Paid surveys can either be a great way to make a little extra cash or a complete waste of time. On Survey Site Saturdays I help you wade through the pile of paid survey sites to find the places that really do compensate you well for the small amount of time you spend sharing your opinion. Today’s featured paid survey site is Lightspeed Consumer Panel. In the interest of full disclosure, I’m an affiliate for them, so when you sign up under my link, I get rewarded too. I never promote a site that I don’t also use and enjoy!

But back to Lightspeed. I’ve had mostly positive experiences with them. The only negative that I’ve experienced so far was when Lightspeed contracted with a third party and I completed a market research study through that party that left a lot to be desired. That’s a rare occasion though and I did know up front that Lightspeed was connecting me to the other company.

I’ve completed only a small percentage of what’s been offered to me just because I’m really busy lately. I still came out with $20 in PayPal money in 6 weeks. It feels like the points accrue pretty quickly with Lightspeed.

If you are someone who makes purchasing decisions of some sort for your employer (or you’re self-employed), also consider Lightspeed’s Elite Opinion Panel. You’ll get really high payouts because it’s a more difficult area for researchers to find participants.

I hope those helped! We’re really committed to sticking to a budget this year, and because I live in a cruel cruel world without “unlimited cash for Starbucks”, the money you can earn from paid survey and other reward sites lets you have guilt-free treats!

Want to find more survey sites to try? Check out posts under my Money Honey tab. Good luck!

Ipsos Survey Panel for Moms is accepting applications for their moms-only research group. I’m already a big fan of Ipsos for being a legit survey site that pays out rewards as promised. If you’re into Sweepstakes, the Ipsos Panel for Moms offers those too.

However, I’d rather focus on accruing points that I can cash in for money and rewards. Ipsos delivers here. The more focused survey sites (like for moms) tend to take less time too because you know you’re already the target demographic. You’ll find more surveys for which you qualify. If you’d like a little more jingle in your wallet (get it? Jingle? I’m so festive teehee!) then click here to sign up.

I have been taking surveys with Focus Forward for a little over a year now, and they are top notch. First, they never spam members with constant requests for surveys. Focus Forward seems to do a good job of pre-screening before they even contact me. Some small surveys pay a dollar or two here and there, but they have another collection of opportunities, often via online bulletin board or phone interviews, that pay much much more.

For these, Focus Forward often pays around $100-$250 for participation. So while I don’t get contacted all that often from them, I have had some key experiences with them that paid me very well for my time.

The screening surveys are exceptionally short. I give Focus Forward a thumbs up for not wasting my time and also for giving very prompt payouts. This is a high end service that has none of the snake oil feel of many other sites. Click here to sign up. Tip: fill out your profile builders to get more invitations! Wondering how the whole survey-for-pay thing works? Check out this post.

I write about MyPoints all the time. I love them. Yeah, I might even marry them. It is still fun to take surveys but clicking emails is so fast. The points might not accumulate quite so quickly as they would if you take a ton of surveys, but you can earn them in tiny bits of time, which is about all I have lately. I just received an email from MyPoints offering points if you buy gift cards online from the following places. There are a gajillion (that’s my highly accurate estimate, can you tell?) but I just highlighted a few good ones:

Barnes and Noble: 12 points per dollar
Aeropostale: 2 points per dollar
Williams Sonoma: 2 points per dollar
Shoebuy: 5 points per dollar
Home Depot: 5 points per dollar
Restaurants.com: 5 points per dollar

This seems like a great deal to me. If you are planning on spending money at a retailer anyway why not earn a little somethin’ somethin’ for yourself? Click here to sign up for MyPoints and then you can dig around and start earning. Every time I get a gift card in the mail from them it’s like Christmas. Whee!