Give your opinion on new ideas and get paid for it. What could be better? Well, getting the products to test, hearing about new products before anyone else, seeing new blockbuster film trailers before anyone else even knows about them... but hey, you get all those benefits too.
I've been using these for a year and a half, so I've grasped a good idea of what are the best and worst sites out there. Because I'm from the UK, these are mostly UK-based.
Global Test Market
Earn: 50 marketpoints per survey, sometimes 75 or 100
Redeem: 1000 marketpoints, which is approx. £25 received by cheque
Website: http://www.globaltestmarket.com
Have you actually received anything from them? Yes, at least three or four £25 cheques
Valued Opinions
Earn: On average, £1-2 per survey
Redeem: £10 in vouchers, you can choose between Amazon, HMV, Boots, Tesco, charity and many more.
Website: http://www.valuedopinions.co.uk
Have you actually received anything from them? Yes, about £50 of vouchers
Lightspeed Panel
Earn: Typically, 110 points per survey
Redeem: A whole shop of redeemable products (or PayPal payments), I always get a £5 Amazon voucher for 550 points
Website: http://gb.lightspeedpanel.com
Have you actually received anything from them? A few £5 Amazon vouchers.
Those are my top three, but I also use the following sites.
Test & Vote (now known as ToLuna)
Earn: It really varies, can be 2,500 points, or could be 10,000 points per survey. They also have quick votes for 15 points each, and you get a lot of chances to test out products.
Redeem: 60,000 points gets you an HMV voucher.
Website: http://www.toluna.com
Why it's not in my top 3: Maybe it's just me, but it's rare that I actually qualify for surveys... a lot of people rate them as one of the best though, so definitely worth checking out.
Have you actually received anything from them? A £12 HMV voucher.
MyTNS (now known as MySurvey)
Earn: Usually between 100 and 200 points
Redeem: You can automatically have your points transferred onto your Nectar card, but if you don't have one, you can redeem 1000 points for various things
Website: http://uk.mysurvey.com
Why it's not in my top 3: I don't know enough about them yet
Have you actually received anything from them? I think I've had some Nectar points but I only got a card recently and haven't checked properly...
Home Of Research
Earn: Usually 100 points per survey, plus you get 50 points for each of the 6 sign-up sections you complete, plus a 50 point registration bonus.
Redeem: 2,000 points gets you a £20 cheque.
Website: http://www.homeofresearch.com
Why it's not in my top 3: I don't know enough about them yet
Have you actually received anything from them? Not yet, I've not been with them for very long
Ciao Surveys
Earn: Entirely depends on the survey, usually around 50-70p for a 15-minute survey.
Redeem: Once you have something like £10, you can request a direct bank transfer of the money.
Website: http://www.ciao-surveys.co.uk
Why it's not in my top 3: It used to be great, but they recently made over the site and my earnings have disappeared - plus some surveys give you very little incentive now, which is a bit weird!
Have you actually received anything from them? About £20 or something
It's Your View
Earn: Typically £1 (or 1 point) for every 5 minutes, it depends on the survey. Some can give you £4 when you complete a survey.
Redeem: Once you get 50 points, they send you a £50 cheque
Website: http://www.itsyourview.com
Why it's not in my top 3: I don't know enough about them yet, their website hasn't got the best interface in the world, the lowest payout is £50 which takes AGES to get...
Have you actually received anything from them? Not yet, I'm nowhere near £50!
Songpeople
Earn: Win CDs and other prizes, or get guaranteed CDs for completing surveys
Redeem: You can enter big competitions once you've completed a certain number of surveys
Website: http://www.songpeople.com
Why it's not in my top 3: I've been a member since summer 2006 and I've never even received the GUARANTEED CDs.
Have you actually received anything from them? No. They're twats.
So... er... why are you including this? I still like doing music surveys. But they're introducing a points scheme soon to get CDs and vouchers, so it'll be worth doing soon.
There are a whole load more, but these are the ones I use most regularly.