YouGov

YouGov is a website that allows anyone to become a panel member for free, in order to collect real peoples’ opinions from across the nation. They conduct polls and surveys about politics, public affairs, brands, and other topics of general interest. Once you become a member, you will begin receiving invitations for surveys. For every survey you complete, you will earn points.

The points you earn can eventually be exchanged for a variety of different rewards, including T-shirts, tote bags, gift cards, movie tickets, and sometimes even cash. Not all surveys award points upon completion, however. Some surveys simply enter you into a monthly drawing for cash prizes.

Its a Different Kind of Market Research, Most market research companies are contracted by major corporations in order to discover what their target market is looking for in product development, advertising, or just general wants or needs. YouGov, on the other hand, has a decidedly political aspect to their market research. They claim to be a non-partisan organization, whose surveys do not represent either a Republican or Democratic view.

However, YouGov does partner with outside organizations to gather opinions from their members. These surveys are completely confidential, and though your responses will be provided to an outside organization, none of your contact information will be.

When you sign up with YouGov, though, you must provide your accurate home address for two reasons. First, they need to know where to send your prizes once they’ve been redeemed. Second, some of their political surveys are specific to a region or voting population.

The average survey at YouGov will only take about 5-7 minutes to complete, though surveys can vary in length. They say their longest survey will not run longer than 20 minutes to complete.

As for their rewards and prizes, you must become a member of YouGov before you can see how many points you must accumulate in exchange for a prize. Currently, though, they are giving new members a welcome bonus of 1000 points, so hopefully it won’t be too time consuming to earn a prize.