I found this site online while browsing some forums… and decided to give it a try. Can you really make money with the Nielsen Scarborough survey website?
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I have heard of Nielsen before, and have done a few reviews of some of their other sites.
Making Money With The Nielsen Scarborough Survey Website
The first thing to think about is the company itself.
They seem to be a large company with a lot of different projects going on in the market research sector… but as of yet, I was a bit unsure about what this site was supposed to do, or how it was supposed to be different from some of their other sites.
But this question was answered quickly by the content on the lower part of the landing page. Here is what it said…
“Nielsen Scarborough is a national media research company that conducts over 200,000 surveys per year in over 120 local areas like yours. We gather information about radio listening, newspaper and magazine reading, television viewing, leisure activities and shopping habits.”
Ok. This seemed to do a pretty good job of describing the purpose of the site.
Aside from this, I also learned that the company is quartered in New York City, though they have ‘interviewing facilities’ located in San Antonio, Texas, and Sarasota, Florida. They say that their facilities are members of the local Chamber of Commerce in each city, and that they are also members of the Better Business Bureau—which is a really good sign.
So at this point, I decided to see what I could do to join the site… but I found it weirdly difficult to figure out how to do that! So I looked around a bit, and eventually ended up on the Contact Us page, and found a link that I thought was going to lead me to a join-page… but as it turns out, this just led me back to the home page.
This left me kind of stumped. On the privacy policy page, however, I found this… which seemed to give me at least a few clues about site membership.
So this makes it sound like you can become a member, and it almost makes it seem like membership is voluntary, like you join intentionally—not just by being invited to join.
But I will also say this. When they say ‘select group of participants,’ there is a small part of me that wonders if you maybe have to be selected (invited, maybe?) to join.
I really do feel like there must be a way to join the site without being invited. But as of yet, I just had no idea how to go about it—and that is obviously a problem. So I decided to really get into it and see if I could learn more. Here is what I learned.
How To Join The Nielsen Scarborough Survey Site
Ok, I did a Google search about this, and came up with something very interesting. Apparently, there is a FAQ page on the website that I did not find the first time around, for some reason… and it actually did a lot to answer my questions.
First of all, it does not seem like you can join this site in the typical sense. The entire point of this site is that it conducts local surveys, which means that they randomly select people from the specified locale to take part in surveys that they will conduct over the phone.
So this is already a lot different from the types of surveys that I usually see offered on sites like this. You really can’t sign up with this site. If you are ever going to take a survey with them, it will have to be because you were randomly selected to take part in a local survey.
They seem to do this quite a bit every year—but obviously, they only survey in areas where they have contracts, so the odds of any one of us actually getting ‘chosen’ for a survey are pretty slim.
Do You Get Paid For Participating In A Nielson Scarborough Survey?
Yes, you actually receive a small ‘cash gift’ for completing a survey with the company. I am not completely sure, though, how much this small gift is… because this information was not provided on the official survey website.
I also noticed that the site seemed to put a lot of emphasis on explaining why it is important for those selected for surveys to complete them.
They say that households are selected at random to represent a particular demographic, and that if you fail to complete the survey, that demographic does not get represented… so they almost make it like a ‘mission statement’ and describe your participation as something that is going to help a lot of people by providing better information to businesses.
And while this might be true, it is also a tiny bit gimmicky—because obviously, the quality of their surveys (and subsequently, the price that they can charge for their research) also depends on getting the right types and amounts of data… so that is also a thing!
My Thoughts About The Technical Side Of This Site
Technically, this site performed very well. But ironically, that will literally never be an issue, really… for anyone.
Unless you are wanting to look up the website for some particular reason or to answer questions about it after you receive a survey call, then you are likely never going to visit it—mostly because there is just no reason to do so.
(Edit: After further investigation, I am not totally sure about this. You may need to visit the website to conduct a survey. You might just get ‘invited’ over the phone. So this is something to note.)
When you receive surveys, it sounds like you can get them finished up and out of the way all over the phone. You can access the privacy notice and some other information on the official website (www.scarborough.com), as well as some other information. But from the sound of it, there would be little reason to do so.
