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Toluna Surveys
Toluna is effectively an online market research organization that
has created an online community dedicated to giving people the
chance to have their voices heard. They offer members of their
website the chance to express themselves through the use of Toluna’s
polls, reviews and surveys. At the same time, you are able to find
out exactly what other people think if they choose to include their
polls in their personal Toluna blog.
They are currently inviting people to become a part of this
process, and if you are interested in doing so you can register
directly through the Toluna website. As part of the registration
procedure, you will be asked to provide some basic information on
your personal situation and background, which is necessary in order
for you to win the prizes and earn the rewards that are on offer.
As a member, you will be eligible to take part in various surveys
and product tests, and a fun aspect to the site allows you to create
your own polls and opinion topics. Furthermore, every time you
participate in any of the Toluna surveys and studies, you will
accumulate points and could win up to $5,000 or £2,000 in their monthly draw.
The points you earn can also be converted into cash rewards.
General Information
- Accepts Members From: United States, United Kingdom, Canada,
Australia,
Germany, Singapore, Russia, India, New Zealand and International
- Age Requirements: Not Specified
- Type of Rewards: Points redeemable for rewards, cash, sweepstakes.
(Varies depending on your country of residence).
- Sweepstakes, Prize Draws or Competitions: Monthly sweepstakes –
prizes of up to $5,000 or £2,000 cash.
- What is The Minimum Payment. This is the Amount Needed to Request a
Redemption or Payout: $20.00 or 60,
000 points (May vary depending on your country of residence).
Company Information
Member Ratings & Reviews
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Write a review based on your experiences with this paid
surveys panel to be entered into our monthly draw for $50 Cash,
2 runners up will also receive $20 Cash each (Payments are made
via PayPal). Read the full
Terms &
Conditions for this contest. See our previous
Winners. |
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Comments By: Allan |
From: United Kingdom |
Comment: TOLUNA – www.toluna.co.uk - UPDATE 2
Hi,
In January 2011, I presented my first review here on
Yellow Surveys for Toluna and in October 2011, I
presented an Update review. For those members of Yellow
Surveys who are not familiar with these reviews I
suggest you stop reading this update and return here
after reading my first two reviews. Only then will you
fully appreciate the comments I am making in this, my
second Update review of Toluna.
This update review refers to the United Kingdom site of
Toluna, rewards and features may differ for other
countries.
On 15 June 2012 I received a very interesting email
from Toluna headed “Toluna is pleased to announce the
launch of the Beta version of the newly redesigned
Toluna.com!” The email also informed me that I had
“been chosen to join our growing pack of beta testers!
This means you’ve earned the chance to be among the
first ones to experience it and give us your
feedback….”.
Exactly what I had done to have “earned the chance”,
I’m not sure. I certainly haven’t been completing any
surveys.
We must bear in mind that since I became a member of
Toluna in December 2008, the website has undergone TWO
major revamps and a partial redesign.
I paid a brief visit to the new beta website and was
curiously impressed.
It’s modern-looking and clean, crisp design is a vast
improvement over the previously anaemic looking site.
Whilst admiring the beneficial facelift, I decided to
probe further into the site to see if any facilities
had changed.
Basically, nothing much has changed.
There are still the “Sponsored Polls”, where members
can answer a series of mini-polls in the form of
multiple-choice questions on various topics and earn 15
points for each. These “Sponsored Polls” should not be
underestimated. They are a way of earning guaranteed
points which are credited to my account immediately,
and by ploughing through these mini-polls, I can top-up
my points account – immediately and guaranteed.
Toluna still offers the excellent community facility
which is very well supported by its members and must be
the most popular feature of Toluna.
Because their invitation surveys are definitely not.
I am still receiving email survey invitations from
Toluna, they arrive in my Inbox almost every day –
there is certainly no shortage.
I also receive many reminders to take surveys,
indicating that I (and presumably other Toluna members)
are not bothering to complete the surveys.
In sympathy with the newly designed website, the email
design has similarly been improved, and each invite
provides complete information about the survey, the
subject, the unique reference number, the estimated
time to complete and the reward.
