Test & Vote

...2009~~'''

'''N.B. Test and Vote have now rechristened themselves To Luna'''

Test & Vote are a French survey site that have proved to be a fairly worthwhile edition to my stable of survey companies. Have no fears though, all the surveys and questions you'll receive will be in English, although the language can be a bit oddly phased at times. They've proved to be a fairly good and consistent earner, so I thought it was ...
...them. Test & Vote are owned and operated by To Luna, a French market research company based in Paris. The Test & Vote panel consists of over 1 million members, and was set up conduct online surveys and gather opinions. Membership of the Test & Vote panel is completely free. It's a very interactive website and they'll pay you for replying to online surveys, testing products and voting.

'''** WEBSITE **'''
The website address ... more

~~ UPDATED JANUARY 2009~~

N.B. Test and Vote have now rechristened themselves To Luna

Test & Vote are a French survey site that have proved to be a fairly worthwhile edition to my stable of survey companies. Have no fears though, all the surveys and questions you'll receive will be in English, although the language can be a bit oddly phased at times. They've proved to be a fairly good and consistent earner, so I thought it was time I shared my experiences and wrote a review on them. Test & Vote are owned and operated by To Luna, a French market research company based in Paris. The Test & Vote panel consists of over 1 million members, and was set up conduct online surveys and gather opinions. Membership of the Test & Vote panel is completely free. It's a very interactive website and they'll pay you for replying to online surveys, testing products and voting.

** WEBSITE **
The website address is www.testandvote.com or www.toluna.com. Membership is available to anyone from any country in the world, with the website available in an impressive range of languages. Membership is NOT limited to one applicant per household, unlike a lot of online survey sites, so you are able to sign up all members of your household without a problem. Similarly, there appears to be no minimum age limit for membership.

The website is mainly white with accents of black, yellow and light blue. It's a very interactive website, and it looks really rather "busy" and somewhat confusing. There are lots of images and tabs all over the place. However, the FAQ section is comprehensive and easily understood.

** REGISTRATION **
On the home page, click on the Registration link which will take you to the online recruitment form. It's a simple and quick series of questions - name, address, age, sex and email address. They ask a further series of one word answers on your employment, income, marital status and education level. You choose a username and a password and you're all done. It takes less than five minutes. Next, you receive an email asking you to click on a link to activate your account.

You can now sign in and access your Test & Vote account. You will immediately notice that Test & Vote have given you 1,500 points just for joining their panel (registration also gives you an automatic entry into the Test & Vote monthly prize draw to win £1,000). Next, they will give you the opportunity to increase your points by completing a series of more detailed questionnaires. There are 16 in total (home, internet, work, finance, travel, video games, health, cosmetics, food & drink, hobbies, media, sports, car, green issues and mobile phones), and each of them pays you 300 points. These questionnaires are lengthier and more detailed and it's worth taking your time to complete these carefully, as your answers here will result in the types of surveys you will qualify for in the future. Please don't worry about giving out your personal details, Test & Vote undertakes not to distribute any of your personal information to any third party. If you complete all 16 questionnaires (each earning you 500 points), Test & Vote then give you a bonus of another 2,000 points on top...so it's well worth taking the time to complete these.

** REWARDS **
So now you'll be wanting to know what's in it for you? Rewards for being a member of the Test & Vote panel are paid out in gift vouchers. Upon reaching around 30,000 points (NB some rewards require 60,000 or 80,000 points) you can cash them in for a reward of your choice. I know that 30,000 points sounds like a lot, but it really isn't. When you consider that their average survey pays between 2,000 to 10,000 points, it really doesn't take all that long to build up.

The gift voucher option gives you choices from HMV, Amazon, Sainsburys, Halfords, CD Wow and many others. You have to order the vouchers via the Test & Vote online form, and within 3 to 4 weeks, you'll receive an email giving you the voucher redemption code. Test & Vote often add new gift incentives, so it's worth taking a look every now and then. There are discount vouchers for buying jewellery, travel vouchers or discounts on flights.

** SURVEYS **
Test & Vote send survey invites by email. The survey invites are short and to the point - they always tell you how many points you will earn from taking the survey, but they don't always tell you the topic. The email will give you the survey link, there is no access to the survey from their website.

Surveys pay out from anything between 1,500 to 20,000 points. All the surveys I have undertaken, without exception, have been really quick and easy to complete. Images have loaded quickly and easily and I have had no technical problems whatsoever. Yes, you will be screened out of some of them, but they do it quickly, so you don't get led up the garden path and waste your time. You get a prize draw entry if you don't qualify for the survey, but no points.

