Online Surveys- Everything you should know

What are online surveys? What benefits do they offer? When are they useful? Can you earn money with them? What resources do you need to conduct a survey on the Internet? Answers to these and other questions are given below.

Table of Contents

• Online surveys – Definition

• Where are online surveys used?

• How do online surveys work?

• Pros and Cons

• Creating online surveys

• How can I find survey participants?

• Earning money with online surveys

• Summary

• FAQs

Online surveys – Definition

Online surveys are polls that are conducted on the Internet. Their goal is to determine customer and user opinions. Online surveys are very cost-effective in contrast to telephone surveys and face-to-face interviews carried out in research institution centers or on the street. In addition, multimedia elements can be easily included in the survey.

Using online surveys, companies, website operators, research facilities and educational centers want to hear the views and feedback of customers, users and consumers, and gain insight into their behavior. Online surveys can also contribute to stronger identification with a company, a brand or a website, and encourage customer loyalty. It makes sense to select the Internet as the medium for the survey because it is cost-effective and the results are prompt and easy to evaluate. Furthermore, the answers provided by the respondents are anonymous, and the participants are not bothered by call centers or similar.

Short video on how to place an order to get participants for online surveys

In what areas of application are online surveys conducted?

• Market research
  Obtaining opinions and data about market demand by means of surveys makes sense for every company with regard to the business idea, as well as before every launch of new products or services.

• Service improvement
  Opinion and feedback surveys can bring lasting improvement to customer services. This is particularly important for products and services in which the price plays a secondary role.

• Examination of interest
  The interests of website visitors can be quickly ascertained. A test blog for loudspeakers for instance can ask its users which loudspeakers it ought to examine next. It is therefore aware of its readers expectations, and can fulfill them. The readers will remain faithful to the blog.

• Emotional loyalty
  Surveys can emotionally bond the users to an Internet page. If the evaluation of a voting shows that the majority of the portal visitors share an opinion, then the visitors feel “understood” there.

• Active co-determination
  An opinion survey about the design of a new product animates the active involvement of the customer. “This company is interested in my opinion.” When customers feel this way about a company, this represents an invaluable image boost.

• Earning options
  Most blogs and portals address a specific target group. These groups can be of interest to market research centers. Portal and blog operators can indeed accept payments from these centers for surveys among their users. However, the surveys must not repel the website visitor.

• Scientific research areas
  Online surveys are perfect for obtaining data as a basis for research projects. Both the faculties and students of universities and colleges in particular use online surveys for scientific research work.

How do online surveys work?

Operators can program online surveys as HTML forms, or make use of survey software and an online survey tools, respectively. Whereas HTML forms are static and a certain amount of effort is required to adapt them to new demands and tasks, online survey tools have the advantage of operating via the supplier’s server. They therefore do not burden your own web server and are extremely flexible; just a few simple steps are needed to enter questions and perform evaluations.

Internet survey respondents must generally select their answer from a given selection. Based on a point scale, they express or specify the extent to which they agree with a statement. The automated evaluation of these answers is simple. In some cases, opinions can be given in the form of free text. However, this makes automated evaluation difficult. In voting formats such as “Are you against X or for C?” respondents can generally view the result immediately.

Many of those who want to conduct surveys use the Internet for their purposes. They often decide to conduct online surveys. Respondents are paid a compensation for the time needed to fill out the questionnaire.

Tip:

clickworker helps in spreading online surveys very quickly, and to a large number of people in the target group according to your survey.

Find survey participants easily

Online surveys – pros and cons

Online surveys have numerous advantages compared to telephone or face-to-face surveys – however, they also have drawbacks.

• cost-effective
• quick evaluation
• extremely high number of respondents
• multimedia poll is possible
• answers provided can be anonymous
• tech-savvy people in particular can be easily reached
• international use
• direct or indirect influence by the interviewer is avoided
• established poll method
• mistakes in transferring the questionnaire data into the computer is ruled out

• target groups are difficult to contain
• only representative to a limited extent
• users can fairly easily manipulate voting
• insecurity on the part of the user as to the whereabouts of their data
• users are generally less inhibited and egoistic online than in daily life; data can therefore be misleading

How do I create an online survey?

1. Pick your survey tool
   Use a survey tool that is comfortable for you and according to your goals.
2. Clarify your goal or goals
   What do you want to know through this survey? What is the purpose of it?
3. Set some brief instructions
4. Reflect before writing your questions
5. Review your questions and answers
6. Start distribution of your survey

Where can I post online surveys and find survey participants?

It can sometimes be difficult to find survey participants. An online survey can be directly posted to a company’s website, its online shop or blog. Additionally, you can try to acquire participants through your own newsletter or simply find survey participants in the large and global Clickworker crowd. A link in the message directs you to the survey. Surveys can also be posted on Facebook and other social media channels.

Earning money with online surveys

There are two ways of earning money with online surveys: On the one hand, operators of websites can earn money with online surveys if they can present a target group on their Internet site that is of interest to market research centers, and integrate the surveys on their site. On the other hand, every Internet user can earn money with online surveys by taking part in paid surveys.
Internet users can register e.g. on the clickworker platform and participate in surveys for the specified fee.
In addition, numerous market research centers are active on the Internet. The income earned in online surveys differs. The money is not always immediately paid out. Usually a certain amount has to be accumulated. The income earned in online surveys is sometimes paid out in the form of vouchers for e.g. Amazon, Ikea, etc.

How much can I earn by taking part in an online survey?

In the surveys offered at clickworker, the respondent fee is based on the length and amount of effort required to complete the online survey. The fees are visible in advance for every registered member and can vary from between 0,50 cents to as much as 10 Euros.

Reliable marketing research centers quote earnings averaging 1 Euro per 10 minutes. However, respondents of paid surveys usually receive much less. This is due to the following:
Every survey is aimed at a specific target group, for example high-income people with a specific education. But the selection of the target group is carried out in small steps. For instance, answers to questions about gender, age, education, years of work, etc. were given, but the survey is terminated after the question about annual income because the respondent no longer matches the required profile. However, payment is not made for an incomplete survey. The respondent has spent time and effort for nothing. This is one of the reasons why the actual earnings are below the average amount indicated even when online surveys are reputable.

Summary

Online surveys are a good way to gather insight on a specific topic as well as earn money. clickworker can act as a link between those in need of survey particpants and those who want to earn a little money on the side by answering questions.

Ridhi Sharma