learn from my mistakes

[raisedbymoogles]

i tried one (1) of those make-money-answering-surveys sites and 24 hours after signing up i'm bailing. i thought it would be at least a more rewarding waste of time than sitting there scrolling twitter getting more and more anxious about the world, but nooooope. Apparently I am not a Good Little Consumer enough for most of the marketing nerds who write these surveys so no rewards for me! I mean at least twitter tells you a joke once in a while.

also - so many invasions of privacy you have to agree to. So many.

Comments

[princess_kessie]

I have been doing surveys for the better part of 20 years. Back then, we got paid for every survey, and you were divided into reporting groups based on demographics, not instantly screened out for being outside their preferred target group (i.e., not female, white and over 40). I have culled my membership from around 20 different groups to the 6 or so I am still with today - they still pay and I still qualify to around 1 in 15/20 invitations. Once upon a time we got recognition for loyalty - but not anymore.

I make about $1000-1200 a year over all my groups. I try and save cashing out most of them util right before Christmas and buy all the gifts I need to with that. One of them only allows a small set amount cash out every 60 days, so I have a huge balance that would take me over three years to cash out at once every 60 days - and that's without earning another penny.

The privacy invasions get to me occasionally, as does getting the same survey dozens of times (and one specific survey that I absolutely hate and delete every time I see it), despite the cookie policies that are supposed to prevent the same survey being attempted multiple times with different companies. So many times I have decided to call it all quits, then I remember how cool it feels to get those cash outs/vouchers. And it has given me some sense of daily purpose through covid lockdowns and now through my current and future self-isolation (immunocompromisation is a b!tch).

I have been completely unable to secure legitimate remote work that was not either outbound phone sales or some form of customer service via phone (I have massive phone anxiety and cannot do that) - earning a few dollars surveying an hour or two a day helps me feel just a tiny bit less of a total burden on the hubby.

[raisedbymoogles]

I feel that. That's kind of what I was hoping for - my wife is the main breadwinner and I'm barely bringing in any money. But she was the one who convinced me to stop. It would have ruined my mental health, though not as much as going back to work in retail would. XP