It is the last of these that leaves Toluna so
desperately pathetic.
In my previous update, I reported that the rewards
offered by Toluna for completing surveys had, over
time, been dramatically reducing.
I regret to advise Yellow Survey members that this
trend has continued.
I recently had an invitation which offered a reward of
only 1,600 points (GBP0.30) for a survey estimated at
25 minutes.
I consider this to be an insult to Toluna members.
Out of curiosity, I wanted to complete a couple of
short surveys to see if, like the web site, the format
of the surveys had also changed.
Firstly, I was rejected from several surveys; it seems
that Toluna surveys are becoming more difficult to
qualify for. I have noted similar comments in previous
reviews from other Yellow Survey members.
Secondly, I experienced TWO “bait surveys” (see my
previous reviews for an explanation).
When I did manage to properly start a survey, I was
amazed and disgusted to discover on the very first
screen of the survey, that Toluna had included a
“Captcha” box. I find these things annoying at the best
of times especially when the characters I am supposed
to read and copy are almost unreadable. I considered
this to be yet another hoop to jump through to earn the
pittance I had been offered. After successfully
negotiating the “Captcha”, I managed to continue with
the survey, only to be presented with a second
“Captcha” box at the end of the survey.
When I did manage to properly start a survey, I was
amazed and disgusted to discover on the very first
screen of the survey, that Toluna had included a
“Captcha” box. I find these things annoying at the best
of times especially when the characters I am supposed
to read and copy are almost unreadable. I considered
this to be yet another hoop to jump through to earn the
pittance I had been offered. After successfully
negotiating the “Captcha”, I managed to continue with
the survey, only to be presented with a second
“Captcha” box at the end of the survey.
A double insult – and yet another hoop.
“Captcha” boxes are intended to prevent automatic
completion of information on web pages by programs
specifically written to do so, and so prevent, for
example, multiple entries to competitions. Anyone who
submits a review here to Yellow Surveys will need to
complete a “Captcha” box (Security Image).For such a
program to be successful, the sequence of web pages
that are being automatically completed by the program,
have to be identical each time. In the case of Yellow
Surveys, the “Captcha” Box is justified, since all the
review submission screens are identical. However,
obviously no two surveys are the same, and the survey
site ensures that a particular survey can be completed
only once by a member. This renders the “Captcha” boxes
totally redundant and just another thorn in the side
for survey takers.
Rewards offered by Toluna continue to drop whilst
maintaining its downward spiral; because of this I am
downgrading my “Survey Incentives” rating from 2 stars
to 1 star, “Panel Legitimacy” from 4 stars to 2 stars
and “Overall Rating” from 4 stars to 1 star.
Time will tell whether Toluna will continue with its
downward spiral, and also if or when Toluna will
eventually hit the ground. There are better things that
Toluna could do to improve its member experience such
as improving incentives rather than yet another website
revamp.
In the meantime there are plenty of other survey sites
out there offering much fairer rewards.
I hope this update review has helped you to decide
whether or not to join Toluna.
Thanks…
Allan
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| Date: Aug 31, 2012 |
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Comments By: Ashlee |
From: US |
| Comment: The best thing I can say about Toluna is that you do
receive quite a lot of survey invites...the only
problem with this is whether you actually qualify for
them or not! Out of all the invites I have received I
barely qualified for half of them which was rather
disappointing, though majority of the ones that I did
qualify for did pay well so I guess I shouldn’t be
knocking a gift horse in the mouth...so to speak. It
definitely has been an extremely easy way for me to
make some extra cash. As a stay-at-home mother of two
it’s also very convenient too, as I can do the surveys
at a time where it fits in for me and my family.
Another convenient option was for me to download their
iPhone App, which is fantastic when you are out and
about and have a few moments of time to kill – every
survey completed is extra money earned! Although it
does take some time to earn the minimum balance for
cashout, I feel as though I am being fairly rewarded
for the amount of time I have spent taking part in
their surveys and polls. I would recommend Toluna to
friends and family for its ease-of-use and the many
options it provides to maximize your earnings
potential. |
| Date: Apr 18, 2012 |
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Comments By: Debbie |
From: US |
Comment: Toluna have been great in giving me plenty of survey
invites, the only problem is that I barely qualify for
half of them, and the ones I do complete offer very
little in terms of reward. When I first joined, about
18 months ago, I was getting heaps of invites to well
paying surveys but it seems that over time those well
paying surveys dropped totally off my radar! So I then
tried my hand at participating in community activities
to earn more points, only to realise that the points
were just as meagre as their survey offers, not to
mention some of the backlash I got just from sharing my
honest opinions.
While I was initially impressed with Toluna, it seems
that of late they are on a bit of a downhill slope with
me. This is not to say that others have had or will
have the same experience as me, this is just MY opinion
of MY interaction with this particular survey company.
Needles to say the most impressive thing of late has
been the introduction of their iPhone App that gives
you the chance to do more on the go (perfect for the
commute to and from work), although this can only be a
small plus if Toluna does not address their rewards
system and payout procedures.
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| Date: Mar 22, 2012 |
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Comments By: John |
From: US |
Comment: Fairly low payout per survey, and I only qualify for a
bit better than 1 in 10 (39 completed out of 367
attempted to date), but it does add up eventually.
Took me a bit less than 2 months to get to the first
$20 payout level, between hammering every survey I
could get AND doing all the little "sponsored" and
"quick" surveys - and ballpark HALF the completed
surveys I've done came via doing the "quick" surveys,
so DON'T IGNORE THOSE.
They also offer CHECK payout.
They have occasional issues with questions that have no
valid answer and rare technical glitches, but not
nearly as bad about that as a lot of other survey sites
on a percentage of issue survey basis - and a LOT of
the issues are from "partner sites" that they have no
direct control over. Customer service has been a mixed
bag - sometimes they listen, sometimes they don't - but
overall BETTER than the so-called customer service from
almost EVERY OTHER survey site I've tried to date. |
| Date: Mar 10, 2012 |
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Comments By: Kim |
From: Canada |
Comment: I've been with Toluna for a few months and enjoy the
community they have on their website. Not only do they
send surveys to your email but you can log into the
site and answer quick surveys for smaller amount of
points (15 to 45 points). You can also create your own
polls and questions as well as answer other member's
polls.
The redemption rate for paypal is fairly high at 60,000
points for $20 but if you keep up with the survey
invitations you can reach it in a reasonable amount of
time. Each survey can be anywhere from 1400 to 30,000
points.
Surveys are user friendly.
They offer cash (paypal) and gift vouchers. I
received my paypal payment within 4 days.
I haven't had to use their customer support so I can't
comment on that. Overall I would recommend this site. |
| Date: Feb 27, 2012 |
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Comments By: Larry Draper |
From: US |
| Comment: I have been a critic of Toluna for more than a year and
have had *poor* results from the surveys, polls, or
complaints about *all* of their technical problems,
including simply *inexcusable* questions/answers which
are *frequent* repeats despite my choices. They
operate a "Ponzi" scheme under the guise of a *true*
"survey site", substituting user/Panelist satisfaction
and interactions for *true* survey results. The lists
of problems go on and on, with *my* list of Support
Cases numbering more than *300* and only lip-service to
the various issues and problems. They simply *ignore*
my ***REJECTIONS*** of their totally incomplete and
shallow responses. I have many more negative examples
of their dealings and encourage *all* who are
interested in *true* survey results to search
elsewhere. |
| Date: Feb 12, 2012 |
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Comments By: Brice |
From: US |
Comment: Toluna has a ton of surveys - though I only seem to
qualify for about 1 in 10 - and lots of little "quick
surveys" that often lead to a real survey. They don't
pay a lot as a general rule for their surveys though -
commonly 1000-2000 "points" with the points at 60k per
$20, so their common survey payout is around a half
dollar.
I seem to get into real surveys a LOT more through the
quick survey links.
Not a LOT of money, but it's starting to add up.
