longer market research activities such as focus groups or product reviews.
Valued Opinions Badges
Valued Opinions has a somewhat unique points system known as Badges. This system of membership levels allows active members a way to “level up” for completing various activities. While there is no real advantage or perk to earning badges on Valued Opinions, the levels are a fun way to stay active and engaged on the site.
There are 5 levels – Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond. In order to advance to the next level, you must complete all of the achievements needed to move on. In addition, you must maintain your current level of survey activity in order to keep your current badge status. If you miss out on completing surveys – you will drop down a level or 2.
For example, to reach Silver status, members must complete at least 25% of their profile, complete their first survey, and have taken at least 1 survey in the last week. Once you reach Diamond status, you will have a completed profile, at least 4 weeks of consecutive activity on the site, and have at least 50 complete surveys under your belt.
Valued Opinions Affiliate Program
Valued Opinions also offers its members one other additional way to earn money. By becoming an affiliate partner and referring others to join the market research panel, you can earn a commission from Valued Opinions.
However, this program appears to be somewhat limited to brands, bloggers, and others with a significant reach. The site requests that you contact them with either “the number of unique visits you get to your website/blog” per month or “the traffic you think you can generate”. They also ask that potential partners send the link to your website or blog.
Redeeming Rewards on Valued Opinions
Once you have reached $10 in rewards from your completed surveys, you can begin to cash out for a variety of gift cards and other rewards. Simply visit the Rewards tab to complete the simple redemption process.
In order to complete reward redemption, you will need to verify your phone number before you can redeem your first reward. This can be done using either a mobile number or a traditional landline. This is an extra step for security and data protection.
Most gift vouchers will be delivered to you electronically via email within 24 hours. In some cases, you will also be able to request a physical gift card be mailed to your home, although this may take upwards of 1 month to receive.
How Much Can You Earn on Valued Opinions?
While the amount you can earn on a site like Valued Opinions varies depending on how active you are on the site and how many surveys you are offered based on your own personal demographic information and profile, you can easily earn a good chunk of change with the site.
How much? Several users have commented that they have been able to make upwards of several hundred dollars over time. Not quite a full-time income, but this can all add up especially if you are able to spend many hours doing paid surveys from multiple survey sites. Combine Valued Opinions with other sites like Zap Surveys or Survey Junkie and you could definitely increase your take-home pay.
Valued Opinions Customer Support
There are a few different ways you can contact the company if you need help with your account.
Valued Opinions has a dedicated member support team that can be contacted by visiting the help page here or by reaching out via phone at 833-681-0436.
The help page also features a variety of FAQs in order to help you quickly find the answer to your question or inquiry.
How does Valued Opinions compare to other survey sites?
Generally speaking, most survey apps and sites are very similar to one another in many ways, often making these companies almost indistinguishable from the competition. But there are a few areas in which Valued Opinions really shines.
Unlike other survey sites, Valued Opinions surveys are typically a larger payout per survey. The site averages around $1-5 per survey, which is a great reward! This does mean that you will take a bit longer to complete those surveys. The average Valued Opinions survey takes about 10-20 minutes to complete.
In addition, the site’s functionality, trustworthiness, and professionalism set Valued Opinions apart from the pack. Some other survey sites can be slow, outdated, and otherwise difficult to navigate. Meanwhile, Valued Opinions website is not cluttered and is very simple to use. This is an important part of the online survey experience, so it really matters when picking which sites you wish to spend the majority of your time on while taking surveys online.
The site also offers different ways to earn points besides just taking surveys, such as completing product testing, diary studies, and other long-term market research activities.
On the other hand, the site is not perfect. One of the major downsides to Valued Opinions, is that as a membership-based site, it can be hard to get into the panel. There are some time periods when you will not be able to apply.
(In fact, at the time of this writing in November 2021, a message appears when you attempt to sign up using the “Join Now” button. This message says: “Thank you for your interest! Valued Opinions is not currently accepting new members at this time. Please check back later.”)
And while some sites payout in cash, Valued Opinions offers no such cash option. While some users enjoy and even prefer using survey sites to earn gift cards, for many people this may be a deal breaker.
In addition, many users prefer to take shorter, more frequent surveys rather than having to spend 15-20 minutes per survey. If you get bored easily and don’t like clicking through page after page before you get to your payout, this may not be the right site for you. But if your attention span can swing it, the earning potential with Valued Opinions can be very great.
Final Verdict
In short, if you can manage to get in with the Valued Opinions survey panel when they have new openings, the site can be a great way to quickly and easily earn some extra income – in the form of gift cards. The site is comparable to many other survey sites but earns extra points for usability and reward levels.
Valued Opinions is definitely worth a shot for those who enjoy answering surveys as a side hustle.
