Online surveys

I’ve seen a lot of stuff around forums and on blogs about getting paid to do online surveys. People post their referrer links and brag about how much money they’ve made. Of course, I got curious. I’m a work-at-home mom trying to make some extra dough. And if I can do that between other gigs just by picking yes/no/maybe then I’m all for it.

So, I signed up for a couple. Surveysomething and Dollarsomething, I think. It was three but I can’t remember the third one. For the Surveysomething, they would send me these great offers. I could make money if I qualify (by answering a short survey). I did probably about twenty short qualification surveys, each consisting of about 5-10 minutes of my life. I qualified for ZERO. So, I finally unsubscribed. Don’t worry, though, I still get offers from them - even though I don’t want them. Isn’t that great?

The Dollarsomething was a little different. I signed in and was sent to an “offers” page. Here they had lists of surveys and what each one of them pays. It seemed simple enough. I did one initially, just to test the system. The next day I was 50¢ richer. And I was thrilled. Back I went to do a few more. I had an eye on the ones that paid a whole dollar. I did about 10 surveys. Let me tell you about these “surveys” before I go any further.

Each one of them asked the same questions. “Do you know how to lower your interest rates?” “Are you interested in a home based business?”. They were ALL yes/no questions pertaining to one ad or another. For 10 minutes you click the same questions reworded and decline the same invitations to sign up for this thing or that thing. Over and over and over. And if you don’t click ‘yes’ on something you find yourself trapped in an endless loop of CRAP. But I was persistent. I kept clicking no. I think about 20 minutes passed for one before I saw the sunlight again. Worth a dollar?? I don’t know.

You’ve reached the end. And every single one of these offers demands that you choose three search terms to view ads for before they’ll give you your “big winnings”. So, you pick three and you are forced to look through 5-8 pages of ads before you get to the end, where they try to trick you into getting back into the vortex and doing it all again.

Did I mention that I did that 10 times?

So, I followed the instructions, suffered through endless ads and asinine questions. Where’s my money? For the work I did I was paid…*drumroll*… 75¢. So, not only was my time WASTED, my computer infected with adware, and my spam box (on a throw away account) stuffed to the brim these idiots refused to believe I made the effort. I’ve come to the conclusion the people paying you for taking the “paid online survey” are probably the same people who make up the “paid online survey”. Unfortunately, too many people really believe this crap is good business and work really hard to scrape those pennies together.

The third one was like the first, but they unsubscribed me when I sent them the email asking for such. They could be legit, but I don’t know because I never qualified.

I say it’s not worth it. There are plenty of legitimate ways to make some pennies online. There’s no reason to develop carpal tunnel and blurry vision for these survey pennies. You’ll have to do too many of those “surveys” to even make it past the $10 mark. Pitiful.

They will get you to think you can make some money, but the real money is made through the referral links. Which means you have to con some poor people into jumping into a waste of time and effort. That’s just sad and, quite frankly, a tad disturbing. Someone made 5% of my $1.25 from Dollarsomething. Unfortunately she’s also lost my trust and esteem. The next time I see a link under her name I won’t click it, because she KNOWS what those surveys are like. But she chose to sugar coat it to con other people. For shame.

Now I know.

Tags: online surveys, scams, referral links

A Personal Experience with Chronic Pain

Last night I couldn’t sleep. I was exhausted but couldn’t find a comfortable position. I don’t suffer from insomnia, though. It was my chronic pain that kept sleep at bay. Every time my eyes would close my pain would smack me awake.

I have yet to receive a diagnosis for the searing pain that racks my body. The doctor I’m seeing now has simply prescribed pain medication and left it at that. Yesterday I ran out of pill. Over-the-counter medications don’t help me anymore and pain control methods off little relief. Without my medication my pain sensitivity went into hyperdrive. Simply lying on my back was agonizing. Because of all this I find myself deeply depressed most days. The frustration at my lack of diagnosis adds to this depression. And the depression increases my pain. Unfortunately, I’m not alone in all this.

Researchers have found a direct link between chronic pain and depression. Both conditions feed off each other. Chronic pain can drastically alter a person’s lifestyle which can cause depression. The depression then intensifies the pain sensitivity. The increased pain leads to more depression. And on it goes. This cycle can destroy not only the lives of the sufferer but those of their loved ones.

Read the rest.

Is America in a Privacy Crisis?

Recently the 110th United States Congress changed the FISA law to benefit the government in their fight against terrorism. The Bush Administration has unprecedented amounts of permission to eavesdrop on U.S. citizens thanks to that law. Anyone can be considered a ‘terrorist’ and go under surveillance, especially if they communicate with anyone outside of the United States. Just by writing an email to someone in another country you can invite the government to intrude on your private communications. But this isn’t the only thing endangering privacy.