Fair warning - a LOT of their pages load very slow due
to enormous graphics overhead, and some of their
"partner sites" have serious issues with broken
surveys. Not recommended unless you have at least a 1MB
download speed connection and 10+ MB is a LOT better.
Up side - their customer service actually LISTENS at
least part of the time. |
| Date: Feb 10, 2012 |
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Comments By: Carol-Ann |
From: United Kingdom |
| Comment: I wouldn't recommend this site to anyone. They treat
members appallingly and seem to do absolutely anything
to avoid paying out. PLEASE stay away from them,
you'll have nothing but trouble. |
| Date: Jan 15, 2012 |
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Comments By: Lynda H |
From: US |
| Comment: I have been with toluna since Oct of 2011, so 2 months
and have already cashed out 3x for a total of 60$. i
dont always qualitfy for surveys, but i get at lease 3
or 4 in my email daily. They also have many other ways
of getting points, such as opinon topics and polls.
There is really so many ways to get points i sugjest
you check it out and read the toluna tutorial. Would
absolutely recomend this site. |
| Date: Jan 01, 2012 |
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Comments By: Timothy Stuehmeyer |
From: US |
Comment: Customer service is lousy. I do not recommend this site
based on months of feedback problems that never got
issues resolved. They are still open after 5 months of
non participating staff!
I dropped their service through frustration and moved
on. Again I do not recommend this company. Blessings |
| Date: Dec 30, 2011 |
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Comments By: Allan |
From: United Kingdom |
Comment: TOLUNA – www.toluna.co.uk - UPDATE
Hi,
In January 2011, I presented a review here on Yellow
Surveys for Toluna.
There have been some subtle changes to the
functionality of the Toluna website. The changes made
are actually in areas I criticised in my review and I
will describe briefly below.
These changes may apply only to the United Kingdom site
of Toluna.
I will also comment again on changes I have noticed to
the rewards offered for surveys.
First the good news. The Sponsored Polls feature has
been split into two categories:-
1) "Sponsored Polls" are available on the Toluna
website under the "Explore/Polls" sub-menu.
In my original review I mentioned that each "Sponsored
Poll" is a mini survey comprising just a few questions
and can be worth between 15 and about 150 points,
occasionally with the option to continue on to a full,
normal survey.
This is no longer true.
Sponsored Polls are now strictly a single, multiple
choice/multiple answer poll worth 15 points only and
with NO option to continue on to a full survey.
2) “QuickSurveys” is a NEW selection on the
“Explore/Polls” sub-menu and these replace the longer,
more valuable multiple question Sponsored Polls. These
seem to be much fewer in number than before the change,
and unfortunately, points wise, less valuable.
Before the change I have seen between 15 and 150 points
awarded for these, now the range I have seen is between
15 and 60 points. Quite a drop.
One annoying aspect of these QuickSurveys is that they
take place within a scrolling window within the
web-page. Trivial point, but nevertheless it does make
the survey a little more awkward to complete.
Before the redesign, occasionally, after I had answered
some qualifying questions, I would be automatically
redirected to take a follow-on full survey, perhaps
even on a partner web site – even if I had no desire to
complete a full survey. From experience, this was often
a waste of time and rather annoying since these surveys
had a high level of screen-outs or the survey had
reached its quota or simply expired. I was then left to
make my way back to the website to continue with the
"Sponsored Polls".
Now, after the redesign, and after answering the
qualifying questions, some QuickSurveys will now
present me with a pop-up window which is an invitation
to continue on to a follow-on full survey.
The pop-up window contains a countdown timer. If I do
nothing, the timer runs out and I am automatically
taken to the full survey. Alternatively, the pop-up
window is now provided with a “Close” tab, which, when
clicked, closes the pop-up and I am allowed to continue
with my QuickSurveys.
Much neater and less troublesome than the old system.
These Sponsored Polls and QuickSurveys are being added
constantly, so it’s a good idea to keep checking back.
The points awarded are guaranteed and added to my
account total immediately and can give my points a big
boost.
From my experience of the follow-on surveys I have
managed to take, the points are added to my account
much faster than for normal surveys, usually in 2-3
days.
