I just like the sound of My(own)Voice (myvoice.co.uk)

Member Name: chrisandmark

Product:	myvoice.co.uk
Date:	05/06/04 (93 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Quick and easy polls, Email alerts that WORK, Nice selection of vouchers

Disadvantages: Points are slow to mount up, Irregularity of polls and surveys

Most of us are members of the various survey sites where they send you a 20 minute survey once a week and it's pot luck on whether you're going to be accepted or not. You can get some decent money from some of the surveys, granted, but doesn't it just seem such a hassle sitting completing a dull set of questions about a shampoo that you'll never see in the shops no matter how hard and long you look. Hundreds of questions these surveys manage to pack into 25 pages, all those clicks for 'very attractive' all the way through to 'not at all attractive' are all cleverly lumped together questions.

Do you yearn for shorter surveys sometimes? A quick no-brainer? This is where MyVoice comes in. You take part in polls rather than surveys, each poll having between five and ten questions. The polls are topical to what's in the news at the time they go live, one current poll topic is obesity in relation to the 3 year old who recently died of obesity related heart failure. If you're one of the first 6000 people to take the poll you'll be rewarded with 5 points which can be redeemed for a £20 gift voucher when your points total gets to 2000 points.

Simplicity is the key to MyVoice. The site is so easy to use, the registration process is straightforward via a link on the homepage and they don't want your life story. Pick a user name and password and then all they want to know is basic identity questions - name, marital status and email address. There's a section where you can fill your postal address and mobile number but those are optional questions, it does say if you enter your mobile you may be sent a phone poll but in the 18 months I've had my number with them I've never had one.

Once you've completed the very quick registration process you get 50 points to start you off on your MyVoice journey towards redemption. As another little helping hand there are 65 points up for g
rabs the first time you log in when you fill in MyVoice's Profile Boosters. There are four short questionairres each offering between 10 and 25 points to answer basic profiling questions on everything in your life from pets to the speed of your interent connection. The Boosters are quick and easy, none of them taking more than 2 minutes to complete. Why the need for the Boosters? Occasionally (very, very occasionally) MyVoice send out email surveys which are longer in length and awarded with anything up to 100 points. I've had one email survey from them for which I earned 75 points so although the site claims to send out up to two Express Surveys a month and Invitation Only Surveys every week, they are very few and far between. The onsite polls themselves are pretty erratic in their appearance, when there's a lot happening in the news there can be a poll every day (they were extremely frequent during the Iraq war) but as of writing this the only poll onsite (the obesity one) has been there for over a week with nothing new added. Once you've completed a poll you're taken to the results page so you can see how your mind ticks compared to everyone else!

Only the first 6000 respondents to the poll gets the 5 points, you can tweak your profile to set an email alert for when a new poll goes live but you haven't got to rush yourself as I've gone to polls a day later and still got the points. Points do mount up slowly, once you've had your initial flurry of points when you join up it'll seem like it's taking forever to amount anywhere near the 2000 needed to cash in. You can refer up to 5 people to MyVoice and for each one that signs up you'll get 25 points, they're not pushy with the potential members you refer simply sending them one invitation and if they don't click the link they won't hear from them again. I've sucessfully referred my 5 members so now am relying on the poll points to make my
total up.

Once you're a member you get an account page where you can edit your profile, cash in your points and view a history of your points history in the form of a list of polls and surveys you've participated in. When I first joined in September 2002 they were awarding 10 points per poll for everyone and looking back at my points history it looks like the polls have definitely slowed down which is a shame because in the early days of my account my points leapt up rather than plodded along.

For each poll you complete you'll also get an entry into the MyVoice monthly prize draw for £1000 and one entry into their holiday draw. I don't do surveys for prize draws usually but I do the MyVoice polls primarily for the points and consider it a bonus to be automatically entered into the competition - would be an even bigger bonus if I won one of them!

It all goes back to the points and how slow they are to mount up. I'm sooooo close to cashing in at the moment that it's getting frustrating watching the last 100 points close in 5 point gaps. The choice of vouchers you can get is pretty extensive, when I cash in I'll be going for the Boots vouchers although you can also choose from various supermarkets, Next, Choice and plenty of others. MyVoice ask you to email with suggestions of what other vouchers you'd like to see offered as payment; I recently requested Body Shop be included and received a reply to say they'd consider it although they haven't been added as yet. Any communication with the MyVoice team is efficient and friendly, on the few occasions I've had to email them about anything from points not being added to a bit of techie advice I've had a reply within the day and the problem has been sorted out.

So... it's a long hard slog to get to the cash in stage of MyVoice, however in my opinion it's still worth being a member of this site. When you log in tick the 
9;remember me' box and you'll automatically be logged in everytime you visit the site. This makes it literally a 2 minute exercise to get your 5 points, click the link on the email alert and then fill in the poll. Simple as that. So while you're not dashing up the points ladder you'll be getting a steady stream of polls to complete and you WILL get there in the end. Providing you don't get bored.

Check out www.myvoice.co.uk and have a read through the clear FAQ page, sign up if you like the look of it or stick to boring half hour surveys if you don't!

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