We’re all familiar with the concept of taking online surveys in order to make money. Toluna.com is a market research company offering you the chance to do exactly that, with a couple of twists.
First, Toluna.com does not give you direct payouts for every survey you complete like other companies. Instead, they work on a point system. You are given 500 points simply for signing up and at least 1,000 points for every survey you complete. Once you reach 60,000 points, you can redeem these points for cash payouts.
Secondly, they also reward you with being a part of their social network, where you can create polls and opinion forums. The more people respond to your polls, the more points you receive.
Finally, in addition to survey completion, Toluna.com also enters you into a drawing each month for the chance to win up to $2,500 just for being a member. If you choose to, you can exchange 500 of your earned points for an extra entry into the monthly drawing.
So is Toluna.com a Scam?
The rule for determining if a survey company is a scam is whether or not you are charged for participating in surveys. Toluna.com doesn’t charge their members for anything. Your membership and participation are completely free.
Also, Toluna doesn’t make any outright earnings promises. They don’t claim you can quit your day job, they just say you can make extra money.
But there are a couple things to keep in mind for being successful making money for taking surveys online. First, make sure to sign up for multiple companies. Surveys will only be given to you if you fit a very specific demographic. Each survey company may only get a couple of surveys each month for your particular demographic. If you sign up for multiple free survey sites you will be far more likely to get the number of surveys needed to actually make a couple extra hundred dollars a month.
Second, you need to do the research to see exactly how that survey company handles payouts. With Toluna.com, you need to earn points before you can get your payout. With other companies, you need to complete a certain number of surveys before you can be paid out, and with still other companies you need to reach a specific dollar amount before you can be paid out. This is information you should have before you begin spending you can make money taking surveys.
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I also noticed the amount of spam I received in the email account associated with the account went up dramatically.
Now instead of real real rewards, you will get pretend awards (cute icons)that you get the privilege of giving to the other suckers on the site.
If you look at their boards, there are always complaints from members asking where their missing points are, why they haven't received their voucher long after the minimum waiting period (which is 6 weeks, even for paypal payments).
I am finding that it is taking over a month for survey points to be credited to my account. Like other reviewers, I have taken multiple surveys only to be dropped 5 to 10 minutes in. I have contacted Toluna about this, but they simply sent me an automated response. The site redirects you to other marketing companies websites/surveys, which sometimes ask you to perform downloads/ executables which put your computer at risk for viruses.
After receiving the next voucher (couple of hundred points away) I think I will call it a day with this particular site.