More good news.
The Toluna Community often carried negative comments
and complaints about the length of time taken to
receive Love2Shop shopping vouchers rewards through the
post after redeeming reward points on the website. This
has always been a problem and, from experience the
waiting time is usually about THREE MONTHS to receive
reward vouchers in the post.
From 7 July 2011, vouchers are posted from the
Love2Shop UK head office in Birkenhead, rather than
from Toluna headquarters in France. I cannot comment on
how effective this change has been since I have not
requested any Love2Shop vouchers since 7 July.
Now to the subject of the surveys and reward points –
the bad news.
There seems to be little change in the numbers of
surveys I receive, they are still quite plentiful.
In my previous Toluna review on Yellow Surveys I
mentioned that:-
1) In November 2009 the value of Toluna Reward Points
was effectively devalued.
For example, to obtain a Love2Shop voucher, the
redemption threshold was increased from 60,000 to
80,000 points (an increase of 33%) whereas the
redemption value was increased from GBP12 to only GBP15
(an increase of only 25%).
2) Since November 2009, I also noticed that the actual
value of surveys (points per minute) also seemed to
have been reduced, this stabilised during 2010 but now,
once again, in January 2011, I noticed a marked
reduction in the average value of surveys.
These were two obvious and unwelcome changes to Toluna
Surveys.
Now, it seems that over recent months, the rewards for
Toluna surveys have reduced yet again.
I am finding that I am declining more and more Toluna
surveys now than previously, simply because in the time
I have available for taking surveys, I am finding other
survey sites are more lucrative.
So my choice, of course, is to choose the higher
earning surveys.
A typical average Toluna survey of 25 minutes would
earn only 2400 points worth a mere GBP0.45 – that’s a
lot of time for little reward.
Also, I have noticed that I am receiving more reminders
to take surveys I have already received an invitation
to – but decided not complete. This indicates to me
that I am not alone in being dissatisfied with the
rewards that Toluna offers.
Furthermore, when I have started higher-earning
surveys, I have often discovered them to be on quite
specialised topics and have been screened out or are
much harder work than ordinary surveys.
I am still receiving what I named “Bait Surveys” which
I explained in my original review but to quickly
recapitulate – this is what happens.
I receive an email inviting me to take a very high
value survey. I obviously accept the invitation and
click through to begin the survey. I am immediately or
after a couple of “screening” questions told that the
survey has reached its quota and I am asked if I would
like to take another Survey. Upon clicking “Yes”, I am
redirected to another screen to take the follow-on
survey which is of much lower value.
Rewards offered by Toluna, particularly for their main
surveys, have been reducing progressively for almost
two years and I get the impression that Toluna, as a
fair and rewarding survey site, is on a downward
spiral; because of this I am downgrading my “Survey
Incentives” rating from 4 to 2 and “Overall Rating”
from 5 stars to 3 stars.
I'm sorry Toluna, but what I said in January seems even
more pertinent now, there are plenty of other survey
sites out there offering much fairer rewards.
I hope this update review has helped you to decide
whether or not to join Toluna.
Thanks…
Allan
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| Date: Oct 31, 2011 |
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Comments By: alex |
From: United Kingdom |
Comment: if you wish to be given payment in return for surveys i
would defiantly advise AGAINST joining toluna.
Cons
time estimates are wildly optimistic.
completed surveys frequently do not result in points
being credited to you account.
once points target has been reached receiving the
voucher codes is like getting blood from a stone
(expect to be fobbed off with a standardised
response).
pros
on the plus you'll get plenty of surveys |
| Date: Sep 22, 2011 |
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Comments By: Mandy Wickham |
From: United Kingdom |
| Comment: At first not many surveys came though but after a while
after doing many small opinion polls and completed my
interest surveys I started to get a lot more surveys.
Some surveys tend to be a bit long but alot are very
interesting. It is the only survey panel that I have
got a reward back from even though the incentives
points are high ie 80 000 for a 15 quid amazon voucher.
