A few months ago, I searched the internet somewhat in desperate need of some extra money in these times of economic hardship and I have since been overwhelmed with the amount of money that is to be made by the consumer when it comes to market research. I joined a number of paid survey websites, however over time I have whittled them down to my favourites which seem to send surveys most frequently and pay the most generously. Starting with about 8 websites I am now using 4 (not including Dooyoo) daily, so you can imagine the amount of time wasted with ones that were not worth my time! So my favourites have proved to be Light Speed, Valued Opinions, Global Test Market and One Poll - if you know of any other good websites please leave a comment and let me know!

This was one of the first survey websites I joined and you receive £2.50 just for registering. The website is easy to navigate round and really user friendly, something that isn't true of a lot of the other websites I joined and it really make a difference. On registration, you have to give a few personal details that will take you less than 5 minutes, literally, just general things such as occupation and gender. The surveys will then start flooding in! Unlike other survey websites, One Poll do not email you to notify you of an available survey, so you have to log into your account to check if there are any - those of you that are a little forgetful may want to make yourself a little post it note reminder! On average, I can receive up to 8 surveys a day which only take a few minutes each to complete. The downfall of this being that each survey only gives a little award, on average 15p but it can be anything up to 50p per survey however this is rare. The surveys are short and more like polls, hence the websites name I suppose, as appose to surveys which can be long drawn out. It tends to be more clicking and less tying allowing you to complete it quicker that makes the small rewards a little more justifiable.

One Poll use a referral scheme where you get 50p for each person you invite who signs up, then rewards when they reach certain thresholds within their account such as £10 and £30. This can be a really quick and easy way to make your money add up a little quicker. You are allowed to refer 20 friends and I have some left so if you would like me to send you an invite just message me your email address and I'll send you one asap.

The biggest drawback to this website is the minimum threshold for withdrawal which is £40. Because the rewards for each survey are so small it can be difficult for your account balance to get there as it took me over 6 months to be able to cash out. However One Poll do pay in either BACs straight to your bank account or through PayPal which is the way I chose to do it and it only took about 4 days for it to appear in my account. I didn't receive a confirmation email or order number etc so if there had been a technical hitch and it hadn't transferred I wouldn't have been able to prove I had cashed out so that is something they should improve. I wasn't totally sure if the website was legit as not many people have reached payout due to the amount of time it takes to reach it so I was pleased to realise that they really do pay out and it made it seem worth while.

They have recently redesigned their website to make it much more interactive and easy to view your surveys and account balance. You will also notice that they have cashback options which is useful for those who regularly shop online or like to take advantage of offers! They have also recently introduced an iPhone application which is free to download, so in theory you can do surveys on the go however I have surveys show in my online account but not on the application account which is annoying and there must be a technical fault somewhere but I did receive a lot of surveys from the application at first, perhaps it was just an incentive.

Overall I definitely regard this as one of the better survey websites I have joined as they send out surveys daily with consistent reward amounts that show in your account immediately after completion of a survey. The surveys aren't as long drawn out as with other websites I have used and they are a lot more fun to complete. While the rewards for each survey are rather small they do soon add up so if you've got the patience to wait I would definitely recommend it as one of the better market research websites out there - but be aware it isn't likely to make you a millionaire!