What do you have to loose??? (testandvote.com)

Name: Lush Walrus

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Product:	testandvote.com
Date:	07/04/06 (353 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lots of opportunites to earn points

Disadvantages: Can be slow in crediting survey points

So besides writing reviews, my other favourite activity on the Internet is filling in surveys. Now, before you start to think that internet surveys are the route to making your millions, they aren’t but they will give you a little extra money in your pocket and give you an opportunity to have your say about new products that are coming on the market, or ideas that are coming out of various head offices.


One of my favourite sites is Test & Vote. Although not particularly the most frequent supplier of surveys, there is a pretty consistent flow. The surveys can be quick to complete, interesting and the real bonus are the additional features of being a member, which other survey sites do not offer.



How to sign up

So as it is an online survey site, it is not surprising that signing up is online! The website address is www.testandvote.com, if you want to join either head direct to the home page and click on the top tap titled ‘registration’, or if you are convinced then just go direct to http://www.testandvote.com/inscription.php?, either way you will come across a short questionnaire, which is promised to take 2 minutes. To be honest it probably takes less, its just a matter of entering standard details such as contact details, date of birth, selecting a username and password and a few further details to help them categorise you. Don’t forget to tick the box that states ‘I would like to participate in surveys’, if you don’t tick it you wont get any and will block a whole line of earning opportunities!!


Once all of your details are in, an email will be sent from test and vote to verify that you are a person who can click a link back to the site, rather than a virus sending random information to their site to create problems. All pretty standard stuff.



Why join?

Well, why not was my initial reasoning, but now that I have been a member for the past couple of years the reason I stay is because there are lots of opportunities to collect points, which can then be changed into an actual value in rewards. At the moment the rewards a pretty limited, well actually very limited, your choice of redemptions are either £10 Amazon vouchers, or you can use your points to enter into a prize draw where £1000 can be won. The level of choice is definitely where test and vote falls behind some of the other survey companies, but most people can find something they want on Amazon, so ultimately its not such a bad way to justify a treat!.


Once enough points have been earned (currently 40,000 for Amazon vouchers and 1000 for entries into the draw) you can cash them in. The results of the prize draw are announced on the site and updated after every draw, if you do choose to cash in your points for entries, the number of entries is only limited by the number of points you have, so multiple entries are possible should you wish. Personally I haven’t ever chosen to enter the draw, well apart from the free entry after registration, so I really cant vouch for it either way. I always opt to change my points into Amazon vouchers, sometimes when I reach the 40000 sometimes I wait to order more than one set at the same time (never a bad idea if you want to get free postage on Amazon!). But whatever you choose the vouchers will arrive in your inbox pretty quickly, normally in a day or two. All of the vouchers are valid for a year from the date that they are sent to you and are valid for Amazon.co.uk so are in pounds. I just checked through my history on the site, and to give you an idea of the amount you may be able to accumulate, in the past 6 months I have order 4 sets of Amazon vouchers, which equates to £40. So like I said not a huge earner, but not bad for a little bit of effort.


If you check around on the forums, a few months ago test and vote did receive quite a bit of bad press from their members, after test and vote decided overnight to change the amount of points you needed to accumulate in order to claim your voucher. I agree it wasn’t brilliant as so many people were within 100s of collecting their reward to log in one morning and find the goal posts move. To be honest I don’t think it was anything more sinister than test and vote updating their system, and all of the surveys I received after that date were for far higher amounts than previously, so it was quite proportional. The problem was, most people (me included) had filled in previous surveys under the old rate that weren’t cashed without any warning or adjustment to make things fare. So a bit naughty and really a little bit of communication from test and vote to its members would have settled people a bit. But, at the end of the day most members accepted the change and got on with accumulating points!


The key is to remember that not only do surveys get sent to your email address, but there are always lots of points to be picked up on the site itself. So keep checking back on the site to see if there are any points knocking around that may help you get to that 40000 points. Personally, I generally check about once a week, there is normally something to pick up some points around. So half a second logging in is normally worth it.



I’m registered now what?

So now you are all signed up, its time to explore a bit. The website is pretty straight forward and is limited to exactly what it needs to have on there, rather than pages and pages of waffle explaining the company! But, as there are points to be picked up all over the site, I will take you through each section, so that you don’t miss a trick!.


Once you are registered you are immediately given a free sign up bonus of 1500 points and a free entry into the prize draw. But unlike other companies you don’t need to now sit back and wait for the first survey to arrive, your chance to earn points starts right here!


1. Personal Area (pick up 6500 points plus 5000 bonus)

The first thing to do is to fill in what test and vote call their ‘theme-based profiles’, all of which can be found under personal area. There are 13 profiles to fill in and each takes probably 2-5 minutes to fill, so quite a substantial amount of time. But with 6500 points to gain, it really is a must, with a little bit of effort you are more than an 8th of the way to collecting your first voucher. These personal profiles surveys are used for test and vote to assess whether you will be suitable for different surveys, so if you don’t fill them in do not expect to receive too many surveys in your email account.


