US$110 - for an exchange of views (acnielsen.com)

Member Name: whitby

Product:	acnielsen.com
Date:	16/01/02 (92 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy instructions to follow, Fun and entertaining, Giving information to help shape future products

Disadvantages: Need to negotiate / collect the cheque, Can't volunteer for involvement, as it's by invitation only

I have just received the proceeds of a cheque for US$110!

What did she do? I hear you cry.

I have just finished work on a 10-day forum with ACNielsen. These forums are called Bulletin Boards and are just one type of activity that is undertaken by the company who are a global market research company.

On the 2nd October I received confirmation by email that my enrolment for participation in a forum had been accepted. The email explained that the online bulletin board is a short-term discussion forum where participants log in using a password and then post comments and feedback in answer to set questions which are posted by a moderator.

The forum started on the 1st October at about 9am Singapore time (whenever that is!) and we were advised that it would run for about ten days. So by the time I got my email it had begun.

Also in the Welcome email was the following phrase: As a token of our appreciation of your time and effort, a sum of US$80* will be presented to you at the end of the discussion. There was a footnote advising me that any invited participants must be active on the online bulletin board a minimum of 8 days to qualify for the cash incentive.

This point did worry me as I had received my confirmation one day into the start of the project and as it might only run for ten days I thought this would already put me out of the running for any reward this is how those companies operate I thought the old carrot routine, but by the time you get it it's gone mouldy!

I religiously logged in to the debate using my own pre-allocated password and found it to be a small group of about twenty-five people from all over the world. I knew that it was an international forum from the way comments were written. The moderator posted about two questions a day for us all to answer. I felt that I didn't have too much to offer on the subject we were discussing and many of the other comments seemed from a more int
ellectual thought process than mine, but none the same, my opinions seemed valued and I was not mocked in any way.

I began recording the date and time of my postings to ensure that I had a log in case I didn't get my money, but the thing is by the end of the forum I can honestly say I'd stopped making these notes because I was genuinely enjoying the experience.

Imagine my surprise when after the ten days were up I received a further invite asking me to continue posting as the company who had acquisitioned the research wanted more questions answered and as a result I would be awarded an extra US$30.

Again, I had a slight scepticism about receiving payment but carried on regardless for fun. We were asked to participate up to the 17th October.

The Bulletin board was very much like a Yahoo or Excite Message Board and was easy to operate and find my way around. All the way through the experience the company kept me very well informed and seemed very grateful for my co-operation. It was really warming to feel so appreciated; this in itself was a motivating factor in my participation.

All the way through, each email had a note at the end that gave the company's reassurance that my responses are strictly confidential. It said that all information would only be used for research purposes and that individual responses will not identified. The closing statement was always that this was purely market research and that no selling was involved. From the experience I had, I do truly believe this to be the case.

On the 16th October the moderator sent a final thank you email reminding me that the forum closed the following day. On the 3rd November they emailed me again and asked whom I would like the cheque payable to and to which address should they send it. That was the last contact I had from the company until...

About two weeks ago my Mum came running up stairs Who'd you know in Singapore? she crie
d. I think she was a bit worried as she just signed for an International Registered letter which was clearly labelled Singapore and she is easily excitable after recent tragic events in the US i.e.: Anthrax! The letter was postmarked with a date of the 3rd November.

Anyway inside was my letter from ACNielsen enclosing the US$110 cheque. They again thanked me and asked me to either fax or email them to confirm receipt. The cheque will need to be negotiated / collected and there is a fee at banks for this (unless you work for one see there are advantages!) but even so it was very easy money for some enjoyable work.

This goes someway to explaining my one experience with ACNielsen. I know that this is not a lot to make an informed recommendation on. However, the whole experience was so good and the company made me feel so welcome that I just had to ask Dooyoo to create a new product.

A little more information about the company will probably be useful to you as well. They claim to be the worlds leading provider of market research, information and analysis to consumer industries. Their global website states that they have more than 9,000 clients in more than 100 countries.
They achieve this through various methods such as Retail and Media Management, Consumer Panels, Customized Research, Decision Support to name but a few. The category I came under was Consumer Panels.

The global website can be found at www.acnielsen.com but it is a very heavy going website which is based more at the corporates than the general consumer. I am always slightly baffled and overcome when looking at it! From the global website links are provided to the individual country websites. There are 101 countries recorded if I counted correctly!

The only down side as far as this opinion goes is that I can't pass you a referral link (even if I was allowed to) and I can't give you a sign up web address as the company clearly states it's policy
of only randomly selecting panellists for its research and they do not accept volunteers. I believe (from memory) that I was referred to them by another company that I complete surveys for.

But the moral of my story is the more you put in or the more surveys you do, eventually you do get the rewards.

Based on this one wonderful experience if you are ever given the chance to participate I'd suggest you grab it with both hands they are a very reliable and friendly company!

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