OnePoll Review

My mother used to tell me when I was much younger that I shouldn’t “put all my eggs in one basket”, and it’s a saying I’d forgotten about until recently. You see, working from home in an ideal world means that you have one client, and you focus on that client and keep them happy so that you can earn your retainer. It’s like working for a boss, except you get to do it in your pyjamas where the boss can’t see you.

The problem with one client in this ideal world is that once you lose that client, you have no backup. And no backup means no plan B. Most people like to think that their side hustle is plan B, but unless you’re working it as hard as you’re working that one client, it’s not a plan B. It’s just a side hustle.

And the problem with a side hustle is that it’s not a reliable or steady source of income, no matter how hard you try and work at it. For me, online surveys and market research portals and panels fall into the “side hustle” category, where steady clients fall into plan A, and additional clients are plan B.

On a corporate level, it seems an alien concept to see a side hustle company with a plan B in place. I’ll try not to get too lost in the details as we work through this OnePoll review, but their turnkey market research suite of solutions (to clients, not members) struck me as a good plan B that’s based on a side hustle business model.

If you’ve been wondering if OnePoll is a good side hustle solution for you or your friends, our OnePoll review will answer any questions you may have.

Who are OnePoll?

A subsidiary of SWNS (Small World News Service), OnePoll is owned and managed by 72Point Limited, a marketing and PR firm. SWNS is a British news agency operating worldwide, with three main focuses: US, UK and International. SWNS was established in 1978 as the Bristol Agency, and is now managed by Paul Walters, Martin Winter, and Andy Young.

OnePoll was founded in 2002, and is based in the UK. OnePoll is a survey-led marketing research company that specialises in online and mobile surveys and polls, product testing, and public relations.

As survey sites go, OnePoll does not have the greatest of reputations, but I’ll get to that in a minute. To expand their services further (plan B), OnePoll also offers clients research targeted specifically at the marketing and advertising sectors and continues to expand their client base worldwide, adding additional panels and surveys as the need arises.

How does OnePoll work?

Based internationally, it was refreshing to be able to sign up and not be forced into being based in the US or UK. The site is well laid out but I could not find a payout or cashout option, although I have seen other reviews that mention that these buttons do not become available to you until you have reached the minimum cashout amount of £30 – about US $40.

There are a number of ways to earn money with OnePoll:

Signup process

OnePoll offers you a £2.50 signup reward, which is great to get you started. It’s also a great way to pay you for completing your profile in as much detail as possible so you’re connected to the right survey panels and polls. A word to the wise: as with most online survey sites, there is a lot of private information that needs to be shared when signing up. If sharing your personal information and habits is not for you, then neither are online survey sites.

Signing up is also pretty straight-forward once you enter your name and email address. Click the activation button in the email you’ll receive to verify your email address, and continue with registration until you have completed your profile.

Online surveys

There are a number of surveys to choose from initially, however the overall consensus with OnePoll is that there are always surveys to complete — until you near your cashout threshold of £30, and then suddenly the available surveys dry up for months. Recent website maintenance and upgrades also prevented members from being able to earn money from online surveys, which has simply added to the negative views and comments.

Facebook and Twitter competitions

The OnePoll Facebook page has regular competitions, polls and sweepstakes that credit your account with Pounds Sterling earned, and this will help you get to £30 a lot faster – IF you’re lucky enough to be drawn. There do seem to be quite a few winners on their page, however a number of negative reviews about their payout policies and glitches detract from this positive image. We’ll discuss that in more detail below.

OnePoll also hold regular Twitter competitions, where it is said one can earn between £100 and £1,000 but again, unless you win it, it’s difficult to verify it, based on hearsay.

Case studies

Once in a while, you may get invited to participate in the occasional case study program which obviously will take longer to complete than the surveys and can pay up to £100 when done.

Partner prize draws

Terms and conditions state that “OnePoll may enter you into a prize draw as part or full incentive for your participation in a Survey.” The terms and conditions applicable to Incentives and prize draws are set for each draw and can be found on the OnePoll Terms and Conditions page.

Referral program

Topping out at 15 referrals per member, referring a friend or family member has a maximum earning potential of about £60 in total IF all 15 of your referrals achieve their milestones, but it’s hard-earned and takes a while to achieve.

