A Politically Correct Earner (yougov.com)

Member Name: Squiggles

Product:	yougov.com
Date:	07/09/01 (126 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Earn cash, Varied and interesting site

Disadvantages: Very slow loading pages

Anybody who is interested in British politics will find this site of great interest. Anybody who is interested in British politics and wanting to earn a bit of extra cash will find it even more so!

YouGov.com is a site dedicated to the latest political news, policies and changes. In addition, they offer polls you can take part in where you will be paid anything from 50p to £1 (although £2 and £3 polls are promised but yet to be seen!) for each one, in exchange for your opinion on the hottest political topic of the day. Polls change regularly, sometimes daily, more often 2 or 3 times a week. Most are relatively short and should take no longer than a few minutes to complete.

So what can you expect to find at the site? Well, at the top of each page you will see the latest political news headlines scrolling on a banner from left to right. Just click on the subject of your choice to find out more. This is also where the paid polls are to be found, just look for the titles that are headed with PAID FOR POLL. Current news highlights include The Full Saturday Briefing, 3 paid for polls (parts 1 and 2 of the British Political Parties Polls, and a poll concerning the subject of A-Levels), and the latest on Foot and Mouth in the UK.

In order to earn cash from the polls, you will need to register on the site and then log in to complete the poll to receive payment. Registration is very straightforward, just click on the Register link on the left hand side and provide a user name, password, email address and your postcode and that’s about it! You can also elect to receive a monthly newsletter from the site if you wish (optional). To take part in the paid for polls and become a member of the polling club, you need to click on the link and supply a few further details, name, address, date of birth etc. You are automatically credited with £1 simply for registering.

Payment isn’t made until you have amassed a balance of £50; so
expect a long wait before you get your hands on any cash. At the moment, the site is producing 2 to 3 paid polls per week, at an average of 50p each, so you’re going to need to complete around a hundred or so polls to claim, which could take anything up to a year to complete!

The website itself is clearly laid out but incredibly slow loading. Links are shown clearly down the left hand side as follows:

Log In – with your username and password to access your account and take part in the paid for polls

My Account – Update your details and view your account balance

Register – as a new member

Coming Soon – where you can find out the latest developments to the site, and any proposed changes or additions. YouGov are currently hoping that Local Councils will opt-in to their programme, and if so, you will be able to pay your council tax bills, rates and parking fines (!!) directly at the site, as well as other payments for utilities and so on.

Guide – isn’t a guide to the site, but a complete glossary of political terms, policies and definitions etc. A useful feature for those of us who are not experts on political jargon!

About Us – A brief background to the site, as well as a listing of those political journalists who contribute regularly and so on. The who’s who behind the site itself!

Privacy Policy – Here you can read up on the site’s privacy promise to you as a member, and be assured that your details are not being passed on to third parties. Plus of course, the usual anti-spam warning!

Recommend YouGov to a Friend – An online form where you can send details of the site to any friends you think may be interested in joining. No financial incentive is offered for referrals, but maybe you might think the site is just good enough to recommend on its own merits?

Contact Us/Feedback – An online form you can
complete with questions, suggestions and feedback for YouGov.

See Us On FreeServe – Here you can view the site, but on FreeServe’s server and pages. The layout is slightly different, but does seem faster to load and access information.

There are also additional links at the top and foot of each page. Just under the scrolling banner at the top you will find links to the home page, latest news, YouGov shop (where you can get your hands on the latest political ‘bestsellers’ and resources), GovDoctor (which was offline when I tried to view!) and People’s Parliament where you can vote as being in favour or against the latest hot political debate (currently whether farmers should receive more compensation from the Government for loss of livestock due to the foot and mouth epidemic).

At the bottom of each page are further links you can follow. Most are duplicates of those already mentioned, but with the addition of the all important Terms and Conditions – we Ciao-ers know all about those!! Have your dictionaries ready!

YouGov is a very promising looking site indeed, with lots of interesting information and debate, with the added bonus of the chance to make a little money if you’re prepared to wait for it to build up. But what lets it down is its speed, it crawls at snail’s pace sometimes and error messages are all too common. One thing in its favour is that YouGov mail you when a new paid poll is up for grabs (this seems a bit hit and miss tho!) so you shouldn’t have to keep trekking to the site to see if a new paid for poll is ready. And they do regularly poll their members for ideas and suggestions for improvements. I will certainly be keeping an eye on the site for the latest changes.

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