I would how ever like to see toluna paying out to
paypal. |
| Date: Sep 16, 2011 |
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Comments By: Aspen |
From: US |
| Comment: Their surveys are generally very long, usually much
longer than they predict, for quite low rewards. You
need 60,000 points to cash out for $20. I have cashed
out once, and am halfway to cashing out again. However,
I don't qualify for many surveys they send me. There
are several other ways to receive points, but no matter
what, it takes a while to get to 60,000. It seems most
surveys offer between 1,200 and 3,000 points. |
| Date: Aug 01, 2011 |
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Comments By: Janet Daniels |
From: US |
| Comment: I just started Toluna exactly 1 month ago and have
already taken a ton of surveys. I've cashed out once
and am waiting for points to cash out again. I like
that there are no games to play and that there is a
blog with the other members. It's kind of like
facebook without physically knowing the other people.
You can be yourself and express you true opinions. It
is truly alot of fun |
| Date: May 16, 2011 |
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Comments By: Patricia |
From: US |
Comment: I have been a member of Toluna for only a short few
months, and am on the verge of receiving my first
payout. At first I thought that it would be hard to
earn enough points to reach a payout in a reasonable
time, but I guess this goes to prove me wrong. All the
surveys I have taken part in have been paying well,
plus I love taking part in the Sponsored Surveys to
earn some quick extra points. I really like how you can
earn points by creating your own opinion topics and
polls too, as doing these regularly helps the points
balance to add up even faster. Best of all, their
refer-a-friend points bonus of 500 for each person is
great; and thanks to 9 friends of mine I am now 4500
points closer to payout!
I know some members aren’t always happy with the points
earned vs. time spent doing them or the qualification
system, but I think so long as you keep your profile up
to date and complete some personal interest surveys,
you’ll be in with a good chance of being invited to
more surveys and therefore earning your points faster.
That being said, I guess I might just be one of the
lucky ones who does qualify often. At least there’s
always Sweepstakes entry as incentive, even if you
don’t complete a survey.
Overall, I think Toluna is a pretty good survey company
that aims to provide its members with fun and
interesting surveys to take part in. I hope to be a
long time member and continue to enjoy providing my
opinions and taking part in their surveys.
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| Date: May 02, 2011 |
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Comments By: Allan |
From: United Kingdom |
Comment: TOLUNA – www.toluna.co.uk
I joined Toluna in December 2008. Toluna have been a
prolific provider of surveys in the 2+ years I have
been a member. I use the word "member" because Toluna
is not just a survey site but also a feature-rich, true
community website combining surveys, product testing,
member polls, sponsored polls, message boards and much
more.
This review should focus on the survey aspects of
Toluna; however, I would be undervaluing Toluna by
omitting a brief mention of some of the sites other
excellent facilities. Because of this, this review is
necessarily longer than usual but by no means
comprehensive.
Members are able to communicate with each other through
a Username created upon registering. A member can also
create a "Public Profile" which of course can be viewed
by the Toluna community and used by them to find other
members with interests, hobbies and backgrounds similar
to their own.
Two useful facilities for members are "Opinion Topics"
and "Opinion Polls" and members can create these at any
time. One example use for these is if a member has a
problem that he/she would like opinions for, the member
can either:-
1) Create an "Opinion Poll" and allow other members the
opportunity to offer their opinion through
multiple-choice answers provided by the creator. This
facility does appeal to many members since it requires
minimal input through just a few mouse clicks,
OR
2) Create an "Opinion Topic" where a member can ask a
question and allow other members to provide answers or
opinions as free-format text comments. These are very
popular facilities within Toluna; videos can also be
included as part of the entry and many members make
excellent use of
them and are ready and willing to participate.
Now onto the survey side of Toluna.
Again Toluna is not just a simple survey site but
offers several different facilities for members to earn
Toluna reward points (more about these later).
1) Completing the 17 Toluna "Interest Surveys" will
allow Toluna to filter surveys they send to your email
Inbox so that the survey has a much better chance of
being suitable for you and completing these will earn
you 2000 Toluna points.
