Many paid survey opportunities are out there, but not all are worth your time.

You want to save your time on surveys that will pay you or provide the right rewards for the amount of work you’re doing.

We all make mistakes in our daily lives; it is part of our human nature to be wrong sometimes.

Especially when you are new and need help figuring out what to do.

That’s why I will share with you seven mistakes newbies make when taking surveys and how to avoid them!

Without more delay, let’s see them.

Worst Mistakes New Surveys Takers Do

I’ve been working in the survey industry for several years now, and newbies often ask me what mistakes they should avoid.

The following are the seven most common ones that you need to know about:

1. Don’t Check if a Survey Site is Legitimate.

The World Wide Web, or the Internet as we all know it, has grown exponentially in recent years.

Same grow experienced the dangers of potential scammers online.

Sadly, not all survey panels treat their panelists fairly or there are fake versions of them.

A few things to consider are.

Look for red flags like:

• if it’s too good to be true, it probably isn’t.
• Never pay to join a survey panel(membership is accessible in all trustworthy panels).
• Don’t give personal critical information like Social Security Numbers or bank accounts.
• Look for reviews online and what people are saying.

The good news is that more people know these kinds of scams, and these fake survey panels are less seen.

We recommend reading our post “What Survey Sites Do You Avoid Using“

2. Give False Information When Register

You will find these sections called “Profiles Questions” in all survey panels.

They are divided into age, Gender, Family income, etc.

The primary purpose is to find relevant surveys based on your profile.

Now, there are other problems than giving false information.

The problem is remembering it only some of the time.

Have you ever heard this: “If you want to catch a liar, ask the same questions more than once.”

Our mind is tricky; if you ever fill in the profile questions, you will notice lots of them.

And you will be asked these profile questions hundreds of times if you take surveys regularly.

Market research companies use this method to keep the respondents’ quality and ensure that you are a good fit for the survey you

are taking.

The benefit of giving false information is that you would have more surveys available to complete.

The more surveys available, the higher your income from paid surveys.

But the chance of getting banned for giving false information increases if you don’t remember your fake profile.

You will start to fail quality questions at any given time, and your account will be flagged.

So my best advice is always to give accurate information; that way, you will not risk your account being banned and rewards

removed.

3. Use Personal Email to Register.

Depending on your organization, using your primary email to register is pretty good.

Many people will advise you to have a separate email account.

That way, the incoming survey invitations are separate from your primary email, and you can take advantage of those surveys.

But you can use your email also by setting a rule.

You can create new folders on most email services and name them, for example, “Surveys from xx.”

Then, create a rule that any new mail from the “x-sender=your surveys panel” arrives in your inbox and goes to that folder.

A benefit of using this method is that in many survey panels like IOpenUSA.

The email you use to register is the one that is sent your rewards.

If you ask for a PayPal payment, that email must be your primary mail-in, too.

But you can update or change it later or add a secondary mail to PayPal to receive your payments.

4. Lack of Patience

This is one of the main mistakes Paid Surveys Rookies Make; why?

• Market research studies are not designed to make you rich or replace your job.
• They rush or give random clicks to get the rewards.
• Give up too soon before things get better.

I know, trust me, I have been years answering surveys, and still today, I feel outrageous when a survey kicks me out after 10 minutes of filling out forms.

 I have developed what I call tolerance when taking paid surveys online.

I will explain this in more detail so you can understand it.

When a market research company creates a survey, it goes live and is available for all the survey panels that exist out there to be

presented and filled by their panelists.

This survey has a cap example: they want to know the opinion of 5,000 men, caucasian, aged 30 to 40, etc.

When the survey reaches these quotas, it closes.

Lesson> Any time you complete a survey, it can close because it reaches its target quota.

It’s good to understand this because many people get upset or frustrated and say this is a scam, but it is not.

In this case, you will see the “QUOTA FULL” message.

Another thing that causes frustration is the security questions.

I remember surveys had no security questions a few years ago until some clever boys invented bots to fill surveys and there were

the security questions.

Also, they are intended to disqualify those who rush or give random clicks without reading the answers—a common mistake

among rookies.

Which is our next topic.

Read This Also > 5 Powerful Habits to Master for Success in Paid Surveys.

5. Speed Up or Rush the Answers.

This is one of the main problems each survey taker faces, not only Rookies.

It is so easy to give random clicks and just hit CONTINUE; your promised reward is at the end of those forms.

The problem is that the data generated by this kind of activity could be more beneficial for market research.

Remember, market research companies expend millions of dollars so you can influence and improve the products you will be

using tomorrow.

That way, measures like “quality questions born.”

Types of Undesirable Respondents:

• Speeders are, as the name implies, people who speed through entire surveys and grid questions. Speeders are typically caught using timestamps and often tend to straight lines. They are one of the easier undesirable respondents to weed out of a panel.
• Fraudulent respondents misrepresent themselves using fake names and addresses to create a fake identity. Market research firms frequently use source testing to determine whether or not a respondent is fraudulent. They may also cross-reference the registration data they receive with existing databases of blocked respondents.
• Inattentive respondents are those who, intentionally or not, do not put much thought into the way they answer a survey.

Reference survey police “Why Your Survey Panel Account Got Deactivated“

6. Don’t Use the Resources Available Correctly

Many people need to realize that survey panels are a community.

If you need help, just with a support ticket, you will have a straight answer to your problem.

Also, most panels have the FAQ(Frequently Asked Questions) with many answers to common doubts.

Tip> You can use Google Autofill or Roboform to automatically fill in information on some forms, saving you some extra clicks.

7. Bank Large Sums of Cash.

Surveys panels are not banks; unpredictable situations could happen and you will lose your hard-earned rewards.

My best advice is to always ask for your reward when you reach the minimum required to cash out.

The money in your pocket is more secure than your surveys panel account.

Let’s use an example: 

Imagine that your minimum to cash out is 10 USD by PayPal, but you decided to ask for a payment when you reach 50 USD in

survey rewards.

Time passed, and you now have 40 USD.

You have been speeding up and writing nonsense as survey answers in the last few days.

Next time you try to log in but notice that you can’t, write a support ticket and get this reply: “Your account has been banned because you violated our policy.”

You lost the whole money (40 USD) instead of asking for four payments of 10 USD.

I have seen this several times, so please avoid this mistake.

Conclusion

We hope you find our tips for taking surveys helpful to you.

If you’re interested in getting experience and building your skills, we recommend signing up for more surveys.

The more surveys you take, the better you will become at answering them.

Keep practicing to get good! Making mistakes when starting is normal, but don’t give up! Like any other skill, it takes time and

patience to become proficient.

One of the most common errors is disqualification from a survey because of an incorrect answer or not reading the instructions

correctly, so please read carefully and try re-taking if disqualified.

Lastly, If this post has helped you, please consider joining us or sharing it with your friends so others can benefit.

Thank you again for reading!

Reference:

10 Worst Mistakes Newbie Surveys Takers Make