Ipoll Review

Look no further than this review to know the inside out of iPoll (the new name of SurveyHead).

I have become a registered member of this survey panel so as to determine if this is a scam at work or a legit survey site.

Without a doubt, this online paid survey panel has garnered a huge fan base in recent times.

If you don’t want to rely on herd instinct, but would rather count on objective inputs to drive your decision on a survey panel that you would be happy to work with, then you have come to the right place as this review will shed light on everything related to this panel.

Company Background

iPoll is the fresh face in the congested survey panel industry. Indeed, it lost little time to build a strong reputation about itself.

It started life as Survey Head in 2008.

The founders of the company are folks who need no introduction, Matt Dusig and Gregg Lavin, who has earlier gained fame with GoZing.com,

In case you do not know GoZing.com, this is the survey panel that is reputed to have paid some $5 million for survey related work over the span of seven years, from 1999 to 2005.

It also achieved another milestone in the industry when competitors, Greenfield Online, Inc. spent over $30 million in cash to acquire Gozing, which happened in 2005. The resulted entity is undoubtedly among the world’s largest double opt-in panels on the Internet.

With such credentials, you can imagine iPoll’s parent company, United Sample (with both Dusig and Lavin on the driving seats), being no kids play as well. In fact, it is one big player in the international market research field and counts many Multi-National Companies and niches agencies as to its many clients.

In essence, its mission is to make sense of the ever-changing consumer’s behavior and public opinions from a wide array of issues and subjects as diverse as current affairs to fashion wear.

The goal is to ultimately help their customers to edge out a competitive advantage in the field they operate in.

Better Business Bureau’s Rating

iPoll is recognized as an accredited business with the Better Business Bureau, stretches a long way back since April 2009. BBB also sees it fit enough to accord an A- rating to this panel.

You can simply see the rating as a measurement of a company’s desire to resolve any consumer complaint and its ability to resolve these in a satisfactory manner.

According to the BBB website, the accumulated number of complaints filed against the company is 294, which span over the last 3 years. Impressively, the BBB cited that resolutions have been found and each and every one of these complaints.

Of course, the total number of complaints lodged against them and the total number of successful resolutions derived is not the only judging criteria for BBB rating.

There could be other factors such as how upfront they are about their business, especially in communications with BBB.

In short, this track record is not the sort you expect out of illegit companies!

The Working Mechanism

The site does not place a premium on any country or location, so everybody is entitled to become a member here, so long the applicant is above 17 years old.

Now, I just wish the others in business such as InboxDollars (for my review on InboxDollars, click here) and MySurvey would ditch the nationalistic prejudice.

To register as a panelist is FOC (Free Of Charge). Indeed, the iPoll would pay you a $5.00 welcome bonus after your sign-up and confirmation.

It is not unlike other online survey sites.

They attract people to register as members, dish out a bunch of public opinion surveys (also include product testing and focus groups) for suitable candidates and reward work done with some sort of compensations.

So, is this panel any good in terms of compensation?…

In a practice that is consistent with the wider industry, a multi-tier payment scheme is the system of choice.

Literally, that means that how much you are compensated will be usually in direct proportion to the time you require to fill out a survey, and the particular demographic group the targeted participants are.

Getting Paid

The reward is paid out in cash at iPoll, but you can still opt for gift cards if you like.

So, with every survey completion, you know exactly how much you would make. In comparison to the more widely employed points system, I favor this cash option anytime, for its clarity and simplicity.

You would be amazed when I start to tell you how many formula are in existence to convert those treasured points into hard cash in this industry.

Here, the modulas operandi is straight forward…

• Sniff out the survey you want,
• treat your surveys work honestly,
• and wait for the agreed-upon dollar amount to be credited to your account.

This is what I mean by no-fuss online survey panel, and I love it when all panels operate this way!

For convenience’s sake, nothing beats a payment option that channels money into your bank account. NO, iPoll does not do it this way (it is noteworthy that no player ever attempts to do so), but they present the next best option, i.e. by crediting your rewards into your PayPal account.

Cash Out

You need to get to the minimum payout, which is $10.00 in this case before iPoll would entertain any request from you to have your balance in the account to be credited to PayPal.

I think $10 is probably about fair and this is in line with the rest of the market research industry.

Still, there would be a lead time of around one month, before the payment finally makes its way into your PayPal account.

If PayPal is not your preferred option, you can redeem your points with gift cards.

