Boost Your Income... Ever So Slightly (justtheanswer.co.uk)

Member Name: blonde_girl774

Product:	justtheanswer.co.uk
Date:	09/06/09 (145 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to Join & Surveys are Interesting.

Disadvantages: Surveys are Infrequent.

As I'm going back to University in September money is going to be particularly tight once again so I'm doing everything I can to earn a bit of extra money here and there. Every survey site I come across or read about on here I tend to join in case they can help supplement my income a little bit. Just The Answer is the most recent site that I've joined as far as I can remember, I've been a member for about six or seven months now in total so feel I've had enough experiences with them to write a review for you.

The Company

Just The Answer is an online market research panel based in the UK with over 50,000 members according to the current figure. It is part of the parent company Aurora Market Research which was established back in 2002 and pride themselves on offering consumer, business to business and employee surveys for a variety of clients. The majority of the work they do is via online research which is where Just The Answer is most active, but the parent company also offer panel based research and demo testing as well.

Joining

It's really simple to join Just The Answer and you need to start off by going to www.justtheanswer.co.uk and clicking on the "Join Now" button on the green menu running across the top of the page. There is a simple registration survey to complete which will automatically mean you get 50 points in your account to start you off. This survey asks for all the usual information such as name, address, date of birth and takes about five minutes to complete in total, mainly as you have to select each individual digit of your postcode!

Once you've submitted the registration form an email will automatically be generated and sent to your email account. Contained within this email is a link which you need to click on to activate your account on the site. After you've done that you're all ready to start receiving survey invitations and watching those points accumulate. When you click on the link you'll be taken to the site and asked to complete several profile sections on your employment, your shopping, etc. which will earn you another 50 points when complete.

The Site

The site itself is quite straightforward to use as are most of the survey sites I'm a member of. As most surveys are conducted by other companies or by links sent to your email account there aren't really many reasons to visit the site other than to check your balance or redeem your points. As such the site itself is quite sparse in content making it easy to find what you're looking for and to navigate around on. The site is also really quick to load; logging in takes only about one second to process making it quite fast.

The main areas on the site can be accessed using the lime green menu running across the top of the page. Below this are some black options which are customised to just your account. The main menu tabs here you need to be aware of are "My Answer Points" which will show you your total number of points and also the rewards you can claim. There is also the option to change your email and change your password as well as recommend the site to a friend which will result in another 50 points being added to your account.

The Surveys

The survey invitations are emailed to your account and each email will contain an introduction, a guide to how much you could earn, the length of the survey and a link to complete the survey. I've completed a range of surveys from Just The Answer on topics such as the cinema, eating preferences, holiday choices and shopping habits to name just a few. They tend to be quite straightforward and generally involve you merely ticking a box from a selection of answers rather than actually composing your answers.

Remuneration for the surveys is all important as I'm sure many of you know! Just The Answer seems to reward you quite fairly for your participation and certainly better than some sites I've used. A typical survey will result in you accumulating anything from 50 to 200 points. From looking at my account balance I can tell you that in the past three months I've done two surveys with a 50 points reward, one with a 75 points reward and one with a 150 points reward. Typically every five to ten minutes is rewarded with 50 points.

The Rewards

The rewards are the most important part of this review, and certainly my main reason for joining any market research site. It's quite simple to understand in that 1 point equals 1p in terms of remuneration, so 50 points is 50p and so on. Unfortunately you can't actually convert your points into actual cash, instead they offer a £5 Amazon voucher for 500 points or a £5 donation to Macmillan Cancer Support. Alternatively 50 points can also be traded for one entry into the monthly prize draw, this month the prize is an Ipod Touch.

My Experience

I tend to hear from this site quite infrequently, I've had one survey invite today which has prompted me to write this review but prior to that I think I last heard from them at the start of May. I'd say on average I get two survey invites per month which isn't ideal if you're trying to save serious points! Looking at my account points balance has informed me that I completed one survey in February, two in March, two in April and one in May suggesting that they are quite infrequent, which hinders how fast you can get a voucher.

There is also the problem of being screened out of the suvey quite early on and therefore earning nothing. Now if you fill in your profile sections on the site you should technically get screened out of surveys less, as the company have all your information they can send you surveys specific to the answers you have provided in your profile. For example a survey aimed at men would not be sent to me anymore as I've clearly stated I'm a female in my profile. Obviously you will still get screened out sometimes which seems unavoidable.

I've been a member of Just The Answer for about half a year now and in that time I've managed to convert 500 points into a £5 Amazon voucher and am only 50 points short of obtaining my second voucher. So by my calculations that means that I'll probably earn another £5 voucher if I'm lucky by the end of the year, maybe two if I'm really lucky. As such this site will probably only give me around £20 a year in terms of earnings in the form of Amazon vouchers which arguably isn't the best return and isn't as good as other sites.

However in its defence it's not cost me anything to join the site and nor has it cost me anything other than time to complete the occasional survey. One really good point is that you only need to accumulate 500 points to change your points into vouchers which is quite a low threshold and one that is achievable. I'll certainly continue to respond to any survey invites they send me and have also recently filled in my profile sections as well. It certainly won't make me a millionaire but who can turn down the odd Amazon voucher?

If you are interested in joining please let me know by private message so I can refer you.

Thanks for reading.

Summary: An online market research company offering vouchers in exchange for your time.