A Light and Speedy way of making money fast... (gb.lightspeedpanel.com)

Member Name: Sarccyslayer

Product:	gb.lightspeedpanel.com
Date:	05/05/07 (354 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It now works like it should and the surveys are frequent

Disadvantages: The Admin Fee for point redemption and the fact you need to find a banner or get an invite to join

Lightspeed Consumer Panel is one of the many online Market Research companies that I am a member of and I joined them not long after joining both Dooyoo and Ciao because having read many reviews on them, I thought they sounded great and that it would be another way of making easy money, like most.

However, I have to admit that Lightspeed were not all they claimed to be and in fact the rewards were so minimal and the surveys pretty inconsistent that I didn’t really bother with it that much. Every time a survey arrived in my inbox I still completed it, usually without success at winning anything and gradually my interest has faded because I was much more successful with similar websites which did make my time worthwhile.

Anyway in July last year having not received a single thing from Lightspeed for well over a year I got a survey out of the blue and decided that I would go and log into my account to see if there had been any changes made and whether or not it would be worth my while after all I hadn’t bothered with it for so long. The website had changed dramatically and it was better designed, easier to read and navigate around and they had a new incentive programme which seemed much more genuine than the previous one, so I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and become more active again.

Okay so the basics first. To join up with the Lightspeed Consumer Panel you need to be a UK resident and aged 16 or over. If you live elsewhere in the world such as The US, Canada, Europe and Asia Pacific then Lightspeed does have a panel in your country for anywhere else it is best to go and look at the website which you will find at http://www.lightspeedresearch.com.

To join the UK panel you will need to go to http://gb.lightspeedpanel.com, and this page gives you several options:-

*~* Home – this option will always take you to the homepage.
*~* Rewards = this option tells you all about the incentive programme
*~* About = this option tells you all about Lightspeed Consumer Panel and Lightspeed Research and how everything works
*~* Help = key in your question for a FAQ or email your query to them panel

The one thing which has recently been removed from the homepage is the ‘Join’ option which is obviously where you would sign up and complete the registration process to become a member. However upon further investigations into becoming a member you now have to see an advert online or receive an email invitation, which is sadly the route most online Market Research companies are going. Lightspeed have the following information in their help section about registration “It takes less than 5 minutes to register and you need to be invited to join the Lightspeed Consumer Panel. If you see an advert or invitation”

So we will have to imagine that you have had an email invitation or have seen an advert to complete the registration process which is really is quick and easy. All you have to do is fill in a short online form giving all the usual details such as your email address and you then chose a password. You will then be asked your name, address, age and some further questions on your household and occupation. Once all of this is completed you should then receive an email which will thank you for expressing an interest in joining The Lightspeed Consumer Panel and within the email will be link to click which will finish your registration. Once this link has been clicked you are now a fully fledged member and you can have a look and see if there are any current polls or surveys to take in your personal account area.

Once you have logged into the website by inputting your email address and password which can be found on the left hand side of the screen you will see numerous options.

Immediately on the left hand side is a section called ‘Members Links’ and within this section is all of your personal information, how many Lightspeed points you have, options to change your password and anything else you feel is relevant. You will also see a link to the winner’s page and here you can see a list of members who have won a cash prize from £1000 to £25 for their participation.

In the middle section of the screen which dominates the whole page there are again numerous options to choose from. Firstly we have:

*~* Survey’s *~*
Underneath the survey option you will see the following explanation “Earn Lightspeed Points and help shape the products you see on store shelves, services offered to you and advertisements you see on television or in print.” This is usually a good indicator as to what they surveys which you receive will be about. Topics for surveys can be anything from cars, mobile phones, television shows, magazine adverts and skin care to name but a few of the ones I have had recently.

An email will be sent to you from Lightspeed whenever there are any new polls or surveys that they would like you to take. To participate you have to log into your account and see what is on offer. The emails that you receive do not tend to tell you what the survey is about, but they do tell you how many Lightspeed Points are on offer and how long it will take which in my experience can be anything from 5 to 30 minutes and can earn you anything from 50 to 300 Lightspeed points. 100 Lightspeed points is the equivalent to £1. It is worth noting that after 2 years these points will expire.