2) Email survey invitations are sent to you based on
the criteria in your "Interest Surveys", these are
usually quite accurate and I tend to receive more
suitable surveys than unsuitable. The email contains a
unique "Survey Id.", the estimated time taken to
complete the survey and the number of reward points you
will receive upon successful completion - Great!
Everything you need to know to maintain records of the
surveys you complete.
There is usually no reward if you are screened out.
The points you earn from invited surveys are usually
credited to your account when the survey is "Closed",
this can be a few days or it can be months, however,
your survey history found under "You/Your points" on
the website will list any as yet unpaid surveys as well
as paid.
Some surveys may lead to an invitation to test a
product, I have been lucky in 2 such surveys to test
savoury snacks.
The value of surveys in terms of reward points varies
considerably, more about this later.
3) "Sponsored Polls" are available on the Toluna
website under the "Explore/Polls" selection. These are
mini surveys comprising just a few questions and can
give your points balance a big boost. Each "Sponsored
Poll" can be worth between 15 and about 150 points and
the points are guaranteed since they are credited to
you account immediately.
After you have answered some qualifying questions, some
"Sponsored Polls" will automatically redirect you to a
normal style survey – perhaps even on a partner web
site. From experience, this can be a waste of time and
rather annoying since these surveys have a high level
of screen-outs or the survey has reached its quota or
simply expired. The User is then left to make their way
back to the website to continue with the "Sponsored
Polls".
These automatic redirections can be cancelled by
quickly hitting the "F5" key when the redirection
message appears. If you do decide and manage to
complete one of these surveys, the reward points are
usually credited to your account within a couple of
days.
4) Product tests are also occasionally available under
the "Test & Rewards/Test Area" selection. New products
to test can be anything from snacks and toothbrushes to
mobile 'phones and plasma televisions and usually
appear each Monday. It's simple to register, but alas,
I have had no success in this section although I have
registered for all suitable products.
Of course, once you have tested the product and
provided the required feedback, you get to keep the
product.
Now to the subject of the reward points.
These can be earned for all surveys; I have never been
invited to complete a survey for which no reward was
offered. Reward points can be exchanged for entries
into a Prize Draw to win various cash prizes - 1 ticket
costs 500 points.
Points can be redeemed for shopping vouchers. My
favourite is the "Love2Shop" voucher which is
exchangeable at many high street stores, but
unfortunately, NOT the big supermarkets. - Yet!
You need to collect 80,000 points to redeem for a £15
voucher - that's equivalent to 18.75p per 1000 points.
As I mentioned earlier the value of surveys varies
tremendously, the absolute minimum I am prepared to
accept to complete a survey is 1000 points per 5
minutes - but even this becomes unattractive the longer
the survey is. This brings the earning capacity about
par with many other survey sites. However, occasionally
some very lucrative surveys are offered for example
10,000 points (£1.875) for a ten minute survey.
So far everything I have said about Toluna has been
positive, but there are some negatives.
1) If you join Toluna, I highly recommend that you
maintain a record of all surveys completed - as
occasionally the completion of a survey does tend to go
unrecorded by Toluna. I have mentioned how to keep
records in another review on this site.
2) In November 2009 the value of Toluna Reward Points
was effectively devalued - let me explain.
For a Love2Shop voucher, the redemption threshold was
increased from 60,000 to 80,000 points (an increase of
33%) whereas the redemption value was increased from
£12 to only £15 (an increase of only 25%).
Expressed another way, before the change you would earn
20p per 1000 points, after the change you would earn
only 18.75p per 1000 points.
Expressed yet another way, before the change, you had
to earn 5000 points per £1, after the change you have
to earn 5333 points per £1.
Some may comment it is a small, trivial change per £1,
but multiply 333 points by 15 before you can redeem and
it becomes quite a big change.
Trivial, maybe, but it seemed important to Toluna to
make the change in the first place.
3) Since November 2009, I also noticed that the actual
value of surveys (points per minute) also seemed to
have been reduced, this stabilised during 2010 but now,
once again, in the past month I have noticed a marked
reduction in the average value of surveys.