I will say that I feel like this is a legitimate website. I do not see them as being scam-like or unscrupulous in any way. They seem to be a perfectly legitimate company, and it seems as though there is not really a good reason not to take one of their surveys if given a chance.
I do wish that I knew how much they paid… but aside from that, I think that this site seems to be pretty cool.
My Personal Feelings About The Nielson Scarborough Survey Website
Ok, here is what I think about this site.
First of all, it is a bit of a misconception that you can actually ‘make money’ on the Nielson Scarborough Survey Website. The site is not intended as a typical ‘survey site’ (so, it’s different than sites like PointClub, Palm Research and Quest Mindshare).
It really just gives you information about surveys that take place over the phone, and gives you information along with a way to contact the company.
You won’t get the opportunity to actually take any surveys unless you are chosen for a survey that is going on in your local area… and even then, the odds of you being chosen are quite small, because the company can only actually survey a small number of residents in any given area.
So that puts a bit of a damper on the possibility of anyone making any money with Nielsen Scarborough.
If you really want to earn some extra money, build a side hustle, or take surveys to make more extra money on your terms, then the best way to go about it would be to expand your search to include more possibilities than sites like this.
Visiting this site, or spending more time on it, will have pretty much zero bearing on whether you will be able to make use of the company’s services to take a survey.
Side hustles are important. In a very real sense, we need to earn extra money to make ends meet in a lot of cases. Money today just doesn’t go as far as it used to… which is why I even bother with survey sites to begin with.
I love the idea of using survey sites to make extra money, because a lot of them offer flexibility—which is super important to a side hustle.
But finding the right one is also a challenge. A lot of survey sites just do not pay enough to make them worth the time—which is probably the biggest problem associated with trying to use survey sites as a side hustle.
But I have found a few good ones, and am continuing my search for the perfect side-hustle opportunity. Hopefully, I will find the perfect survey site to fill that void in my life! But until then, I continue to look and try them out, and will continue to review them so that our readers have an inside-look at how they perform.
Our Final Thoughts About The Nielson Scarborough Survey Website
Can you use it to make extra money?
The Nielsen Scarborough Survey Website Review
Entertainment Value
Income Opportunity
Final Review
To be completely honest, doing online surveys will never earn more than minimum wage. In fact, most people rarely earn more than $1-$3 per hour, if they are lucky enough to get a payout.
If you want to legit make money online you need to invest time into building a website. Earn passive income through affiliate links & advertising revenue. Rather than spend an hour trying to answer boring questions, build a real web property that you can earn monthly income from.
Nathaniell
What's up ladies and dudes! Great to finally meet you, and I hope you enjoyed this post. My name is Nathaniell and I'm the owner of One More Cup of Coffee. I started my first online business in 2010 promoting computer software and now I help newbies start their own businesses. Sign up for my #1 recommended training course and learn how to start your business for FREE!
Nichole
I’ve done 5 Neilson studies. I was randomly sent a questionnaire in the mail where it said they would pay me $5 to do it. I thought wth and did it. It took less than 60 seconds to do it plus the time it took for me to walk to my mailbox. I figured if I never got the money then oh well. In two weeks they sent me $5 in cash. I was honestly surprised. The next time I got one in the mail they offered $10. The third was a phone interview (which was a longer survey and kind of annoying because you’re talking to a person who is reading the questions to you and it took 15 minutes) and it paid only $5. The fourth one was a short written one and it only paid $1. I just did the last one about a week ago which required me to keep a week long diary of the tv programs I watched. It will pay $5. So is it worth it? If you’re bored then yes. For an income stream? Definitely not.
Liane
I’ve received 2 or 3 of them now, over the course of a year. The last one paid 10$ cash, the survey was mailed, took roughly 15 minutes, mailed back, and paid within 2 weeks. It was a quick easy 10$. I’ve never received one over the phone.
Pat
They called my house phone. I did a survey over the phone. They sent a packet with $10 and a survey to complete. I completely forgot about it and they sent another packet with $1 asking to complete the packet and they will send another $25. I am in Orlando Florida