I now find that the surveys have now become much more frequent and in a typical week I get between 2 and 4 to fill in with most of them paying roughly 100 Lightspeed points for 20 minutes work.

Lightspeed survey work is made up of mini polls, quick match surveys and full-length surveys. Mini polls and quick match are fast and easy to do and there are often quite a lot of them to fill in but they are really easy to complete.

Secondly there is the Mini polls section. To participate you need to click on the mini poll which is available and these take less than 5 minutes and can earn you 5 prize draw entries.

Finally we have what are called Quick Matches and these take less than 5 minutes to complete and earn you 10 entries into the £2000 prize draw. Now the quick matches ask several questions about specific topics to see if you are eligible for the full survey. Depending upon the answers that you give in a quick match, you can often receive an email several days later asking you to complete the full survey. Once you have completed all of these you will be told that once more appear an email will be sent to you advising you of more Quick Matches.

One thing I feel I need to point out is that you will only get entries into the prize draw entries for responding to quick match questionnaires or mini polls. Every three months £2,000 is shared out between 11 winners. The number of entries you have in this prize draw will be directly related to the number of surveys or polls you have taken during the last three months.

So far it does sound very rewarding and easy to be a member of so what can you do with the Light Speed Points? Lightspeed do, as I have already mentioned give Rewards for taking surveys. Lightspeed points are redeemable for cash through Paypal, gift vouchers, or a large range of gifts. Typically 100 Lightspeed points is more or less the equivalent of £1.00 (depending on the reward you choose). Once you reach a minimum of 500 Lightspeed points, you can cash in your points. You claim your reward by signing into your account and clicking the claim reward button. This immediately takes you to the reward section of the Lightspeed website, where you will find many different options to choose from run by PerksPlus.com, on behalf of Lightspeed.

The one thing I do now like about the incentive programme is the options on what to exchange your points for is vast. However, there is a downside in that you will have to forfeit some of your points if you choose to redeem your Lightspeed points for cash or gift vouchers due to a small administration fee which changes depending upon which option you choose, but it is all explained when you redeem your points or if you read the section titled ‘Lightspeed Official Promotion Rules’. However, you can choose gift vouchers from Amazon, HMV, PrezzyBox, Crocus or Firebox.

Now I did mention that there was an alternative to voucher and cash redemption and that is the large range of gifts and goods to choose from. These range from homes and gardens, food and drink and personal care items. There is a small experiences section as well. Once you have started to build up your points it is always a good idea to check the gift section to see if anything else has been added before you exchange for vouchers or cash, unless you are like me and are seeing how many points you can accumulate for something which might eventually take your fancy.

The incentive programme is now run by a company called The PerksPlus programme which to me does offer a vast improvement on their previous one in that the claim process is a lot quicker. I cashed in some of my Lightspeed points for an Amazon Voucher and it would usually take anywhere up to a month to arrive not it takes 7 days which to me is not brilliant but a marked improvement.

Now should you ever have a problem with Lightspeed then you will need to be acquainted with Lauren. Lauren is the one who will send out most of the survey invites as well as deal with any queries which you might have. If you do find that you have some issues you want dealing with then there is a lot of help given in the help section which for me has dealt with any question I have so far wanted answering, but should this fail, you can send an email through the help section.

Since going back to Lightspeed Consumer Panel, I have to admit that I have been really impressed with the improvements that have been made to the website design and the ease of navigation but also to their incentive scheme. Instead of getting one survey every 2 months if I was lucky I now get between 2 and 4 within an average week as well as regular emails to inform me that the Quick Matches section has been updated. Since last July when I went back to Lightspeed and became more active I have accumulated £75 Lightspeed points which I am saving for a rainy day, I have cashed out £5 once to see whether or not their system had improved and whilst I am delighted it has, I still feel the administration fee is rather harsh, but something I have to live with.

I still hold on to hope that I might one day win something in the prize draws but as yet I haven’t won a thing.

For anyone wanting to join Lightspeed after reading this, all I can say is look out for the advert or the banner online and should you come across it, click it quick.

** Extra Information**

Lightspeed Consumer Panel was founded in 2000 and is owned by WPP, one of the world's leading communications services groups.

** To contact **

Website: http://gb.lightspeedpanel.com or http://www.lightspeedresearch.com

Summary: Online Market Research company