Why Should I Be Interested?

...because they pay you cash for answering a few dumb questions - why else?

So What Do I Have To Do To Get Involved?

Visit www.trendscan.de and (after recovering from the foulness of their colour scheme and resisting the urge to run away from how amateurish it all looks) register as either a youth or an adult because they offer surveys for under 18s as well as adults. I can't tell you anything about the youth section(sorry) but the adult section asks you the usual dull, boring demographic questions and requests you give them a valid email address so they can contact you when they have a survey which matches their clients' needs. You therefore have to give them a vald email addy and (as ever) these invitations to take part are often time sensitive so you'll want to give them an address you check regularly. A few times I've seen them close surveys when they have reached the required number of respondents so you snooze you lose...it's an unfortunate trait of the whole survey thing - the early bird catches the worm. Or survey as it were.

Are My Personal Details Safe? Trendscan promises not to sell your details on to mailing lists or to disclose any of your personal information to their clients. They use the details you enter about yourself to target their clients' surveys to those who match their required demographic but never disclose actual personal details to them. It's not exactly in the best interests of a serious market research company to screw over their membership by abusing their trust so I think your details are as safe here as all the other decent market research sites. So What Are The Rewards Like?

Trendscan award 'trend chips' for the completion of their surveys, how many depends upon a variety of factors including the length of the survey. I've received 5 chips for failing to meet the demographic and over 100 for a 15 minute survey received earlier today. It all depends on whether you fit the bill as it were and whether you complete the survey fully...with a bit of luck thrown in too. The value of a trend chip is erm, well 300 of them = £9 which is the minimum cash in level needed so I'll let you work that out if you need to, With the typical surveys I have been getting recently earning 40-100 chips it's not a target which is going to be difficult to reach. Payment is made in the form of Amazon vouchers and you have to email them to request payment. They do arrive very quickly though(a mere couple of days) so you can't complain there.

You also get trend chips for referrals you make. For every friend referred to the site you earn 10 extra trend chips which is about 30p in real terms. If you do sign up then I would be grateful if you could enter my email address([email protected]) when you register into the section marked "suggestions and ideas". Cheers.

Verdict?

Overall, not a bad site at all. They may take a time to send you your first survey but once they have done then they do seem to come regularly afterwards and with prompt payment etc. they really are worth signing up to.

© wampyrii 2003

Site Address: Trendscan