This panel is backed by a strong partner network made up of branded names such as Amazon and Visa. The list does not end there, there is a huge multitude of vendors involved here, so you can expect to redeem gift cards and exchange for loads of products, from both online and offline vendors, big and small.

Gift cards value can range anywhere from $10 up, to a maximum value of $200.

If either of the above two does not appeal, then there are the extra options to convert into airline miles, magazine subscriptions, etc…

But among the options available, I like the flexibility of choosing my preferred charities to donate to.

My favorite is the Make A Wish Foundation, but the site has a comprehensive list of charities.

Other Reviews of iPoll

Now the prominent feature of Survey Guide: to present you a summary of other reviews posted on the Internet on iPoll survey panel.

Looks like different people hold drastically different opinions about this website, and the diversity of inputs found on the web has greatly enriched my perspective on iPoll, which I hope can be useful to aid your decision-making process, as you scrutinize which panel to join.

Let us first pick on what most people choose to agree on: it is a fairly acknowledged fact that this panel pays rather well in relative terms, as most other survey sites cannot measure up with the payout rate employed for every survey works.

With that part clear, I will now zoom into the good and bad of this company(the following feedback also combines the user’s experience with its predecessor, SurveyHead).

The Good

• The most recent change on the minimum cash-out (used to be from $25 to $35) is sure to upset a lot of folks. But let’s face it, even with the new spike; it still represents one of the lowest set in the industry. Having been in this business for years, I certainly qualify to tell you that there are some that demand anything from $50 upwards. (update: The company finally yielded to the collective voice of its massive base of users. The complaints voiced have convinced it to further reduce the cash out threshold to a lowly $10. This is even lower than it used to be before the new increase announced!).
• Some complained about the challenge to get adequately qualified for surveys. The first hurdle itself is tough, only a tight band is considered, for example, members of a certain sex in a specific age group. Next, they tighten the screw further by probing you with detailed questionnaires that are set out to qualify candidates with certain attributes for surveys. Take for example, you may be first asked if you are a regular coffee drinker, and let’s say that you provide a positive confirmation; the next question that follows is how frequently you drink coffee. You simply have no clue about the kind of responses desired by them. Are they looking into people who are hardcore drinkers or simply casual drinkers albeit at some regular frequency? So there is no guideline or model answer to such open-end surveys.
• Some complained that the company claims to need 4 weeks to process the payment as just a front to delay your hard-earned compensation. To be fair, I myself don’t like the long lead time, however, it is hard to make a case out of it as the industry norm is about a 1-month duration for payment processing.
• Some don’t like that the referral program is non-existence here; the promising part is that iPoll has made known that it could be a feature going forward.
• The income derived here is pathetic. In other words, there are not enough jobs going around. There was even an outrageous claim that one pocketed just a measly $10 throughout his 6 months stay as a member.
• Others dislike the fact of the site for its bluntness and brazenness. It is frustrating when you bury yourself filling out filler questionnaires, then out of nowhere, a pop-out would appear to declare that “We’re Sorry, Unfortunately, the survey you attempted has already reached the required number of participants”. And this is not the only message that sounded brash on this site.

The Bad

• I like the innovative part of the company in order to make the user experience more enriching. I am referring specifically to their cool dashboard. Most survey sites have no qualm to announce a particular member could fit nicely into an upcoming survey, but iPoll goes the extra mile in doing just that. The dashboard would inform you of your likelihood to get picked in that survey. But consistency is lacking here as well, your dashboard may be throwing out all sorts of surveys but these are often very different from those you are invited to through your email.
• Most like the fact that there is a $5 welcome bonus accompanying the registration process.
• Most are in agreement that the early part, you can make money easily. As one registers, he or she would need to fill out the profile pages, with these you will get paid about 10 to 25 cents individually. In just 15 minutes’ time, one can make an extra $3.20.
• And naturally, most people praise the company for having the good sense to include PayPal as a cash-out option.

My Final Take

If the amount of earning is the key performance indicator as you judge individual panels, this would never feature among your top 5 picks.

Over here on iPoll, the number of surveys making rounds is pathetic, it is a huge challenge to get qualified, and naturally, it is very difficult to get to the preset threshold.

Admittedly, when one is really tight financially, it can still become an option as there is no other viable mode of income.

In a time like now, you just cannot rule out such a scenario.

Nevertheless, I have always stressed that doing survey work on a single panel is not going to yield any decent income. So, it makes sense to add a few survey sites into your repertoire so that the money can really add up.

In that context, iPoll may just qualify as another source that can help you to build up a regular income base.