Not What It Used To Be (myvoice.co.uk)

Member Name: meah

Product:	myvoice.co.uk
Date:	26/12/03 (34 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Guaranteed pay out

Disadvantages: Takes too long to get any rewards

Founded in 1999 by the Japanese Itochu Corporation, I first came across the British offshoot of MyVoice (www.myvoice.co.uk) at the end of 2001. The idea was simple: every couple of days new polls on topical issues would go up on the site, typically taking two or three minutes to complete and paying anywhere between five and twenty points plus an entry into the monthly prize draws. Essentially these were used to build up a profile of each member as well as a hook to attract consumers for MyVoice's main business, market research on behalf of companies and organisations undertaken by selected members of the site who were paid upwards of 100 points for 5 to 10 minutes of their time. As soon as you reached 2000 points you could apply for a £20 voucher for online stores such as Amazon, Woolworths, Marks and Spencer and Tesco. It wasn't the fastest way to get online rewards - it took me a year to get a voucher - but it was easy, reliable and interesting. However, at the beginning of the year the site changed the rules, claiming they had become victims of their own success. New polls were to be less frequent and points would only be awarded to the first 1,500 respondents. Would the site survive? Would it still be worth logging on?

THE SITE

The homepage is very user friendly with new polls in the centre, registration and log in to the right, and tabs along the top allowing you to take polls, view results, win prizes, enter the member forums and read about the history of the site. Hovering over Win Prizes brings up a drop menu with links to past and latest winners as well as the current draws, while the Forums (available only to logged in members) are basically message boards with discussions on things like asylum seekers, the NHS and more on asylum seekers.

The About Us section is very helpful and easy to understand with sections explaining how the site works, general and technical FAQs (useful if you have a hotmail account) and the earnin
g and spending of points.

I've never had any real problems with the site itself, although it can be very slow at times. Navigation is simple and the lack of advertising gives the pages an uncluttered look. All the questions I had when I first joined were answered in the About Us section and you can contact the company at admin@myvoice.co.uk if there?s anything else you need to know or if you want to suggest retailers to redeem your vouchers at.

You get 50 points as soon as you register plus your own account page with personal details in the centre and a summary of points and prize draw entries down the right. Remember to scroll down and complete the extended profile questions for extra points - a total of 65 for questionnaires on home and work life, personal details and internet usage.

REWARDS

Starting with the positives, the site does pay out and the selection of vouchers is very impressive - including Asda, Boots, JJB Sports, House of Fraser, Selfridges, B&Q, Comet, the Arcadia fashion group (Burton, Dorothy Perkins etc), Virgin, Victoria Wine and Littlewoods. On the other hand, it takes much longer than a year to get enough points now that polls appear on the site around once a week at best. The site has extended the pay out to the first 6,000 respondents but the new polls are too far apart and only pay five points each.

To be honest, while I can appreciate that MyVoice couldn't sustain a large amount of open to all polls that didn't bring any revenue into the company, I think they went too far to the other extreme in cutting both the frequency of the polls and the points awarded for each one. It's fair enough limiting the number of respondents but new polls really need to be on site at least every couple of days to keep people logging on. If not, then raising the pay out to ten points would at least help people to feel that their account balance was moving in the right direction. As it is, I've
only had two poll invitations in the last six months, both of which paid 100 points. The last one I received was at the weekend - three questions on Christmas shopping habits which took me less than two minutes to complete. Good, but not enough to keep me interested in the site for too long.

Finally, for each new poll you complete you also get an entry into the monthly £1000 prize draw. There is also a quarterly draw for a £1000 holiday prize. You need to be over 18 years of age to earn rewards.

HOW TO GET MORE POINTS

Unfortunately, there's no way to ensure you get poll invitations; either your profile fits what they're looking for or it doesn't. You can earn a few extra points by completing the extended profiles on your account page and you also get 25 points for each new member you refer to the site (link on the home page above the current polls). It also pays to sign up for the email alerts of new polls (link on the home page), which at least gives you a fair chance of being among the first 6,000 people to take part. You're still going to have a long wait to get that £20 voucher though.

IS IT WORTH JOINING?

It depends. If you're very patient or fit the type of profile that marketing companies are looking for, then it is possible to get something out of the site. However, it takes so long for the majority of members to get anything in the way of a pay out nowadays that it's easy to sign up and then forget all about the site a few months later, especially as even signing up for the email alerts only gives you a decent chance of getting five points every fortnight or so. I don't like to praise MyVoice too highly as I'm sure they're making enough money to justify higher pay outs to the members, but I probably would just about recommend the site to a friend due to the range of vouchers on offer and the fact that they do pay out. When it comes to rewards though, I think MyVoice definitel
y lags behind the opinion sites as well as similar companies like www.yougov.com. Try it for yourself, but don't expect too much.

Summary: