euro-panel.net

The Euro-Panel is an online market research agency, that has members across Europe completing surveys about all manner of things. It can be found at www.euro-panel.net . The Euro-Panel can onlybe joined by invitation, which is defiately a downside. Instead, you can only join if you are invited, which from what I can remember is purely by chance if you have registered for other on-line schemes such as Dooyoo and Ciao. We all know the Ciao system of doing things and earning points, and those points building up to make money. Well, the Euro Panel works in a similar way. And the good thing is that they are all high quality surveys, that are quick and easy to do, unlike the ones you get stopped to do in the middle of the High Street Let me explain further

The Euro-Panel works by asking you to complete questionnaires, of varying lengths and on varying topics. The latest survey I completed (I actually just completed it a few minutes before writing this) was on two subjects, Web sites and Alcohol. OK, they are completely unrelated, but if you look closely as you go through the survey there is always a link. Here you got asked about a few web sites, then about alcoholic beverages, then about alcoholic beverage web sites, such as Budweiser.co.uk. So there's the link.

The surveys are on a variety of things, and sometimes involve a bit more work than others. One survey I completed involved me using Pricerunner.com and DealTime.com (I think those were the two, but that doesn't matter anyway). In the middle of completing the survey, I got taken to each of the sites and asked to find the cheapest microwave I could, and then complete the rest of the survey on how I got on.

There is plenty of variation in the surveys that you complete, but several things remain constant, all good thankfully. The first is the quality of the survey. They are all very well laid out, with compact, simple questions. The site is also very quick. All the surveys are in the format of one question per page, so after completing a question, another page loads with the next. My connection is quite slow, on average just less than 30kbps, yet each page loads remarkably quickly, so you never get fed up waiting.

In general, the site is very well laid out. It all looks very professional, with a bit of a modern feel to it. Login and registration is simple and very standard. A good feature is that you use your e-mail address as your login name. Nowadays I've got so many login names for various sites that I have trouble remembering them all, but sites like this that use your e-mail address solve that memory problem, and also solve the problem of you having to go through endless different user names to find one that hasn't already been taken.

The surveys are generally not very long. The one I completed earlier took no longer than five or six minutes, which is what they estimated, so that shows that they are pretty honest and don't want to mislead you. The longest one took me about fifteen to twenty minutes, and was the one that involved looking at other web sites, as I mentioned above. So they never take very long, so you don't waste much time.

Now the important part, the rewards. The rewards come in two forms, points and prizes. You either get a fixed number of points for completing a survey, or get entered into a prize draw. In general you get points, and sometimes both. The points won't add up too quickly, but as every Dooyoo member knows, time and patience will see the rewards, which aren't always financial.

The points translate into Euros. Obviously being a totally European site, they couldn't very well just convert them into pounds, francs, pesetas or lira as they would be bound to put some ones nose out of joint. One point is worth 0.5 Euros. Roughly translated, each point is worth about 30 pence. Not bad really when you consider you can expect at least 5 points for completing a survey. Before you can redeem your points, you have to collect 80 of the things. I've haven't got there yet, so don't know how to cash them or what they are like when you do with regards speed, but watch this space…

In general this is a great site. It looks great, is quick and easy to use, but is no get-rich quick scheme (but what is?). It does no harm to have a go. Its quick, easy and painless. My only criticism is that you don't get too many surveys to complete, but they are targeted in some cases so you might not get to enter all the surveys that are available. In my experience, I've completed about one every fortnight, so that’s not to bad. In general, it well worth a go, but if you're after a quick way of making money, then don't bother, because you won't.

As a footnote I should also mention that the Euro-Panel is in some way connected to Dooyoo. I don't quite know what the connection is, but it was through Dooyoo that I heard about. If I find out what the connection is, then I'll update, or if anyone else knows, leave a comment.