To quote some examples, many surveys I have been
invited to have offered considerably LESS than my
minimum 1000 points (18.75p) per five minutes. One
survey received recently offered only 4000 points (75p)
for 50 minutes. Another offered 1700 points (<32p) for
45 minutes.
It’s not surprising that I often receive reminder
invitation emails for these low value surveys, which
indicates to me that other members feel that they are
not good value either.
I'm sorry Toluna but there are other survey sites out
there offering much fairer rewards.
4) Also recently, several times now, I have had the
following situation arise which one may call the “bait
survey” situation – this is what happens.
I receive an email inviting me to take a very high
value survey. I obviously accept the invitation and
click through to begin the survey. I am immediately or
after a couple of “screening” questions told that the
survey has reached its quota and I am asked if I would
like to take another Survey. Upon clicking “Yes”, I am
redirected to another screen to take the follow-on
survey which is of much lower value. One may comment
that, okay, the survey had indeed reached its quota,
but on one occasion I responded to such an email
invitation only FIVE minutes after receiving it only to
be told it had reached its quota.
This could be coincidence or deliberate, but it appears
to me that perhaps fake, high value “bait” surveys are
being used to “persuade” members to complete the low
value follow-on surveys.
Overall, Toluna offers its members a good deal of
excellent facilities and some lucrative ways of making
extra cash, if you choose your methods wisely. Choose
unwisely and you may be spending a lot of your valuable
time for little reward - time that could be better
spent with other survey sites.
The community spirit is strong and looking at some of
members comments on the site, you will see that we are
not afraid to express our opinions.
I hope this review has helped you to decide whether or
not to join Toluna. |
| Date: Jan 30, 2011 |
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Comments By: trd |
From: US |
| Comment: I joined Toluna on 12/15/10...since then I have been
paid (once $20) and also have two (2) payments
pending.... so easy to get $$ that I can get $60-$80
per month just by spending a few minutes each day on
the site....! qualified for my first payment after only
5 days and got my check within 3 weeks...no B.S. best
site I've joined.... |
| Date: Jan 16, 2011 |
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Comments By: Abraham Benadict |
From: India |
Comment: Toluna.com is the best site for any one interested in
earing a few extra dollars by completing surveys. The
website is also user friendly and the fact that use
can also earn points by simply answering poll
questions, to which there are hundreds to choose from.
You usually earn 15 points per poll question however
they can range as high as 75 points, which is a lot for
simple one click of the mouse.
Users always have surveys available to complete which
is nice as you get to pick and choose which ones you
would like to complete.
To cash out you just need 60,000 points which equals
$20. (paypal) It is so easy to accumulate this many
points as there are quite a few surveys that offer
reward points worth 10,000-15,000. the average is
5,000.
Toluna is probably one of the most effective survey
site and transparent as more the efforts the more the
rewards. Its an amazing platform to be and to rely for
all the surveyers |
| Date: Dec 29, 2010 |
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Comments By: Jason |
From: Canada |
Comment: I would definitely recommend Toluna.com for any one
interested in earing a few extra dollars by completing
surveys. This website is very unique in the fact that
use can also earn points by simply answering poll
questions, to which there are hundreds to choose from.
You usually earn 15 points per poll question however
they can range as high as 75 points, which is a lot for
simple one click of the mouse.
They always have surveys available to complete which is
nice as you get to pick and choose which ones you would
like to complete.
To cash out you need 60,000 points which equals $20.
(paypal) It is not difficult to accumulate this many
points as there are quite a few surveys that offer
reward points worth 10,000-15,000. I would say the
average is 5,000.
Toluna is probably one of the most user friendly survey
site and really caters to the wants and needs of the
surveyees. |
| Date: Sep 28, 2010 |
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Comments By: Dominic |
From: US |
| Comment: I recommend this site. The incentives are great and the
surveys do come but my only problem is I have a hard
time logging in sometimes. Not much to say about this
because I don't use them that much but I recommend it. |
| Date: Aug 10, 2010 |
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Related Names, Words & Phrases: Toluna.com, www.toluna.com, toluna test and vote, toluna surveys, panel,
scam, polls, UK
|
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