There are ever increasing amounts of video surveillance in public places. Most areas of the country have implemented traffic cameras to catch speeders- while also capturing innocent citizens enjoying what they think is a private moment in their car. Municipalities around the country put cameras in Public Square in an effort to combat street crime. Businesses are putting cameras inside and out in an effort to stop theft. Most people accept these measures as necessary. Of course, there are some ordinary Americans who see nothing wrong with invading another person’s privacy.

A young man with a cell phone camera can stealthily take pictures under young women’s skirts. A curious neighbor thinks nothing of video taping the inside of someone’s home. The boss at work hunts down employees who participate in online forums- on their own time. Many people have no qualms about posting someone else’s private information online- pictures, names, addresses, and even home phone numbers. Not even children are immune if someone thinks they can get a cheap laugh.

Americans’ fascination with all things celebrity has led to people doing “whatever it takes” to get that one picture worth millions of dollars. Anyone with any amount of celebrity risks their private moments being strewn across magazines and websites. They can’t enjoy a normal day in the park for fear of being accosted by someone with a camera. And the public feasts on this. Many people believe the private lives of celebrities are game because the celebrities “put themselves in the public eye”. Privacy of the individual and his family is unimportant. Increasingly average Americans are losing respect for any type of privacy- including their own.

With blogs and video sharing sites such as YouTube, many people are more than happy to open themselves up for public scrutiny. They tell all and let the world judge them. There is no desire or need for privacy among these people. They look at the cameras all around them and smile. They laugh at the idea that someone somewhere is reading their mail. Their neighbors don’t have to sneak to get a glimpse into their lives because they bare all. They are an every growing number of Americans and they see no privacy crisis.

Also published here and here.

Getting Paid to Spam

I’ve been searching high and low for ways to make money lately. At WAHM.com I stumbled on a thread about getting paid for forum posts and blog comments. I thought that would be interesting because I enjoy both forums and blogs. So I went to investigate.

What I found was shameful. The opportunity consisted of getting paid to basically spam. They give you lists of forums and blogs and told what to say. You then go from one to the other, sign up, and post the same thing over and over. You are given advice on how to use proxies and false emails and how to make sure your spam gets attention from members before it’s deleted. Shameful.

I know that working from home is hard. It’s a crap shoot and not nearly as easy as most people (outside of this lifestyle) think. But I can’t imagine lowering myself to spamming communities with crap. 25¢ a post just isn’t worth the headache or the blight on my conscience, I think. I hate spam in my email and I’ve taken extraordinary steps to prevent it on my other blogs. I most certainly don’t want to be the person posting it. It’s an incredibly nasty endeavor, in my opinion. So, I closed the window and wrote it off.

It’d be nice if my proofreading was back up. I don’t know when that’s going to happen. I’ve actually forgotten about it a couple of times. And writing is hard with the cognitive issues I have. The hunt continues.

Non-Habit Forming?

My doctor recently prescribed a painkiller called “Ultram” (Tramadol) for me. He assured me that this medication wouldn’t bother me in the least and that it’s not habit forming. He said that it would help with my pain and there wouldn’t be any side effects should I run out of money and not be able to purchase any new. All those nice things that put me at ease.

The first pill I took didn’t do much for the pain. It did, though, make me slightly drunk. At least that’s what it felt like. I looked up the information online and found out that it is indeed moderately habit forming. I also found out that Tylenol seems to help kick start the medication.

Recently I came to the decision I was taking it too much. So, one day I decided to wean myself off. I didn’t take any pills that night. It was one of the worst nights I’ve ever spent- save for the night I was in labor. I couldn’t get comfortable and I felt like there were little creepy-crawlies under my skin. There wasn’t a whole lot of pain, just enough to make me agitated. I got up to go downstairs and try to sleep sitting up. It seemed like every time I was almost asleep I received a little shock to wake me up. I honestly couldn’t connect the lack of meds with the lack of sleep until it was almost morning. Then I was too mad to sleep.

My mother-in-law said this particular doctor was a pill pusher. I figured I could handle that. Afterall, I did refuse to take the SSRIs he tried to prescribe (I don’t do well with those kind of meds). I didn’t think he’d straight out lie to me to get me to take the medication. Now I’ve got to decide if I want to back to this guy or if I want to hunt yet again for another doctor.

From now on I take no medication until I’ve fully researched it myself. I don’t care what any doctor tells me.