Taking surveys

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The surveys offered via Swagbucks can be easy, mindless ways to earn dozens of points, but it can be frustrating trying to qualify for one.

The surveys are looking for certain users, and you never know what the criteria is from one survey to the next. Here are guidelines to taking surveys and increasing your odds of qualifying, based upon general information I have collected. If you insist on being honest and truthful in the completion of all surveys, so be it. I choose to improve my odds. In no particular order:

• Try to be consistent in how you answer questions for every survey you attempt to qualify for. Don’t register to Swagbucks as a 35-year-old man then try to qualify as a 29-year-old woman.

• Always say your income level is high, pick a figure and use it every time you answer a survey. Pretend your income is $90,000 per year and use that consistently. Surveys often have a hard time filling high-income demographics.

• If you don’t have children, you’ll find that a number of surveys will appear to target parents. Consider answering that you have 1 or 2 children, and use nieces or nephews as your guide to what age your children are.

• Watch for leading questions. If it asks if you’re a smoker, chances are it’s a tobacco survey. If it asks if you watch a lot of TV, say you do. Chances are that’s what the survey is about. If you don’t care about identifying yourself as a smoker when you’re not for the sake of an anonymous tobacco survey, say you’re a smoker. I have done that several times.

• Avoid identifying your job. Many surveys innocently ask if you’re in the media, market research or advertising. Chances are you’ll be eliminated if you say you are. Sometimes surveys suggest they’re looking for people from certain professions, then ask if you work in banking, finance, etc. I assume they’re looking to eliminate people in those professions, too. I find the best answer to occupation questions is the “none of these” option.

Sometimes you can spend five minutes on a survey, think you have qualified, then find out you’re disqualified. It’s frustrating. I don’t do surveys every day, but on days when I want to reach a high goal and haven’t had a lot of time to earn Swagbucks, spending 20-30 minutes completing a survey for 60 Swagbucks is worth the trouble if you do it while watching David Letterman.