The topics of the theme-based profiles are as you might expect, designed to cover all aspects of life, from motoring to finance to lifestyle. If you don’t have the time to fill them all in, its not a problem, just pop back to the site when you have some free time and complete the rest. BUT do complete them all, once they are all completed you will receive an instant 5000 points. So without having to wait for one survey you now have 11,500 points…..So not a bad start!


2. Quick votes

Next to the ‘Personal’ tab is a rather mysterious tab titled ‘Quick Vote’. So what does a quick vote mean? Well to you it will mean another site based area to earn points, to test and vote these offer the opportunity to get specific information that they may require either to further profile you for future surveys or to find out the mass feeling on a specific question. The question is displayed on the page, if you click onto the question a new page opens with one question and a selection of possible answers. A typical question may be ‘Do you have a webcam’, when the new page opens there is simply a choice of yes or no, click on the one that suits you and then close the page, and 15 points will be credited to your account. Small I know, but every little bit counts and really for half a second its not really a huge effort!


Generally, these are updated quite randomly and left on the site for far longer than they probably require them to, so you may find that some of them already show the results without a chance to input your answer. One improvement that the site have made in the last couple of months is that it is now possible to distinguish between the questions you have already answered or have closed and the ones you can answer. Closed questions have writing that appears in light blue, questions that can be answered have black text. So unless there is a question that you are interested in the results of, only click on the black text questions. Otherwise you may spend a lot of time filtering through!


There are normally 6 shown on the page, but keep refreshing your page and they all rotate, so you may reveal plenty to answer and collect your 15 points for! As test and vote are ultimately a French company, sometimes some of the questions are in French by mistake, but as they are always quite basic questions its easy to stab in the dark at which you may select!


As with the profile surveys, your points for the quick votes are added instantly.


3. Test Area

Like the quick votes, the test area is an easy place to get a few extra points. For each test you register for 75 points are awarded. Just click on the register button next to the item to test and a new page will again open with two questions to answer 1. have you heard of this product 2 have you used this product, or something to that effect with a yes or no option for each. Of course in the ideal world you will be selected to actually test the item in question. But, so far I’ve never managed to be selected, which is a real shame as there are always some really good things to test, if you do get selected then you get to keep whatever is sent!. At the moment there are 5 underway:


1. Mint and chocolate tea (ok not brilliant but still something to test!)

2. Motorolla Razr V3 mobile (now we are talking!)

3. Coffeemaker Senseo – Philips (well who wouldn’t want a free coffee machine!)

4. Electrostimulation AB Gymnic (could be funny to test)

5. Puma rugbyboll (well maybe not my dream thing to test but Im sure someone would love to!)


So as you can see there can be some good things to test, but I think there are only ever a few tests sent out and quite a lot of us answering the same two questions to register our interest. So it’s a bit of a lottery, but who cares you get 75 points regardless, and if you do end up getting something to test too, then that is a bonus!


So that covers all of the areas to pick up points on the site, the last way to earn points is through the surveys, which as I said earlier are sent directly to your email address. Simply click on the link and fill it in. Generally I have found that all of the surveys I have started I have been accepted into, rather than the trick that some surveys use of getting you to spend ten minutes filling parts of a survey to suddenly be told that you don’t fit their profile! Test and vote appear to have already ensured that you do fit, as I said I personally have found that every survey I have started I have finished so that is a tick for test and vote.


Survey length, well it really is a case of how long is a piece of string I’m afraid! Most are around 5-10 minutes I guess, but I have done some that have taken much longer. But the rewards are fair, the lowest number of points I have received is 5000 points which equates to £1.25 (I think!) while the most is 25000, which is roughly about £6. So not bad!


The topics are varied and so far I have enjoyed them all, so again worth doing. Topics can be regarding shopping habits, credit cards, cars, movie clips, well just about anything!.


But all said although I really like test and vote, they are not perfect. One problem can be the length of time it takes to receive the credit for a survey. Unlike the tests and quick votes, the surveys are not paid out immediately, and the length of time it takes to receive the credit can be months, or can equally be days, it varies that much! So keep a list of the surveys you have completed and just check that you are getting credited (eventually) for your input.


So, I would say go for it join up, don’t forget to check on the site for extra points and enjoy the surveys! And if you do start to enjoy the site and surveys, get some friends to join and receive another 500 points for them joining!



Contact Details
Website: www.testandvote.com
Email: question@testandvote.com
Phone Number: 1-800-262-5974

Address
To Luna
204, Rue de Crimée
75019 Paris
France

Summary: More ways to earn a little treat...