Not the best survey site I've ever used (toluna-group.com)

Member Name: dippykitty

Product:	toluna-group.com
Date:	03/03/09 (60 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some bonuses available to top points up

Disadvantages: Takes forever to build points up, vouchers take at least 2 months to arrive

Introduction
I signed up to Toluna after seeing positive comments about it on another website. I have been a member since early January of this year. I haven't yet redeemed any vouchers, so I will update this review with a section on that when I do.

How Many Surveys Can I Get?
On average, I am emailed a survey every two or three days. Most of these are offering several thousand points for completing it. In theory, it should be fairly easy to build up points, but I am screened out of far more surveys than I complete due to not being eligible based on my answers. I am usually informed of this a few questions in to the survey, so fortunately I am not wasting too much time.

How Easy Is To Build Up Points?
Aside from surveys, there are other ways to increase your points on Toluna. When you initially sign up, there are several profile surveys that you are encouraged to fill in. These are worth 300 points per survey and you get a 2000 point bonus for completing them all.

There are usually a few sponsored polls available every day (less at the weekends), although these are mostly only worth 15 points each. These are very quick to do and usually take a matter of seconds. Sometimes, there will be polls worth 90 or 120 points, so look out for these.

Toluna is basically a community and members are encouraged to write opinions, vote on polls created by other members and create your own polls and opinion topics. There are points available for participating in the community aspect of Toluna, but this can be very time-consuming. If you don't have much spare time to spend on surveys sites, stick to the emailed surveys and the sponsored polls - but be prepared for it to take ages to be able to redeem the better vouchers!

Another option is the product tests. I have personally never done this, but I have heard from others that it can be a fun way to build up points more. As far as I can gather, this involves testing out a product and completing a survey about it. As you might expect, this tends to be quite popular and you won't necessarily get many products to test, but it's worth signing up if you are interested.

What Redemptions Are Available?
Vouchers are the only option on Toluna. When you reach a points level of between 3000 and 10,000, discount vouchers are available although these are not for big-name shops. To get vouchers for Sainsbury's, HMV, Amazon, cdwow.com and Halfords, you need to achieve a whopping 60,000 points. For most people, this will take quite a long time to build up to! The Cdwow.com and HMV vouchers are e-vouchers, but the others appear to be paper vouchers.

My Verdict
To get the best out of Toluna, you really need to be prepared to be heavily involved in the community aspect of the website. I stick to surveys and sponsored polls and only do the polls and opinions if I have tons of spare time on my hands. After almost three months as a member, I have built up just over 27,000 which is not even halfway to one of the better vouchers. I would imagine that it's going to take me at least another four to six months (when you factor in the fact that some of the points were bonuses for filling in interest surveys or signing up) to get to the 60,000 mark.

Once I have successfully redeemed a voucher, I doubt that I will bother with the site again as it is quite a lot of hassle compared to other surveys sites. Seeing as I have already invested time and effort into building points up to a certain extent, I am loathe to abandon it altogether but I will admit that I am not very impressed with how long it takes to reach the redemption levels.

NB - Once I have successfully redeemed a voucher (if I ever do!), I will put in a section to let people know how long it took etc as a rough guideline for people reading the review at a later date.

***Review update***
My Amazon voucher eventually arrived after 8 weeks and several emails to support. Despite saying that I would ditch them after this, I did indeed build up to another voucher as I'm saving up for as many vouchers as possible for Christmas presents etc. That voucher was requested in September and has yet to arrive (it's now October) so I think I'll be lucky if it arrives before Christmas!

Summary: Best avoided unless you have absolutely nothing else to do all day!