I joined Test & Vote over five years ago, and I've earned over £200.00 with a good, steady stream of survey invites paying me between 1,500 to 10,000 points. I've undertaken surveys on trainers, food products, shampoos, video games, mobile phones and cinema releases. I've been asked to watch a several trailers for new DVD releases and had to comment on the clips and DVD packaging. Similarly, I had to listen to some music from a soon to be released album and comment on which tracks were the best and worst.

** OTHER WAYS OF EARNING POINTS WITH TEST & VOTE **

~ Reviews ~
There is an option to write reviews on a huge series of topics. Like some other review sites, you can also give out advice on a variety of topics to other members, you can post a short story or write a poem. So far, the only one I have been tempted to publish a review in has been the travel category. Reviews posted on Test and Vote need to be a minimum of 80 characters, and they reward you with 100 points per review. Reviews are not published on the site as soon as you post them; they tend to appear 24/48 hours later, once they have been vetted for content (and any suspected plagiarism) by Test and Vote. I would imagine that any active opinionator with lots of work on any of the review sites will find this a good way to bank up a few quick points fairly easily.

~ Sponsored Polls ~
Sponsored Polls (used to be known as Quick Votes) are a series on questions requiring just yes or no answers. Everytime you answer one of these you earn 15 points. There are about 30 or so of these questions on the site and they change them sporadically. They ask you really simple questions like "Do you contemplate purchasing a new home?", "Do you drink fruit juice?", "Do you use shampoo?" and so on. It's all really untaxing stuff and a quick and easy way to bank up lots of points fast. There are sometimes longer polls with a series of 2-5 questions and these can pay anything from 90 to 300 points.

~ Refer Your Friends & Family ~
You can also earn 500 points for each and every person you introduce to Test & Vote. Once you are logged into your account, there is a simple online link entitled "Invite a friend". All you have to do is enter the email addresses of the people you want to refer to the Test & Vote panel, and Test & Vote send them an email inviting them to join. When the person you have referred registers, you will be notified and earn 500 points per person. There's no limit to the number of people you can refer. Oh and they also assure you that your friends' email addresses will only be used for the referral programme, so no risk of spam.

** WHAT'S NOT SO GOOD **
My one major criticism of this site is the length of time they take to credit the points for the surveys you have taken to your account. Although, the survey invite tells you that the points will be credited within 30 days of completing the survey, in reality, this system can be a bit hit and miss. Some of my points have been credited within a week, and others have taken over four months. It's definitely worth keeping accurate records of the surveys you've completed, as you may need to chase Test & Vote up on where your points have got to. If in doubt, send them an email chasing up any missing points - they do get back to you with an answer.....if you are persistant (and sometimes you will need to be). That said, points for registering and poll votes are added to your account immediately, so it's not all bad.

Test & Vote also have a Product Testing option, where you can sign up to trial new products (they used to pay out 75 points per product when you signed up, but they stopped rewarding points for this). The trials are mainly for things like electronic items, confectionary and beauty products. To date, I have not been selected to test any of these products, but you evidently get an email letting you know if you have been selected for the test. New product trials are added once a week or so.

** RECOMMENDATION **
The beauty of Test & Vote is that you don't have to wait around for a survey to wing its way into your inbox, before you start earning points. I've joined far too many survey sites that have promised loads of dosh at the sign up stage, and two years later I'm still waiting for enough work to take me to the minimum payout threshold. With Test & Vote, it's possible to earn yourself around 10,000 points almost immediately, which gets you well on your way to your first reward:-

~ Joining Reward = 1,500 points
~ Personal Profiles = 16 @ 300 points = 4,800 points
~ Bonus point for completing all 15 Personal Profiles = 2,000 points
~ Quick Votes and Polls = say 1,700 points

When you do get survey invites, they tend to pay a fairly generous 1,500 to 10,000 points. It is therefore relatively quick to build up the minimum points you need to earn rewards with this site. A quick visit once a week to answer any new quick vote questions and the points keep on adding up. Test & Vote/ToLuna are worth checking out.

** FURTHER INFORMATION **
To Luna
204, Rue de Crimée
75019 Paris
France

Email: question@testandvote.com
Website: www.testandvote.com or www.toluna.com
Phone Number: 1-800-262-5974 

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