Panelpolls Review – Earning Opportunities For Families And Youth

Whenever something says how “cool” it is, you can normally guarantee your kids will disagree.

However, with Panelpolls they might get on board, at least initially.

Panelpolls calls itself the “cool opinion site” and is marketed to families.  But is it worth joining?

Let’s have a look.

What is Panelpolls?

It’s hard to talk about credentials with any authority because there is very little information online, so you have to go by what Panelpolls says on their site.

According to the website, they are an offshoot of Touchstone Research Inc., which is a reasonably well-known market research company.

They also say they are certified Kidsafe and have up-to-date security information.

According to the website, Panelpolls has been operating since 1999, and is affiliated with major brands such as Nickelodeon, DreamWorks, Wendys, Xbox, and many more.

Who are their targeted panellists?

Panelpolls targets youth and families for market research opportunities.

The account needs to be registered through a parent or legal guardian, and opportunities are sent to their email account so they can decide whether to offer a task to a younger member of the household.

Who can join?

To open an account, you need to be over the age of 15 and a U.S resident.

However, parents can register an account with their children listed, and opt for their children to receive tasks.

Children aged 6-14, teens 15-17, young adults 18-24 and families with children aged 2-17 are specifically sought after – although anyone under the age of 15 will need to be on a parental account.

If a child turns 15 and wishes to leave the family account to have their own, they can set up their own profile and notify Panelpolls on the email surveys@coolopinions.net to have their details transferred.

How does it work?

Once a parent or person over the age of 15 has created an account and given the information for each member of their family, they will be emailed tasks to complete.

When there is an opportunity to complete a task, Panelpolls sends an email to the registered parent that outlines what they need to do, which member of the family it is suitable for, and how much they could earn.

The parent can review the task and decide if they want to offer it to the person it is intended for.

If they approve a task for one of their children, they can pass on a link.

The points go into a family account, no matter who completes the task.

What are the tasks?

Panelpolls lists a number of tasks and what some people might earn from them, such as:

• Watch movies, TV shows, and rate online games and websites ($5 to $10)
• Join an Online Community (Earn $15 a month)
• Beta Testing ($10 monthly)
• Online Focus Groups ($55)
• In-Home Ethnography ($55)

They also mention other available tasks such as taking polls/surveys, visiting websites, referring friends, participating in discussions, or writing a blog as possible tasks that panellists might be invited to complete.

How do you get paid?

Earnings are calculated in “points”.

Each task invitation will specify how many points are on offer to help you decide whether it is worth completing.

Once a task is finished, the points will accrue into a family account.

Panelpolls offers two payment methods – check and Amazon gift-card.

The minimum cash out is 10,000 points, which will earn you a $10 gift card.

If you prefer to be paid by check, you’ll need to wait until you have 20,000 points for a $20 check.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• Big brands
• Multiple ways to earn
• Whole family can participate
• Free to join

Cons:

• Not much information
• Getting children involved

What do the reviews say?

There really isn’t much information available about this website.

The reviews that are available are suspiciously positive – I say “suspiciously” because there really aren’t many, they are spread across a large amount of time (one every year or so) and they seem overly enthusiastic.

They could be fake reviews intended to get more business, or it could really be working out well for those people – it’s hard to say.

My concerns

As parents, we have to take the responsibility to decide what is best for our children.

While the site seems legit and safe enough, I personally think twice about putting so much information online about my children.

I also feel that while it might seem like a fun idea initially, the novelty would wear off after a while and I can definitely see my children getting bored.

The site says that the activities are fun for kids, but I personally can’t see my kids getting on board long term.

I am also not a big fan of the combined family points – how do you split that, and what if one child has completed more activities than another?

It also opens up the possibility of parents forcing their children to participate to earn some extra money.

These are all issues for each family to decide what’s best for them, and especially older children might wish to use some computer time to earn a small amount of extra pocket money.

However, I personally won’t be signing up.

Should you join?

Market research sites are never really big earners.

I can see potential in this site because it has such a specific focus for panelists, which would make it favored by brands wanting to get opinions from younger users.

However, for the small potential earnings I would rather my children spend their limited computer time doing things they enjoy doing.

For adults, there many better options for market research sites to join.

Sites like Swagbucks and MySurvey will be better earners, and you don’t have to talk your kids into participating before you earn!

There is probably nothing wrong with this site, but unless your children specifically want to be involved, there are definitely better options out there.

Swagbucks official site: www.swagbucks.com

MySurvey official site: www.mysurvey.com

Panelpolls official site: www.panelpolls.com

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