Here is an excuse to watch television!! (surveymedia.net)

Member Name: izzoh

Product:	surveymedia.net
Date:	07/11/08 (227 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Real prizes, quick survey, easy sign up.

Disadvantages: Can get a bit boring and repetitive.

People use Dooyoo for many reasons, and from what I have read, one of the main reasons is in the hope of making a few extra pennies. I am a member of many reward sites that require you to do all sorts of things (obviously all legal!) I am not a fan of sites where you complete surveys or whatever they ask you to do just to be entered into a prize draw as I always feel that it is a little bit of a scam and I am wasting my time. However, the GFK Television Appreciation survey (www.surverymedia.net) is a prize draw with a difference..... Just so you are aware, this review is quite in depth and might be too long for some, but please just skip to the bits your interested in!

**Who is Surveymedia.net?**

Surveymedia.net is run by one of the biggest research companies in the world GFK NOP. (GFK-meaning World Of Knowledge were one company and then they took over the company NOP in 2005). They specialise in conducting research about the media industry. Although GFK NOP work worldwide, their main office is actually in Central London, near Blackfriars, which for myself is great as I live in London, and it feels reassuring to take part in something where I know I can definitely contact them. I can turn up on their doorstep if need be!!
This particular site is called the GFK Television Appreciation Survey and is all about GFK collecting information about the television and radio programmes you tune into and your opinions on them. They then aim to use this to make better quality programmes and apparently give the public what they want. Although it is not advertised on the site, after a little research I found out that this research is in conjunction with the BBC, so I feel its worth giving your opinion and hoping they do something constructive with the extortionate TV licence fee we pay them!

**What you have to do?**

GFK want you to fill out a survey as often as possible. (Daily is what they really want.) This is easy to remember as they send you a daily reminder via email, which for the likes of myself, is a great help in reminding me to fill in the survey. All you have to do is click on the link and it takes you to your own little homepage. It brings up a TV listing of the previous day for the BBC channels, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 etc and asks you to record what you watched. You will be asked to rate each of the programmes you selected, on a scale of 1 to 10. You will also be asked to state how much of each of the programmes that you watched/listened to using a scale of 1-10 where 10 means that you watched it all and 1 means that you watched very little. They also ask you a few random questions such as how much you liked the presenters or the characters of the programme. The survey literally takes about 3-5 minutes to complete depending on how much TV you watched the day before and they don't ask you a ridiculous amount of questions, some days they will ask you more then others. On the odd occasion they will ask if you have a few extra minutes to answer some ad-hoc questions. This usually pops up if you watched a particular programme they are interested in or about a certain subject that has been getting a lot of media attention. Before I forget, there is also a slightly shorter radio survey that they ask you to complete (but you don't have to) which asks you exactly the same questions but about radio stations. I do complete this survey but for me it is very short as I tend not to listen to the radio. Even if you don't watch or listen to the radio, if you state this in that day's survey, they still record it that you have completed it which is a bonus.

Unlike a lot of surveys, this is a continuous piece of research and the method stays the same. There is no time limit to the survey, you are not in any contract with them etc, but they like people to be available for 6 months to participate in the survey, and this is to make sure they get a full view of your opinion on different shows. But if you don't participate it is completely down to you, they will not chase you with a TV aerial asking your opinion about yesterday's soap opera's! It sounds long winded, but once you get on and start completing the survey it really is very simple.

**Rewards.... What's in it for you?**
This GFK survey does not reward points or pennies. How you get your reward (if you are one of the lucky ones) is by the monthly prize draws that GFK carry out. They run 2 draws, one for the television survey and one for the radio survey. The television prize draw works by you earning tickets. For the first 10 surveys you complete you receive 1 ticket into a prize draw for that month, and for every survey after that you get an additional ticket. It works like this every month with the prize draw taking place on the last day of the month and all ticket balances return to zero on the 1st of every month. The website states that there are over 2000 prizes to be won and a top prize of £1,500. Apparently they state that on average you have at least a 1 in 7 chance of winning a prize in the monthly prize draw. Wish I think are pretty good odds. The main prizes are quite large amounts of money, one prize of £1500, a couple of £500 prizes, around 5 £100 prizes and a lot of smaller amounts. All winners are notified by email and issued a cheque. The same goes for the radio survey, apart from you only need to complete 5 surveys to be entered into the draw and then you get another ticket for each radio survey you complete. The main prize is £500 and there are lots of smaller prizes.
GFK really appreciate consistent, long running participants and they reward this by offering an extra loyalty prize draw every 3 months. You will be entered into the special draw as long as you have earned 10 tickets in each of the 3 months leading up to the prize draw. The main prize is a whopping £4000 and a number of smaller sums of money, although they don't state what the other cash prizes are.
So the question is.... Have I actually won anything... well yes! I was a part of this site 2 years ago, and after my third month of taking part almost every day I received an email. It told me...... I HAD WON £500! Yes I am serious, yes I was shocked and no, I didn't believe it! I was very suspicious and called the free phone number from a public phone box in case it was a scam! But no... it was real and within 5 days I had a cheque in the post and a lovely letter saying thank you for my participation. To be honest, after that I stopped taking part. I guess I took the money and ran, literally! I wish I had continued taking part and who knows what I would have won!. But a few months ago I decided to join again, and I have religiously been filling the surveys out daily. It might not seem a lot but yesterday I had a cheque in the post for £5 saying thank you. Which I was mighty pleased with. The rewards for some may not be what you are looking for out of a reward site as there is no guarantee that you will get anything for your time. But in my opinion, it is definitely worth the few minutes a day!
**How to register**

When I originally joined this site it was by invitation only as they wanted to ensure that they got a good mix of the population. However, now they take direct applications through their website http://www.surveymedia.net/index.php?Sr=&Subsi d=. It really is so easy compared to some survey sites. You answer a few simple questions, including the normal information such as name, age and address. They then send you a link in a couple of days to the email address you provided and that's it.... You are away! It really is a breath of fresh air not to be given question after question and also the fact they don't require all your personal information like most survey sites do.

**My conclusion**

The fact I have won £505 pounds from this site means I can not help but give it a thumbs up. The questionnaire they give you is quick and easy with the chance of winning real money.

The only negative things I can say is that the survey can get a bit repetitive. Especially if you watch the same programmes every day. There are only so many times you can say that Eastenders has great storylines but is not very inspiring! But as I said you know it really is only for a few minutes. When you log on to the site it also holds how many tickets you have for the prize draw, this is a great motivation for filling in the surveys and it also keeps you up to date with how many entries you have in the prize draw. At least you know they are keeping track just in case your not!

Also keep in mind that it states on the website if you are a winner they may use quotes from you and list your name on the website. If that want to use your pictures or your information for anything else they will contact you for permission. Although they might use your quotes, all the information and opinion you give GFK is completely confidential and they won't share your details with anyone else.

All in all it really is worth a try, as of yet it is not hugely popular so more chances of winning a prize and who knows..... You could get a cheque in the post very soon!

Thank you for reading.

(Also published on Ciao under myself izzoh)

Summary: Worth the 3 minutes a day.