Each referral pays out £0.50 for each person that signs up and completes at least one survey. As each of these referred members reach £20 in earnings, you receive £1 in commission. When each of these same members reach £30, you receive £2.50.

There is also the possibility of approaching OnePoll to discuss affiliate/referral links but this is determined on a case by case basis and not the norm.

How do you make money with OnePoll?

Throughout this OnePoll review, you will find recommendations on where and how to make money using the OnePoll online survey site. Not all of those recommendations will be for completing surveys, but that is the bulk of the money-making opportunities you can find on OnePoll.

Once you’ve signed up, the site lets you know which surveys to complete to make it to your first milestone of £2.50, but that’s hard work at 10p a survey!

As OnePoll is UK-based, the main currency for the system is Pounds Sterling. The potential is there to earn from 10p up to £1 per survey answered, however you must remember that in general, surveys take roughly 10 minutes or more to complete. Is your time worth 1 pence (less than $0.01) a minute?

Until recently, the minimum cashout amount you can get was £40, but this has since dropped to £30. Most of the reviews I read (bar this one) are still based on £40 thresholds.

What kind of customer support can I expect from OnePoll?

From experience, I can tell you that sticking to the guidelines offered above (in terms of contact hours) gets you feedback from support almost immediately and my queries were resolved within 24 hours when I contacted support outside of their hours listed above.

What’s the catch with OnePoll?

Even at £30, the minimum payout threshold is still too high, considering your time is worth roughly £0.01 per minute. Waiting up to 28 days to receive what should be an instant transaction between PayPal and your online survey site is ridiculous, unless that time is used to verify all of your surveys and activities to date. Even so, 28 days is 4 weeks in review, which is just too long compared to other online survey sites that pay immediately when you reach minimum threshold amounts.

What others are saying about OnePoll

If you’re still reading, then by now you should have followed some of the links I’ve added here to other reviewers’ OnePoll reviews, most of which are negative and full of unhappy members’ feedback and comments. If you haven’t yet followed any links, let’s take a brief look at the TrustPilot review and some of the complaints listed there.

TrustPilot

As expected, the bulk of the negative reviews and comments are about the slow payout rate and the amount of time it takes to reach minimum threshold for payout. What I did not expect to see was the low amount of reviews. 76 reviews? If that’s all there is, then what’s all the fuss about, right?

Well, I certainly don’t want to be review #77. I also don’t want to be one of those whose account takes 2 years to mature to £30, only to sit there and wait months for the next survey that will generate £1, if I’m lucky.

Pros and cons of OnePoll

Is OnePoll safe? Well, based on the amount of personal information you have to enter on survey sites, unless you’re an old hack at this, I would suggest you review that shared information as you enter it. Remember always that the site partners will be the ones accessing your personal details to validate their data.

Having been around on survey sites for a few years, I have perhaps been very lucky in that I have not yet been contacted by any outside firm and hit up for marketing or sales purposes. What that means is that your information will not likely be sold on some list to a third-party that is not part of the survey site.

Whilst that may make it a safe site to use in this regard, I still find myself hesitant to recommend it to anyone who needs a reliable side hustle. As plan Bs go, this is certainly not that, but if you’re willing to wait as long as those 70-odd members say you will have to in order to earn the minimum amount for cashout, then by all means, go for it.

Pros

• A wide range of activities to earn cash and get rewards from
• Straight-forward and uncomplicated site and process
• Pays out cash, not just points or gift cards
• Referral program seems to be the most lucrative of all website activities
• The impression I have is that there are a number of surveys available per day to make money from, if you have that much time to get such a small amount of money

Cons

• A lot of personal and private profile questions to complete
• Quite a few negative reviews focused on payouts and thresholds
• Takes a very long time to reach the threshold

OnePoll

• A legit survey site
• Offers cash rewards
• You will have to invest a lot of time
• Better off joining sites with better money/time ratio

5

★★★★★ 2.5/5

BEST SURVEYS

In conclusion

Apart from the obvious cons (and pros) mentioned here, I must admit that the vast amount of negative reviews make me question the validity – not the legitimacy – of using OnePoll as a side hustle.

Is it a scam? I’m going to say no, but the obvious delay tactics and company policies in place make it hard to convincingly say that this is a legit opportunity to make money from.