Want to Earn $20/hr?
Written: Nov 11 '00
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Yes.. you read that right, $20/hr. That's approximately what PineCone Research (formerly known as Acorn Research) pays its members.
I registered with this site when it was still relatively new, and I was a college student desperately looking for ways to make a little extra money to supplement my meager earnings from my on campus job. I stumbled across a then little known site - Acorn Research, and registered with them. A part of me never expected to hear from them again, god knows I never heard from most of the places I signed up with.
Having said that, you can imagine that I was pleasently surprised when I found in my mailbox one day a cheque for $5, and a letter inviting me to do a survey on their site. Yes, they really sent me a cheque first, on good faith that I wasn't going to run off with their $5 and not do the survey. I was flabbergasted! I went directly to the site, and completed the survey. Because I signed a form agreeing to never discuss the product that I was going to review, I won't say more than the fact that it is now on the market, has the name of a metal, and keeps you from stinking. Not only that, but there are a few minor changes on the packaging compared to what I saw when I was doing the survey. I can only imagine that it was with the feedback of people like myself that those changes were made to make the product look more marketable.
But I digress. Back to Acorn Research. After the initial survey, I continued to recieve invitations every two to three weeks to fill out surveys - invitations that were always accompanied by a $5 cheque. Sometimes I recieved my email invitation first, but most of the time, the actual cheque arrived before the email even. I have to highly commend the company for this tactic. What it did was give me confidence that they would continue to pay up, and so I made sure I did a good job with the surveys, putting some thought into them. A few months after I'd joined, I recieved a postcard from them telling me that they had grown so much that they were changing their name to PineCone Research - since they were no longer a more Acorn.
Most of the times the surveys were about interesting products. Admittedly, the questions they ask get very repetitious after I'd taken a few surveys, since they asked almost the same questions for each product. I can see how this is necessary though, to get a thorough response to the product from all angles. Most surveys take about 10 - 20 minutes to complete, depending on the level of attention that you're giving to them.
This isn't a site that anyone is going to get rich from. At 5 bucks a pop, and an average of 2 surveys a month, the most you're likely to earn is $120 a year. But that's for a total of maybe 6 hours time. A fair exchange in my opinion.
A note about joining: Currently PineCone Research is not accepting new applications for membership. I realize that there are many people who're not happy about this. However, I personally am glad that they aren't accepting new members. It is this very fact that allows them to continue to uphold their promises to their current members in providing us with surveys to complete. Too many companies have overextended themselves by continuing to accept members. Because of that, each person is lucky to get one survey every 6 months to a year. Or, they're going the way of GreenfieldOnline, offering survey participants a miniscule chance of winning a drawing. I have long since stopped doing surveys for sites that behave in such manners. Instead, I prefer to be a member of a site that does pay as promised, right on schedule. As their need for new members grows, they will occasionally accept new members. However, to make sure that they only get members that fit the profile they need more participants in, there will be no application on their website. Instead banner ads will appear on random websites, targeted to certain groups that they are seeking new members from.
Customer Service: This is one area that I have to very highly commend PineCone Research for. On two occasions I have needed to contact customer service. Both times, my phone call was answered immediately, rather than my needing to wait listening to elevator music. The person I spoke to each time was very friendly and helpful and resolved my problem in minutes. This included the time when I'd moved and changed e-mail address, and for some reason neither was getting forwarded to me. The lady at customer service said that my account had been deactivated due to lack of response, but immediately re-instated it, and told me that I should expect to start recieving surveys again within 4 - 5 weeks while the changes were processed for my account and I was put back into the pool of members. Instead, I got one within a week!
Overall, I am very impressed by PineCone Research. I find that their way of doing business is extremly professional. In a day and age when so many dot.com companies and pay-to-surf companies are going under, PineCone Research has continued to stay strong and hold on to the promises it makes to its members. I would highly reccomend this site to anyone who is able to find one of their banners to sign up through. You have nothing to lose at all, and a few bucks a month to gain!
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
sawasdee
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Location: PA
Reviews written: 74
Trusted by: 18 members
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